I've got some serious shaving bumps. How do I fix them?

ANSWER:

Shaving bumps (aka ingrown hairs) can be very troublesome, especially for the African-American shaver. They occur because the hair curls as it grows out of the skin, resulting in the hair getting stuck under the skin line.

The good news? For any shaving challenge, there is always a solution. The tried-and-true approach to ridding your face -- or any other shaved area -- of annoying shaving bumps is learning the proper way to shave. Once you adopt a good routine, shaving bumps will be a distant memory. But don’t fear, there is no need to suffer with bumps while you master your new shaving process. There are ways to start erasing the signs of existing bumps immediately.

The best way to get rid of ingrown hairs that have already formed is to gently pull the tip of the hair out of the bump or swollen area. Make sure to use a sterilized needle, a set of tweezers or even a safety pin. Start by running the needle or tweezers through the flame of a match or lighter a few times to kill any potential bacteria. Then, and this is crucial, be careful to not remove the hair entirely -- only take out the tip from the bump. Why? The reason the hair is stuck in the first place is because it was growing below the skin’s surface. Pulling the hair out entirely will only cause the hair to start regrowing from below the surface again, resulting in the same problem. Whenever an ingrown hair bump starts to develop, pull the hair out of the bump but keep it intact; this ensures that the hair will get cut during your next shave, and the cycle will not repeat. 

Incorporating this method of ingrown hair removal into a daily or weekly maintenance routine will allow for greater control of the face’s overall appearance -- and a permanent end to shaving bumps.

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