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ingrowing hair
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
The doc told me this lump I got at the bottom of my spine was caused by an ingrowing hair and I should use some depilatory cream to fix it. I brought some Veet but I cannot see how removing the (few) hairs will make any difference, it's not infected and there is no redness or anything there?
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Your doctor is right about removing the hair though, I'd probably recommend plucking/exfoliating over depilatory creams though, but you could give it a shot.
If he did (or even if he didn't) do absolutely everything he said and reallly work on it, because you really really really really really really really really really really really don't want to have to have surgery on it.
If it's what I'm thinking then part of what you want to do is stop any more hair growing into it, hence the depilation.
If you end of needing the mjor surgery it will steal at least 3 months of your life.
Minimi, in my case they cut enough out that you could have easily put an egg inside the hole.
Don't let that put anyone else off seeing the doctor though, hopefully you can avoid things getting that far.
My friend had the same thing and she had to have surgery.It doesn't sound that uncommon really! But I would be so grossed out if it was me.. I have a thing about holes in the skin that shouldn't be there lol.
1\100 young men and 1\1000 young women (approx) get it to some extent or other, so pretty common.
Thsi is what they did to me. Then I had to have 4 weeks of the area being cleaned and dressed. (which was quite painful)
What causes ingrown hairs? Or is it just one of those things that happens for no reason at all? Is there any reason why it's more common in young men than it is in young women?
That surprises me since I thought a lot of women got them from shaving/waxing without exfoliating first.
Ingrown hairs are caused when the hair grows abnormally up the hair follicle and ends up curling under the skin instead of out of the opening of the follicle.
It's usually caused because the hairs have been "weakened" as such, from removal methods, or because they've been cut short enough to allow the skin to form over the follicle opening. This is why alot of people get them after waxing/shaving
Sofie, you and I are on about a far more significant type of ingrowing hair, where hairs grow the wrong direction and into your skin rather than out and cause tiny tunnels to form. Another problem associated with these is other hair from around the area growing in as well or falling in when it sheds.
In the nicest way possible you need to ignore Nikki on this one (well the ingrowing bit anyway), she's got the wrong thing in mind. If your doctor suggested shaving then go for that, or using depilating cream (like veet or something). From what I gather most people find that easier. (Nikki does however seem to be a bit of a whiz on the various ways of hair removal).
www.pilonidal.org has some useful info on removing hair from the area (although bear in mind when you look at the site that it's written and maintained by people for whom this problem has taken over their lives so remember their stories are the worst case).
Sofie, I think it's more common in men than women because men are generally hairier (useless fact, a significant proportion of these things don't actually have hair in at all). And I would have been so happy if it had been 4 weeks, I've had 3 operations on it in the last year and had the last one cleaned/dressed for best part of 4 months. (Hence why I'm starting to know quite a lot about them).