If anyone wants to make a list of the skin’s worst enemies, acne will present in the top places. Appearing on the skin under different forms, this skin condition is the nightmare for almost all teenagers at some points. Some people may say acne is an unwanted guest. They can appear anywhere, knock on your skin and refuse to leave in just a couple of days. One of the top stubborn forms of acne that makes people’s life miserable is whiteheads. Affecting 8 out of 10 people in the United States, whose ages range from 11 to 30, whiteheads can be a true nightmare if you don’t have the right way to approach it. Although whiteheads are not painful, they still can result in permanent scarring and social anxiety. If you are suffering from this acne condition, don’t worry as in this article, Beauty Talk will reveal top 10 proven ways on how to get rid of whiteheads on the face, nose, and chin overnight that can be easily practised at home.
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10 Proven Ways To Get Rid Of Whiteheads On Face, Nose, And Chin
I. What Is Whitehead?
Before you get to know how to deal with a problem, you need to know exactly what it is. Whiteheads are the tiny, round, white bumps appearing on the skin surface. Some people may get confused between whiteheads and another type of acne, blackheads. They both occur when the skin pores get clogged with sebum, bacteria, dirt, or dead skin cells. If the block pores stay open, blackheads are formed and in turn, if the pores get closed and covered with a thin layer of skin, whiteheads, or closed comedo appear. Moreover, you cannot extract whiteheads by squeezing, which sometimes works for blackheads. Normally, whiteheads are not inflamed, but under the invasion of bacteria, these white bumps can lead to infection and inflammation.
II. Facts About Whiteheads
1. Whiteheads Are Hormonal
Girls are more likely to be the victim of whiteheads than boys. The reason for this tendency is that women experience more hormonal imbalances during their life than men do, such as menstruation pregnancy, or menopause. However, as puberty is one of the main triggers, both girls and boys have risks of getting whiteheads.
2. They Appear Not Only On Your Face
Face skin is the favorite area for whiteheads because it is commonly exposed to the environment, skin products and bacteria from your hands. However, as whiteheads develop from the clogged pores, they can appear anywhere on our body. People have found these white pimples on their arms, shoulders, back, and even their chest.
3. The Severity Differs
Each person will experience whiteheads at a different level of severity. For some people, whiteheads are just some occasional friends who cause no significant troubles. However, some others may suffer from multiple whitehead outbreaks frequently during their lifetime. For that reason, the treatment varies from person to person depending on their acne severity. You may need help from your dermatologist.
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4. Whiteheads Are Treatable At Home
The good news for anyone having troubles with whiteheads is that they can easily deal with this acne conditional on your own at home, without the help from doctors. You can try some over-the-counter skin treatments, which are useful in shrinking the gross whiteheads and shortening their lifespan or give antibiotics a try if your whiteheads are infected. Meeting doctor will only be necessary if your condition is too nasty or whiteheads keep coming back.
5. What You Think About Triggers May Not Be True
For years, people have always blamed stress and some special food for acne breakouts, including the development of whiteheads. However, they are not always causes for all cases. Consuming junk food frequently can negatively impact on your skin health, but there is no certain food that leads to whitehead breakouts. Likewise, stress is not directly related to this acne condition, even though it messes up your hormone balance and potentially results in an acne outbreak.
III. How To Get Rid Of Whiteheads
1. Cut Down On Some Triggers
What you consume every day shows on your face. For that reason, if you want to control the whitehead breakout, you should pay attention to your diet. Write off these following foods from your daily grocery list:
- High Sugar: We have mentioned that hormone imbalance is one of the reasons for whiteheads to appear. Eating foods high in sugar will increase the insulin level in your body, and in turn, result in an increase in hormone level and the oil glands are active. When the oil is produced more than normal, excess oil will increase the risk of developing whiteheads and make your condition worse if you already have them.
- Carbs & Alcohol: Eating carbs brings the same effect as eating sugar. During the digestion process, our body transfers carbs into sugar and do the same thing to alcohol. Plus, alcohol gradually weakens the immune system and leave a bad impact on our hormone production[1].
- Processed & Highly Saturated Fats: All the foods containing saturated fats such as deli meats, chips, and soda should be removed from your daily diet since they increase the arachidonic acid level. This acid can lead to inflammation and acne by competing with healthy omega-3 fats in our body.
2. Eat More Helpful Foods
While these above foods have been proven to be the underlying cause of whiteheads, these following options should be added to your list as they can make the treatment more effective. You should include those such as salmon, beans, ginger, green tea, turmeric, nuts, green leafy vegetables, blackberries, and eggs as they are great at balancing your hormones level. Lean protein, whole grains, and antioxidant-rich vegetables are found to be effective in dealing with whiteheads inflammation, so put them in your grocery list for the next shopping.
3. Change Your Pillowcases Frequently
You might realize that your face meets the pillowcases every day. When the face skin touches the case for some time, excess oil and dead skin cells may get stuck on the pillowcase surface and create a perfect environment for bacteria to develop. Therefore, changing your pillowcase every week is necessary to get rid of whitehead. If your acne breakout is severe, you will have to change it more frequently to eliminate the possible development of bacteria.
4. Tie Up Greasy Hair
A lot of people, for the self-esteem reason, often use their hair to cover their face as they don’t feel comfortable and confident with the acne breakout. It is, in fact, a very bad habit that makes the whiteheads worse and hinders your treatment. If your hair is oily, when it touches your oil face, the result will be similar to the pillowcase. Moreover, your hair is frequently exposed to environment, dirt, and pollutants. So, tie your hair up or do whatsoever to keep it away from your face, especially areas having whiteheads.
5. Don’t Touch Your Face With Fingers
Can you guess what touches your face the most frequently every day? It is no doubt that the answer is your fingers. We hardly calculate how many times we touch our face with fingers. However, we all know that our hands are not necessarily clean all the time. On a daily basis, we use bare hands to hold, keep or come in touch with many things and our fingers are the house of many bacteria. You can imagine what happens when we use our fingers to touch the acne areas and touch other parts of the face. It is a convenient way to spread out the breakout in a short time and make it more challenging to remove whiteheads.
6. Exfoliating
Because whiteheads develop from clogged pores, you will have to remove the sebum, dirt, and bacteria if you want to get rid of whiteheads. Exfoliating is a good way for you to reach these whiteheads from below the skin. This routine also helps to clear the dead skin cells, loosen up grime and debris being stuck in the pores. Therefore, if you have normal skin, exfoliate twice a week to get rid of whiteheads effectively. In case your skin is thick or oily, you can practice it more frequently. You can choose between facial scrubs or homemade exfoliators to massage all over the face to find the one that works best for you. Avoid scrubs with natural shells or apricot kernels as these ingredients can irritate the acne-prone skin. Don’t damage your skin while trying to save it from the original problem.
7. Using Facial Mask
Another option for anyone getting troubles with whiteheads is using a facial mask. You know that the more sebum on your face, the higher the risk of whiteheads. Meanwhile, facial masks can effectively help you to control and regulate the face oil production. Even when you get away with these annoying pimples, you should keep using facial masks as one step in your skin-care routine since they are great for detoxing and they will give you healthy and glowing facial skin.
8. Throw Away Comedogenic Products
Comedogenic products are simply those that might clog the pores. After you regulate your skin by exfoliating and using the facial mask, the last thing you want to do will be applying the heavy creams that can clog pores again. Especially if your skin is oily, the comedogenic products will waste all your effort before and prevent the condition from getting improved. During that period, serums, lotions or hydrating gels will be the better alternatives for you. Unlike creams, these options are much lighter and can be absorbed quicker.
Besides the heavy cream, be careful with your makeup. Although whiteheads are originally caused by hormone change and makeup has nothing to do with that, your cosmetics still have a significant role in the appearance of breakouts. More specifically, some ingredients contained in your makeup products may lead to pore blockages and increase the acne severity. Therefore, non-comedogenic products should be your first choice if you don’t want to irritate your skin and promote the blockage of pores.
9. Exercises
What can exercise do for your whitehead conditions? Daily exercise does not only help you with your whitehead treatment but also benefits the overall skin health. It supports your hormone regulation and lessens the side effects of hormone influx on the skin. Plus, during the exercise, the oxygen-rich blood will bring nutrients to your skin, which can explain why you face getting flushed after a workout. Moreover, exercising produces sweating, which helps remove toxins and prevents potential pore blockages, but only if you remember to have a shower after the workout and remain a good hygiene habit.
10. Extracting Whiteheads
As whiteheads often stay longer than just a couple of days and even though most of the ways to get rid of these pimples can shorten their lifespan, some people still may not be patient enough to wait. In that case, they will need to take strong action, which is whitehead extraction. Although there are extractors available in the market, for your safety, this process should only be practised by dermatologists. The reason is that, if extraction is performed in a wrong way, the existing condition will get worse and lead to permanent scarring. Moreover, if you try to pop or squeeze them with your fingers or unhygienic tools, you may spread the bacteria and acne blemish. Meanwhile, a dermatologist has some special techniques to pull the contents out of the clogged pores and decrease the whitehead’s size in just a blink of an eye.
IV. Effective Home Remedies
1. Apple Cider Vinegar
Why: Apple cider vinegar contains acidic properties, which may help dry the whiteheads and killing the bacteria inside the clogged pores[2].
What you need: A cotton ball and some drops of apple cider vinegar.
How to do: Pour apple cider vinegar to the cotton ball and apply directly to the whitehead prone skin on your face. Wait for some minutes for the vinegar to dry, and you don’t need to rinse off with water.
Note: You should apply this remedy once a week to get expected results.
2. Honey
Why: Honey provides healing impacts thanks to its rich content of antibacterial properties. It is also soothing and moisturizing to your skin[3].
What you need: A teaspoon of raw honey.
How to do: Warm up the raw honey and apply it directly to the whiteheads. After 20 minutes, rinse your face off with water.
Note: You don’t have to practice this remedy every day, but at least 3 times a week
3. Aloe Vera
Why: Aloe vera can act as an antimicrobial and astringent agent to fight against whiteheads. Its cleansing properties are also effective in removing the clogged pores on your face[4].
What you need: An aloe leaf and one teaspoon of lemon juice.
How to do: Scoop out the fresh aloe vera gel and mash it well. Blend it with lemon juice before using the mixture to massage your face for about 3 minutes. After 10 minutes, wash off with water
Note: For this remedy, let practice it 2-3 times per week for the best effect.
4. Witch Hazel
Why: As an astringent, witch hazel is a good remedy to control oil production and therefore, can improve the whitehead condition effectively[5].
What you need: A cotton ball and witch hazel solution.
How to do: Dip the ball in witch hazel, apply it to the whitehead-prone area, and let it dry naturally.
Note: This remedy requires to be applied twice a day for the best outcomes.
V. Myths About Whiteheads
- Don’t eat chocolate when you are having acne conditions, including whiteheads. You only need to get rid of chocolate that is high in sugar when your skin face is acne-prone. However, the dark chocolate is fine for your condition as its cocoa content is higher than sugar.
- Don’t wear any makeup during the whitehead breakout. This myth is developed from a common thought that makeup often clogging the pores. However, most of the products in the market are well formulated, and you can use them during the acne breakout as long as you remember to remove the makeup before going to bed every day.
- Strong products give better performance. Many people choose strong products to deal with whiteheads because they think their impact would be significant. However, if your condition is not severe, strong products will be unnecessary as they might irritate and dry out your skin.
- Diet and stress lead to acne breakout. As mentioned before, the main cause of whiteheads and other acne breakout is the hormone. Although your diet contributes a lot to the acne production, they are not the root of all the problems. Any changes in your diet that help you get rid of whiteheads are mostly indirect as their impacts are often on the hormone level instead of acne condition. Stress is the same. It doesn’t cause acne but may worsen the breakout.
Whiteheads, like other acne conditions, is not a pleasant guest. Rooting from the hormone imbalances, these little pimples are not easy to be removed just by squeezing or popping. Thankfully, you don’t have to put up with it in silence because there are a lot of ways on how to get rid of whiteheads that have been proven to be effective for you to try at home. In this article, the best methods have been suggested together with other interesting information to help you remove this acne condition without leaving permanent impacts. If you are having trouble with whiteheads, don’t be reluctant to try them out.
All material provided in this article is intended for informational and educational purposes only. It is best to consult your doctor or healthcare professional to determine which remedy is appropriate for you.
Sources:
https://www.healthline.com/health/beauty-skin-care/how-to-get-rid-of-whiteheads
https://myawesomebeauty.com/how-to-remove-whiteheads/
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321374.php?sr
https://skincare.allwomenstalk.com/facts-about-whiteheads-that-will-help-you-treat-them/7?lastslide