Ingrown hairs happen when the dead skin has been removed from waxing or shaving the clogs a pore on the leg, interfering with this new growth of hair. The hair then is growing sideways instead of straight out, is causing an irritated bump right on your skin.
1. Use an Egg Shell Membrane
Granted, this sounds really gross, but it’s one of the most effective ways to get rid of ingrown hairs. Put the shell membrane (the thin layer on the inside of your cracked eggshell) and leave it there, allowing it to dry up and shrink on the bump. When it’s shriveled, pull off the membrane – the hair from the bump with come with it painlessly.
2. Exfoliate
If you have a few days to get rid of your ingrown hair, exfoliating is a good way to hurry up the process. Make a mixture of sugar and extra virgin olive oil, adding some tea tree oil for smell and extra healing properties.
Rub the mixture on the ingrown hair for a couple of minutes, then let it sit for five more minutes before washing it off. Make sure you save the scrub because you’ll be using this treatment once daily.
3. Dissolve Some Aspirin![aspirin-2]()
Salicylic acid is great for ingrown hairs. The acid helps reduce redness and inflammation, assisting the ingrown hair in healing faster.
The quickest way to get this salicylic acid is by dissolving two aspirin – it is the main ingredient in aspirin, after all. Add the acid to a few drops of honey to make a paste, then apply this directly on the ingrown hair. We suggest doing a test first, to make sure your skin isn’t sensitive to the acid before putting a big glob on the afflicted area.
4. Baking Soda
Is there anything baking soda can’t do? Baking soda is good to use BEFORE hair removal because it has anti-inflammatory properties, so it will keep ingrown hairs at bay even beforehand.
If you already have a bump, baking soda can also be as a natural exfoliate to ease redness and itching. Mix baking soda with little water to make a concentrated solution then soak a cotton ball in the solution then place it on the affected area. Wash the solution off your skin after leaving it for about 10 minutes. Apply this remedy daily for a week.
5. Salt
We already covered exfoliating, but this is a slightly different kind of exfoliate.
Instead of sugar, try exfoliating your ingrown hair with salt instead. Salt reduces swelling, redness, irritation, and promotes the healing of infections. Combine salt with water to make a paste, then soak said paste in a cotton ball, placing it on the affected area. Wash off after about ten minutes. Repeat twice daily.
6. Black Tea Bags
Black tea has a lot of tannic acid in it, which reduces irritation and inflammation. Soak a black tea bag in water, then rub it on the affected area, repeating daily for the best results. While this won’t necessarily help take the hair out, it will help with the pain and swelling of the bump, making it look much less conspicuous.
8. Leave It Alone
Again, leaving the ingrown hair alone will usually work with time. But even if you are working to get the bump gone ASAP, you shouldn’t be touching your ingrown hair. Your hands are covered in germs, and infecting the open wound on your leg with bacteria is not going to help ANYTHING. It’s just going to make things worse. So hands off!
Source: http://tiphero.com/health/