What is Pseudofolliculitis?
One of the more common problems you see in darker skinned patients, particularly when the hair is curly is pseudofolliculitis. Pseudofolliculitis is bumps in the area where the hair is and that problem improves very rapidly following laser treatment. In fact, after a single laser treatment pseudofolliculitis can improve tremendously even though all of the hair is not removed.
This condition, also known as ingrown hairs, is mainly related to darker skinned people or people with curly hair. If a person has this condition they will notice lots of small bumps on the skin, mainly around the neck and jaw line area. This condition is caused by the hair in the follicle either entering the wall of the follicle (i.e. doesn’t leave the follicle) or on leaving the follicle, turns and re-enters the skin. Typically darker skinned people have coarse curly hair which naturally causes this condition. However, some hair removal methods can make this worse. Waxing, for example, can sometimes adjust the growth direction of a hair follicle by pulling its hair from the follicle in the opposite direction to the hair growth. Fortunately this condition can also be dramatically improved by another hair removal method called laser treatment.
Many darker skinned patients often have a condition known as pseudofolliculitis. If a patient has this condition they will notice lots of small bumps on the skin. This condition is caused by the hairs in their follicles either entering the follicle walls (i.e. they don’t leave their follicle), or on leaving their follicle they turn and re-enter the skin. Fortunately this condition can be dramatically improved with treatment from hair removal lasers.
