As the
names imply, both types of acne are basically different in
their colors. What are blackheads and how they
are formed, explains the reason for their different colors.
Blackheads
are small, black and pinhead like bodies which appear on face,
nose, chin, and forehead and at times on arms and back too.
This skin disorder is a precursor of acne formation and relates
to the pre-infection period. Blackheads are basically
dirty and oily deposits in the pores of skin. This deposits,
which in addition to dirt and oil, also contains degenerated
cellular material, and are exposed to the external environment
through small openings in the outermost layer of skin;
the epidermis.
What is a
blackhead?
The deeper
layers of skin contain small sacs, known as hair follicles.
They contain the hair and as well as the skin oil; Sebum, which
is secreted by the adjacent sebaceous glands. When sufficient
quantity of sebum is collected in the hair follicle and when
the skin is dry enough to need more oil for moisturizing, the
sebum is pushed up onto the surface of the skin. Sometimes on
account of hormonal imbalance, the sebaceous glands produce the
sebum in excess, which the hair follicle is constrained to pump
upwards, even if the skin is already oily.
What is the role of ‘Sebum’ in causing
blackheads?
The
discharge of sebum is resisted by the
oily skin with consequent prolonged stay in the pores,
where mixed with dirt and decayed organic material, it plugs
the exit. Till the time, the deposit does not extrude from the
outermost layer of the skin; the epidermis, the deposit, also
known as comedon, remains white, hence called as whiteheads.
The dirty oil deposit is susceptible to infection by some fat
splitting or disease causing bacteria like ‘Propionibacterium
acne’.
Why
Oxidation causes blackening?
Sunlight
and air oxidize the dirty and oily deposit with consequent
darkening. Hormonal imbalance plays an active role in the
formation of blackheads, by excessive Sebum production, and
this is why the acne problem is more prevalent among the
adolescents who are most prone to hormonal imbalance due to the
potential onset of puberty.
Blackening
of the dirty, oily and cellular deposits occurs due to the
presence of Keratin and Melanin. The former causes browning of
the material. Retention period and time of exposure determines
the hardness of the blackheads, while the degree of infection
is normally indicated by reddish coloration around the black
heads.
How
to remove blackheads?
Occurrence
of blackheads is related with the skin hygiene. Some of the
methods used to cleanse and
get rid of the blackheads include, scrubbing, hot rinse,
manual extraction by pinching, mechanical extraction and vacuum
extraction. In the mechanical extraction a small rod with flat
end having a hole in it, is kept on the black head and pressed.
The blackhead comes out of the hole under the applied pressure.
In the vacuum technique the black head is extracted through
application of vacuum.
Many people often think that the
blackheads in ear appear due to an improper
cleaning of the ear. Read this article to gather
information about the blackheads in ear.
