TikTok trend mole removal
(Picture: (TikTok/@dermdoctor))TikTok is known as the platform where pretty much everything goes: the good, the bad, and the ugly.
You can find all sorts of beauty hacks on the social media app, but the latest trend to go viral involves removing your own moles at home, and it’s downright dangerous.
Many have gotten creative with methods to remove what they view as imperfections on their body and while most people are shocked others would take matters into their own hands, some TikTokers are committed to taking off their moles and skin tags without proper consultation.
In a TikTok from dermatologist Dr. Shah (@dermdoctor), he reacts to a video of a barber attempting to take off a mole from their client’s head with a piece of string.
In the video, it appears as though the barber tied the string around the mole very tightly so that it would cut off blood flow to the mole and eventually lead to it falling off on its own. Not only did the client’s scalp turn red after doing this, but it looks extremely painful.
Shaking his head, Dr. Shah says in his duet video, “You should never allow your barber to remove a skin lesion without a proper evaluation by a physician.”
He continued, “A lot of people think this is a skin tag—it’s not a skin tag.”
The doctor continued to explain that professionals would evaluate the lesion before removing it under clean conditions and send it off to a lab to analyze the specimen under a microscope.
“This is how you would remove the surface of a skin cancer without removing the roots and the risk is that it can spread throughout the body. I do not recommend this. Do not try this,” Dr. Shah concluded.
Another TikTok video from Dr. Dustin Portela (@208skindoc) showed another barber taking off a mole with a pore vacuum. The DIY mole removal was condemned by the doctor in his clip.
“They’re trying to suck the mole right off the skin. I don’t get this at all. This is not going to work to remove a mole, you shouldn’t attempt this. This is a really bad idea.”
As of now, the hashtag #moleremoval on TikTok has over 246.7 million views.
