Can Lymphatic Drainage Help With Ingrowns?

First off, what exactly is your lymphatic system?

Your lymphatic system is what lies just under the surface of your skin. You can think of the lymphatic system as the garbage disposal of the body. It collects all the junk and carries it back to the heart. The heart then cleans and redistributes the fluid back into the body. 

Similar to a garbage disposal, your lymphatic system can easily get clogged on it's own and needs a little help!  Pumping in certain areas will help to push the fluids through faster.

Since your lymphatic system lies right underneath the surface, use the lightest pressure possible! A little above a featherweight. You want to work the fluid. It's easy to get to the muscle bed and if you are working that, you are too deep!

One of my favorite analogies comes from Lisa Gainsley, my favorite person to follow for all things lymph. Think about whipped cream. You want to stay just underneath the surface, you don't want to sink all the way down. If you lay your hand down, you'll sink all the way down.

Okay, so how does this relate to ingrown hairs?

As you are clearing and removing waste, you are helping to push fluid quicker through your system to help reduce inflammation and promote healing. So you can see where we are going here with the reduction of inflammation and providing new healing fluid to help with ingrowns (which is essentially an inflamed area). 

 Especially with all the sweat, friction, bacteria and irritation in areas like your underarms, your networks of lymph nodes can swell up when your body is trying to fight off an infection. Moving this will not only help with ingrowns but overall health in general!

So you are telling me this will clear all my ingrowns?

We wish it was that simple. Skin ailments are a tricky thing and it's all about being your own alchemist and finding the magic formulation that works for you and your body. 

We recommend using lymphatic drainage in conjunction with:

✨ Good exfoliating routine (either physical, chemical or both!)
✨ Moisturizing daily (this helps your hairs to grow out more smoothly)
✨ Ingrown hair treatment product (either an astringent or oil based product, or you can rotate both!)

Check out our Master Sugaring Guide for a more in depth look into pre and post care!

Gotcha. Now how do we do this lymphatic drainage? 

There's lots of different protocols online, but we tend to lean towards quick and easy! We love The "Big 6" lymph routine curated by Dr. Perry Nickelston. We have a clip from our 3rd birthday party with a demo on our YouTube!

Another great resource is The Book of Lymph by Lisa Gainsley.

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We hope this helps! Feel free to drop any questions down below 👇👇👇