5 Reasons Why You Should Not Pop Your Pimples
Zits, breakouts, pimples—call them what you will. Just don’t pop them. I know, it’s not easy walking around with an unwanted friend on your face but keeping your hands off is rule number one. Instead, look to spot treatments, pimple patches and at-home and in-office red light and high-frequency devices. Following a regular routine, and let an aesthetician extract pimple, will also keep you in the clear. You’re welcome.
Your skin can scar
Popping pimples can lead to scars, which can manifest as either a pitted, rolling or pockmark, or hyperpigmentation (a dark purple, pink or red spot). Either way, both are tedious to correct and can take months, if not years, to resolve.
You can easily make the zit worse—and angry!
When a pimple is present, inflammation already exists in the pore. Pushing at the pimple only stirs up what’s lodged in the pore and further inflames and irritates the skin.
You can tear the skin
If you use your nails, a bobby or safety pin, or some other sort of tool to try and remove the contents of a zit, chances are you’ll probably rip or tear the skin and you may give yourself an infection. Leave the extractions to the experts.
It will take longer to heal
Unbeknownst to many, squeezing and picking at a pimple won’t make it go away any faster—it just prolongs the healing process. Forcefully pushing what’s inside of a pimple deep into the pore increases inflammation and redness.
You can spread the bacteria and cause additional pimples to form
The act of ‘popping’ actually spreads the infected material (i.e. puss) through the skin both on the surface and at a deeper level—plus, pushing around the infection only makes a bad pimple that much worse. Squeezing a pimple puts pressure on the clogged pore, which can further push the mix of oil, bacteria and dead skin cells deeper into the skin.
Think before you pop. Instead, stockpile these favs to help fight breakouts.