Nobody wants to have blackheads but all of us have them from time to time. They typically consist of little clusters of black dots are only clogging your hair follicles. Most of us have them on our nose, face or chin but did you realize it was also possible to get them inside of your ear?

What You Need to Know about Blackheads

According to the American Academy of Dermatology, 50 million people in the United States experience blackheads or other forms of acne. As was already mentioned, blackheads are the small, black bumps that you see on your skin. They occur when hair follicles become clogged with sebum, dead skin cells and dirt. In most cases, they appear on the face and are obvious to anyone who is looking in our direction. What you may not know is that blackheads can also form on other parts of the body including the back, neck, shoulders, chest, arms and in the ears.

An interesting episode of The Doctors showed a rather alarming and somewhat disgusting video. It is what can happen if too much skin oil and dirt clogging up the hair follicles or if you get dehydrated. Believe it or not, these blackheads can also appear in your ears.

By now, you are probably not ready to go out and eat a big meal but it was necessary to see it to really drive home the point. The blackheads that were shown in this video can occur if you don’t clean your skin on a regular basis. In this case, it was the constant use of earbuds and they served to push the dirt deeper into the follicles.

Sebaceous glands exist on all parts of the body but they are more numerous in the nose, chin, and ears. Those are the glands that release the skin oil, or sebum that lubricate the hair follicles. Although you may think that it won’t happen to you, these blackheads have certainly shown up on other parts of your body and it is not out of the question to have them in your ear.

Fortunately, The Doctors provided some tips to prevent blackheads from occurring in the year.

Wash your ears when you’re in the shower Don’t wear earbuds for extended periods of time Regularly clean your ear earbuds (or even use headphones instead, which cover your ears)Wipe the accumulated grit, grime, and grease off your phone screen

It is possible to wash electronics without damaging it but you need to follow these steps closely:

1. Before you actually wash them, check if there’s a lot of dirt or dust in the metal part of your earbuds and try brushing them with a dry toothbrush to dislodge the dust.

2. Use a gentle soap and warm water cleaner. If you want something a bit stronger, try mixing dishwashing detergent and water.

3. Grab a gentle cloth and apply a small amount of the soapy mixture. Remember, earbuds are small so you don’t need much at all! Doing so could leave residue on or in your earbuds.

4. Some earbuds, like Apple’s In-Ear Headphones, come with removable/replaceable silicone covers, so try removing them and cleaning those separately.

5. Do not submerge them in water – they are not waterproof (unless stated otherwise, in which case that’s pretty cool!). You can damage the wiring, so don’t run them directly under water either. Even for just a second.

6. Last but not least… only clean your earbuds once you’ve removed them from your iPod or other devices!