Just when you thought you'd seen everything in this crazy life: people are now removing their blackheads with dental floss.
You heard me. According to Instagram beauty "experts," the secret to perfect skin has been in your mouth this entire time.
What a world.
Beauty DIY Instagram queen Sukhi Mann uploaded a video of her trick "to extract blackheads and whiteheads," and the internet went CRAZY.
How crazy? Over a million people have watched this video-level crazy. So let's break down exactly what Sukhi says you should do to your face, shall we?
First, she says to soak a towl in hot water, then "place the towel on the problem area so that the heat will open up the pores. Do this for about 5 mins or so."
Next, she breaks out the star of the show: a disposable flosser. Yep, like the kind you use to floss your teeth.
Now, Sukhi instructs her followers to "Take the disposable floss pick and drag it in a scraping motion" anywhere they have blackheads.
So why use a flosser? "This option is cheaper and less likely to scar you than using a metal extractor," she says.
The fact that it's shocking enough to get those Instagram views probably doesn't hurt, either.
The result, according to the video? Gunk-free skin.
Instead of showing us closeups of her skin, Mann instead shows us what is supposed to be blackhead plugs left behind on the floss. But the lighting makes it impossible to tell what this stuff really is — it looks like sebaceous filaments to me.
She also shows the skin-goo supposedly removed from her face by smearing it on her finger, and I may never stop screaming.
Again: this stuff looks like sebaceous filaments to me, but it's very difficult to tell with this blown-out lighting.
Finally, Sukhi delivers the coup de grace: she dabs MOUTHWASH all over the area that she just scraped.
In the description of her video, Mann says to follow up her approved extraction method with "a mild cleanser," then "Follow up with a toner (you can use rose water, mouthwash, or your regular toner.) If you have really sensitive skin don't use mouthwash or do a patch test first."
But that's not what she shows.
After dabbing a cotton ball in the Listerine mouthwash, Sukhi applies it all over her nose. Her nose which she supposedly *just* scraped a lot of goo out of.
Listerine is approximately 26.9% alcohol by volume. It will absolutely scald your skin, especially if you've been digging around it with a flosser. DO NOT DO THIS THING.
So, is this something you should try at home? Dermatologists say NO WAY.
DIY blackhead removal if you're not a doctor is a bad idea — it's a really quick way to damage your skin and scar your face FOREVER. Dr. David J. Goldberg, board certified dermatologist and the Director of Skin Laser & Surgery Specialists of New York and New Jersey, says "blackheads are made of hardened oil and cell debris, and they can require a lot of pressure to remove."
Far more pressure than you should be applying with a flosser, that's for sure.
Videos like this are really ~crazy~ to watch, but please don't take shocking skincare "advice" like this to heart.
The only person who should be extracting things from your face is your dermatologist or (maybe) a licensed aesthetician. Hacks like this may be quick — but the damage caused by shady skincare "tricks" can be really hard to undo.
