possible to regrow eyebrows after electrolysis?

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
#1

I was feeling so depressed about my eyebrows today. The area at the beginning 1/3 of my eyebrows hasn’t filled in at all on one side, even though it’s been 2 months since I stopped treatment. And that area needs to be the thickest part of the eyebrow, especially for my natural shape. I look in the mirror and think that I don’t even look like myself, and that I look neurotic like I couldn’t keep from overplucking my brows.

I’ve been putting retin-a on the overplucked areas every night but I’m thinking that it must not work or maybe even discourages growth if that area hasn’t grown back at all in 2 months. So I don’t know if I should stop or not. I’ve been suggested to try rogaine or latisse. I don’t really have the money to buy latisse, although I would get the money together if it was sure to work. Rogaine I could afford, but I’m worried that I could still mess up my shape. However, the area I’m talking about still has whiter skin than the rest so I could target just that area.

Does anyone have any ideas about what to do? I’m looking to stimulate new follicles to grow, right? Does anyone know about how eyebrow hairs and growth cycles are different than other parts of the body? It really seems like I pluck a lot less now, even though I only had 3 treatments, and that there’s less coarse hairs between my eyebrows.

Would irritating the skin work to stimulate hair on the eybrows, and if so, any suggestions on what to use?

#2

why didyouhaveelectrolysis on eyebrows? ifyoudidnt want permanent results?

#3

Hi Candela, I have been following your posts-- I am sorry that your electrologist botched your brows.

I had been plucking my brows thinner and thinner for over a decade until I decided that I wanted my thicker, more natural-looking shape back. I have been letting them grow in for about half a year/8 months. They are still not quite filled in the way I want them to be and there is also an empty spot. I have heard that sometimes plucking leads to permanent loss, which might be true for this spot, but I am still hoping at least one hair will grow in it!

I know this in-between time is a real bummer, and the time really drags when you are unhappy with such a face-defining feature as your eyebrows, but you need to allow much more time for them to re-grow. I didn’t get electrolysis on my brows and they are still tough to re-grow.

I think I read on another post that eyebrows are 4-8 weeks in anagen phase and 12 weeks in telogen phase. One would suppose this means that 2/3rds of hairs currently visible on your brows are in resting phase. One might also extrapolate that many of the hairs you had zapped (at least in the first session) were also telogen, which is the phase in which electrolysis is least effective.

I don’t know if any of this helps, but I just didn’t want to leave your post out there hanging.

#4

I know of no theory where Retin-A would aid in the growth of your eyebrows. The eyebrow is one of two places where the situation of the follicle is such that even plucking has a potential to lead to permanent hair removal, as the scar tissue that develops from simple plucking can lead to no connection between the blood supply and the hair shaft. The other is the legs. Everywhere else, we have to do a permanent hair removal treatment, or risk MORE HAIR growing in the treatment area, due to the process of regeneration.

#5

Thanks for your reply adieutristesse. I think you are right as before I had been trying to regrow my brows and even after 6 months they weren’t completely filled in. I hope that a lot of the hairs weren’t in the right phase to be killed, especially in the areas where I would never have removed the hair myself…but 2 months without a single hair. It makes me fear that eyebrows have much less follicles than the rest of the body and you only get hairs in an area maybe twice a year. That makes sense with 1-2 months in anagen and 3 months in telogen.

James, it sounds then that even hairs treated in telogen could be gone now from scar tissue developing, as electrolysis is so much more violent than plucking. Not good.

I was just trying the retin-a as it seemed to have stimulated hair growth on the rest of my face, and I know that it irritates the skin and increases blood flow in the first months of use. So I was hoping it could wake up new follicles as I had nothing to lose. But it doesn’t seem to work on this area and I’ll have to go with rogaine or latisse if the hairs never grow back.

#6

Did retin-a really induce hair growth on your face?! I didn’t know that could happen… Yikes.

#7

It seems like it did, and others have thought it did the same to them, but it’s hard to say for sure, especially since I started threading around the time that I started retin-a. But if other ways of irritating your skin produce hair, retin-a definitely irritates skin with the peeling and redness it creates.

#8

You have a valid point. Anything that causes enough irritation to bring more blood to the area long enough to increase nourishment to the follicles will cause increased hair growth.

#9

What? I was going to ask for retin-a to fade my scars. Should I not do that?

#10

I would say that you should talk to the person helping you with your skin rejuvenation. That person is looking at your skin, and knows what should work best for you.

What ever they say to do is much better advise than we can give without seeing you personally.

#11

My doctor is quite good in terms of what is provided for skin so I will see when the time comes.

#12

Even with the increased hair growth, I would not give up retin-a as it is great for reducing break outs and keeping your skin looking young. That’s how I console myself about having acne–at least I’ll have better skin when I’m old than some people without acne now.

#13

I had acne and when I did, I asked my doctor if I could have retin-a to remove the scars (I thought that is what is was for) and she said come back to me in a few months, you won’t need it now and I will give you a topical cream. Does it actually do what I thought it does? Because my acne has gone, I won’t really need it to reduce it.

#14

If you have a lot of hormonal hair as well as acne, hormonal imbalance could be a cause. Hormones can be balanced with things like the right birth control.