After my shoulders cleared, the hair came back about 12 weeks or so after it was removed. It kinda doesn’t look like any of the hair was killed? Is his normal after first treatment? If she killed the hair during the treatment, why has it grown back?
I have an electrolysis student I’d like to take on this question! Sasha, you’re being called out! Time to break your hairtell cherry. This one should be easy to answer,lets explain the cycle of hair growth to this consumer!
Kenzie, an answer is forthcoming, and if this isnt answered sometime today I will give you the answer. In the meantime I will say this is completely normal. Electrolysis is never a one and done thing and removing the hair takes at least 12-18 months of contiguous treatments over the area.
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The main thing I’d say is the electrologist (if that is who you used for this treatment) would only have been able to see a small amount of hairs from a small amount of follicles. Many of the follicles would have had no hair and not in the right stage of hair growth to be visible. Seana is correct in saying it would take up to a year and longer ( many treatments) depending on the person to fulling treat the area.
Alright I apologize, I meant to answer this more fully yesterday, but gosh what a day , bought another truck, took care of severely injured friend, calling around to insurance and car parts places that kinda thing.So without much more on this, lets get into the question.
First Sasha is right, but I think you need a little more information to fully comprehend whats going on, which, I want to tell you right now, is completely normal. So what is all this about the hairs being inthe right "stage " to be killed anyway? What ya talking about willis? Well I dont normally delve into the hair growth cycle so much as I think it often confuses people and it can be difficult to determine why you are seeing what you are seeing.
So lets start with the hair growth cycle. There are 4 parts to the Growth Cycle, Anagen, Catagen, Telogen, and Exogen. Here’s the really important bit, if you go all the way through one growth cycle, anagen, then catagen, telogen, and the hair sheds entering exofgen, how long from start to finish on one cycle? In other words if we treat a hair, and lets say for the sake of argument we “treat” but do not kill a hair in the anagen stage of growth, how long until a new anagen hair comes from that same follicle? The answer, often is 3-5 months for one growth cycle on most places on the body. Some areas may be longer or shorter, but this is the average.,
I’m not going to bore you with the dirty details on each of these stages, but I will talk about them a little bit.
First Anagen growth is the first stage, and this is the stage the hair is “born” into . At this stage the hair is firmly planted onto a dermal paillae which is feeding blood to the base of the hair. The hair itself composed of keratin which is a derivative of the blood, and MOST of the hairs growth takes place in this stage. For this reason many electrologists are taught, always to treat the anagen hairs ( and often to skip over catagen or telogen hairs). This is bunk, and evidence proves that we can destroy hair in any stage of growth the hair is present in the follicle. More on this in a bit.
Catagen is a short resting period, that shows slowed growth due to the separation of the hair from the demal papilae which was feeding it blood. It rises up slightly in the follicle.
Telogen, is the last stage before the hair sheds from the body. It has once again risen in the follicle and in each stage as it rises it gets dryer. The once gelatinous root surrounding the base of the hair has gone from clear to almost a white grain of sand attached to the bottom of the hair…
In Exogen, the hair sheds from the body, and at this point, it can no longer be treated. We dont know where it is, the size of the hair , or its direction of growth all needed to treat the hair. The same is true of a hair that has been plucked or been shaved while it is in catagen or telogen growth. If any of these conditions occur, there is no way for us to treat the hair follicle. We cant even see it most times. If we shave the hair, often, the only hair we see are anagen hairs that show themselves within a day or two.
So what does this all have to do with why the hair is back?In a word, everything! Because each individual hair follicle , has it’s OWN cycle of growth. None of them are exactly the same out of thousands of hairs, on your back or shoulder or anything else. What this means is 3-5 months from the time the hair has shed, a new anagen hair will appear in the follicle, right on it’s own schedule. .
When your electrologist treats all the hair, theres a majority of those hairs that cannot be seen at that point in time. We tend to think they dont exist, which they dont yet…but 3 -5 months from when they last shed, this is when the new hair will appear. Almost never before, maybe a bit after if the skin has had to recover and rebuild the dermal papillae if the hair has been plucked. .
So , if you clear all the hair, all the other hairs that werent present when you did that, and were going to grow anyway during that 12 weeks or so, do so, and THIS is precisely what you are seeing right now, right on schedule at 12 weeks. Whats more you likely have been seeing these hairs appear contiguously over the last 12 weeks.
If your electrologist is treating only anagen hair ( as many are trained to do and believe this is the only stage they destroy the hair in)then these hairs must be destroyed inthe next cycle of growth. It takes us a minimum of 3 cycles of growth to remove all the hair from an area permanently ( assuming we are treating all visible cycles in each consecutive cycle of growth) and longer, if we do not accomplish that goal…
There’s a very famous electrologist who doesn’t come here very often anymore, but is among ( probably the? ) best worldwide. Her name is Josefa Reina, and I’m happy to say she is one of the people I learned from, and she has a unique way of working called the 3 clearance method. Here’s the trick, if the hair has been shaved, waxed, plucked or anything other than left alone, she wont treat you at that time. She requires all hair to be in situ in the follicle. She then does a large clearance of all hair, and in her own words " Seana , I go after every hair like it is the most important hair of my career. . Nothing is more important that killing that one individual hair follicle" . In so doing, she is stacking the odds in her favor, by maximizing the number of hairs present and ready to be treated, . Here’s the unique part.After being treated three times, and separating the treatments one growth cycle apart ( 3-5 month) and making sure the hair is untouched, otherwise by razer wax or tweezers, you have effected permanence and the area is permanently clear. . She’s one of only 2 electrologists I have known who works that way, and the other, (Michael Bono) died a year an a half ago or more. The keys to this method are thoroughness, treating all hair that is present in the follicle regardless of cycle of growth, making sure the hair stays in situ in the follicle untouched before every treatment, and separating treatments one cycle of growth OR removing all hair during the growth cycle so the same goal is accomplished. If we arent treating allt he hair, because maybe we are only treating the anagen hair or some hairs are missed due to shaving or waxing, these hairs appear at the very next cycle of growth on schedule.
THIS is why you are seeing the hair that you are,. It’s unlikely ANY of it was visible during your treatment 12 weeks ago, but it’s growing ( and on schedule) now. IT’s the perfect time to start your second clearance, . First, most of these hairs are now in an anagen stage of growth, with the exception of potentially some missed hairs from the prior clearance.
It’s very easy to get down on yourself and think this isnt working, but in fact it is. You just arent at the point yet where you are seeing the big difference you are looking for, because the hair problem is more than even you thought, because you arent seeing 100% of the hair at any given point in time.
Did your electrologist explain HAIR GROWTH CYCLES to you ? Sorry to shout that. Clients worry needlessly about these beginning clearances because they are not educated and coached properly. Did it all come back or is it a new hair growth cycle??? Probably a new hair growth cycle kicking in.