Dr. Pimple Popper's TLC holiday special featured a rare 55-year-old blackhead that looked like a 'lu
- Dr. Pimple Popper's holiday special "12 Pops of Christmas" aired Thursday night on TLC.
- During the special, Dr. Sandra Lee (the real-life dermatologist behind the famous nickname), saw a patient with a 55-year-old dilated pore of Winer.
- A dilated pore of Winer is a blackhead that grows so large that it stretches the pore it's inhabiting.
- Warning: This post contains graphic images.
"12 Pops of Christmas," a 90-minute special starring Dr. Sandra Lee, a.k.a. Dr. Pimple Popper, aired Thursday night on TLC.
The special marked the end of a massive year for the California-based dermatologist. In addition to partnering with a toy company to release a pimple popping board game, Lee also made the leap from internet celebrity to TV star, translating the wild success of her YouTube channel into a TLC series. It was quickly renewed for a second season that will start in January 2019.
Thursday's holiday special followed Lee while she treated, popped, and excised skin growths on 12 different patients. It featured some jaw-dropping cases — including a man with at least 14 lipomas — but the episode's most memorable pop came courtesy of Doris, a woman with a 55-year-old blackhead.
Doris had a 55-year-old giant blackhead by her ear
Doris, identified only by her first name, explained that she sought Lee's help for a giant blackhead situated by her right ear.
"None of my grandchildren have ever seen me without this blackhead," Doris, who identified by her first name only, said during the special. "It's a ghost of Christmas that I need to get rid of."
Once seated in an exam room with Lee, Doris explained that her sister used to try and squeeze out the blackhead, but stopped after an extraction attempt in 1975 that caused pain.
The growth isn't just a normal blackhead, though.
"This looks like what we call 'the unicorn' here in dermatology," Lee said during the special. "It is pretty rare to have something this big. It's called dilated pore of Winer and that is just a giant blackhead ... that has gotten so big it stretches out the pore."
On Instagram, Lee shared a series of photos of Doris's DPOW, both intact and removed.
DPOWs are benign, and while dermatologists don't know exactly why some people get them, they think that sun exposure and a history of cystic acne may be risk factors, Lee wrote last year on her blog, The Pretty Pimple. Men are also more tend to get them more often than women, she added.
DPOWs are also among the most popular pops Lee's YouTube channel. As of this writing, they are featured in four of Lee's 10 most-watched YouTube videos.
Apparently they're popular with her staff, too. In the special, Lee showed a photo of Doris's DPOW to her two medical assistants, describing it as a "Christmas present" for them.
"We don't see them too much, but we're always looking for them," Lee said.
Read more: Dr. Pimple Popper reveals the deeper meaning behind all her viral popping videos
Lee removed the growth with a gentle squeeze and some digging
Lee made an incision across the top of the DPOW, then used gentle pressure to squeeze out the its hard, black cap.
"It's like a petrified rock you got in there," Lee said to Doris during the procedure. "That thing's pretty hard ... that's your lump of coal."
DPOWs and blackheads get their dark coloring not from dirt, but from oxygen. When the contents of a blackhead (dead skin cells, bacteria, and skin oil) are exposed to air, they oxidize, turning dark in color.
Next, Lee used a spoon-like tool called a curette to dig out the remaining DPOW contents, then stitched up the skin where it had been so the hole it left behind would not refill.
"I haven't seen that side of my face without that blackhead for at least 55 years," Doris said once the procedure was completed. "And it feels really great."
You can see more of the blackhead in the promo video from TLC below. "12 Pops of Christmas" will also be available to watch on-demand via the TLCGo app (available for Apple and Android), and you can watch previous episodes of the "Dr. Pimple Popper" series on the app and at TLC's website.
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- Read more:
- Dr. Pimple Popper says all the gross sound effects on her TLC show are real — and reveals her all-time favorite popping noise
- Here are the best Dr. Pimple Popper videos of the year — so far
- There's a reason why you love watching pimple popping videos so much — and it actually makes a lot of sense
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