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).
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