I know that it’s supposed to take 9 months to get through 3 growth cycles, but I’m wondering how you can tell when a growth cycle begins or ends. It seems like I have a pattern of having a lot of hair, then having it slow down, then having a bunch of hair pop up again. Last week I had no coarse hairs on my chin. My next appointment is tomorrow and today I have 5 coarse hairs and 2 more coming out on my chin. However, today my upper lip is clear of coarse hair. Do these kinds of changes mean growth cycles are changing, or is this kind of fluctuation normal within a cycle? I’m interested because I want to know where I am in terms of progress and for how much longer I’ll have to deal with the embarrassing coarse hairs.
You’ll be seeing new coarse hairs pop up for probably at least 6 months. It depends on what area you’re talking about since hair cycle length varies by area. On the face, it can be somewhere between 4 and 8 weeks between cycles. But also realize that unless you waxed before, all the hairs are not in the same cycles. So whatever you see at any one point is in different cycles until after your first clearance. You’re only a few months in, so hang in there. Electrolysis is a process. These hairs will still be showing up for a few months and then will get finer and finer.