Blackheads can be a frustrating and persistent issue for most people, but understanding their causes and effective treatment options can help you achieve clear, healthy skin. While pore strips may provide temporary relief, it’s crucial to address the underlying factors that contribute to blackhead formation. In this blog, we’ll delve into the nature of blackheads, explore why pore strips are a short-lived solution that perpetuates more blackheads, and discuss the ultimate solution.
What Are Blackheads?
Blackheads are a type of skin congestion, often accompanying acne, that appear as small, dark-colored bumps on the skin. They are caused by the clogging of pore canals and openings with thickened oil that gets stuck there for way too long. These thickened “oil filaments” become problematic and snowball with bacteria, an understandable inflammation response, and even have a glue-like effect towards excess skin cells.
The name “blackhead” comes from their appearance. The upper portion of this unnecessarily thickened filament that is exposed to the air will oxidize and turn black. This oxidation process gives blackheads their distinctive appearance and name.
How Do Pore Strips Work?
Pore strips are adhesive strips that are designed to remove blackheads from our skin. They typically come in the form of thin, sticky sheets that are applied to the nose, chin, or other areas but this can also be gooey warm wax that is applied and then peeled off a few minutes later. Each company has there specifics but they all do the same thing:
- Superficially remove simple blackheads.
- Selectively remove some blackheads but not others.
- Aggressively Inflame our skin and exacerbate one of the main onsets of driving forces for acne and clogged pores. Why would we ever pour gasoline on a fire in order to help our skin?
- Destroys natural acid mantle which is what is necessary to have blackhead-free skin.
- Over-exfoliating is another major contributor to blackheads.
- Removes all-natural oils so that sebaceous glands will overproduce oil chronically.
Do Pore Strips Work At Removing Blackheads?
Yes… for about 5 minutes but the bigger cycle and problem of why the blackheads are there in the first place is set into motion once again. This cycle will continue endlessly, and indeed many people spend their entire lives with skin that is on this chronically problematic path. The better path is to stop sabotaging our skin this way and learn the simple skin habits and ingredients to have blackhead-free skin
How Do We Win The War Against Blackheads Then?
Learn how to win the bigger war. We must learn how to assist our skin so that our own oil can travel successfully and efficiently through our pore canals to be released onto our skin’s surface where it can balance oil production and prevent blackheads.
Acid Mantle Preservation: There are a million reasons to love this mysterious and important film of natural oil and sweat duo called your skin’s acid mantle. We are wise to learn everything about what you need to know about your skin’s natural barrier function. Understanding why we must love our skin’s acid mantle will go a long way in changing core beliefs which will change our daily habits into creating blackhead-free skin.
Medical Reasons For Getting Serious about Your Blackheads: Blackheads and whiteheads are signs of thirsty skin that can result not only in long-term skin texture issues, but more importantly, can lead to the accelerated formation of possible precursor lesions for skin cancer when neglected over time.
How To Remove Blackheads The Right Way
Blackheads are a slow process. Our skin is a process. Being blackhead-free must be addressed in three parts: Past, Present, and Future. I recommend getting professional extractions to remove all blackheads that have already formed. Some are on the surface, but likely more compacted blackheads and milia are just underneath the surface. It can take hours to remove all of this already formed gunk, after all, it takes years for them to build up in our skin.
Secondly, future blackheads must be prevented by optimizing topical water levels, acid mantle restoration, and barrier repair. Topical Dermal Nutrients can speed this reharmonizing of skin drastically but these 3 things are a decent foundation. Professional extractions are the best way to remove blackheads initially but increasing water levels and restoring the skin’s barrier will keep them away permanently.
Final Thoughts On Pore Strips
The moral of this blackhead story…admit you are losing or you would not have found my blog. Get mad, then get curious and learn something new about your skin. The cool thing is that this new fangled way of preventing blackheads is a lot less effort and time AND IT WORKS!
Locate a skin professional who is a master extractor who can help with the instant, permanent, and complete removal of blackheads and congestion. This when combined with the right home-care routine will help you win the big war on blackheads. Hint: Politely decline conventional acne and blackhead treatments.
Find out how to encourage self-cleansing skin that naturally never gets clogged in the first place with proper care. Learn how to hydrate your skin, restore its barrier daily to unclog your pores, and enjoy clear skin and pores. Every. Single. Day. I promise you that you will get better results and not miss that box of pore strips one bit.
If stubborn blackheads are affecting your confidence and skin care routine, take the first step towards clear, blemish-free skin by scheduling a complimentary consultation today!

About the author
I took many wrong turns when I started learning about skin at 19. The more I spent on skincare, equipment, and training, the further I felt from actually helping skin. I was frustrated with only being able to offer temporary and superficial solutions at best. What emerged from the disappointment and turmoil, I now call, The Regenerative Skin Process. Skin Harmonics is a dedicated medical fusion holistic skincare clinic that provides a root cause approach delivering lifetime skin health through medical grade skin care products, new learning, and Deep Pore Cleansing Facials.