In our quest for smooth skin, there are often some bumps along the way. Literally. Razor burn and rashes are never fun post-shave or wax, but few things are as annoyingly painful as ingrown hairs.

Ingrown hairs occur when the dead skin that’s been removed from waxing or shaving clogs a pore on your leg, interfering with the growth of a hair. The hair then grows sideways instead of straight out, causing an irritated bump on your skin.

If you leave the ingrown hair alone, it will more often than not heal itself and just vanish over time. But what if you’re planning on going to the beach tomorrow and you’re embarrassed by the tender bump on your leg?

We don’t blame you.

Luckily, there are ways to nix ingrown hairs fast! Try some of these home remedies to banish your ingrown hair before it can even get started.

 

1. Use an Egg Shell Membrane

Granted, this sounds really gross, but it’s one of the most effective ways to get rid of ingrown hairs.

Put the shell membrane (the thin layer on the inside of your cracked egg shell) and leave it there, allowing it to dry up and shrink on the bump. When it’s shriveled, pull off the membrane – the hair from the bump with come with it painlessly.

2. Exfoliate

If you have a few days to get rid of your ingrown hair, exfoliating is a good way to hurry up the process.

Make a mixture of sugar and extra virgin olive oil, adding some tea tree oil for smell and extra healing properties. Rub the mixture on the ingrown hair for a couple minutes, then let it sit for five more minutes before washing it off. Make sure you save the scrub, because you’ll be using this treatment once daily.

3. Dissolve Some Aspirin

Salicylic acid is great for ingrown hairs. The acid helps reduce redness and inflammation, assisting the ingrown hair in healing faster.

The quickest way to get this salicylic acid is by dissolving two aspirin – it is the main ingredient in aspirin, after all. Add the acid to a few drops of honey to make a paste, then apply this directly on the ingrown hair.

We suggest doing a test first, to make sure your skin isn’t sensitive to the acid before putting a big glob on the afflicted area.

4. Baking Soda Before

Is there anything baking soda can’t do? Baking soda is good to use BEFORE hair removal because it has anti-inflammatory properties, so it will keep ingrown hairs at bay even beforehand.

If you already have a bump, baking soda can also be as a natural exfoliate to ease redness and itching. Mix baking soda with little water to make a concentrated solution then soak a cotton ball in the solution then place it on the affected area. Wash the solution off your skin after leaving it for about 10 minutes. Apply this remedy daily for a week.

5. Salt

We already covered exfoliating, but this is a slightly different kind of exfoliate.

Instead of sugar, try exfoliating your ingrown hair with salt instead. Salt reduces swelling, redness, irritation, and promotes the healing of infections. Combine salt with water to make a paste, then soak said paste in a cotton ball, placing it on the affect area. Wash off after about ten minutes. Repeat twice daily.

6. Black Tea Bags

Black tea has a lot of tannic acid in it, which reduces irritation and inflammation. Soak a black tea bag in water, then rub it on the affected area, repeating daily for the best results.

While this won’t necessarily help take the hair out, it will help with the pain and swelling of the bump, making it look much less conspicuous.

7. Remove with Tweezers

If you’re looking to get right to the point (pun intended), you can always pull out the ingrown hair with tweezers. Make sure both the area of your leg and the tweezers have been disinfected with rubbing alcohol first. Then, when the hair shows itself, pull it out.

Cover it with antibacterial cream to keep it clean afterwards.

8. Leave It Alone

Again, leaving the ingrown hair alone will usually work with time. But even if you are working to get the bump gone ASAP, you shouldn’t be touching your ingrown hair.

Your hands are covered in germs, and infecting the open wound on your leg with bacteria is not going to help ANYTHING. It’s just going to make things worse. So hands off!

Check out some more advice from Howcast:

Have you gotten rid of ingrown hairs in a weird way? Share them in the comments section below.