How to Stop Squeezing Your Spots
When a big juicy whitehead appears on your face, the temptation to give it a satisfying squeeze is often hard to resist.
You know you shouldn’t but it feels so good to just give it a little squeeze… Surely it can’t do too much harm… right?
Unfortunately, that's not the case. Here's why...
What will spot squeezing do to my skin?
It can cause scarring – when you put pressure on a spot, it can damage the pore and cause temporary or permanent scarring/ pitting of the skin. You might think it doesn’t matter with just one but when you keep squeezing your spots, it all adds up and can lead to noticeable scarring across areas of your face.
It can push the infection deeper into your skin – when you squeeze a spot, the pressure can cause the wall of the pore to burst, spreading the infection deeper into the skin. This can cause more blemishes and elongate the healing time for your spot.
But I can’t help myself! How do I stop?
When you’re addicted to squeezing spots, touching and seeing the whitehead only increases your temptation to squeeze it.
So applying something to the spot will help you stop fiddling with it or constantly looking at it in the mirror. Apply a thin layer of your Silver Intensive Mask to the spot and let it dry – leave it on for as long as you like. This will help reduce inflammation and bacteria at the same time.
Keep your hands busy with other things – do some drawing, play with a stress ball – do anything that stops your hands trying to fiddle with your spot while you’re watching TV!
Sometimes watching videos of spot squeezing can help you get your fix without any damage to your own skin – youtubers like Dr Pimple Popper can be a satisfying watch if you like that kind of thing.
Is there another way to get rid of a whitehead?
The best way to get rid of a whitehead is to leave it alone and let it heal naturally.
Squeezing it will not ‘get rid of the infection’ or make it heal any faster – it will actually do the opposite and make it stick around for longer as a red mark, scab or even a scar.
You’ll find that if you leave it alone – it will go down naturally in a couple of days.
But I will feel so self-conscious with this yellow spot on my face! What do I do?
Use concealer. Clean your face thoroughly and apply your Anti-Blemish & Scar Repair Serum to help reduce inflammation and prevent further bacteria getting to the spot. If you have a colour-cancelling, green concealer, go in with that first and pat a thin layer on to the spot with a clean fingertip. Then, use a medium to high coverage concealer and apply lightly to the blemish. Finish with powder to hold in place.
Use a small round skin coloured plaster. This sounds dramatic and will obviously depend on where the spot is on your face and what you are doing as to whether this will work for you. But this can be a good solution if you are hopping on a zoom call or popping to the shop, to help you feel less self-conscious (and help you resist touching it!). Apply your Anti-Blemish & Scar Repair Serum to the area to protect it from bacteria and then pop over your plaster.