Every day, Sandra Lee—a.k.a., Dr. Pimple Popper—uploads a video to her YouTube channel. Millions of viewers watch as zits explode, cysts drain, and blackheads crawl out from inside pores. Visit this channel with extreme caution: You might experience rapid onset nausea, close the tab, and cancel your subscription to GQ. Or, like her obsessive followers, you might find it deeply therapeutic.
In each video, someone new comes in with a gnarly blockage and backstory, and you get to watch the extraction as Dr. Pimple Popper, aka dermatologist Sandra Lee, MD, narrates the procedure while keeping her patient calm and upbeat. Today, you’re in the patient’s chair, and Dr. Lee has tips on how to properly pop some of the less severe bumps at home—we’re just talking acne, here—as well as how to know that a pimple or cyst requires professional attention.
