And I’d be very curious to hear what your thoughts are on a biological mechanism by which a hair follicle can be “stunned” for more than 6 months.
How do you prevent a follicle from going into anagen on its next cycle?
This isn’t really rhetorical – if there is a way to make a follicle go dormant once it has been activated, I’d love to hear about it. I have yet to read a single article that proposes such a finding (this may well be due to my just not finding them). If it’s possible to not only knock a hair out of its current growth cycle but also to delay future cycles on the follicle, I think it could be a VERY good thing.
For those reading along with this lovely little exchange, I’ll try to explain what I’m getting at:
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We tend to have a number of hair follicles that are “dormant” during much of the first part of our lives. As we get older, changes in our bodies cause these follicles to become active (this is why guys tend to develop hair on their backs later in life and not necessarily as teens during puberty).
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Once a hair follicle is active, it goes through distinct growth cycles. Anagen is the beginning of the cycle in which the hair is formed and begins growing. The length of the cycle depends on the area of the anatomy that we are talking about. Generally over the body, you’re looking at about 4 weeks - 4 months for cycle times (note that this is the reason behind the statements of “no shaving for 4-8 weeks” on epilators). The head, IIRC, is the longest with cycle times on the order of a year or so. This is what keeps you from having to go in for a hair cut on your chest – the hairs grow for a certain time and then stop, eventually shedding and being replaced by new hairs.
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LHR done at too low of an intensity may still burn out the hair that is in the follicle at the time of treatment. This effectively makes you hairfree during that cycle (much like waxing). But the next time the follicle comes around to its anagen phase, a new hair will be created and the follicle will continue as normal.
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LHR done at the proper intensity is intended to destroy the follicle (the same mechanism as electrolysis – cauterizing the base of the follicle), preventing it from being able to continue its cycle. It becomes dead.
I am not aware of any middle ground. The follicle is either cauterized (preventing it from creating a new hair for the duration of your life) or it is not (allowing it to create a new hair on the next anagen phase that it enters into). I don’t know of and am very curious about any means by which you could not only remove a hair from the current cycle, but delay any future cycles by any measurable amount of time.
It strikes me as a great alternative method for those that aren’t sure whether they want to commit to permanent solutions.
What a lot of folks see is new hair growth after their treatments. We can use me as an example if you like:
I started treatments because I was developing a lot of new hair as I got older. Particularly over the past few years (I’m in my mid 30’s). Once I finish treatments, if all goes well, I will have dealt with the hair follicles that are active on my body at this time (or, at least, some of them). But new ones will continue to become active - the treatments (whether LHR or electrolysis) will not affect this process in the slightest. So in a couple of years, I will likely need to continue treatments. And so on and so on and so on.
But this is not previously treated follicles coming back to life. I don’t have the Jesus gene going on – the hairs are not arising from the dead. These are previously dormant follicles that are becoming active as I get older (exactly as they were before I began treatment).