Blackheads are an unsightly annoyance to the face of the sufferer.  If you have ever used a pore clearing strip, you'd understand how disgusting they are.  But is there any way stop blackheads from occuring in the first place?  We would first need to understand what a blackhead is and why it occurs.

What is a Blackhead?

A blackhead is defined as an open comedone.  This just means it is a clogged pore that is open to the surfce.  Excess oils that are clogging the pores react to the air giving them the black-tipped appearance.  Naturally, most blackhead sufferers therefore have an oilier skin complexion than most.  In order to minimize the appearance of blackheads, you would need to try to minimize your oil production to prevent clogged pores.

If you're a woman, one of the biggest culprits of clogged pores is make-up.  When choosing a make-up product or anything that will go on your face, always make sure it says non-comedogenic in its packaging.  Avoid using anything that feels greasy and doesn't allow your skin to breath. 

When finding a cleansing product for the skin, look for cleansers that are mild and won't overstrip the skin of its natural oils.  Contrary to intuition, in order to make your skin less oily, one of the worse things you can do is to overclean your face.  This just makes your skin dryer and your skin cells try to over compensate by producing more oil.

When you have dry skin, it magnifies the occurrence of blackheads as the dead skin flakes mix with the oils to clog the pores.  It is best to find a gentle exfoliant that you can use daily to eliminate the dead skin cells.

After cleaning your face, you should always use a moisturizer to rehydrate your skin.  This is all in the need to keep dry dead skin at bay.

Throughout the day, if you feel your skin becoming overly oily, use blotting paper to absorb the oil to prevent clogging.

We know that the temptation is there to squeeze a blackhead, because we all do it.  But the important thing is to do it right so we don't scar ourselves or make our skin worse by causing infections.  The proper way to remove a blackhead is to first clean your face with a mild scrub to clean away the dead skin cells.  Next, place a warm cloth on your face for ten to fifteen minutes.  This is to open your pores and to soften the blackheads.  Make sure you pat dry your skin afterwards.  Using a tissue paper in both hands, gently squeeze the blackhead from underneath out towards the surface.  Don't try too hard if it doesn't come out naturally as you could be bruising your skin, causing it injury.

There are lots of blackhead removal products out on the market like pore strips, vacuums, and extractors but make sure you read the instructions and use common sense.  To remove blackheads, you just need to make sure that your skin isn't being only irritated therefore causing more oil production and dead skin.  If a product does cause any irritation, then it is exacerbating the situation and not improving it.