How Not to Get More Blackheads

You can have facial after facial – even facials days apart – and there would still be a handful of blackheads to extract.

Your skin is not dirty. Its dirty secret is sebum. This oily substance from the sebaceous glands is secreted continuously. And as long as there is sebum, there will be blackheads.

Sebum mixes with dirt, sweat, dead skin and pollution to form a clog in the pore which then oxidises and turns black.

All this is normal, says Dr Liew Hui Min, specialist in dermatology and consultant at Raffles Skin & Aesthetics.

Can you remove blackheads for good? No. You’d have to remove or seal up the pores. Neither can be done. Should you still bother with extraction during a facial? Yes. Large, stubborn and ignored blackheads will keep growing into giant comedones.

“Giant comedones are not easy to extract. In some cases, minor surgery is required, and that’s likely to leave a scar,” says Dr Liew. Squeezing a blackhead can also lead to scarring, says Dr Eileen Tan, a dermatologist at Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital.

But there is a way to manage the blackhead battle: with skincare containing salicylic acid, says Dr Tan. It’s a betahydroxy acid, so it’s gentle on skin. It’s also oil-soluble and gets right into pores 161 dpi Upon approval Please sign: Name and Date: as a deep cleanser to dissolve the clog and reduce sebum production.

Don’t use more than one sebumremoving/controlling product at a time, as these can be drying. And when skin is dehydrated, it produces more sebum. More sebum means more, or larger, blackheads.

No amount of extractions and facials will help if your pores are filthy. To keep them clean, Dr Charmaine Lim, associate consultant at the National Skin Centre, says to use non-comedogenic and dermatologist-tested products that are less likely to block pores. Also look for watersoluble and oil-free products. – CT