Lifestyle Choices

Blackheads—the Cause

A blackhead—in medical terms, an open comedo—consists of a solid plug of oil that clogs the pore and then blackens due to oxidation on exposure to the air. If it is left alone it will simply stay there in the skin. Blackheads do not cure themselves.

Prevention and Cure

Blackheads on oily areas of the face (such as around the nose and chin) that are not inflamed can be removed easily by steaming the skin first or by applying hot compresses using flannel dipped in hot water and wrung out—hot water to which bicarbonate of soda has been added at a ratio of 1. tablespoon to each pint. This opens the pores and loosens the oily material. Then gently, with scrupulously clean hands and the tips of your fingers wrapped in facial tissue, you can ease out the plugs. Never use your nails. Finish off the treatment with the application of an antiseptic cream. (more…)

Each hair on your head is made beneath the surface of your skin in a little bulbous structure called a follicle. There, a clump of cells called the papilla, at the base of the follicle, produces the keratinous cells that become a strand of hair. The papillae get good supplies of food and oxygen, since they are well furnished with blood vessels, on which the growth and health of every hair depends. When, for any reason, circulation to your scalp is decreased or interfered with, the papillae get fewer nutrients and less oxygen than they need, and your hair suffers. The function of a follicle is to produce keratin, just as your pancreas produces insulin or your stomach hydrochloric acid. The follicle also contains an oil gland, which produces oil to coat each hair and to protect it from water loss. How efficiently and how well it does this depends on a number of things such as the level of androgenic and estrogenic hormones in your system, your genetic inheritance, and your general health. (more…)