The Long Term Effects of Picking Your Pimples
Trust us, we get it: When there’s an angry red spot staring back at you from the mirror or a whitehead that looks so easily removable, it’s tempting to try to pick the pimple. Extremely tempting.
But doing so can have long-term effects on your skin that might make you think twice about doing it — plus, it would be nice to think that we live in a society where the stigma of acne has gone down thanks to more open conversations around skin, more understanding and education about what acne is, and, frankly better products to treat it. Your skin doesn’t need to suffer through your fingernails squeezing away, when highly effective products can remedy and conceal it — and in critical cases, when you’re one phone call away from a derm (that’s us).
Here’s what picking at that pimple can do in the long run:
Lead to pitted skin. Picking at pimples can cause your skin to lose tissue as it heals, which leads to pitted acne scars.
Create a scab. It’s not any less visible than a pimple, and way harder to cover up. Plus, it can bleed if you accidentally brush it, which a pimple doesn’t usually do. Trust us, a scab is not an ideal outcome.
Breed new pimples. When you pop a zit, all that bacteria inside goes other places too, including further down in your skin — which can lead to more acne (like a sneeze, but for pimples). Plus, unless your hands and fingernails are surgeon-clean, you’re moving new bacteria to your face every time you touch it. This means that as long as you keep popping pimples, the more they’ll pop up, like zit whack-a-mole — and that’s not a vicious cycle that you want to continue.
Create dark spots. Inflammation from picking can also lead to hyperpigmentation, which manifests as a dark spot on your skin.
All of these reasons make picking your skin the best possible route to take when it comes to dealing with acne. If you need some professional help about how to treat pimples, whether they’re constant or one-offs, call us at +1 540-953-2210.