Picking, popping, scratching or doing at home extractions often becomes a bad habit for those people suffering from acne. You see picking your acne can cause damage to the pore and actually drive the pimple or pustule deeper back into the skin. Hence causing more inflammation and even scarring. Picking can also spread bacteria.
A great alternative to picking is actually icing the acne lesion as soon as you feel it coming up.
I recommend taking a small paper cup ( like a dixie cup) filling it with water and placing it in the freezer. Once it's frozen it's ready to be used. Remove from the freezer and gently roll it around the entire face, in circular motions for about two minutes. You can also focus the ice filled cup on single acne lesions using circular motions as well. Just make sure you don't hold the ice in one place too long. It is possible to get an "ice burn" if not careful. Icing your acne will help take down inflammation and also help the penetration of the acne products and skincare you are using.
So when in doubt, pull the ice out and leave the extractions to a professional! For more information on acne treatments click here.
