When you tweeze a hair from your chin, the body creates a stronger, deeper, thicker hair in an attempt to resist the tweezing. The body wants that hair to be there so it fights to keep it. This isn't the case for eyebrows, but it most definitely will make unwanted chin and upper lip hair growth WORSE.
However, prolonged tweezing or tweezing multiple hairs can lead to unwanted side effects. Some side effects include: Hyperpigmentation (darkening of the skin) Folliculitis (inflammation and potential infection of hair follicles)
How to remove them. There are many safe ways to remove unwanted facial hair, including tweezing, waxing, threading, shaving or using depilatory creams. If you're worried that any of those techniques will cause your hair to grow back thicker, you can relax on that front. “It's a myth,” Dr. Lamb said.
For women, the hair may grow in areas where men often have a lot of hair, but women often don't. This includes the upper lip, chin, chest, and back. It's caused by an excess of male hormones called androgens. All women naturally produce small amounts of androgens.
But if you start to notice excessive facial hair growth that's dark and coarse, it might mean you have abnormally high levels of androgen hormones, or an increased sensitivity in your hair follicles even to normal levels of androgen hormones, explains Minisha Sood, MD, endocrinologist in New York City.
Thus, out of shaving and plucking facial hair, shaving is better. But even shaving is not recommended because skin on your face is extremely delicate and soft. Comparatively waxing and laser hair removal are the best ways to get rid of facial hair.
Plucking stops hair growth temporarily (it will never stop hair growth permanently!) by removing the hair shaft.
Tweezing. Also known simply as "plucking," tweezing removes hair from the follicle and usually lasts anywhere from two to six weeks depending on the thickness and rate of your hair growth.
Although plucking away unwanted face and body hair is convenient, it's typically pretty harmful. Plucking or tweezing is time consuming and only invasive if removed in the wrong direction which can deform and tear the hair follicle. Tweezing hair grows back the same as sugaring if pulled from the root.
In the long run, you're actually doing more harm than good. "Plucking can traumatize the hair follicle, and you can damage it to the point where it will no longer grow any hair," says Gillen. Forget about having gray hair—you won't have any hair there at all.
Skin irritation and redness are the most common side effects of hair removal. Shaving can cause skin cuts and may lead to ingrown hairs. Plucking can hurt, especially if a lot of hairs are removed. Using hot wax can burn your skin.
However, if done correctly, you can keep it from growing back for up to 6 weeks as plucking removes the hair from the follicle. And, even though it will not permanently stop hair growth, in some people, there may be a reduction in the amount of hair produced in that area, if done correctly.
Although researchers are unsure what triggers a resting follicle to regenerate, some studies have indicated that it involves signals within the follicle itself, as well as ones external to the follicle. Injury, such as plucking, can spur the process. “Hair follicles essentially function as autonomous tissue units.
The study found that when hairs were plucked in a specific configuration, follicles in the skin were prompted to send out a “distress” signal that led to even more hairs growing back.
Disadvantages of Tweezing:
Tweezing is not painless. Some individuals feel a sting with every hair that is pulled out of its follicle. Tweezing can also cause scarring, pitting, and ingrown hairs. Lastly, like waxing, tweezing requires some hair growth in order to grasp the hair to remove it.
All in all, hormonal imbalance is a major cause behind the excess growth of facial or chin hair. Medications like anabolic steroids, testosterone or cyclosporine can also increase facial hair as a side effect.
In perimenopause and menopause, estrogen diminishes, but women's testosterone levels may not. The higher ratio of testosterone to estrogen can cause these annoying outcroppings of male-like hairs to sprout.
Vitamin B6 and Vitamin E
Dietary supplements that contain vitamins B6 and E are also believed to help get rid of unwanted hair growth in the facial areas. For one, vitamin B6 is thought to help lower testosterone in women and inhibit prolactin hormone production.