You may, in recent times, have heard a little about stem cells. Let’s see why are
they so important in hair removal and what role they play. 

We are all born with a certain reserve of stem cells which are responsible for
producing hairs in different parts of your body. 

It is very individual and determined by your particular DNA. Those stem cells
will determine how many hairs will be produced during your life on any given
area of your body. If your DNA wants you to have a super bushy unibrow (as all
your parents and grandparent had) the follicles in the eyebrows will have
certain amount of stem cells which will keep producing your lovely hairs on
your eyebrows until there is nothing left in the bulge (bulge is where the stem
cells live). 

A close-up of a person's skin

Description automatically generated with medium confidence

Let’s say that you have 400 stem cells (totally made up number – I am not a
scientist; I am just using this as an example). Another person’s DNA only gives
them 200 stem cells for their eyebrow area. Remember – everyone is unique.
So someone with 400 stem cells can pluck and pluck all their lives (by plucking
you are using the reserve of stem cells as the plucked hairs have to be replaced
by new ones) and will still have bushy unibrow at 60 years of age. Hairs play an
important role in our bodies and have particular functions, such as protecting
our skin, thermoregulation, etc and that’s why our body will constantly try to
replace them. But someone with 200 stem cells after plucking for a few years
might end up with bold patches which will never grow back. This is because
they used up their given stem cells reserve. 

It’s the same with waxing your bikini, for example. If you have been treating
your excess hair with waxing for years and years, someone with perhaps only
500 stem cells may see the hairs becoming very sparse. Mind you, if you were
given 800 stem cells by DNA (totally made up numbers again) you might still
have full regrowth as they still have plenty of reserve in the bulge.
Well I hope, this clarifies your questions about stem cells a bit. But don’t fret! It
is not all bad news if you were born with a big reserve of stem cells, and there
seems no end to hair growth in sight! 

We have electrolysis permanent hair removal! During electrolysis treatments
we enter the follicle with a special probe that applies normally two pulses of
electrical current – one at the bottom of the follicle to destroy the dermal
papilla (which is responsible for new hair growth) and another one around the
bulge area to destroy that reserve of stem cells. 

So in effect, every time you have an electrolysis session – what we are actually
doing is depleting your reserve of stem cells. Amazing, right? 

When clients ask how many sessions they are going to need – the answer is, no
one can tell the exact number, because everyone has a different amount of
stem cells (which is impossible to pre-determine) and this will affect the
progress. For someone it could be 8 months and another person 18 months.
However, the average completion time is around a year. 

So next time you want to ask your electrologist “Are we there yet?” – please
don’t. You will get there, when you get there.(or when your stem cells have
been completely depleted) You will see the progress, but just be patient – we
are working hard and will get you there. 

Happy Electrolysis