There’s no guaranteed way to prevent skin tags, but you can lower your chances of developing them. Skin tags affect up to 46% of the population, and that number climbs to roughly 59% by age 70. They’re completely harmless, so prevention is really about comfort and cosmetics rather than health. That said, several controllable factors influence how many you get and where they show up.
Why Skin Tags Form
Skin tags develop when your body produces extra cells in the skin’s top layers. Two main forces drive this: friction and hormones. They tend to appear in spots where skin folds rub against each other, which is why the most common locations are the armpits, neck, eyelids, groin, under the breasts, and inner thighs. Anywhere natural movement creates repeated skin-on-skin contact is a likely site.
Beyond friction, insulin plays a significant role. When insulin levels stay consistently elevated, the skin’s growth factors become overactive, encouraging new tissue to form in those friction-prone areas. This is why skin tags are more common in people with diabetes, metabolic syndrome, or insulin resistance. They’re also more common if a blood relative has them, since there’s a hereditary component that makes some people simply more prone to developing them regardless of other factors.
How to Reduce Your Risk
Since friction and metabolic health are the two biggest controllable triggers, prevention strategies target both.
Reduce skin-on-skin friction. Wearing loose-fitting clothing, especially around the neck, underarms, and thighs, cuts down on the repetitive rubbing that triggers skin tag growth. Skipping jewelry that rubs against your skin (like necklaces that sit against your neck all day) helps too. Keeping skin moisturized reduces friction when skin slides against clothing or other skin, which is a simple step that’s easy to overlook.
Manage your weight. Extra body weight creates more skin folds, and more skin folds mean more friction zones where tags can develop. Losing weight to reduce the number and depth of those folds is one of the most practical steps you can take. There’s no clinical trial proving exactly how much weight loss translates to fewer skin tags, but the mechanical logic is straightforward: fewer folds, less rubbing, fewer tags.
Keep your blood sugar and insulin in check. Because chronically high insulin directly stimulates skin cell overgrowth, managing conditions like type 2 diabetes or prediabetes can reduce your skin tag risk. This means the usual fundamentals: regular physical activity, a diet that doesn’t spike your blood sugar repeatedly, and staying on top of any metabolic conditions your doctor has flagged. People with metabolic syndrome (a cluster of high blood pressure, unhealthy blood sugar, excess abdominal fat, and abnormal cholesterol) are at higher risk, so addressing any of those components helps.
Skin Tags During Pregnancy
Pregnancy is a particularly common trigger, and unfortunately, there’s very little you can do about it. Two hormonal shifts are responsible. First, both mother and baby secrete leptin, a hormone that stimulates the growth of skin cells. The extra leptin in the system directly encourages skin tag production. Second, rising estrogen levels increase skin laxity, meaning the skin becomes looser and more likely to fold and rub against itself.
The practical advice during pregnancy is the same as for anyone else: wear loose clothing, keep skin moisturized, and try to keep weight gain within the healthy range your provider recommends. But in most cases, pregnancy-related skin tags aren’t fully preventable. Many women find that some of these tags shrink or fall off on their own after delivery, once hormone levels return to normal.
What You Can’t Control
Genetics set a baseline that no amount of prevention can override. If skin tags run in your family, you’re more likely to develop them no matter what you do. Age is another unavoidable factor. The older you get, the more likely skin tags become, which is why prevalence nearly doubles between the general adult population and people over 70. Hormonal fluctuations beyond pregnancy, like those during menopause, can also contribute.
The honest bottom line is that prevention strategies can reduce the number and frequency of skin tags, but they can’t eliminate the possibility entirely. If you’re genetically predisposed or going through a hormonally active period of life, some skin tags are likely to show up regardless.
When Removal Makes Sense
Because skin tags are harmless, they only need to be removed if they’re causing a problem. That means a tag that gets irritated or bleeds from catching on clothing or jewelry, one that causes pain (especially sudden pain, which can signal that the tag’s blood supply has been cut off), or one on your eyelid that interferes with your vision. Outside of those situations, removal is purely a cosmetic choice.
If you do want a skin tag removed, a dermatologist can handle it quickly in the office, typically by snipping, freezing, or cauterizing it. Avoid at-home removal kits or tying off tags yourself, as these carry a risk of infection or scarring, particularly around sensitive areas like the eyelids and groin. New skin tags can always form in the same areas, so removal doesn’t solve the underlying tendency. The prevention strategies above are your best long-term approach to keeping new ones from appearing.