So, you get up one morning, go into the bathroom and look in the mirror: wait a minute – is that a hair on your chin? Omg! Quick, you swiftly grab your tweezers and pull: a second later, the hair is gone – job done, and get on with your day.
Except that it isn’t really gone – that pluck was a temporary fix, and that hair will return.
A couple of days later, there it is again! And it’s brought a friend, oh no! Where are those tweezers? A quick pull, and gone for another day.
But over time, you’re seeing more, and they’re getting thicker and darker, more noticeable: what started as an odd pluck has become a regular chore that cannot be ignored. And they’re covering a larger area as time goes on. You start to check during the day, in case you’ve missed one, or you see something in your car’s rearview mirror when you’re at traffic lights or parked up. By now, you’ve got several pairs of tweezers – in your bathroom, your handbag, your car. Just in case you spot something, so that you can deal with it before anyone else sees.
And now for the bad news.
The Cycle of Hair Growth
In the natural order of things, hair grows in cycles: it has an active stage where it forms from a single cell, it sits and rests in the hair follicle, then it gradually makes its exit (shedding). As soon as the hair goes into the resting stage, another hair is forming in the same follicle, getting ready to take its place. This all takes quite a long time; in some cases (on the scalp, for example), it can be years.
Hairs are continually going through this cycle, but not all together, or we’d look bald several times a year! They are constantly at differing stages, so that we always have enough hair present for the overall growth to appear unaffected.
What Plucking Does
In the natural order, each hair goes through its cycle, and when it sheds, there’s another all grown and ready to take its place. Hair has a job -it helps regulate body temperature, it prevents particles from getting into our eyes, ears, and nose, etc and it helps us detect changes in the air around us.
Sadly, society has made hair growth in certain areas of the face and body unacceptable.
Women in particular are made to feel embarrassed and ‘unfeminine’ by having hair, when it is a natural part of our DNA.
So, a hair appears on the face, and it must be instantly removed.
But when a hair is plucked out in its active growing stage, that disrupts the natural order, as there is no replacement hair ready, leaving an empty hair follicle. In some areas, plucking damages the hair enough so that it doesn’t grow back: shallow-rooted hairs on the eyebrows often respond this way.
But not on deeper-rooted hairs in certain areas such as the chin, neck and upper lip.
The body feels the plucking sensation as a warning -hair down! It instantly swings into emergency mode, sending blood to the affected area to provide nutrition to grow another hair as fast as possible to fill that follicle.
And because of that extra nutrition – the equivalent of a nice big slap-up meal – the new hair will be better, thicker, stronger than the last. And that will have a knock-on effect on the surrounding growth, feeding them too.
And that happens every time you pluck a hair.
Meanwhile, this is taking a toll on the skin. When a hair naturally sheds, its root has shrunk, and any surrounding tissue has been discarded, allowing it to slip easily out of the hair follicle.
A hair in the active growing stage is firmly attached to the base of the follicle and has a much larger structure, wider than the follicle opening. Plucking literally tugs the hair out and forces the follicle to open wider than normal. Over time, the follicle adapts, becoming a bigger channel for the thicker, stronger hairs.
Often, dark hairs become visible before they reach the skin surface. This prompts people to dig into the follicle, to remove the hair inside. Causing permanent scarring.
Skin damage becomes inevitable.
Plucking causes irritation, redness, and even swelling when the hair is removed. Spots are caused by infection getting into the empty follicles. Dry patches can be created by tweezer damage, or the skin may produce more oil in an attempt to protect itself. Frequent shaving also irritates the skin, but tweezing does so much more.
Seeking Professional Help
As an electrolysist, I often see people who have been plucking their hair for years, even decades. By now, the growth has become incredibly strong, and what started from a single hair has become an army of growth covering a substantial area.
As the hairs are gradually eradicated, to the delight of the client, we then begin to see the extent of the skin damage caused by years of plucking. Once the empty follicles are fully exposed, with no hairs to cover up the evidence, we get the true picture.
Clients may have used makeup to hide the growth and redness from tweezing, which also hides the skin damage.
Unfortunately, people sometimes think the hair treatment has caused this, as they are only now witnessing the true state of the follicles. Although electrolysis is a destructive process, it is performed under carefully controlled conditions inside each follicle, one at a time. As well as killing the hair, electrolysis also destroys the stem cells inside the follicle, removing the DNA template for hair growth.
The resulting skin reaction is part of the healing process and actually stimulates cellular repair and collagen productivity. Clients see their skin condition improve as part of the process by following their aftercare procedures and taking better care of their skin health.
Clients in their mid-twenties, thirties and beyond with years of plucking behind them need to accept that their skin has suffered as a result of their own actions. However, there are many aesthetic treatments available to help rejuvenate the area, and once the hair has been addressed, there are several options that can really make a difference.
The main thing is to see long-term plucking as a two-stage problem requiring more than one solution. Understanding this is essential to achieving the very best results.
Author: Sharon Birchall MBIAE
