Blackheads on the Nose: Cleaning Them Is Only Half the Story

There's something frustrating about those small dots on your nose. You cleanse, you use masks, you sometimes even press on them gently — and the next day, they're seemingly right back.

But here's something interesting that not everyone knows: not every dark dot on your nose is a blackhead that needs extracting.

Sometimes it's something completely natural called sebaceous filaments.

What are sebaceous filaments?

Inside your pores sit glands that produce sebum, your skin's natural oil.

Sebaceous filaments are natural structures that help carry sebum to the surface of your skin. Almost everyone has them, but they stand out more in areas where the sebaceous glands are more active, like the nose and chin.

They usually look like tiny dots — grayish, yellowish, or light brown.

Real blackheads — open comedones — form when a hair follicle gets clogged with a mix of oil and skin cells. The material at the opening of the pore oxidizes and turns dark.

So why do the dots come back after we extract them?

Because if they're sebaceous filaments, you're actually trying to extract something your skin is supposed to produce.

Even if you manage to empty out some of the contents, your skin keeps producing sebum and the pore fills right back up.

And that doesn't mean your skin is dirty.

In fact, squeezing at them again and again can cause irritation, injury, and sometimes even scarring.

What can be done anyway?

If the dots bother you cosmetically, you can try to make them less noticeable.

Salicylic acid, at an appropriate concentration, may help clear clogged pores and reduce the buildup of oil and cells.

Certain retinoids can help prevent comedones, but they're not right for everyone and can cause irritation.

It's also important to use a gentle cleanser — and not to scrub at your nose trying to get a deeper clean.

And what about nose strips? They may temporarily remove some of the surface contents, but they don't change the pore's natural structure.

My daily recommendation

I think we sometimes try to fix things about our skin that don't need fixing at all.

We lean in close to the mirror, spot every tiny dot, and immediately start looking for a way to make it disappear.

But our skin isn't a completely smooth surface. It has pores, sebaceous glands, and natural structures that do important work.

Before you try to extract the dots on your nose again, it's worth figuring out whether they're real blackheads or just part of your skin's natural structure.

Not everything you see in the mirror is a problem that needs solving.

Nurit Rozenblat

With love,
Nurit Rozenblat
OrOrgani

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