I don't know about you, but blackheads are the bane of my existence. (At least when it comes to tricking people into thinking I have perfect skin.) From big to small,

and all the ones in between, they’re excessively stubborn, and even though there are tons of products on the market claiming to make the annoying black dots disappear, I've never had much luck. (And if you have, pray tell.)

That said, the one and only thing that has helped the appearance and occurrence of my blackheads are extraction-heavy facials from my favorite celebrity esthetician, Renée Rouleau. Based in Austin, Texas, Rouleau comes up to L.A. every so often to cater to her celebrity and beauty industry clientele and has nursed my acne-prone skin back to clear, glowy, blackhead-free health more often than I can count. So who better to ask all my burning blackhead-related questions?

As Rouleau explained to me, blackheads are pretty much a fact of life, and almost everybody will experience them at some point or another. Essentially, they're inevitable, but there is definitely some strategy (and hope!) when it comes to managing and treating them. And yes, the only real way to get rid of them is to physically extract them. Sorry, pore strips!