What are sebaceous filaments?Updated a year ago
Sebaceous filaments, sometimes shortened to SFs, are little plugs that form inside the pores or hair follicles. They’re most common on the nose, but can also show up on the cheeks, chin, or around the mouth.
They look just like little plugs inside the pores, but they still allow for sebum to flow from the oil glands up to the surface of the skin. They’re not a disorder or a symptom of anything, although they can be troublesome if they grow too big, widespread, or noticeable.
Sebaceous filaments or SFs are little plugs of dead skin cells (made mostly of keratin) and sebum (the oil produced by human skin). Unfortunately, they can take away from the clarity and smoothness of your skin when they’re very noticeable.
Sebaceous filaments can be skin-colored, white, yellowish, or brown. Unlike clogged pores or blackheads, they don’t block oil from flowing to the surface of the skin, and they’re not prone to inflammation.
As dermatologists stress, sebaceous filaments are a perfectly healthy feature of human skin. While they were originally covered in dermatological literature in the 1970s, they’ve received little additional attention over the decades, aside from the occasional single-patient case study.
It’s only in recent years, as cameras become more powerful and we pay closer attention to our skin, that sebaceous filament removal has become a common topic of discussion in skincare communities.