Your Concerns
Unwanted Hair
Here's a beauty shocker to consider next time you reach for your razor: Humans actually have more hair follicles per square inch of skin than most higher primates, including chimpanzees and gorillas.
Learn about Unwanted Hair
Except for our lips, palms, and soles of our feet, our entire bodies are covered with hair follicles. We're talking millions...and the number of follicles each person has is set at birth.
Because most of this hair is fine and pale (called vellus hair), it usually isn't visible to the naked eye. Consider this: The forehead has more hair follicles than any other part of the body. The thicker, fully pigmented hair most people consider "real hair" is called terminal hair. This hair is found on scalp, eyebrows, legs, backs, underarms, and genital areas.
Everyone's hair grows differently, depending on age, weight, metabolism, hormones, ethnicity, medications, and other factors. But all hair goes through three distinct growth phases:
- Active growth phase (called the anagen phase), which lasts up to several years. At any given time, the majority (85%) of our body hair is in this phase. During anagen, the hair has an abundance of melanin.
- Regressive phase (catagen phase), which lasts about two weeks, during which the hair stops growing but is not yet shed. About 3 - 4% of our body hair is in this phase at any given time.
- Resting phase (telogen phase), which lasts 5 - 6 weeks, at the end of which the hair falls out and a new hair begins to form. Approximately 10-13% of our body hair is in this phase at any one time.
What you can do:
- Maintain a healthy average weight, especially if you're a woman. Fat retains androgens, a male hormone which can cause an increase in female hair growth on the chin, upper cheeks and neck.
What to avoid:
- Medications that cause hormonal fluctuations in women. These can further trigger the production of androgens and thus coarser or new hair growth.
- Excessive weight gain.
How you can Reveal your best you:
- Alase™ hair removal: A series of treatments target hair in each of the three growth phases to disable the hair follicles and permanently remove hair.
