How Do I Get Rid of the Blackheads on My Nose?

Believe it or not, when I ask my clients to tell me what they would like to change about their skin, the #1 answer I hear is to get rid of those pesky blackheads on their nose. 99% of the time, when doing a skin analysis in the facial, the clients that I am seeing DO NOT have blackheads. So ... if they aren't blackheads, what exactly are they?

Let's start at the beginning. The pore is the opening of a hair follicle or sweat gland. These terms are used interchangeably by professionals. The pores or follicles down the middle of your face are wider and more visible. This affects the middle of the forehead, nose, and chin area. What you are probably seeing is a sebaceous filament. So what is it and how can you tell the difference between one of those and a blackhead?

I describe a sebaceous filament as a screen door for the skin and pore. It is going to keep the kids in and the flies out. The kids are the lipids and other good things inside of the skin. The flies are the free radicals, pollution, etc that you don’t want in the skin. These are mainly skin colored, clear, or sometimes grey. You can remove them, but within a couple days, they will be back.

Blackheads are dilated at the top of also oxidized, which makes them look dark or black. A blackhead contains sebum (which is oil), bacteria and skin debris. When extracted from the skin, they are hardened as well and look quite different from a sebaceous filament.

So while the sebaceous filaments may seem to be pesky and irritating, and you ‘can’ extract them, you now know that they are harmless and don’t indicate that you aren’t cleaning your skin well. If you are in doubt, let’s set up your next facial treatment where your Esthetician will take a closer look under the magnifying lenses to let you know for sure what you are dealing with.

Don’t forget to

Breathe. Let Go. Relax.

Zoey Jolley, LE