I know hair takes 9-12 months to start growing, mature, die and start growing and appear again. What I am unsure of is, do all hairs in a given area take approximately the same time to cycle (9-12 months), or can the time vary greatly from hair to hair? And, can a hair take much more than 12 months (say, 16-18 months?) I have had laser over the last 2 years and electro on the muzzle of the face over the last 18 months (admittinly appointments were erratic and not even close to sufficient for the job.)
The thing I can’t figure out is, 2 months ago I seemed to have had the whole beard “grow back” and look as it was when when I first started. Then spots began to appear and disappear all over the beard. The spots appear random, and I can’t correlate the time they appear to the various treatments I have had. I am totally confused why they appear and disappear when they do, if hair cycles are within a 9-12 month period.
Not too overthink it too much, I am delighted to have the spots appear 
While the “experts” tell us this, I do believe that the hair growth cycles will vary greatly from person to person. I am skeptical to ever state a length of time for a hair cycle or area growth cycle to a client.
This is what I believe happens - based on observing hair growth. Each individual follicle will have it’s life span determined on genetics, hormones/enzymes and health. The many hair follicles are then rotating in and out of their individual cycles at various speeds. These cycles and speeds of cycles are not synchronized like that of the fox that turns white every winter - they just come and go randomly.
Now what you are describing on your face, is what I notice with leg hair removal. After a few clearings of the legs, clients will have circular patches devoid of hair, and circular patches of hair. Treatment results in circles of red and circles where no hair was removed. The next month, those bare circles will have some hairs. So, perhaps there is some synchronization of “patches” on skin.
On the legs, a person with black, coarse hair and fair skin will usually have 1 to 3 visible hairs coming out of what could appear to be one follicle, but are hair follicles that are in very close proximity to one another (I’ll call them “clusters”) and they grow in patterns that are rather geometric. My personal belief is that if you see 1 to 3 hairs, then there are likely to be at least twice that many. (I had one client who had 9 hairs in those little clusters at the beginning of her treatments.) That same type of “cluster” is something I’ve never seen on the face, but it would make sense that there are patterned clusters on the face, too.
Another example would be a chicken pox scar. I have one in my eyebrows. Most of the time I have complete eyebrows, but every few years, I notice a little circle that is bare of hair - and I attribute that to being the “perfect” cycle where the ruined hair follicles “synchronize” to the same cycle they were when destroyed by the chicken pox.
So, what I’m saying is that it would appear that you are experiencing a reduction in hair growth, which is what laser produces and what happens with electrolysis if it is not completed. I sure hope I wasn’t too verbose with that answer…
Now that I re-read it, I think my original post was too verbose
I suspect the laser was involved in the reduction due to the veiny/spiderweb pattern in the shadow (imagine a dark shadow with perfectly sized and shaped spots here and there.)
Silly question, but do electrologists remove very dense hair in little circles or other patterns? My upper lip now has tiny little spots (smaller than the laser spots on the rest of my face) in it; I don’t know if they reduced the spot size of the laser for the upper lip, or it was from the electro. The laser seemed to do absolutely nothing to the upper lip (until possibly now.)
