Tweezering and bumps

[Adara]

I have some problems with skin irritation. I started plucking out my chest hairs with tweezers. Got it done and looked smooth and skin seemed to calm down. Next day fine too. Then it started pushing red bumps everywhere and little zits. The bumps are still there after about a week and I'm not sure what to do to get my skin to settle down. Should I just use some body lotion on it and hope it calms down or what?

I haven't used any products I haven't used before to my knowledge. Was thinking might be the new hair growing out that are irritating the skin. Not sure. Didn't have that problem when plucking from arms. Though hair on chest grows faster and darker.

Ideas are appreciated.

[Valerie Elizabeth]

Sounds to me like ingrown hairs.  I'm not an expert, but that's what it sounds like.  I would imagine whats happening is that on some of the hairs you are tweezing are breaking below the surface of the skin causing irritation.  When the hair breaks below the surface, the hair can grow sideways or curl. 

A tip would be to tweeze as close to the skin as possible.

Here are some tips for tweezing.

    1. Brush hair in the direction of hair growth.
    2. Isolate the hair you are about to tweeze.
    3. Tweeze in the direction of hair growth.
    4. Pull one hair at a time.
    5. Pull gently and smoothly, making sure not to yank.

I would imagine steps 3-5 are the most important.

Just my thoughts.

[placeholdername]

Another thing that's been recommended to me is to exfoliate the skin which helps the hair break through the surface again rather than become ingrown.

[Adara]

I do have lots of ingrown hairs. I try to tweezer like you said and use exfoliating stuff in shower but I have tons of hair that grow a while under the skin before coming to surface. Doesn't look pretty. My hair also grows back pretty fast which is a pain. I'm planning on buying an epilator. Maybe it can do a better job than I can.

[placeholdername]

It may also have something to do with the area -- I know I get more visible bumps from the torso area than I do elsewhere.