How to Remove Whiteheads

While many of us confuse whiteheads with pimples, they aren't even remotely related.
A Whitehead occurs when your pores get blocked with sebum, an essential skin oil.

Too much of sebum, and your pores get clogged, close up and the sebum turns white. Hence the descriptive term - whitehead.
Just for your information, if the pore remains open, it turns black - hence, a blackhead.

You can't pick or squeeze them without leaving a scar. You won't see it initially see it, but a whitehead comes back, and you'll be picking and squeezing again, creating a acne scar. Since you're breaking the skin, this can also lead to infection.

Instead, this is what you can use.

Wait

This is the first time, in the history of our Grooming section that we're asking you to wait. Instead of going Doctor on your skin, it's now considered better to let a skin blemish take it's time. To aid the process, apply an antibiotic cream or lotion.

Visit a Doctor

Ask your doctor if a course of oral antibiotics will be effective in eliminating comedones, because you want to avoid the icky finger surgery of pinching, squeezing and poking.
For cases that do require surgical attention, stick to cosmetologists or beauticians trained in removing skin blemishes flawlessly, without risking skin infections and scarring.

After steaming your skin to widen pores and soften skin, they may use a needle to gently prick the tip of the whitehead with the needle and apply gentle pressure to ease out pus.

 

Avoid Skin Damage

Anything involving breaking the skin surface can damage your skin. It can start with a needle that might not be as sterile as written on the package, or communicating bacteria that was embedded in your fingernails.

Frustrated whitehead victims also tend to go overboard with the squeezing and pinching (which is anyway not advised), and can draw blood - possibly even exposing your bloodstream to skin bacteria.

Steam

Chemists shops and supermarkets stock face steamers. After steaming your face, use a comedone remover to remove the whitehead. This is an emergency method, and might leave a scar.
Similarly, a hot compress will draw the oily sebum out of the pore, speeding along the natural process.