To understand how to get rid of Ingrown Hairs, you first need to understand what causes them.

In some respects, their name is fairly self-explanatory – it is a hair that curls back on itself and starts growing back into the follicle, or one that fails to grow out of the follicle and stays embedded in the skin.

They are unfortunately a very common contra-action after shaving, tweezing and waxing. Although they are nothing to be seriously concerned about, having an ingrown hair (or a few of them) can cause a lot of discomfort and irritation.  Ingrown hair can appear anywhere on the body but largely on legs or bikini areas of women and beards, for men.

The Most Common Causes & Fixes

Dead skin cells & congested follicles 

Essentially what happens is, a layer of dry skin forms a barrier that traps the hair and either redirects it back into the follicle or simply prevents it from breaking free. Regular exfoliation is required to lift the dead skin cells allowing for clearer follicles, so the hair can break through the surface of the skin. 

Use an exfoliating mitt, in the shower 2/3 times a week.   Avoid a granular scrub because IF any bacteria has found its way in, it could spread it causing possible infection.  Also, the bumps tend to be sore so we don’t want to aggravate the rash. So use an acid based exfoliator. INGROWN- XIT from Lycon is a fantastic product we apply to the skin of our clients post waxing.  You can purchase it online to spray lightly on the area yourself, twice a day, on clean dry skin. This genius product contains fantastic chemically exfoliating ingredients such as Salicylic Acid & Lactic Acid to keep your follicles free from infection.

If you have an area with some white heads in the spots, then you could have a slight infection, folliculitis, that may need an oral antibiotic

Waxing or Laser for hair removal?

Unlike shaving or depilatory creams, one of the best things about waxing as a hair removal option, is that the longer you do it, the sparser and lighter your hair will appear. This is because each time we remove the hair follicle from the root, we cause a little bit of damage to the hair bulb. Over time, the new hair that is produced can become weaker and weaker until the bulb eventually stops producing hair. That said, occasionally, these weakened hairs are unable to break through the top layer of skin which can cause in grown hairs.  That’s why when you wax we encourage regular exfoliation with exfoliator. (link to scrubs)

Also avoid any moisturisers on the skin before any waxing as you don’t want the pores blocked 

Now if you suffer with bad in grown or even have the odd few now and again, then laser hair removal is a great option for you! The laser (attracted to pigment in the hair, not skin) shoots a direct beam down the hair follicle to the bulb of the hair and destroys it.  Quick and relatively painful experience all round.  You will need around 8 sessions because the hair has three stages of growth – Anagen,(growth) Catagen (transition) and Telogen (resting) – and laser works on the Anagen stage. Your hair obviously doesn’t all grow at the same rate so this is why we need to wait a few weeks between treatments, to ensure we catch hair at the correct stage to remove it.

To find out more – check out our laser hair removal page