"Skin Gritting" Is Blackhead Removal Like You've Never Seen Before
Photo: Courtesy.
Spawned from Reddit's Skincare Addiction, here's potentially the most riveting blackhead removal you'll see all day (very specific, but we don't know your YouTube history). Or all month, for that matter: People from the skin care community just started posting the most effective blackhead removals we've seen in.…ever, thanks to a technique called "gritting," and you won't be able to look away.
Fair warning, this is right up the gross/fascinating alley of the skin purges people post online (take that to mean we've been staring at some of these photos for at least 10 minutes). And who can blame us? The photos feature little black bits gathered on people's hands, and all of that junk apparently used to be in someone's pores. When we saw it we had to know more.
For a quick primer on the perpetual annoyance, blackheads are open comedones—clogged pores open to the surface of your skin, with debris that turns black when oxygen reaches it. According to the skin care subreddit{: rel=nofollow}, the abundance of unearthed junk comes from people massaging their face with oil, then using a clay mask, and then doing another round of oil massage. Via Refinery29,{: rel=nofollow} Elizabeth Tanzi, M.D., agrees that after the clay mask brings all the junk to the surface, physical massage can "indeed dislodge clogged pores and whatever’s inside them."
While there's debate online about whether they're just sebaceous filaments (the little specks on your nose and forehead that bring in necessary oil), the captured little wiggles could be blackheads, says Manjula Jegasothy, M.D., a board-certified dermatologist at the Miami Skin Institute. But after looking at the evidence, some doctors were less than convinced. "It's not clear from the photos that those are actually blackheads. They seem quite big for normal or even large-sized blackheads, and normal blackheads are actually only dark at the top where they have been oxidized," says Karyn Grossman, M.D., a board-certified dermatologist based in Santa Monica, California. She says they could be balled up dead skin, dirt, or tiny bits of clay, and not the actual skin bounty it looks like.
So the jury's out. But the evidence is so convincing—in the words of one Reddit user, it's enough to give someone a "slight skin care ladyboner." Jegasothy says the technique's theory is similar to the in-office blackhead removals physicians have done for the past 50 years, and Grossman agrees it could hypothetically work. "If they are blackheads, it is possible that the oil is loosening the keratin and the clay is helping to pull them up to the surface."
That said, we heard mixed reports on whether you should try this at home. "Cleansing with an oil cleanser can help gently remove dirt, while applying a clay mask can help further remove debris and oil from within the pores," says Joshua Zeichner, M.D., the director of cosmetic and clinical research in dermatology at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. "Washing again with an oil cleanser afterward may help the cleanser penetrate deeper into the pore for a greater cleanse. So long as you're not overly scrubbing your skin, this method isn't harmful. I can't say for sure it will be tremendously more effective than a single cleanse and mask, but there is little downside besides the extra time and product being used on your face."
Either way, the doctors just say to be very, very careful. Like Zeichner mentions, it's crucial to stick to a soft massage if you try it—mostly because overdoing it can be a huge, long-lasting downer, adds Dr. Jegasothy. "You could break the capillaries, but more important, you can cause micro-cuts in your skin or even inflammation that then can hyperpigment later. Particularly in dark skin types, your skin could be covered in these little black, hyperpigmented spots."
And even if it doesn't reach that danger level, Grossman says it's likely not the best idea. "I'm not sure how much oil you'd want to put on skin that's already that heavily covered in comedones—oil clogs pores. And the combo of the clay mask and scrubbing with the second oil cleanse may be a lot for skin to handle."
Dr. Jegasothy says people should cap any facial massage at five minutes, and strongly advises people against "gritting" at all. As satisfying as it looks, there's a reason Dr. Pimple Popper is an actual doctor—these are real techniques dermatologists spend years learning, and while someone on the Internet may have had great results, there's no guarantee you'll see the same. Between the immediate revulsion, then the intense desire to do this to our faces this second, and now deflated excitement, this trend's a roller coaster of emotion.
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This story originally appeared on Teen Vogue.
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