Kay’s Question:
I know it’s an old wives’ tale that shaving makes your hair grow in faster and thicker but I’m beginning to think that waxing is the new wives’ tale. I have been waxing my legs for years and have yet to see hair grow in thinner or take longer to grow back in. Is there any relationship between waxing and less hair growth?
The Right Brain Waxes Poetic:
I wish we could give you a definitive answer here but there seems to be a bit of scientific controversy in Wax-land. While everyone agrees that waxing is an effective method of epilation, they disagree on whether it makes the regrowth better or worse!
Some sources, like Onlinesurgery.com say that waxing causes repeated damage to the hair follicles that may result in permanent reduction of unwanted hair. But other research, like this article from the Symposium of Adolescent Gynecology and Endocrinology discusses the possibility that waxing actually has the reverse affect: that it can trigger hair to change from the vellus type (fine thin hair) to the terminal type (scalp and beard hair).
The only consistent data appears to be that the results vary depending on the person and the location of the body hair. Leg hair may become more fine with time while lip and eyebrow hair may grow thicker. Everyone has their opinion but apparently there’s no definitive answer in the scientific community.
The Brains Bottom Line:
We’d love to hear from our loyal Beauty Braniacs on this subject: what’s your experience with hair regrowth after waxing? In the meantime, Kay, heed these words of caution: wisely watch what you wax!
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I stupidly let a lady in Chicago wax my extire face. I had light blond peach fuzz on it, not noticable at all. She said it would be a good “exfoliant” or something. I have always had my lip, chin and eyebrows done, so I thought, what could this hurt? Well, in my experience the hair grew back more, faster, and at odd angles. It has yet to get darker (thank goodness). But I do now have to go and have it removed twice a month because of how it grows. I never had this problem before. We are all different, just don’t ever wax anything on your face unless you MUST. I am not greek, or asian, but am a fair skinned irish gal with what used to be blonde unnoticable hair, and now it grows like I have the ancestry of a greek goddess—and not in a good way!!
I am considering trying vaniqa, but even it has side effects. I also switched from waxing to threading (easier on my skin).
Wish me luck, I couldn’t be more depressed about it, I don’t even go out anymore.
Oh, I do have many greek friends who feel they MUST wax their entire faces, again, they have that dark, thick hair. Mine was never an issue until this. Now it’s insane!
Daisy thanks for your post, I was here doing research on waxing because I was considering waxing my face. I wax my eyebrows and sometimes shave my thin lip hair and tweeze my chin if any unusual hair grows there. I have light hair on my face and have been contemplating waxing, now due to your post I am definitely not doing it:)
Thanks, hope it works out for you
hello,
i have hair growth on my face so i do laser treatment on my face.but when i do before my hair r fine after laser it grow fast n thik.i look ugly.so i suggest pls dont do a laser treatment.its really bad n painful for life time.pls live a natural live.i just wish i get a parmenent solution later but ther is no hope 4 me.now i feel bad n try to be natural.i hope hormonal changes are affected so i take a harmonal treatment to remove my face hair.one hope is there.if any one give me proper advive for that i m thank ful for them if any body knows so pls give me solution for life time.yes waxing is also bad pls dont do that.if poss then do a threading only.its really painful but not bad.
hello,
i have hair growth on my face so i do laser treatment on my face.but when i do before my hair r fine after laser it grow fast n thik.i look ugly.so i suggest pls dont do a laser treatment.its really bad n painful for life time.pls live a natural live.i just wish i get a parmenent solution later but ther is no hope 4 me.now i feel bad n try to be natural.i hope hormonal changes are affected so i take a harmonal treatment to remove my face hair.one hope is there.if any one give me proper advice for that i m thank ful for them if any body knows so pls give me solution for life time.yes waxing is also bad pls dont do that.if poss then do a threading only.its really painful but not bad.
that is soo true, never wax a hair further more, i had very very fine hairs on my neck this womend recommended laser i had 8 treatments guess what, the hair grow darker coarser and more noticiebale never ever use laser its no way perment those who say it is,will experience more growth after they stop their treatment, i really hate my neck it feels like a man, i have electroylsis now and its so far not bad cant tell you as yet, but it did kill one of the haor root and never grow back in 3 years now,,
i wish they can find a solution for us, i wish if i was dead and not even here, i hate it
I feel the same way I want to die.
I’m 14 and I guess I don’t respect myself enough to not tamper with my face all the time. 9 months ago I trimmed all of my facial hair with nail scissors now it looks fuzzier than ever.. plus I cut my side burns (they didn’t even exsist before) for months straight. I feel like it’s going to get worse. It’s not cool because of my age it’s not like I have the kind of money for electrolysis
and it’s holding me back
I don’t go out anymore either
Yes waxing of the face is not a good idea, we had a patient a few days ago who is darker skinned, and had a facial wax 2 years ago, this damaged her skin a lot and the result is dark bruises under her eyes which look like melamin.
Also skin laser is not advised because it thins the skin, and if you are in the sun or UV this can cause even more marks and melamin damage.
When you have hair on the face, try and leave it be, or consider a bleach (not toxic or too strong) this will be much better than removing hair at the root.
good luck and god bless
I didn’t have much air on my face , at least i didn’t see them as they were blondish.., just had some around my side burns and upper lips area. I was ok with them until i heard from my friend that she wasn’t happy with her facial hair and that was looking for some solution to get rid of them. I think thats when i started noticing mine as well. she was bleaching her facial hair, so i did the same but started to notice it even more afterwards, it seemed to get longer ..i tried a few electrolysis and the lady who was doing the treatment did adv that bleaching feeds the hair so the hair grows longer…i stopped bleaching ..after 3 session i also stopped the electrolysis as i heard that one of my friend tried laser on her legs, arms , upper lips and was very pleased with the result. i immediately book an appointment with Shadi Danin clinic in Hove. I wanted a full face treatment as it was cheaper than doing the areas separately and she said that as i didn’t have so much hair she would give me some discount as well..she adv that i would need 6 treatments but after 3rd i would see the difference. but that didn’t happen. before the first treatment she shaved ALL my face and under chin area..i didn’t know she would do that so i was very shocked..she did the same before each treatment…my hair got even more and darker…when i start asking why my hair wasn’t getting less after the 3rd-4th treatment, she said i have hormone issues. I did have a test at my gp and the results were all clear, didn’t show any issue..
hair on my face is terrible now, its darker, stronger and more noticeable…i have it everywhere including under my chin, on my cheeks, side of my eyes etc….also its more on the left then right which makes it look funnier and more noticeable.. (i recently read an article about laser treatment , it said you should never do laser around your eyes, eye brows etc but Shadi Danin did it. she did it between and above my eye brows…i didn’t know it was dangerous then but she never said it was either) ..i am so upset now, i wish i never ever tried laser on my face, i don’t know what to do next , i am so self conscious and find it embarrassing to sit so close up with people ..i wax it now temporarily till find a better solution 
((
after around 10 treatment, i also asked if the shaving was the reason for the hair to grow darker and stronger but she said shaving never makes hair grow darker or stronger.. i am not sure if i believe that because it definitely does if i shave my legs..
i now wish that i never tried laser
any advise?