How to remove blackheads without ruining your skin

If I have one goal as a beauty crusader, it’s to help people break the naughty habit of removing blackheads from their nose and cheeks on a daily basis. But what’s a dazed face to do? I’m glad you asked. Before you approach those clogged pores with your hands poised to remove blackheads, which could compound the problem, let’s learn how these seemingly never-dying critters work.

Blackheads are the result of oils coming out of the pores hardening and oxidizing within the skin. Imagine the pores in your skin as a pipe that allows oils to flow freely. When oils crystallize into hardened blackheads, it limits the flow of much-needed oil to the skin. With this blockage, the glands continue to pump out oils that simply accumulate below the skin’s surface, giving it a rough, uneven skin texture.

And so, with blackheads, your skin’s problem isn’t fat or even blackheads, but rather the need to maintain what I call the “ecology of your skin.” Your face needs the oil to lift from the pores, coat the skin, and protect your face from bacterial and environmental damage and premature aging. Not having the skin properly lubricated makes your face vulnerable.

Now, to end the cycle of seeing a new crop of blackheads on your skin, you want to remove the embedded blackheads. Then, remove wax buildup in your pores daily so blackhead-inducing oils don’t build up in your pores. You can run the blackhead prevention treatment in five easy steps

Step 1: Clean the skin

First, wash your face with a basic soap like mild glycerin soap.

Step 2 – Steam your face

To help “melt” blackheads and make it easier to remove trapped blackheads, use “blackhead melter.” To do this, moisten a clean cotton cloth and place it in the microwave for 45 to 60 seconds. This will create a steamy cloth. Gently smooth the steamed cloth over your face and let it sit on your skin for 60 seconds to help remove and “melt” deep blackheads. Re-spray and apply cloth to congested skin.

(Note: Make sure the cloth is not too hot or you could burn your skin.)

Step 3: Dissolve blackheads

There is more than one way to get rid of blackheads. You can squeeze them or dissolve them. One trick I like to use to dissolve blackheads is earwax removers. But before using an earwax remover, put on protective gloves on your hands. The gloves will prevent the earwax remover from getting between your fingers and irritating your skin.

Only apply earwax remover to areas plagued by blackheads. Let the wax remover stay on the skin for a minute or two. Rinse off the wax remover with warm water.

What you should see after removing the earwax remover are small, yellowish-white threads of oil rising from your skin. This happens because the “cap” has been removed from the pores and now the skin oils start to flow again. This is what you want, natural oil flow on your skin.

Step 4 – Extract any remaining oils from the skin and moisten the skin

To deep clean excess oil, give your skin a warm moisture treatment. Get a thick, thick face cream like Ponds Cold Cream or a generic thick moisturizing cream at your local pharmacy. Apply a thick layer of the cream on your skin. Be sure to cover your lips (or apply a layer of lip balm) to protect them from the heat.

Now, take your hair dryer, put it on low heat and heat the cream on your face for a minute or two. The heat from the dryer helps the cream draw out excess oil that floats in the pores. Plus, this heat treatment deeply hydrates your skin so your pores don’t produce more oil simply because you’ve removed excess oil.

Remove heavy cream with a warm cloth.

Step 5 – Remove Oil Buildup Daily

Here is the key. To stop the accumulation of blackheads, every day you must rid your skin of excess oil. Repeat steps one through four daily for a week. This should get your blackheads under control. Then use this treatment as needed so the blackheads stay that way.

In short, using natural skincare to remove blackheads means working with the laws of physics: Items under pressure tend to move from areas of high pressure to areas of low pressure. Remove hardened oils from your skin and the trapped oils will flow to the upper layers of your skin where they belong, making blackheads history.