what is the difference between blackheads and pimples?
In: Biology
Blackhead is just oil blocking pores, dead cell and other body material gets clogged in there, which then turns black (its painless).
Pimple (the common painful one) is the same process, but the region is now inflamed, which causes the region to raise up and become sensitive to touch.
Blackheads and pimples are formed when a pore in the skin gets blocked and the secretions in the pore accumulate.
The difference is blackheads are closer to the surface of the skin and are exposed to air, which oxidizes it and forms the black part. Pimples form deeper, are not exposed to air and therefore remain white.
Seeing a lot of misinformation. A blackhead and a “pimple” are the same thing in essence. Both are actually called comedomes. They are blocked pores or hair follicles. A blackhead has a wide opening and oxidizes. A whitehead is closed. Blackheads are open comedomes. Whiteheads are closed comedomes. Both are types of non-inflammatory acne and can be present in more severe acne as well. These lesions are just blocked collections of natural sebum production, the oil your skin uses to lubricate itself.
Comedomes are differentiated from pustules and cysts. Cysts are deep, often firm, and do not manually express…easily. Pustules are more yellowish and are filled with pus from bacteria and neutrophil collections. These two types of lesions are present in more severe, inflammatory acne types.
They are the same thing.
It’s a blackhead when the top is open to the air. The exposure to air makes it darken and dry out.
It’s a pimple when the top is not open the air. It stays white and juicy.
why does my nose only get blackheads and never white heads, but my back gets white heads and never blackheads 👀🤔
Pimples is a general collective term to a group of “bumps” which includes blackheads.
As we enter puberty, hormonal changes ensure more sebaceous glands activity which amake the gland bigger and bumpy. The material that comes out of the gland to the surface oxidised and turns black. This is the first stage of pimples and is known as a blackhead or an open comedone.
With time and a lot of other factors the opening gets blocked and the sebum has no where to go but is still being produced so the bump becomes bigger and white (since no sebum is getting oxidized). This is known as the whitehead or closed comedone.
This with time grows bigger and forms a papule which is the standard pimple.
This papule is now filled with sebum which is attractive for the bacteria normally present on the face (cutibacterium acne) which now go inside the papule and start multiplying.
The body senses something is wrong (finally) and sends its defenders (white blood cells) to go and kill the bacteria, producing pustules (bumps with pus points)
Sometimes the body overdoes this and the entire bump gets walled off due to an overenthusiastic inflammatory (protective) response leading to nodules or the final and worst form of pimples
A black head is “black” because the sebum (skin oils) have oxidized which turns them dark where the surface area is open to the air. It is just skin oils and bateria sitting within your pore. A pimple is sebum and bacteria that have become inflammed and pushing the bacteria to the surface of your skin, hence the eventual “white head”.
Our skin has small glands which produce oily substance to keep moisture from entering our skin layers and to prevent friction on the skin. This oily substance is called sebum and the glands are called sebaceous glands. When the tiny outlets of these glands get blocked but skin cells don’t grow over the opening to cover it then it’s called a blackhead. If skin cells cover the opening then it’s called a whitehead. If some bacteria start growing in this blocked oily substance filled outlet then it becomes full of pus and gets raised turning into a **pus**tule. Both, blackheads/whiteheads and pustules are acne. Just different stages of it.
Blackheads, whiteheads, and pimples all result from the same origin: skin stuff (usually oil, dead skin, or dirt) clogs up one of your pores. Each term is slightly different.
A blackhead happens when the clog is at the surface. The formal term is an “open comedone.” It’s black because the clog is exposed to air, so the oily parts can change by reacting with oxygen.
A whitehead is exactly the same as a blackhead, but the blockage is far enough under the skin that it doesn’t react with air. This allows the gunk inside to keep its original (off-white) color. Because it is protected from air by your skin, it is called a “closed comedone.”
A pimple occurs when a whitehead becomes inflamed. Pus–the gunk left over from dead cells and your body killing bacteria–collects at the tip of the comedone. The pus and inflammation usually means pimples are painful and/or sensitive. This is also why you should never pop a pimple: that causes the bacteria your body has successfully trapped in the pore to spread all over the nearby skin, potentially infecting even more pores. Allow the pimple to progress naturally. If it pops on its own, do what you can to keep the area as clean as possible.
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