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Marie Jourdan (Dermatologist)
This strange video, a little disgusting but almost hypnotizing, features tweezers so fine that they can extract blackheads in one gesture. But should we abuse it and track these in our mirror? We asked the question to doctor Marie Jourdan, dermatologist.
Button extraction, as unattractive as its name suggests, is nevertheless of real interest on the networks. On TikTok in particular, videos of people “popping” their own pimples under the hashtag #pimplepopping continue to flow. But it’s another instrument that is enjoying some success today: tweezers that promise to extract your blackheads with disconcerting ease.
The product, marketed by the online site Teppeic, is a curved metal tweezer ending in two fine points, dedicated to skin cleaning. The videos circulating demonstrate, with close-ups, the effectiveness and obvious ease of extracting the comedo, with a small, controlled gesture. The tweezers, sold in packs of three, aret “designed with precise tip closure and strong gripping ability” For “easily extract blackheads and fight against even the finest acne”announces the Teppeic brand.
It must be admitted that these videos, viewed by more than 500,000 Internet users, are quite hypnotizing. So much so that extracting your blackheads could become addictive, which is probably the case for some of these Internet users.
Tracking down your blackheads like this, good or bad idea?
But is acquiring such tweezers a good idea for taking care of your skin? We asked the question to Dr Marie Jourdan, dermatologist and member of our Doctissimo expert committee.
“To do a skin cleansing dermatologically, we actually open the surface of the comedo and use a small tool to extract it. But why this clamp? While there is already something called a blackhead remover in pharmacies if you want to do it yourself, I don’t really see the point.” The blackhead remover has a pointed side to open the surface, but also another side with a small hoop to press around the blackhead and make it come out.
“But pliers with only two tips seem frankly dangerous to me, and require even more technicality. It causes trauma to the skin, therefore inflammation and therefore scarring in my opinion”.
The other danger for our dermatologist lies in the fact that it almost becomes a game for users:
“You have to be careful with the tools offered, because you end up creating blackhead “psychos”, who buy magnifying mirrors and start tracking down the slightest start of a comedo. Which makes people pick at their skin endlessly.”
What to do in case of too frequent blackheads?
If there are too many blackheads on your face for your liking, our dermatologist invites you to receive a dermatological skin cleansing instead. “Subsequently, we can also implement a prescription treatment, with acid creams or a retinol derivative, to refine the skin’s texture and tighten the pores. Or a therapeutic treatment, such as a peel.
Acts perhaps less “funny” or satisfying than gently extracting each blackhead, but better for the health of your skin.
Slide: How to distinguish different skin diseases?