I pulled a Dental-floss like substance out of a pimple on my chest

[kalicosray]

I had what I believed to be a pimple on my chest below my breast on my rib cage.  I left it alone for several weeks until it became tender.  I gently squeezed it and at first I thought pus was coming out, but it wouldn't wipe away.  I grabbed the white tip that began to protrude with a pair of tweezers and ended up pulling out about a 3-inch long elasticy white string that resembled dental floss.  A week later, I pulled another string out from the same spot.  The area is completely healed with a small scar and nothing like this has happened since then.  What could that have been?  I can't seem to find any information anywhere!  Please help!

[CGO77]

Based upon my extensive research on the internet, these are called Vellus Hair Cysts. There is not much accurate information out there, most photos and videos labeled are not of these types of cysts.  The first Dr. Pimple Popper appears to be of this kind, but not the other ones in the series. I pulled a bunch of these hairs from a bump on my chest, got freaked and started to see what in the world this is.  From my experience, they appear to be areas full of long fine hairs shaped like a birds nest with a fatty sac underneath. When hooked and pulled out, it does look like dental floss, but tears off after a while, pulling with lots of steady force. My skin stretched out an inch or so.  First one I got loads of hair out, no sac. Second one had less hair and got 3 sacs out, saw a blood vessel, got grossed out and quit. They are still healing so I don't know if it worked. I have at least 3 more, awesome. I read a comment about good results with 20% Urea cream but you can't pick until it surfaces.  We will see. If anyone has had any experience with this please comment.  

[Ailsa1962]

It sounds like a sebaceous cyst,the dental floss like material was likely to thickened sebaceous oil.It may have resembled this oil.https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FGKrZ3v4eE8
Once extracted,the area heals quickly leaving little evidence

[BcfR]

Research "guinea worms".  The result may may be appropriate, or not appropriate to your situation, or to your liking.  I think I have it, and the prognoses is probably grim.  I hope not, for your sake and sanity.  If you recognize the eggs in your self-surgery imagery, than that will not be good.  This is supposedly an extremely rare 'condition', but i am merely a stupid humanoid, and not a medical professional.  I have have little luck with medical professionals, until today, where an  unlikely convergence led me to this conclusion.  I hope I can retract my hypothesis in a future post.  Very sincerely, BcfR

[Kris1979Love]

Its ingrown hair - blonde with no pigment

[Redskins_Fan]

I've had a blackhead looking thing on my side for years. When you squeeze it, it just like caves in and won't pop. Yesterday I stuck a pin in it and started digging. Started pulling out the white dental floss looking stuff. Definitely not an in grown hair. It was white and shredded just like floss. I couldn't get very long pieces as it would constantly shred but got a good amount out but seemed to be plenty more... Got too sore to continue exploring. Side note had little feeling digging around where the floss stuff was, it was kinda grossing out my parents how I could pull on it.

[New_Englandah]

I could have written your post, Redskins_Fan. EVERYTHING you said happened to me last night. A small bump three inches from my navel has been there for 30 years, growing a bit over that time. I finally had to figure out what it was. I know what ingrown hairs are, although I've only ever had a few. What I pulled out looked like dental floss, or more like dental tape, made up of many tiny filaments. Pulled out about a quarter inch before it shredded at the base. But I was able to go in again with the needle (steralized!) and pull out more. At one point small little blobs of fatty tissue came out attached to the filaments. (I gave it up for the evening at that point!) But I believe you! These are NOT ingrown hairs. And I'm of Mediterranean descent and have dark hair and olive skin. These fibers were something else entirely. Very strange.

[Jetleeburg]

Just happened to me and it was crazy how hard I was pulling these filament dental floss like things out.  I had to stop because it became painful.  But yes a lot of strings and finally after pulling out a bunch of filaments it started to pull and hurt.  Looked like a simple black head on my chest! Crazy any ideas of getting rid of this thing?  Or am I doomed to pulling dental floss out of my chest.

[Annabanana99]

  I have a similar thing happening. It's not really a pimple. More like a tiny tiny red mark that was slightly raised on my forearm. I kinda scratched at it, and noticed a tiny bit of something sticking up. I pulled and a white dental floss like string came out. Mine wasn't that long, only maybe 5-8mm. It came back a few weeks later, shorter, and then a few weeks later again, and again shorter. I read that it could be a cyst, but I don't think so considering it's definitely a string, not pus or sebum or cyst content-say and its not like a sac wall of a cyst. It's literally just like dental floss. Ingrown hair... Maybe. But I specifically noticed how strange this was: white, thick, fiber-looking, and the way it felt when being pulled out didn't seem hair-like at all. It didn't have any hair follicle. The red mark stays all the time, very small dot, and the string keeps coming back, which is also not ingrown hair-like, but that might be characteristic of a cyst. The only thing I can find is this weird "psychological but maybe not" disease called morgellons. But I'm not having any bugs under my skin feelings, and I showed my mom the white fiber and she saw it too so we can't both be delusional. It doesn't bother me but I'm just really curious what it is since the red mark stays and string keeps coming back. Next time I'll try to remember to film it.

[SteroidHell]

Are you sure it wasn't an ingrown hair?  Sometimes they are white and dental floss-like.

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,

The pimple that you were having seems like a sebaceous cyst. A sebaceous cyst is a closed sac occurring just under the skin which contains a "pasty" or "cheesy" looking substance called keratin.They may occur anywhere on body but scalp, ears,chest, back, face, and upper arm, are common sites for sebaceous cysts. Blocked sebaceous glands, swollen hair follicles and excessive testosterone production will cause such cysts.

Generally no treatment is required but they become painful then it means they are infected,Then surgical excision by traditional wide excision, minimal excision, and punch biopsy excision may be required.If the lesion that you had is healing then it should be left as such without much messing.

Hope it helps.Take care and pls do keep me posted in case you have any additional queries.Kind regards.