We have already established that blackheads, or acne in general, are caused by excess oil production in the skin. You may not see it with your bare eyes (or you do, depending on how huge they are) but your skin has pores and excess
oil production may cause a blockage in these pores. This oil block, along with some dead skin cells, can develop into blackheads. You can read more about what causes blackheads.
You are lucky if you only have a few blackheads here and there, because there are people who have to deal with huge and stubborn blackheads every day. If your blackheads are small enough, you can get rid of them using regular exfoliation methods. However, giant blackheads are really difficult to extract; and more often than not, these giant blackheads need to be pricked out. I don’t usually recommend home pricking as this is ideally done by a professional. But if push comes to shove, and your humungous blackheads have tortured you enough, you can follow these tips to get rid of them:
- Clean your face with warm water and a mild cleanser. After doing so, steam your face. If you do not have a facility to do this, take a clean wash cloth, dump it in warm water, and compress it on your skin. That will open your pores and prepare your skin for blackhead extraction.
- To prepare your skin, and as a last way to salvage your skin from pricking, you can get blackhead strips and place one on top of your blackheads. Wait 10 minutes to make sure the strip fits snuggly to your skin, and pull. Usually, this cannot remove huge and deep-seated blackheads but strips can at least remove the top layer. That way, it will become easier for you to squeeze it out.
- There are two ways to manually remove giant blackheads: pricking it with a tool or squeezing with your own fingers. The former has been explained in previous articles (how to get rid of blackheads), but if you ever choose the latter, wash your hands and fingers over and over and over and over (oh I think you get the idea) again. When you are sure you have spotless hands, press your blackheads gently with your two index fingers. NEVER ever use your fingernails; instead, use the pads of your fingers. Slowly extract the blackheads while making sure they are removed. The danger of doing this is if you irritate your blackheads and push them further into your skin. You can get some really ugly pimples this way.
Washing your face regularly and eating well will help get rid of your blackhead problems. However, if your blackheads keep coming back to haunt you; try those tips above to effectively squeeze them out without the help of an expert.
