Stop Whiteheads Before they Start

As if being a teenager wasn’t hard enough, you’ve also got a whole variety of different acne types to deal with. If you’re lucky, you’ll only get one of these types of acne, or no acne at all, but sadly, most teens are not that fortunate. Standard pimples can be annoying and frustrating but other types of acne, especially if you’re not familiar with them, can even be a little scary. Fortunately, most types of acne, even if you can’t just make them magically go away, are very treatable. One variety of acne that teens may encounter goes by the name of whiteheads.

Teen Acne Problems: Whiteheads

Regular pimples break through the skin, forming unsightly red bumps that sit on your face for awhile and eventually fade away or burst. Another type of acne, known as comedones, barely break the skin, if they do at all, and appear as white or black plugs that clog up your skin’s pores. They usually come in little clumps, often on the nose or the neck. If they are black, they are open comedones, where the top has been exposed to the air and become oxidized. These are also called blackheads. If they are white, they are closed comedones which have not become oxidized on the ends, and these are known as whiteheads.

How Can You Get Rid of Whiteheads?

With any type of acne, you should start by treating the affected area with a good acne cleanser. These cleansers remove excess dirt, oil and dead skin cells, and can also contain benzoyl peroxide, which is clinically proven to fight acne by unclogging pores and killing acne causing bacteria deep within your skin. If you have blackheads, it is possible to remove them by applying heat to loosen up pores and then pulling them out with a blackhead extractor. Unfortunately, since whiteheads are mostly beneath the skin, this method is not recommended. The cleanser and heat may loosen up pores and help the whiteheads fade faster, but trying to squeeze or pull them out could force infected material deep into the skin and cause scarring.

What to Do About Whiteheads and Other Forms of Acne

The best thing to do about your whiteheads, as well as other forms of acne you may be experiencing, like pimples, is to keep your skin as clean as possible through regular, but not excessive, washing with soap and water, and to consider an acne control system. An acne control system is a series of products, often containing benzoyl peroxide that is designed to clear the skin of the dirt, oil and other substances found in acne, kill the acne causing bacteria, and refresh, rehydrate and protect the skin. Such a system, when consistently used as directed over the course of a number of weeks, can help make acne disappear and prevent new acne outbreaks from forming. Consult your dermatologist to see which acne control system may be best for you and your particular acne issues.