Awful ingrown hairs on legs - help!

[bananarama3]

NC for this. I have awful awful legs that never see the light of day because of ingrown hairs, red marks from picking and scars. I used to wax, tried epilating and stopped because the ingrown hairs were getting worse and now I can't even shave. So they're spotty, scabby and hairy! I need help please! I'd love to have smooth legs and be able to wear skirts. it's a while before the weather has a chance of improving enough to even want to wear a skirt so what can I do?

Thanks in advance.

So do you have dark blonde hair then? I think mine might be classed as white blonde, which wouldn't work according to the chart I've just looked at. Although, that was a lumea chart, maybe salons use super powerful laser beams

Thanks, I'll look into it and keep an eye out for a groupon bargain. I'm glad you found something that worked for you.

So my plan is as follows:

1 STOP PICKING!
2 wear trousers for a while. Weeks? Months? and just let the hair grow
3 dry brush my legs to exfoliate them - any opinions on whether twice a day will speed up the process?
4 after the dry brushing use the ingrown stuff that's coming tomorrow
5 moisturiser

Thanks for all the advice. Fingers crossed it works!

I have the same problem, have had it all my life. I can get my lower legs looking reasonable, but only with a strict regime of exfoliating, brushing and moisturising. It's very labour-intensive. Even with this I could never bare my thighs.

I get so jealous of people with nice normal skin, who can just shave and go. Or who post on here how much they prefer summer dressing because "you can just throw on a dress!" I'm like, HAH! Nope.

I wet shave and I think it takes a thin layer of skin off... Are you allergic to the shaving foam?

is it definitely ingrown and not folliculitis? I had the latter and Dermol 500 cream worked really well. I have also read it can stop ingrown hairs but not sure if it is true. My legs were a sea of scabs before I started using Dermol daily and they are 100% better now.

Coper - how do you tell the difference? What's folliculitis? off to have a google

I used to do this but mine got a lot better when I started shaving with baby oil and exfoliating and moisturizing - mind you if I were lucky enough to have blond hairs I would just leave them!

Oh my god. Well. Some bits of my legs have at times looked a bit like some of the pictures on google images but nowhere near as bad as most of them. Can you imagine the mortification of having your spotty bum on google forever?? Poor people. They looked sore.

I do actually have some dermol as gp prescribed it for one of the DCs. Shall I add washing with that to the list above just in case? Can't do any harm.

Saga I'm the same. I could only ever throw on a maxi dress. Would you mind explaining a bit more about your labour intensive routine please? I don't mind putting effort into this, I'm so fed up with the state of them.

I did laser and it solved mine. I have mostly sparse blonde soft hair left and my skin is 99% clear.

Mine was so bad I had the doctor surgically remove one!

Exfoliating, Ingrow go and not epilating helped. Shaving with a new razor and not with too short hair helped. But end of the day these manage it, laser gets rid of it.

Interestingly I have 2 ingrowns left after 18 months of laser - they were ingrown when I started and just keep growing ingrown. I've got 3 rounds of laser left to zap these trouble ones. I think once a follicle is damaged it just keeps being ingrown every time so even though you dig it out a new ingrown comes through. Each dig - more scar tissue - worse ingrown.

Ironically I solved the ingrown hair problem but still don't wear skirts due to getting varicose veins!

A couple of years ago I could of written your post. I saved and saved and then had laser, really has changed my life.

The ingrow go stuff has arrived - whoever said it smells like salt and vinegar crisps was right! I've just used it and I found some anti biotic cream in the cupboard which I've put on one spot that looks a bit green.

Thanks for all the ideas and support. I feel a lot less miserable about this than I did a few days ago

How does the ingrow stuff work?

Do report back please

Yeah, I'm a picker too . I just try hard and not touch them, exfoliate and moisturise loads. I also find that a bit of colour on my legs, fake or otherwise, helps them look better. Good luck!

Bigbiscuits ingrow go says it "removes ingrown hair and razor bumps"

Ingredients: isopropyl alcohol, water, acetyl salicylic acid, glycerin, Glycolic acid, propylene glycol, triethanolamine.

It says you should moisten a cotton ball with the liquid and apply directly to the affected area and use it several days prior to waxing etc to ensure complete hair removal.

A bit of googling makes me think the two acids - salicylic and glycolic exfoliate the surface of the skin in slightly different ways so that the hairs can just come out as nature intended instead of getting trapped in layers of dead skin.

I've used it twice today. I'll keep using it morning and night for a few days and I'll let you know if it works. Glycolic acid can be used to get rid of scars after acne so I'm hoping it'll help with the marks on my legs.

Theladyloves - thanks for the fake tan tip! Hopefully by the summer I'll be able to get my legs out

Sounds like it targets my category 1 ingrown hairs. Would be interesting to know if it can deal with your category 2's

Keep us posted!

Apologies as I don't have experience of what you are describing but wanted to share my amazing find with you incase it helps. Farmers soap! It has pieces of pumice in it for heavy duty exfoliating after you've had your arm up a cow or elbow deep in tractor grease. You can buy 4 big bars for about £5 from an agricultural type store (farm shop/pet supplies etc...) the brand name is Ritchie's I think. I used it to get rid of the bumpy things on the back of my arms before my wedding and it did so in one go!

Thanks for the recommendation ispy. It must be strong stuff!!

Day 2 (I think?) of the ingrow go - everything looks a lot calmer, less red and inflamed. There are still quite a few category 2's that look no closer to popping up but it's early days. I have two red swollen inflamed ones and again, they look no closer to resolving but the surrounding skin is much better. I'll keep you posted!

Day 3. I've managed not to pick or inspect. That feels like quite a big achievement. I put plasters on the two big red spots after I read something on the Internet about just hiding them away under plasters and letting the skin heal. If I can't see it, I can't pick.

I forgot to do the skin brushing yesterday but back on it today, and I'm continuing to use the Ingrow Go twice a day. In terms of improvement related to the ingrow go, I'm trying not to look too closely, so I don't get tempted to pick at individual hairs/pores but as I said yesterday, my legs look calmer.

Just a recommendation about the Ingrow Go, moisturise plenty as it can dry out your skin. Thanks for the updates, you're doing really well not picking.

Congratulations for not picking.

I know it takes a will of steel to resist temptation.

Keep it up and let us know how it goes.

Thank you both The accountability and support is brilliant. Funnily enough theladyloves, I was just thinking this afternoon how dry my legs look. I've put some bio oil on, hope that'll help the scarring too.

Perfect product to use. Slap it on!