What can you do about ingrown hairs?

Ingrown hairs can be very painful. Prevent and treat ingrown hairs with these tips.

How do ingrown hairs arise?

Ingrown hairs often develop after hair removal. Your skin may stretch over the shaved hair. When the hair grows back, the hair cannot get out. Instead, the hair grows further under your skin, creating a small inflamed or irritated bump with the hair in it; an ingrown hair.

Read also: 'Treating an ingrown toenail'

Tips to avoid ingrown hairs

1. Shave with a clean and sharp blade. Preferably shave over wet skin and use shaving gel or foam to make the hairs supple. Preferably only go with the hair growth. The result may be slightly less smooth, but this way you reduce the chance of ingrown hairs.
2. Gently scrub your skin about twice a week. In this way you remove dead skin cells, so that dead skin cells hinder the hair growth as little as possible.
3. There are special products against shaving irritation and red bumps. Sudo cream also has a soothing effect.
4. Be careful with creams with alcohol as an ingredient, as this dries out your skin.
5. Do not wear clothes that are too tight.

How to remove ingrown hairs

Opinions on this are divided. Our advice:try to stay off it as much as possible, but eventually the ingrown hair has to come out. This sometimes happens automatically, but not always. If the hair does not come out on its own, it is best to try to get the hair out when the skin is warm. For example, after a shower is a good time. Try to get the ingrown hair out from under the skin with disinfected tweezers. Then disinfect your skin. If you can't manage it yourself and the inflammation keeps getting bigger after a few weeks, go to your doctor.