Is Your Go-To Hair Removal Technique Doing More Harm Than Good?

A few months ago, I had a client who was battling severe acne—specifically on her chin, and she spent two hours every day tweezing. Her chin was not only scarred and discolored from years of tweezing but also covered in scabs and pitted with deep bumps from picking at ingrown hairs. Despite her doubts about electrolysis, she was desperate enough to try it and agreed to stop tweezing. Within a few months, her acne vanished. While I couldn’t undo all the damage from years of tweezing, her skin is no longer plagued by ingrown hairs, scabs, or acne sores, and even the hyperpigmentation of her scar tissue has started to fade because the area is no longer inflamed.

Not everyone experiences such severe consequences from tweezing, but as an electrologist, I see the damaging effects more often than not.  It’s not just tweezing that causes ingrown hairs – so does waxing, sugaring, threading…and even shaving! The real damage occurs when a person picks and digs at ingrown hairs, breaking the skin and creating an entry point for bacteria that can lead to infection and further damage. When this behavior becomes a habit, the skin constantly inflames and repairs itself, resulting in scar tissue and a vicious cycle that’s hard to break.

Whenever a new client begins their electrolysis journey, I always stress the importance of stopping all tweezing, waxing, sugaring, and threading. This can be incredibly challenging because these habits are ingrained, but it’s necessary for effective treatment. I remind my clients that their magnifying mirror is not their friend—what seems like a big deal to them is often invisible to others. I celebrate every victory with my clients, especially when they resist the urge to tweeze. I reassure them that if a hair really bothers them, they can shave or trim it, as long as they leave enough for me to grasp during their electrolysis session.

“But you said no tweezing!” Yes, and here’s why: when you tweeze, you pull out the hair by the root, which is still attached, which distorts the hair follicle, tears out the lower follicle and can cause pain. This action distorts and stimulates the follicle, making the hair grow back thicker and stronger (explained why further down, so keep reading!). When I perform electrolysis, I treat the follicle, and the hair slides out effortlessly, because I’ve destroyed the bulb and the root. Trimming the hair and shaving  are ok, because they only cut the hair at the surface of the skin.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Hair Removal Methods

You have approximately 500-1,200 follicles per square inch of skin, and each follicle is responsible for growing hair. Every follicle you have, you were born with. They do not die off and you do not grow new ones.

There are a few benefits to tweezing, waxing, sugaring, and threading—they are relatively inexpensive and can be effective in the moment. However, the downsides are significant. You’ll likely be doing it for the rest of your life, and as your vision fades with age, it will become harder to see and remove hairs.

The real ugly truth is that these methods can damage your skin. As noted in "ELECTROLYSIS BEAUTY AND CONFIDENCE THROUGH PERMANENT HAIR REMOVAL (1981)", “Success: you have plucked a hair. But, at the same time, you have also set into motion the wheels that will perpetuate this sequence of events. You have begun a never-ending cycle which will tend to hasten the rate of regrowth. It will also build the thickness, strengthen and deepen the regrowing hair, thus making it darker as well; it will also increase the possibility of irritations and infections of the follicle which result in pitting and scarring. Finally, you will undoubtedly have made permanent hair removal by electrolysis more difficult to accomplish by creating distorted follicles with the additional possibility of ingrown hair. And all this from just one simple, innocent pull of the tweezer.”

In "Unwanted Hair - Its Cause and Treatment - Ancestral Curse or Glandular Disorder (1985)", Dr. Greenblatt highlights that women often mistakenly believe they are tweezing the same hair daily, when in fact, there are often multiple hairs growing from one follicle. He also mentions that deep, coarse hair can be caused by personal tampering through plucking, waxing, and the use of depilatories, which can irritate the skin.

The book "Modern Electrology: Excess Hair, Its Causes and Treatments (1987)" warns that “follicles can become distorted and thickened from constant tweezing or waxing,” and notes that ingrown hairs can occur when hair is pulled apart inside the follicle, leading to cyst-like projections.

"Cosmetic and Medical Electrolysis and Temporary Hair Removal, a Practice Manual and Reference (1991)", states, “Plucking experiments have shown that repeated plucking can damage some hair follicles. Some react by producing a thinner hair, others develop a coarser hair.” It also cautions that tweezing “can lead to distorted follicles, pigmentation, folliculitis, ingrown hairs, and scarring.”

Sheila Godfrey, in "Principles and Practice of Electrical Epilation (1992)", writes that “the tweezing of individual hairs tears out the lower follicle. The reconstructed follicle is usually stronger, with a better blood supply. Vellus and fine hairs are frequently removed at the same time, so aggravating the condition. Hairs that have been waxed or tweezed invariably leave behind distorted follicles, so hindering electro-epilation.” Why does increased blood supply matter? Well, blood carries hormones, and hormones feed our hair. So, more blood = more hormones = deeper, stronger, coarser, darker hair!

Additionally, Milady’s "Hair Removal Techniques, A Comprehensive Manual (2004)". notes that after tweezing, “the hair may grow back thicker, more pigmented, and faster the more it is tweezed. Tweezing hair also causes hair follicles to become distorted. These distortions make it difficult for an electrologist to remove hair permanently later.”

Finally, "Electrolysis, Thermolysis, and the Blend: The Principles and Practice of Permanent Hair Removal (1968)" by Hinkel and Lind emphasizes that repeated plucking and waxing can contribute to hair regrowth that is coarser and more difficult to remove permanently. The authors also mention that these methods can cause follicle distortion, which makes future permanent removal more challenging.

With Electrolysis, when the follicle is treated, the cells that produce hair are exposed to a small electrical current which destroys the cells responsible for hair growth and the blood supply that feeds that follicle. This is why electrolysis is permanent hair removal!

The FDA Consumer Health Information Bulletin of 27 June 2007 states:

"The US. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recognizes electrology as providing permanent hair removal. The FDA identification in Title 21, CFR, Sec. 878.5350 for needle-type epilators is: "a device intended to remove the hair by destroying the dermal papilla of a hair" As no other device for hair removal has the unique identification of "destroying the dermal papilla of a hair" only electrologists are allowed to claim permanent hair removal in their advertising" 

If you’ve been waxing, tweezing, sugaring, or threading for years, it’s likely that your skin has suffered some damage. Ingrown hairs, scarring, and thickened follicles are common side effects of these temporary hair removal methods. Switching to permanent solutions like electrolysis will prevent further damage and help you achieve smoother, healthier skin.

So, if you’re ready to break the cycle, now is the time to toss those tweezers and start your path on a permanent approach to hair removal!