How many times have you been asked by your clients what methods can they use to prevent hair from growing back coarser after waxing? Ever since the beginning of hair removal as a trend, thicker and darker hair have been one of the "consequences" that people fear the most. Mothers argue this to try to forbid their young daughters from shaving or girlfriends warn each other about thick hairs due to depilating creams. Yet, nothing could be further from the truth: hair removal has absolutely no influence on hair growing back coarser. No matter how many times estheticians tell clients this, the myth is still widely spread.
The good news for modern estheticians and waxing specialists is that science has provided us with a great deal of studies that prove, with numbers and evidence, that estheticians are right—regardless of the hair removal products or methods you use at your spa, thicker hair has nothing to do with hair removal.
Let's get the facts straight: hair may appear thicker when it grows back after being removed, especially after shaving for the first time, but it technically doesn't become more coarse—it's just biology, how our bodies and our hair follicles work. In fact, some hair removal methods like waxing do the complete opposite. Waxing regularly makes hair grow back thinner and weaker over time, but we'll get to that later. Here we provide some arguments that will help you educate your clients regarding this common belief of hair becoming thicker after shaving or waxing:
- Hair before puberty is thinner For both boys and girls, hair removal usually beings during puberty, when hair gets darker, coarser, and starts to grow on different parts of the body. Hormonal changes influence thickness and other hair attributes; it's not shaving that causes darker and coarser hair during adolescence, it's just normal biological changes that occur throughout those years.
- Hair has tapered ends When hair emerges from the follicle, it grows thin and becomes thicker over time, causing tapered ends. When you shave or use epilating creams, you only remove the hair from the surface of the skin, i.e. you trim the thinner end. Hair grows back with a rough end, seeming thicker than before, but it is technically the same. Fortunately, waxing and other hair removal methods that eliminate the hair from the root allow hair to grow back thin.
- We shed hair every day Imagine for a second that the more you shave or wax, the more the hair grows thicker and darker, meaning it never stops growing. Before long, we'd be as hairy as an Australopithecus or another one of the human's ancestors. However, our body hair always seems to reach the same length, and that is because we shed or loose hair every day. The over 5 million hair follicles that are responsible for hair growth in our skin work per cyclic stages: first, the hair grows from the root of the follicle as it gets pushed out to the outer layer of the skin (Anagen phase), the span of this phase depends on genetics and body zone—Anagen phase is much longer in scalp hair than leg hair, for example—. Once this stage finishes, the follicle renews itself and "cuts" the hair (Catagen phase), to finally enter the third phase where follicles rest and hair sheds before the cycle starts again and a new hair grows (Telogen phase).
According to the American Academy of Dermatology, this process takes about a month for body hair, and years for scalp hair—that's why the hair on your head takes much longer to grow than on the rest of the body. Each hair follicle works independently, so it's natural that they aren't all in the same phase, or that some hair is thicker than others. This short explanation of how hair grows is intended to illustrate that we lose hair every day and it does not grow back thicker.
One of the long-term advantages of waxing, or other methods that pull hair from the root, is that over time, it weakens the hair follicle, making it less productive. Weak follicles grow weak hairs and eventually, no hair at all. It's a process that make take years, but a benefit you would not get with shaving or creams that cut off the hair at the surface of the skin.
After debunking the myth of thick hair regarding hair removal and providing a biological explanation, we hope it can come in handy when clients come to your spa or waxing salon with these concerns! If you are looking for quality hair removal products to use at your beauty business, at Beauty Image we offer the best hard body and soft body waxes in the market. Our products come with enriching and nourishing benefits that, aside from leaving the body fuzz-free, smooth and pamper the skin. Call us at TOLL FREE 888-513-8815 or contact us if you're a licensed esthetician and are interested in using our products!
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