# hair waxing--leads to sparser growth? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 11, 2002, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hair-waxing-leads-to-sparser-growth/108431 "2002-05-11T03:35:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Pablito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@Pablito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pablito)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hair-waxing-leads-to-sparser-growth/108431/1 "2002-05-11T03:35:29Z")
What’s the deal with wax treatments used to remove (by the root) certain unwanted hairs? My wife’s wax hair remover kit says that such treatments will lead to sparser and finer hair regrowth in the area that was treated. Is this true? Why? ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hair-waxing-leads-to-sparser-growth/108431/2 "2002-05-11T04:26:14Z")
You’re probably going to get several different answers to this, because different people see different results because they have different hair and skin types. The part about finer – this tends to be true. When you shave, you are whacking the hair off where it pokes out of the skin, and as it continues to grow, the blunt cut end of the hair is rough – ya know, stubble. However, when you wax, you are pulling out the entire hair by the root. When it grows back, the brand new hair has a tapered end, and for many people, this feels softer, finer, than stubble. Think of a carrot – the shaved hair is like cutting the carrot in half, so the cross-section is pretty thick. The waxed hair is like the pointy end. For people who have naturally coarser hair, they might not see as much difference. For some women, this is not a good thing, because it can cause ingrown hairs. If the pointy end is _too_ fine, it has trouble pushing through the skin. The part about thinner – there is a belief that repeated waxing eventually damages the hair follicle enough so that some percentage of the follicles just stop producing hair altogether. At the risk of being too IMHO-ish, I have been waxing routinely for about 15 years, and only in the part few years have I seen any decrease in the amount of hair at all, and I wouldn’t even call it a significant decrease. I know people who have been waxing for more years, and haven’t had any decrease. ---
**Author:** ![medstar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f07891/32.png) [@medstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/medstar)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hair-waxing-leads-to-sparser-growth/108431/3 "2002-05-11T21:22:02Z")
I can definitely attest to the fact that after repeated waxings (sugarings in my case) the hair follicles weaken and some die. I have bald spots on my legs where the hair just won’t grow any more. Would that that would happen on my bikini line as well. ---
**Author:** ![xcheopis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bc8723/32.png) [@xcheopis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xcheopis)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2002, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hair-waxing-leads-to-sparser-growth/108431/4 "2002-05-11T21:29:00Z")
I, too, have seen the eventual disappearence of large swaths of hair.