At least, I assume they’re clogged pores of some sort. They look like little light colored short body hair, but when they’re pulled, there’s no pain or pulling sensation at all, they remove very easily, and they sort of stretch a bit at the base where it was under the skin and look like the base is made of sebum or some other waxy biologic material.
Don’t need answer fast, don’t need to know what to do about them; they’re not particularly bothersome and they’ve been coming around forever, so I’m not concerned. But I am interested in whether there’s a technical term for them, so it’s a GQ question, not a medical one.
It’s possible, but there’s no redness or pus at the base, and they don’t hurt at all, and the free end is, well, free, not embedded in the follicle, and the base isn’t rounded or darker like a hair root at all. One of these days, I’m gonna find me a microscope and see what’s actually in there. I wonder if these are some of the things that people with Morgellon’s think are foreign things coming out of them? I certainly don’t think they’re invading parasites or anything. I suspect they’re just compacted sebum and/or skin oils, especially since they’re much more likely to show up when it’s hot.
I tried taking a picture, but it’s beyond the capability of my cell phone camera’s macro setting. They’re just too small and I don’t know how to light them to get them to show up.
I have those too, where my nose attaches to the rest of my face (is there a name for THAT?). Remember those Biore strips, which I think you can still get? Those things worked wonders for removing them.
I get them too, mostly in that exact spot. I only started noticing them in the last two or three years (I’m 36 now). Sometimes they protrude by half a mm or so, but often there is just the tiniest white tip visible, but if I scrape a fingernail gently across the skin I can snag them and pull them out. They kind of stretch as they come out, then almost shrink down to nothing once they are free. It’s quite satisfying.
Ooh, good question! I don’t think there is. The cartilaginous part that you can push in to block your breathing is called the “ala” (you more often see the adjective form “alar” as in “alar cartilage” or “alar-sidewall”, if you’re a cosmetic surgeon.) But I can’t find a name in my anatomy texts for the place where the ala meets the cheek. Here are some great pictures, marking the ala, the supra-alar crease and alar rim, but no label for the part I think you’re talking about.
Yes! In fact, I think I recall users, and maybe even the packaging, referring to a little “forest” of sebum that you can yank off with those suckers. Loved that. Yes, I think that’s what these are, only on the belly and breasts and sometimes thighs, so they’re not as thickly “planted” as the nose-forest.
Perhaps a “clean” blackhead/compacted sebum? The black end on a blackhead is IIRC dirt and maybe some oxidization. You may be doing a good enough job at cleansing to prevent the black buildup but not the clogging of the pore.
I always assumed they were ingrown hairs. I have them too, and sometimes the hairs are all weirdly curly from being bunched up in my skin. But perhaps we aren’t talking about the same thing (although I really really think we are).
Although they’re normal, I sometimes will use a Biore strip to pull them out (and dear god is that satisfying), but it’s apparently more effective and less damaging to the skin to use AHA or salicylic acid.
Yes, I did. They’re not blackheads. They’re not black (or white) and they don’t secrete anything when squeezed. They’re not associated with acne. They can be pulled out painlessly, but they cannot be squeezed.
Gnarly! Mine always looked like that too, although I never really did any closeup shots. You get the strip damp, put it on your nose, let it dry, and then peel it off. It didn’t hurt.
