Skin Tags and How You Can Treat Them Topically

If you’ve ever had a skin tag pop up in an annoying place, you know how bothersome they are. They can be aesthetic nightmares sometimes, especially if you get them in some odd place like over your eye or under your lip!

Photo by Ximena Mora.

 

What Are Skin Tags?

 

Skin tags are skin-coloured polyps that form on the surface of the skin. They’re usually found hanging from a small slice of tissue called a stalk. Skin tags appear most often in places where there are folds of skin that overlap. These are usually found around the stomach, groin, or armpit area and can also sometimes pop up on eyelids.

 

Why Do Skin Tags Form?

 

The skin tags are composed of a protein called collagen and blood vessels, surrounded by a sheet of fat. Doctors don’t know what triggers them. Since you typically placemarks in skin folds like your armpits, thighs, or eyelids, there can be irritation from skin rubbing against your fat. Those who are overweight or obese are most likely to have skin tags because they have excess skin folds. Physiological changes through pregnancy can also increase the risk of skin tags developing.

There might be a connection between diabetes, obesity, and skin tags. People start to have more skin tags as they age. Such growths also occur in the middle ages and beyond. Skin tags can run in families. It is likely that certain individuals will inherit an improved chance of having these skin growths.

 

How Can You Prevent Skin Tags?

 

There is no way to prevent these from forming since doctors don’t know what triggers them. However, there are a lot of removal techniques which you can use to get rid of these annoying growths:

 

  • Tag removal kits: these kits are available at normal drugstores and supermarkets. Each kit comes with a band that loops around the tag and cuts off its blood supply. As it does so, the tag shrivels and falls away on its own.  One of the best selling ones is this skin tag and mole remover
  • Dental string/floss: you can use floss or dental string to remove a tag from your skin. Simply tie the tag round tightly with string or floss and wait. The floss will work in the same way as the removal kit and will ensure that the tag is deprived of blood supply. This might take some time and you will have to tighten the string multiple times but eventually, the tag will fall off
  • The freezing method: in this method, you can use a kit containing liquid nitrogen to freeze the tag off. The nitrogen will force the tag to be frozen and therefore, blood flow will be restricted. However, since blood flow will be halted, the tag can be cut off and taken away immediately. You don’t have to wait for it to fall. This method is great but you need to be extra careful not to let the nitrogen freeze any of the surrounding areas of your skin as this can prove to be super harmful!

 

So there you have it. So now, if you’re one of the many who gets skin tags, you’ll know what to do!

markmunroe
Mark Munroe is the Creator and EIC of ADDICTED. He's ADDICTED to great travel, amazing food, better grooming & probably a whole lot more!
markmunroe
markmunroe