Why Shouldn't You Pop Pimples: 5 Reasons Not to Do It

Zits, breakouts, pimples—call them what you will. Just don’t pop them. 

We know it’s not easy walking around with an unwanted friend on your face but keeping your hands off is rule number one. So why shouldn't you pop pimples? For starters, nothing good comes from it. Instead, look to spot treatments, pimple patches, at-home and in-office red lights, and high-frequency devices to help shrink nasty zits. And if you have to let someone do the dirty job of getting rid of a pimple, put your skin in the hands of an expert like a dermatologist or aesthetician who can properly extract a pimple.

Before you take your hands to your face, these are the top five reasons you why shouldn't pop pimples. 

1. Your skin can scar

Popping pimples can lead to scars, manifesting as a pitted, rolling or pockmark scar or hyperpigmentation (a dark purple, pink or red spot). Either way, both are hard to correct and can take months, if not years, to resolve.

2. You can easily make the zit worse—and angry!

When a pimple is present, inflammation already exists in the pore. One reason why you shouldn't pop pimples is because pushing at the pimple only stirs up what’s lodged in the pore and further inflames and irritates the skin.

3. You can tear the skin

If you use your nails, a bobby or safety pin, or some other tool to try and remove the contents of a zit, chances are you’ll probably rip or tear the skin and may give yourself an infection. Leave the extractions to the experts.

4. It will take longer to heal

Unbeknownst one of several reason why shouldn't you pop pimples is because squeezing and picking at a pimple won’t make it go away any faster—it just prolongs the healing process. A key reason why you shouldn't pop pimples is because forcefully pushing what’s inside a pimple deep into the pore increases inflammation and redness. 

5. You can spread the bacteria and cause additional pimples to form

The act of ‘popping’ actually spreads the infected material (i.e., puss) through the skin both on the surface and at a deeper level—plus, pushing around the infection only makes a bad pimple that much worse. Squeezing a pimple puts pressure on the clogged pore, causing the mix of oil, bacteria and dead skin cells to go deeper into the skin.

 Think before you pop.

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