Blackheads are the thing people apologise for when they sit down in my chair. They have been picking at the sides of their nose in a magnifying mirror for a week, the skin is sore, and the blackheads are still there. That is the appointment I see most often for congested skin, and it is usually not a skincare problem. It is a problem of trying to do, with fingernails and no steam, a job that needs softened skin and the right pressure.
A steam and extraction facial at House of Glam HQ is £50 for 35 minutes. Warm steam first to soften what is sitting in the pore, then I clear the blackheads, whiteheads and congestion by hand. This is what happens in those 35 minutes, what I can get out, and the part most pages leave off: what extractions will not do for you.
What is the purpose of extraction in a facial?
A blackhead is a pore plugged with oil and dead skin cells. The dark colour is not dirt. It is the plug oxidising where it meets the air, which is why scrubbing harder does nothing to it. Extraction is the step that physically lifts that plug out. Nothing else in a facial does that job.
Everything either side of it exists to make that possible. The cleanse takes off makeup and surface oil so I can see what I am working with. The steam softens the plug and relaxes the skin around it, so the plug lifts with gentle pressure instead of a fight. The mask and the cool cloth afterwards settle the skin down. Without the extraction in the middle, a facial will leave your skin cleaner and brighter and leave every blackhead exactly where it was.
Which facial is good for removing blackheads?
Steam & Extraction, at £50. It is the one on my list built around the extraction step rather than around relaxation, and it is the one to book if blackheads and congestion are the reason you are looking.
Two of the others include steam and will suit you if blackheads are a secondary concern rather than the main one. Every price below was checked on Fresha this morning.
| Facial | What happens | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Steam & Extraction, 35 minutes | Warm steam to soften the skin, then I extract blackheads, whiteheads and congestion by hand | £50 |
| Ultimate Glow, 45 minutes | Deep cleanse, steam, exfoliation, dermaplaning and a nourishing mask | £65 |
| Rejuvenating Facial, 35 minutes | Deep cleanse, tone, facial massage, exfoliation and a mask | £50 |
| Skin consultation, 15 minutes | Booked on its own first, and taken off your treatment if you go ahead | £15 |
Every price is published, where most Portsmouth clinics quote only after a consultation. The full list of seven facials, from £45 to £115, is on the facials in Portsmouth page with the prices beside them.
Klarna spreads any treatment over three monthly payments.
What actually pulls a blackhead out?
Pressure, applied evenly either side of the pore, on skin that has been softened first. I work with my fingertips wrapped in clean gauze rather than bare fingers, which gives me grip without digging a nail into the skin, and I come at the pore from the angle it sits at. A plug that has been warmed for a few minutes tends to come away in one piece.
Nothing is being sucked, dissolved or melted out. Pore strips lift the very top off a plug and leave the rest. Charcoal masks do nothing to something sitting several millimetres down. Salicylic acid in your own skincare will keep a pore clearer over weeks, which is worth doing, but it will not shift a plug that is already compacted.
Why blackheads sit on the nose and the chin
Those areas have more oil glands and bigger pore openings than the rest of the face, so they fill faster and show it sooner. That is why you can have dry cheeks and a congested nose at the same time, and why drying your whole face out with a harsh cleanser tends to make things worse rather than better.
Pore size is largely down to genetics. A pore that has been stretched by sitting full for a long time will look smaller once it is emptied, because what you were looking at was mostly the plug. The opening itself is yours.
Should you squeeze blackheads at home?
I would rather you did not, and I say that knowing most people will anyway.
The problem is not the squeezing itself, it is the conditions. Bare fingernails on cold, unsoftened skin need a lot of force to move a plug. That force goes somewhere. It bruises the tissue around the pore, it can push part of the plug deeper instead of out, and if the pore wall tears under the skin you get an inflamed red lump that lasts far longer than the blackhead would have. The marks people ask me about months later are almost always from picking rather than from the blackhead.
If you are going to do it, do it on clean skin after a shower, with your fingers wrapped in a clean tissue, and stop at the first one that does not want to come. The ones that resist are the ones that scar.
What a steam and extraction facial will not do
This is the part I would want to read before booking.
It will not stop blackheads coming back. Your skin keeps making oil, so the pores refill. How fast depends on your skin, not on how well the extraction went.
It will not make your pores permanently smaller. Emptied pores look smaller. The opening is the size it is.
It will not clear the small grey dots that run down the sides of the nose in neat lines. Those are usually sebaceous filaments, which are a normal part of how the pore works rather than a blockage, and they refill within weeks whatever anyone does to them.
It will not treat active acne. Anything inflamed, painful or under the skin does not get extracted here, because squeezing it makes it worse and can leave a mark. If that is most of what is on your skin, a GP is the right call before a facial, and I will tell you so rather than work around it.
It will not fix marks or scarring left behind by old picking. That is a different job. Depending on what is there, it is usually a chemical peel or microneedling, each priced on its own page.
And on very congested skin I will not get everything in one session. Thirty-five minutes is enough to clear a nose and chin properly. If your whole T-zone and cheeks are congested, I will do the worst of it, tell you honestly what is left, and we space the rest out rather than overwork the skin in one go.
Do blackhead holes fill back up?
Yes, and that is normal rather than a sign something went wrong. A pore is an opening that oil comes out of. Empty it and it starts filling again the same day.
What changes is the speed. A pore that has been properly cleared, and is then kept going with a cleanser that suits your skin, takes longer to become visible again than one that has been full for a year. Most people who come in for congestion book every four to six weeks and find the second and third appointments shorter than the first, because there is less to get out.
How do I get rid of a blackhead on my face?
One on its own, on clean skin, after a shower, with wrapped fingers and light pressure. If it does not move, leave it.
A nose full of them is a different question, and it is the one worth paying someone for. You are buying the steam, the angle, the grip and somebody who can see the whole area rather than the bit visible in a mirror at arm’s length.
What your skin looks like straight after
Pink, in the places I worked on, and that is the honest answer rather than a soft one. Extractions leave the skin flushed where pressure was applied. It settles on its own.
| After your facial | How long |
|---|---|
| Skin looks pink where it was worked on | An hour or two |
| No makeup, if you can manage it | The rest of the day |
| SPF, which goes on before you leave | Every day, as usual |
| Leave the area alone, no picking at what is left | Until it has settled |
| Most people book the next one | Every four to six weeks |
Most people go straight back to their day. If you have something on that evening and you would rather not be pink for it, book the facial a couple of days ahead instead of the same afternoon.
Booking a blackhead extraction facial in Southsea
I carry out every House of Glam HQ treatment personally, so the person who looks at your skin at the start is the person doing the extractions. I check what is actually there before anything goes on your face, and if a shorter or different facial would do the job, I will say so.
Steam & Extraction is £50 for 35 minutes, bookable directly: book the Steam & Extraction Facial on Fresha. If you would rather have your skin looked at first, a standalone consultation is £15 on Fresha and comes off the treatment if you go ahead. Booked together with a facial, the skin check happens at the start of that appointment with no separate fee.
Not sure which one you need? Message me on WhatsApp or call 07831 846273, tell me what your skin is doing, and I will tell you which facial I would book for it and which I would leave for now.
House of Glam HQ is at 1A Auckland Road East, Southsea, Portsmouth PO5 2HA, with free street parking nearby. Clients come for facials from Southsea, Fratton, Cosham, Havant, Fareham and Gosport.
