Nose hairs. Everyone has them. No one wants them. But should you remove them? Or should you let them growโ€ฆ and braid them! Stay tuned for a surprising answer. Hello I'm Dr. Neal Schultz And welcome to DermTV. Don't worry! Braiding them isn't the solution. But seriously, what should or can you do about them? That really depends on how germ phobic you are. But here's the twist. They don't cause germs, they actually help to protect you from germs. Your body is very smart and has a complex system to help protect you from getting an infection from breathing in germs, like viruses, bacteria and even fungi. Your first line of defense for germs breathed in through your nose is the mucous in your nose and, yep, those annoying hairs. The mucus and hairs both help to catch the germs by acting like a filter. So the hairs do have a real and theoretically important function, and I say theoretically because, if you had all the hairs in the part of your nose near its opening removed, in other words, the ones that can show, I personally doubt your immunity would be seriously compromised because they represent such a small part of your complex immune system. So despite those hairs having a real purpose, when they do grow long enough to be visible, most people that I know prefer to get rid of them, instead of flaunting them as their personal anti- germ warfare weapons. So to control these embarrassing hairs, it's ok to trim them but don't pluck them out because the germs inside your nose can invade the damaged skin and cause an infection. And as you've heard me say many times, plucking any hair can set you up for ingrowns which in the nose are really a problem. So trimming carefully with a scissors, making sure you don't cut yourself, is ok as are the personal devices advertised in magazines that trim them with less chance of cutting yourself. And if you want to get rid of them permanently, since the roots are often fairly close to the surface of your nose, they can often be removed by laser hair removal which of course is permanent and safe even for nose hairs. Don't worry, the laser isn't put inside your nose, it works from the outside.