Clean up. After you've popped the pimple, wash your face and hands a second time with antibacterial soap, and then apply a small amount of alcohol to the remains of the blemish—this will help keep bacteria from repopulating it.
An over-the-counter antibiotic ointment is your best friend. Dot a tiny amount directly on the popped pimple or scab. This will help speed up healing time. It also keeps the scab moist, so it won't look as dry, crackly, and obvious.
Moisturize with a non-comedogenic lotion and apply a facial sunscreen with zinc as normal to keep the area from becoming overly dry. A sunscreen with zinc in it will not only protect you from the sun, but you'll also find that it helps with acne reduction as well.
Squeezing also can lead to scabs and might leave you with permanent pits or scars. Because popping isn't the way to go, patience is the key. Your pimple will disappear on its own, and by leaving it alone you're less likely to be left with any reminders that it was there.
It only takes three to seven days for a pimple to heal on its own. When you pop a pimple, it can extend the time to 14 or more days before it heals.
It actually helps protect the skin barrier as the pimple heals by forming a seal over the skin. "Think of an angry pimple like a wound that needs to heal," Dr. Zeichner says. But Avnee Shah, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in Rutherford, New Jersey, warns that petroleum jelly could make acne worse.
Whiteheads form when blocked pores close. These blemishes are close to the surface of the skin, so it does not usually require much intervention to get the contents out. The only whiteheads that are suitable to pop are those that look as though they are almost ready to burst on their own.
Blood-filled pimples usually heal on their own in a few days to a few weeks. You can help them heal faster by keeping them clean and not picking or squeezing.
Squeezing a pimple forces out a yellow liquid called pus. The trauma caused by the squeezing can also cause blood vessels underneath to burst, causing the pimple to fill with blood. Regular pimples occur when the skin's pores become clogged with bacteria, sweat, or dirt.
The 'white stuff' that comes out of a blackhead or more commonly in pimples is pus. Pus is formed from inflamed debris, dead white blood cells and is also produced as the body's response to bacteria invading the system. This can it will heal on its own without treatment.
Use a basic, fragrance-free, lightweight moisturiser to soothe the area and apply a non-comedogenic broad-spectrum sunscreen. You can also opt for an in-clinic procedure with your dermatologist like a chemical peel, dermal infusion, Q-Switched lasers and IPL light to resolve the damage and prevent scarring.
If you once squeezed a whitehead until it burst, it's possible that the entire blockage wasn't removed—meaning that pimple could become inflamed again, says Dr. Zeichner. The irritation or exposed bacteria could also cause another pimple to form right next to your previous one.
If you're looking for quick ways to zap a zit, the best place to start is a benzoyl peroxide spot treatment. And there are lots of other things you can do to move your blemish along, from icing and heating your skin and using salicylic acne cleansers to blue light therapy and cortisone injections.
“Post-picking, you want to keep your skin in a moist environment for optimal healing,” Nava Greenfield, M.D., a dermatologist who practices in Brooklyn, said. “Aquaphor is great until the skin has healed and then Bio-Oil or a silicone gel as a scar prevention.”
So... scarring can happen whether you pick at your acne or not, but here's why you should still avoid the urge to pop. "Inflammation-related acne scarring aside, aggressively pinching or squeezing a pimple or whitehead just makes the underlying inflammation worse. This, in turn, makes scarring even more likely.
Use a warm compress on the affected area for about 15 minutes. Use a clean cotton swab (not your fingers or any sharp tools) to apply pressure onto both sides of the pimple. This should cause the blackhead or whitehead to pop out. Marvel at your success!
Pockmarks, which are also called pick marks or acne scars, are blemishes with a concave shape that can look like holes or indentations in the skin. They occur when the deeper layers of the skin become damaged.
As the skin heals, it produces too much melanin (the protein that gives the skin its color). This darkens the skin. That said, the more inflamed a breakout, the larger and darker the PIH spot tends to be. In addition, picking or popping a pimple increases the chance of developing PIH because it increases inflammation.
She explains that if the whitehead or pustule is superficial, meaning on or close to the surface, the skin will eventually break open to allow the pus to drain out of the pimple. “Skin is constantly renewing itself, and fragile whiteheads will not remain forever,” she says.
While waiting is never fun, it's worth it when it comes to pimple-popping. Basically, what happens if you don't pop a whitehead is that it goes away on its own, usually in 3 to 7 days.
Hard bumps on your face that won't pop can be caused by many things. White bumps called milia are the most common cause, but hard bumps can also be from closed pores, cysts, keratoses, skin cancer, and more. These white bumps can appear on your face under your eyes, on your cheek, forehead, chin, or nose.
It is not possible to remove pimples overnight. Treatments for pimples and acne take time to work. Individual pimples may take a few days or a few weeks to completely heal. The amount of time it takes for a blemish to go away can depend on how large or severe it is, and how a person treats it.