Dermatologist Dr. Sandra Lee — best known as Dr. Pimple Popper — has netted more than three million YouTube subscribers with her videos of pimple pops. One of her latest uploads, first shared on Monday, features a pilar cyst lodged in a woman’s scalp.
With Lee’s surgical expertise and some numbing medication, the removal is swift and satisfying. Near the 1:48 mark, the cyst unleashes a stream of gunk; at 2:30, Lee teases out the whole thing as a single, smooth bulb
During the procedure, Lee also strikes up an interesting conversation with the patient, who describes a previous attempt to pop one of her cysts at home. The woman says that she squeezed the cyst and then noticed “something pointy” sticking out of it a few days later — the growth hadn’t been totally emptied.
The anecdote is a great reminder that DIY cyst popping is usually futile — and potentially dangerous.
Pilar cysts are benign growths commonly found on the scalp, according to DermNet NZ, the educational website of the New Zealand Dermatological Society. These cysts are sacs in skin that fill up with keratin — the protein that makes up hair and nails, and the cheesy, pungent stuff that comes out when a cyst gets squeezed.
