Hey Leo10,
The skin is constantly regenerating (old cells sloughing off and new cells forming underneath) but is also capable of repairing itself after a wound.A whitehead is a bit like a wound..the white stuff is infection fighting cells that have done their job and died...underneath that the skin is regenerating to keep potential infection out. Whenever a wound heals there is potential for a mark to be left behind...for small wounds that may not be noticeable so the thinking is to not pop whiteheads as that just opens up the wound and means the healing has to start again and may result in a bigger wound that is more likely to leave a mark/scar.
Salicylic acid is meant to cause skin cells to shed more rapidly so I guess it's possible that accelerating skin shedding leaves the regenerating skin under the whitehead with insufficient recovery time to heal well. So I think it's possible that salicylic acid is part of your problem but you'll have to try avoiding SA on big whiteheads for a while to test that theory...large whiteheads could leave marks on their own and the ultimate goal is to stop the pimples from forming in the first place.

On 4/17/2016 at 7:21 PM, Jazzguy said:

Hey Leo10,
The skin is constantly regenerating (old cells sloughing off and new cells forming underneath) but is also capable of repairing itself after a wound.A whitehead is a bit like a wound..the white stuff is infection fighting cells that have done their job and died...underneath that the skin is regenerating to keep potential infection out. Whenever a wound heals there is potential for a mark to be left behind...for small wounds that may not be noticeable so the thinking is to not pop whiteheads as that just opens up the wound and means the healing has to start again and may result in a bigger wound that is more likely to leave a mark/scar.
Salicylic acid is meant to cause skin cells to shed more rapidly so I guess it's possible that accelerating skin shedding leaves the regenerating skin under the whitehead with insufficient recovery time to heal well. So I think it's possible that salicylic acid is part of your problem but you'll have to try avoiding SA on big whiteheads for a while to test that theory...large whiteheads could leave marks on their own and the ultimate goal is to stop the pimples from forming in the first place.

Thank you very much. Yes I'll keep that in mind, I'll avoid SA on big whiteheads 🙂

1 hour ago, Leo10 said:

On 17/4/2016 at 7:21 PM, Jazzguy said:

Hey Leo10,
The skin is constantly regenerating (old cells sloughing off and new cells forming underneath) but is also capable of repairing itself after a wound.  A whitehead is a bit like a wound..the white stuff is infection fighting cells that have done their job and died...underneath that the skin is regenerating to keep potential infection out.  Whenever a wound heals there is potential for a mark to be left behind...for small wounds that may not be noticeable so the thinking is to not pop whiteheads as that just opens up the wound and means the healing has to start again and may result in a bigger wound that is more likely to leave a mark/scar. 
Salicylic acid is meant to cause skin cells to shed more rapidly so I guess it's possible that accelerating skin shedding leaves the regenerating skin under the whitehead with insufficient recovery time to heal well.  So I think it's possible that salicylic acid is part of your problem but you'll have to try avoiding SA on big whiteheads for a while to test that theory...large whiteheads could leave marks on their own and the ultimate goal is to stop the pimples from forming in the first place.

Thank you very much. Yes I'll keep that in mind, I'll avoid SA on big whiteheads

IIt does leave a little hole on the skin but it goes away  pretty fast , well for me 🙂