It’s a common issue: your freshly shaved, waxed or plucked skin appears smooth and hairless – until pimple-like bumps crop up days later. Ingrown hairs can occur anywhere on the skin, but they typically emerge in places you remove hair, like in the beard, pubic, leg and armpit areas, says Dr Elizabeth Bahar Houshmand, a dermatologist in Dallas. Applying a hot compress can help ease the pain and itching of ingrown hairs.
Credit: iStock They typically look like raised red or flesh-coloured bumps, sometimes with hair or pus on the inside, says Dr Amy K. Bieber, a dermatologist at NYU Langone Health. And they can be a persistent problem for some.
But the good news is there are effective ways to prevent them. Hair grows from a follicle deep within the skin, says Dr Paradi Mirmirani, a dermatologist at Kaiser Permanente in Vallejo, California. Shaving is more likely than waxing or plucking to cause ingrown hairs because it tends to break off the hair just under the skin, which could push the hair into the skin’s layers and interfere with its growing path, Mirmirani explains.
But waxing and plucking can do this, too, and your hair type also plays a role, says Dr Delila P. Foulad, a dermatologist at UCLA Health. Once the hair starts regrowing, it can curve inward and dig into the skin, or it can emerge and then curl back in, Mirmirani says.
This can cause inflammation and bumps that might be itchy or painful. The closer the shave, the more likely an ingrown hair is to form, bec.
