I was reading online and some places say that plucking hair can damage the follicle sometimes to the point it cannot regrow. How true is this? Does this also apply to facial hair? It says there is about 30,000 hairs on the beard. Looking at some calculations. If you pluck 28 hairs 3 times a day, once when you wake up, then middle of the day, and another 28 before going to sleep, and make that your 'mantra' you'd be going through the whole beard in 1 year time. I wonder if some permanent follicle damage would happen and cause some hairs to not regrow back? I think I recall reading that sometimes when you pluck you can even see the 'root' coming out which is like a little thick ball with some liquid at the end of the hair. Is that really the root?

My mother tells me not to worry about the remaining hairs on my face when I stress about what laser didn't get. She says she has had hairs on her face before and simply plucked them over and over and they stopped coming back... so it may be true.

Okay, this is what I have learned about electrolysis and plucking.  I got this from my electrolysis tech whom I trust implicitly.  Plucking will eventually damage the hair follicle enough that it will die; unfortunately, the time it takes to do this is extremely lengthy.  I'm talking years and years of plucking.  I plucked facial hairs everyday for almost a year before I finally booked my first electrolysis appointment.  I told my electrolysis tech this and she agreed plucking does damage the hair follicle, but not in a good way.  Plucking changes the angles of how the hair grows back and can also dry out the root; both of which make electrolysis less effective and more difficult.  You want the root to be as moist as possible.  As I understand it, electrolysis does not electrocute the hair follicle, but instead, the needle probe they use sends out a radio signal (microwaves) which "excites" the water molecules in the hair follicle.  The hair follicle then heats up and it dies because of the heat that is produced.  It's exactly how a microwave oven works, but on a much smaller scale obviously.  She is also not to keen on laser for facial hair.  She said laser works pretty well on the legs and arms, provided you have light skin and dark hairs, but it is not nearly as effective on the face.

So in short, plucking will work.  It may take 20-30 to work, but it will probably eventually kill the hair follicle.  Electrolysis has around a 30% effective kill rate.  So for every 10 hairs treated, 3 will die.  That's why it takes 4-5 complete clearings of electrolysis before things are said and done.  It hurts, but it is effective.  Hope this helps.

Quote from: Ellement_of_Freedom on April 25, 2018, 10:36:53 PM
My mother tells me not to worry about the remaining hairs on my face when I stress about what laser didn't get. She says she has had hairs on her face before and simply plucked them over and over and they stopped coming back... so it may be true.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichotillomania

Basically people that nervously pluck out hairs can cause permanent baldness (wherever you are plucking it).  The same goes for any hair on the body.  I pluck the few facial hairs I get.. then again I don't have hardly any after all these years.   Plucks away!  However if you have a full beard, I'd highly recommend electrolysis or laser over plucking alone.   Especially if you are prone to ingrown hairs.

Electrolysis is just DC or AC electrical current, or the two working in combination.  These are "modalities" referred to as galvanic, thermolysis, or blend.  Thermolysis is equivalent to a radio signal, in a sense.

From the beginning my electrologist made a huge deal about being sufficiently hydrated, so the electro works at its fullest potential; and she cautioned me that plucking in whatever form distorts follicles, so I immediately packed away my rotary epilator.

Thank you all for the replies. Glad to hear that what little I have read online about this subject is true. I guess that the hair can eventually die after all if it is over plucked. I plucked out 200 hairs and noticed that about 5 or so had gel at the end and perhaps even the root. Unsure really, though I have seen that before.

I'm trying to find out just how long it takes for a plucked hair to regrow and online information says it can be in as little as 2 weeks or as far as 4 weeks. I'd guess that this is also influenced by the amount of active androgens. HRT also seems to slow down the hair regrowth speed and thin the hair a little from what I read. If this can push the regrowth cycle as far back as 6 weeks that would be nice .

I would be quite happy to save the cash on electrolysis work if plucking works. Even if it does take a long time. I could put it to other uses like saving up for facial feminization surgery. Not that I have any money right now, so plucking is basically my only option.

Another thing is that I read is that electrolysis can hyper pigmentate the are around a hair follicle or even damage the skin and leave scaring or even pitting. Not sure what else. At least I don't think plucking has any of these side effects? The main issue would be ingrown hairs. I'm unsure if I am susceptible to them.

At 30,000 beard hairs it should take about 10 months with the removal of 100 hairs a day in a 30 day month calendar. Doing 200 hairs would reduce that to 5 months. That doesn't seem to bad though actually doing it through can be the real challenge along with whatever happens along the way!

Quote from: Doreen on April 26, 2018, 01:45:47 PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichotillomania

Basically people that nervously pluck out hairs can cause permanent baldness (wherever you are plucking it).  The same goes for any hair on the body.  I pluck the few facial hairs I get.. then again I don't have hardly any after all these years.   Plucks away!  However if you have a full beard, I'd highly recommend electrolysis or laser over plucking alone.   Especially if you are prone to ingrown hairs.

When you say that you pluck the few facial hairs that you do get does that mean you've had laser or electroligy work already? Or did you start HRT at the age of 16 or earlier before the facial hair developped? I started HRT at 21 years old and unfortunately by then I already had facial hair. Wish I could have started at 16 ish which I think was the time before I had any facial hair. Just checked one of my very first saved transition posts from another group and its dated 08-10-2006 so probably around 21 years old and a half! Close enough lol.

Quote from: Asakawa on April 30, 2018, 12:28:07 AM

Thank you all for the replies. Glad to hear that what little I have read online about this subject is true. I guess that the hair can eventually die after all if it is over plucked. I plucked out 200 hairs and noticed that about 5 or so had gel at the end and perhaps even the root. Unsure really, though I have seen that before.

I'm trying to find out just how long it takes for a plucked hair to regrow and online information says it can be in as little as 2 weeks or as far as 4 weeks. I'd guess that this is also influenced by the amount of active androgens. HRT also seems to slow down the hair regrowth speed and thin the hair a little from what I read. If this can push the regrowth cycle as far back as 6 weeks that would be nice .

I would be quite happy to save the cash on electrolysis work if plucking works. Even if it does take a long time. I could put it to other uses like saving up for facial feminization surgery. Not that I have any money right now, so plucking is basically my only option.

Another thing is that I read is that electrolysis can hyper pigmentate the are around a hair follicle or even damage the skin and leave scaring or even pitting. Not sure what else. At least I don't think plucking has any of these side effects? The main issue would be ingrown hairs. I'm unsure if I am susceptible to them.

At 30,000 beard hairs it should take about 10 months with the removal of 100 hairs a day in a 30 day month calendar. Doing 200 hairs would reduce that to 5 months. That doesn't seem to bad though actually doing it through can be the real challenge along with whatever happens along the way!

When you say that you pluck the few facial hairs that you do get does that mean you've had laser or electroligy work already? Or did you start HRT at the age of 16 or earlier before the facial hair developped? I started HRT at 21 years old and unfortunately by then I already had facial hair. Wish I could have started at 16 ish which I think was the time before I had any facial hair. Just checked one of my very first saved transition posts from another group and its dated 08-10-2006 so probably around 21 years old and a half! Close enough lol.

I had about 10 hours or maybe a few more on my upper lip.. my body didn't respond to testosterone, as I didn't have any from the earliest tests (around 21 first measured).  No body hair, very few facial hair.  I have a couple other strange things happening biologically I've whined about far too much anyways.   I'm in my own little world over here, if that helps any.