Hello! I have an annoying skin tag on my forehead and I am wondering if anybody has any home remedies to get rid of this. I am tempted to just clip it off with toe nail clippers; however, I have read a few comments from people who have chosen to resort to that and they all say that it was bleeding profusely. Any suggestions other then the obvious one of going to the doctor and having it frozen or lazered off would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
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Welcome to the SDMB, sportsfan888.
The General Questions forum is for questions with factual answers. Questions seeking advice (especially medical advice) belong in our IMHO forum. I will move this thread for you.
Moving thread from General Questions to In My Humble Opinion.
My advice to you would be to have it removed professionally.
That said, when I had an annoying skin tag on my neck I cut it off with a swiss army knife. I am most definitely not going to recommend DIY home surgery to anyone else though.
it will bleed profusely because it has a good blood supply which is how it can grow.
you could try a nail clippers or a thread bit it can grow back because the blood supply is still there plus the lively cells that are producing it. at any rate it won’t be flat which is what you would likely want for your forehead.
a doctor can kill it back to not regrow.
If you do clip it, just as a general FYI, Afrin is a vasoconstrictor and can help stop bleeding, especially when put on a pressure bandage.
I’d avoid the menthol kind, though. Stingy.
Tie a piece of thread or dental floss tightly around the base. It will turn black and fall off in a few days. You can cut them off, they’ll bleed, but a bandaid will be sufficient to stop the flow and it will heal fast.
Since you want home remedies as opposed to going to a medical professional, I suggest the following:
- just rip it off or cut it off.
- cauterize the wound with the tip of a knife heated by an open flame.
- repeat if it grows back.
In the meantime you could obscure the scab and resultant scar, by trailblazing a comeback of the head sweatband.
First, I would try twisting it in your fingertips, if possible, thus “strangling” the blood supply into it. Or maybe just pinching it with your fingernails. After a day or two, it might just fall off.
I use a set of flat point tweezers. Grab it as low as possible and squeeze hard. This usually crushes the blood vessels and cut off the blood supply. It should fall off in a day or so. Same theory as tying the thread around it, but no one will ask any questions.
Maybe after careful cutting, a styptic pencil?
Its a small step before taking the tip of a soldering iron to your head.
(maybe?)
Most people figure out how to just live with skin tags as there’s no foolproof home treatment for them that’s guaranteed to work and/or not make it worse or leave a permanent scar.
On the medical professional side, your health insurance will most likely consider a visit to the dermatologist to remove a skin tag cosmetic and not medically necessary, so you’ll have to pay full price.
I once removed a small skin tag from my eyelid with Compound W (an over the counter wart treatment).
I pinch 'em real hard between my fingernails for a count of 50. They almost always shrivel up and fall off after a few days. If not, it’s free and easy to try again.
Crikey, that sounds like a terrible idea.
I get them under my arm (only my left arm) and this method works for me,
There is a nonzero possibility that I got this method from you, on this board, sometime in the past 15 years.
And since it’s on your forehead, the least you could do is to use green dental floss and tie a pretty bow.
And maybe something festive and glittery to hang from the tag-ends of the floss. Assuming the floss is short enough that you don’t have festive and glittery dangles in your eyes. Ow. :smack:
Could be - I’ve mentioned it before.
I don’t have the guts to cut or pull off the larger ones, so I experimented with tying off, but it’s hard to tie a cord around something that’s affixed to your armpit, so I just sort of pinch and worry them, and it injures them to the point where they shrivel up and fall off.
I’ve always gotten rid of them by just pinching real hard and yanking it off. It hurts for a second or two, bleeds like crazy, but they’ve always stayed away.
Then again, I keep a Gerber Tool with retractable pliers in my car for dealing with unwanted nose hair. What hurts is when I accidentally get a mustache hair in there. ouch!