Move over pimple popping addicts, there’s a new and equally awesome way to get your gruesome fix online.
Enter ingrown hair extraction clips, the latest stomach-churning social media trend that has seen a huge increase in popularity in recent months, with dozens of dedicated YouTube and Instagram accounts posting a series of graphic close-up clips of the hair removals in action.
One video posted to YouTube showing a particularly stubborn submerged follicle, has racked up nearly 40 million views since its debut in 2012.
Millionaire: Ingrown hair extraction videos have become increasingly popular online, taking over from pimple popping clips as the latest stomach-churning craze
High definition: Korean Instagrammer Tweezist uses a USB microscope to create HD videos of her ingrown hair extractions
In the clip, Jeremiah Bulford, posting under the name Joe Gross can be seen pulling out a long, curly black hair from his beard.
‘I had this pimple that would ooze every couple of months for the last year or so,’ he explained. ‘The dermatologist told me it was a cyst she would have to cut out. Apparently it was just the longest ingrown hair in history.’
Aside from the Rapunzel of ingrown hairs, on Instagram, an account named Tweezist posts up close and personal videos that show hair extraction in high definition.
Using a USB microscope, the Instagrammer who hails from Seoul, South Korea, performs each intricate removal process on her leg.
The clinical videos frequently show a sharp slanted tweezers slicing into the skin of the affected area before the hair can be removed, and Tweezist says she favors the brand Lucanus to do her dirty work.
Those looking for something a little bit more squeamish can delight in an awe-inspiring removal of a long and deeply-embedded armpit hair on YouTube by account Whiteheads Skin.
Showing what looks like a hole in the subject’s underarm area, the video which has received over 2,000 views, explains how this particular kind of ingrown hair can happen.
‘Ingrown hairs typically appear after shaving,’ the video description explains.
Needle point: This beard extraction video shows a needle being inserted to remove several hairs trapped in one place
The pits: This armpit hair extraction video details a long hair being removed from what appears to be a circular opening
‘Shaving cuts the shaft of the hair. This unevenness, coupled with the sharpness of the remaining follicle, can make the hair curl back into the skin.
‘Armpits are an especially sensitive area of the body where ingrown hairs are common.’
And while it usually posts videos and pictures of haircuts, Instagram account Barber Lessons has also gone viral, racking up 132,000 views on its epic ingrown beard hair removal video.
The video shows multiple hairs being removed from one area by a needle after a tweezers couldn’t get in deep enough.
An ingrown hair forms when either a tweezed or shaved hair grows back into the skin instead of out of it, and it can result in pain, inflammation and a rash.
The condition is common, and those most at risk are black men who shave their facial hair and people with tightly curled hair that has been shaved, waxed or tweezed.
Ingrown hairs can develop anywhere where someone has hair follicles, but for men they are most common on the cheeks, neck and chin. For women, they are most likely to pop up in the armpit or pubic hair areas or on the legs.
Symptoms of ingrown hairs include small rounded bumps around the inflamed follicle; blister-like, pus-filled lesions; a skin darkening side effect called hyperpigmentation; itching and pain.