A blackhead extractor, also known as a blackhead remover, is a tool designed to help you to remove blackheads. It is important to use one correctly or else you risk not only wasting your time but also damaging your skin.
How It Works?
A blackhead extractor usually looks like a small spoon with a longer handle except that the spoon contains a small hole in its centre. It is designed in this way so that you can press the tool against a blackhead and pressure will be applied to the surrounding areas and thus the pore is squeezed and the offending material ejected.
Think of it as like squeezing a blackhead with your fingers but much more efficient and sanitary.
The cheapest extractor is nothing more than that described above. Better models may be double-ended for use with blackheads of varying sizes. Better still, you can obtain a kit of blackhead extractors of several sizes. Some extractors feature a slot instead of a hole which makes it slightly easier to position the tool.
Preparation
If you attempt to use one of these tools immediately without preparing beforehand then you will only experience pain. No blackheads will be removed!
Because blackheads sit extremely close to the surface of your skin (often below) then you must first open up the pores. The best way to do this is to have a hot shower or hover your face over a bowl of boiling water. This is a similar preparation to shaving the face.
Technique
The basic technique is fairly simple to grasp. Simply line up the hole or slot in the tool over the blackhead and push down. Finally, you can move the tool across the skin in order to make sure that all the excess material is removed from the pore concerned.
Afterwards, you should splash cold water onto your face to allow the pores to settle again. You may also want to consider applying an exfoliating scrub at this stage.
Alternatives
The blackhead extractor is not the only way to deal with this type of acne. A recent innovation is the nose strip. This looks like a piece of adhesive tape that you place on your nose and then quickly remove, thus pulling out the blackheads. As you might have guessed, the principle is similar to waxing for the purpose of hair removal. If you visit your local beauty salon, they will also be happy to wax your nose in order to remove blackheads.
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