If you’ve ever been down a rabbit hole of blackhead-extracting videos, then you likely know how satisfying it is to see the gunk that comes out of pores. While watching dermatologists and estheticians extract gunk from pores, you might think that it should be okay for you to do it at home yourself.
However, popping blackheads on your own can cause damage especially if you don’t take the right precautions. That’s also a good reason why you mostly see professionals doing these kinds of extractions.
How do blackheads form?
Before getting into the potential harm of squeezing blackheads, you should know what they are and how they form.
Blackheads form as dead skin cells and excess oil get trapped in the pore. Exposed to air this gunk trapped in the pore can then take on a black coloring, hence the name blackheads. These little black dots often appear along the t-zone given that this area of the face tends to get the oiliest.
In fact, the reason people with oily or combination skin are more likely to deal with blackheads is because of the overproduction of oil. If nothing is done to help reduce the presence of excess oil on the skin, it can get mixed up with dead skin to clog up pores and eventually become blackheads.
What’s the harm in squeezing blackheads?
While squeezing out blackheads may seem tempting since it's a pretty quick way to get rid of them, it's only temporary and may be causing more damage in the long run.
Anytime you squeeze and put lots of pressure on the skin when trying to push out a blackhead, you run the risk of irritating the skin and damaging the pore. Doing this can also compromise the elastin that would otherwise help the pore keep its shape. So, squeezing blackheads can potentially lead to even larger looking pores with more visible blackheads.
You also run the risk of pushing all the gunk in the pore deeper in the skin which can then result in a deep, painful blemish. Then the spot will become more inflamed and a lot more noticeable than a typical blackhead.
Another reason squeezing blackheads isn’t the way to go, is because it’s not really much of a solution to blackheads. You may get the gunk out now but it will just reappear after each time you extract it. It’s far more effective to treat the source of the issue like getting rid of the dead skin cells and excess oil that clog up the pores in the first place.
How can I treat blackheads?
Now that we know squeezing blackheads isn’t the best way to go about getting rid of them, here are some tips on how to treat them:
🧽Always cleanse the skin
To keep bacteria, dead skin, and oil from getting stuck in your pores, it’s important to cleanse the skin regularly. And, if you have oily skin, you may want to make day and night cleansing a regular step in your routine due to the excess oil on the skin.
🪠Exfoliate
Another way to help keep dead skin and oil from clogging up pores is to exfoliate. Exfoliants usually have ingredients like Salicylic Acid in them along with AHAs since they are known to help dissolve gunk trapped deep in pores to help prevent blackheads from popping up and getting rid of the ones that are already there.
👃Apply a pore treatment
Whether in a serum, mask, or moisturizer, if you want to help keep pores clean then you’ll want to look for treatments that help remove excess oil, clean out pores, and generally help improve the look of pores.
There are various treatments like masks with Kaolin clay or serums with Niacinamide that help by tightening pores and balancing or absorbing the excess oil sitting on the skin.
A quick, easy treatment includes our T-Zone Pore Patch. Made with gentle hydrocolloid, you won’t have to worry about any irritation or damage to the skin as you apply the patch to help remove sebum and impurities from pores. By applying the patch for 6 to 8 hours on the nose, chin, or forehead the hydrocolloid material sucks up the excess sebum, helping prevent that sebum from getting trapped in pores.
The Takeaway…
Long story short, extracting blackheads yourself is not really recommended given all the damage you can do to your pores. If you really want to treat and prevent blackheads then you have to target the things that cause the blackheads in the first place, like oil and dead skin.
