When a hair have curled around and grown back into your skin instead of rising up from it then you have an ingrown hair. In some cases, dead skin can clog up a follicle. That forces the hair inside it to grow sideways under the skin, rather than upward and outward. Sometimes, cutting naturally curly hair too closely will result in the sharpened end of the hair piercing the skin, causing an ingrown hair. Ingrown hairs aren’t serious. But they can be irritating and embarrassing.
Ingrown hairs are found where the hair is coarse, it can be caused by aggressive hair removal methods such as waxing. It is very common for your hair to become very fine if you have been waxing for a long period of time however naturally your skin sheds dead skin cells due to this debris may block the hair follicle and if the hair is too thin it cannot pass through leading to an ingrown hair being formed.
In our clinic in Angel London we see people in our consultations that look to find a solution for the ingrown hairs especially after many years of waxing or shaving. The most requested areas usually are the chin, neck and bikini. After the treatment for the ingrown hairs it will take some time for the hair to fall off and for the hyper pigmented scar to go lighter.
Treatment options for ingrown hairs:
- Laser hair removal: If there are a number of ingrown hairs we recommend a course of laser treatments. After a course of sessions you have to wait until the natural cycle of the hairs will take them to the surface of skin, helping with exfoliation. In our experience we have seen that if the hair was already dead deep into the skin and disconnected from the follicle the laser unfortunately can’t help but if the hair was alive and more superficial, it can respond to the laser and will fall out consequentially as the other hairs.
- Medical treatment: If the ingrown hair is one single inflamed lump we recommend to see our dermatologist Dr. Christina Vlachou for a medical treatment.
- Electrolysis: If the ingrown hairs are particularly deep, resistant and they seem to be trapped inside of the follicle, we offer electrolysis treatment to remove them.
Here are a few things you may want to consider about our treatments to treat ingrowing hairs:
- Longer lasting and permanent results
- Quick and safe treatment
- You can eliminate inflammation caused by ingrown hairs
How does laser hair removal work?
A concentrated beam of light is aimed at the hair remember the laser targets pigment therefore laser hair removal only works on brown to dark hairs. The light is then absorbed by the pigment in the hair which damages the hair follicle and disables any factors responsible for hair growth. This leads to permanent hair reduction.
How many treatments will I need?
The amount of treatments needed averages around 8. However please keep in mind you may need more depending on how well your hair takes to the laser. You may need top up sessions which may be 1-2 a year.