You have these ugly black dots on your face and you want to get rid of them. But what are blackheads actually? If you have looked at pictures of blackheads, here is what they look like (these are blackheads on nose):
You can see that they are indeed skin pores which opening has turned black. They are called open comedones and are actually non-inflammatory acne lesions.
They are the first stage of acne. If they remain untreated they can get infected or inflamed and lead to more severe acne lesions such as pimples (zits), nodules or cysts.
The first step when you are asking “what is a blackhead?” is to understand how the skin works. Here is what’s going on in our skin.
Your skin eliminates dirt, oil, sweat, and dead cells through its surface. This is why we have skin pores, which are openings to the surface of the skin. This elimination is done through our hair.
What are pores? Here is a drawing of a skin pore.
Inside the pore, in the epidermis of the skin, is located a follicle as well as the sebaceous glands. These glands produce the sebum, which is basically oil. This is essential to keep our skin smooth and healthy. Any excess of oil, as well as dirt, sweat or dead skin cells are eliminated through the surface of the skin. This is a smooth process that gets unnoticed by most people.
What happens when you have acne is that your sebaceous glands start to produce too much oil. This usually happens during or after puberty, as excess hormones in the skin over stimulate the sebaceous glands, which produce too much sebum in skin pores.
This excess of oil has to be eliminated, but when there is too much of it, it cannot be eliminated; it accumulates and clogs the pores. This also prevents the elimination of dead skin cells or dirt.
This is how blackheads are formed and they appear like small bumps that are embedded into skin pores. They are black because the sebum that comes to the surface of the skin comes into contact with air and oxidizes. But they can also be yellow, as not all the trapped oil gets oxidized.
People who have oily skin are usually more prone to having blackheads, as their skin is producing a lot of oil on a regular basis.
Once you know what they are, you will most probably ask yourself how to get rid of blackheads. There are many options available: you can use OTC products like Biore, Clearasil, Clean And Clear, that contain benzoyl peroxide or acids, you can use pore strips, you can use a comedone extractor, which is a tool that removes blackheads as well as whiteheads. Make sure you choose a product that is adapted to your skin type and that does not damage your skin, causing more blackheads and more severe acne lesions.
