Blackheads that are not blackheads?!

[Vanillarose1]

My pre-teen DD has had these blackheads on her nose for over a year. I've tried everything I can think of to help her get rid of them - face masks with charcoal, salicylic acid, face washes, nose strips etc but they are not getting any better.

Ive had a go at squeezing them but she has a low pain threshold (to put it mildly!) so I haven't had much success there.

She is so self conscious of them and now covers them with make-up each day. Does anyone have any suggestions I haven't tried? Or might they be something other than blackheads?

A pre-teen shouldn't be wearing make-up IMO.

My ds12 has these and this stuff is amazing:

Acnecide + Purifide Spot On Skincare Set, for Acne Prone Skin with Acnecide Face Gel with Benzoyl Peroxide (15g) , Purifide SPF 30 Moisturiser (50ml) + Daily Cleanser (235ml) amzn.eu/d/cURJR1o

He uses that morning and night and also has their blackhead control stuff

PURIFIDE by Acnecide Blackhead Control Deep Exfoliating Cleanser 120ml, Face & Body Scrub with 2% Salicylic Acid BHA, Hyaluronic Acid & Plant Extracts for Combination Skin and Oily Skin amzn.eu/d/g1cQroH

Do NOT extract with a needle etc.

I have a very close friend who is a skincare expert (insta is allaboutskin) and she recommended this for ds. It worked within a week.

@sleepysummers , What did your friend recommend?

Why? Genuinely, why?

Why not?

Nowhere did I say that a pre-pubescent child should be using needles?
The ADULT does it.
With a sterilised needle. A lot less intrusive than digging at it with sharp nails.

Thanks, I just bought that set!

'
@Icouldbehappy , the child would see you using a needle and probably do the same. Neither you nor the child should be using a needle or digging with sharp nails.

See my post below! It has been great. Do not use extractors etc!!

Let her get them out herself, then she is controlling the pain. When I was 12 I was getting blackheads out with a hair grip/bobby pin. So satisfying! I probably should have steamed first and sterilised but I knew nothing about that. It always worked for me and I had no lasting side effects.

They don't look like blackheads to me. I'd say more like small skin in markings. Like a freckles. But difficult to tell. I dont think you should be applying hot needles to her face. That is a bonkers idea. Don't know if a local beauty salon would give a face mask or suggest a treatment.

With the make up, how is she applying it? She needs to use a clean sponge or brush to apply it, her hands should not touch the make up until after it is applied and the lid on.

Then the brush or sponge needs to be washed in soapy water.

Does she wear glasses? Or goggles for swimming, in science at school? If she does then they need to be cleaned and I don't mean just hte lenses.

I find that removing blackheads makes my skin much worse! If I get rid of them, it seems to leave a bigger hole, which leads to them filling up with even bigger blackheads!
I try to leave them alone, and after a few weeks they normalise and become unnoticeable. If you’ve tried everything else, try just leaving them alone and see what happens.

What do you mean by “normalise”?

It usually means 'go back to normal'. As in you use something on your face and you react to it, but when you stop using it your skin normalizes/goes back to normal

I got my DD some Purification from temple spa. She used it overnight for about 4 days and it got rid of a really stubborn black head on her nose. I use it when I feel a spot coming & it really works. I'd highly recommend it.

When you say “normalise”, do you mean the blackheads stay in but you don’t notice them, or they work their own way out?

Ones like that are unlikely to go away on their own because they are deep.
Small ones will often just go away from face washing.

Normalise is the skin calming down. If you squeeze it, the pore will be enlarged and may or may not calm down.

@MerryChristmasToYou I know what the word normalise means in isolation. I was asking what the pp meant by saying her blackheads (as opposed to her skin) “normalise and become unnoticeable” if left alone, because that was a bit ambiguous, as another person has also queried since my post.

Hi, sorry to confuse you. I meant that if left alone, they eventually become a normal sized pore, they no longer look like big blackheads. They just shrink. There is probably still stuff inside but they no longer look black. Does that make sense?

What you are describing sounds more like sebaceous filaments rather than blackheads.

If left, blackheads usually just get bigger and when they are finally extracted the pore is stretched and looks enlarged.

These replies are nuts! Leaving them to normalise themselves? What does that even mean?

Just squeeze them!

Thank you

I’ve had blackheads for ever and run my electric toothbrush over them gently. Takes the visible dark area off which is blocking them and making them big. I presume the blocked sebum then comes out by itself.