Continuing growth after electrolysis is the most difficult concept to explain to clients. It is difficult to understand why more hair grows after you’ve cleared an area with electrolysis. An understanding of hair growth cycles illustrates the reason for this.
Regrowth After Electrolysis- Real or False Regrowth?
If you’ve shaved less than a week prior to your electrolysis appointment only the fastest-growing hairs will be visible. They are generally the darkest and coarsest ones too. The majority of hair, however, is still under the surface of the skin. Thus, I cannot treat them until they break the skin in a week or two, or even a month or two. Some clients will see this additional growth as evidence that electrolysis does not work. They think, “YIKES, LOOK AT THIS! IT’S GROWING BACK ALREADY!”.
This is what’s known as false regrowth after electrolysis. The hair you see coming up after an effective electrolysis treatment is hair that wasn’t treated at the time of the appointment. There are multiple stages of hair growth. Hair in an active growth stage grows faster than hairs about to shed. Slow-growing hair takes a month or longer to become visible after shaving. Previously tweezed hair takes even longer to grow back. Some hair on the body takes almost a year to go from barely visible to coarse.
Rate Of Hair Growth During The Electrolysis Process
The most important thing to understand is the hair you see today is not the hair you still see in 3, 6 months, or 9 months. It’s hard to believe because you think you know your face so well. Furthermore, you’re certain you’ve seen this exact hair in this exact spot. You haven’t. The reality is that your face has more hair-producing follicles than you can imagine. Some of these hairs separated by less than a millimetre, a distance imperceptible to the naked eye. Furthermore, not all hairs are in the active growing phase at the same time. Some lay dormant for months before they spring back to life. Hence the confusion about hair growth after electrolysis.
Human hair cycles are not coordinated. Each follicle sprouts hair when it chooses. The length of the growing cycle varies from person to person and even within different regions on the face and body of one person. You can read more about the hair follicle and stages of hair growth here.
Reducing the chance of electrolysis regrowth depends on your electrologist treating even the finest hairs .
This is especially true for the body where even the finest hairs eventually become coarser and longer and more bothersome. I always see hair that are coarse and dark except for a very fine blond tip. At some point that fine, blond tip was invisible on the surface of the skin. You might mistake it for regrowth though.
If you’re not seeing an obvious reduction by the 6-8 month mark then you may be dealing with true electrolysis regrowth. This is obviously a non-issue with my clients.
In summary, don’t despair if you’re following the advice of your electrologist to stop tweezing and to keep regular appointments. The hair you see STILL growing is your long dormant hair is coming to the surface. It is false regrowth. Once they’ve been treated you will not see them again.
The best way to judge your electrolysis progress is to take a before and after picture once every few months. Most of the time you will be amazed at the difference!
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