Resist the urge to pick, pop or pluck!

For some this tip is easy, and for others of you (and you know who you are) it is almost impossible to resist the urge to pick, pop or pluck.  Scabs are the skin’s natural band-aids. When you pick at a scab from a healing wound or abrasion, you expose the fresh healing skin to the environment which leads to prolonged healing time and worse scarring.  Rather than picking a scab, use vaseline, aquaphor or a silicone based scar cream to help your wound heal faster and with a better cosmetic outcome. I know popping pimples is so satisfying, but RESIST the urge.  Squeezing a pimple can rupture the follicle pushing the contents of the pimple into the deeper levels of skin. This results in further inflammation, prolonged redness and sometimes peeling of the epidermis as a result of the trauma.  In terms of hair control, either shave it or have it removed with a laser. Plucking hairs also damages the epidermis, leads to more ingrown hairs and causes long term scarring. If the hairs are dark, laser hair removal is a great option for long term reduction.  If laser hair removal is not possible, shaving or clipping hairs is much safer. Regardless of the popular myth that shaving accelerates hair growth, it does not! I hope you can resist picking, popping or plucking!

Tip from Carmen A. Traywick, MD co-owner of LUX