Is It Safe To Pull Out Loose Hairs After Laser Hair Removal?

Treated hairs typically begin to fall out several days after laser hair removal but may continue shedding for two weeks or more. Some hairs won’t fall out at all and may end up being pushed out by a new hair in the future.

Is it safe to pull out loose hairs after laser hair removal? Since society tends to look for instant gratification and immediate results, we’re often not willing to wait for desired results to transpire. The question is whether or not plucking hairs is a good idea.

Plucking hair carries a danger to sensitive areas of your body and if the tweezers aren’t sterile. After laser hair removal body hair typically begins falling out within about 5 days of treatment naturally and may continue for up to two weeks. Lightly exfoliating skin is a safer and better choice.

What happens if you pluck hair after laser?

You definitely don’t want to pluck hairs before hair removal treatment because laser only zaps hair that is above the skin and in the growth phase. But what about plucking treated hairs after treatment?

Plucking any hair with tweezers carries some risk if the tweezers aren’t sterile and if the area you’re removing hair from is very sensitive. Following laser hair removal treatment, hairs will fall out on their own. Your skin is already irritated and possibly reddened from the laser so using tweezers may exacerbate the condition, too.

One side effect of laser hair removal treatment in my experience is small whiteheads appearing on treated areas. Treated hairs may curl up and continue growing downwards, blocking the follicle resulting in a zit.

Lightly exfoliating the skin with a loofah during a shower can help to alleviate this while gently helping to remove dead or dying hairs that were zapped during last treatment. You might want to wait several days after treatment however for the skin reddening to subside.

Tweezing multiple hairs close together may promote hair growth

Research has shown that plucking hairs close together might actually stimulate hair growth with a phenomenon known as quorum sensing as this article from NCBI shows. So there is some evidence that tweezing may actually promote the growth of hair rather than disrupting or eliminating the growth cycle.

The laser hair removal process attempts to kill the ability of as many hair follicles as possible to regrow hair. Disrupting this process by plucking hairs may actually do more harm than good.

To understand why plucking hairs is both unnecessary and possibly counterproductive, let’s take a closer look at the laser hair removal process.

Simple overview of laser hair removal

Laser hair removal heats the hair down to the bottom of the hair follicle to a degree that is harmless (relatively) to the outer skin but destructive to the hair and follicle itself.

With each laser treatment, you attempt to destroy the ability of as many hair follicles as possible to regrow a new hair while not damaging the skin. There is some pain felt when doing laser treatment but the design of modern lasers is to focus the energy of the laser to the bottom of the hair follicle to destroy its ability to grow new hair.

Over time, laser machines have become more adept at safely and successfully treating a wider group of people including all colors and tones of skin but still generally work best on dark hair.

Laser hair removal is a fine balance of providing enough light energy to destroy hair follicles while leaving the outer skin undamaged other than superficial short term skin irritation and reddening.

What happens after laser hair removal

You will typically notice a few things after laser hair removal:

Laser Hair Removal Symptom	Explanation
Reddened skin	The heat from the laser temporarily reddens skin, can irritate it and make it sensitive for several or more days. This usually passes within several days after treatment. Plucking hairs may make reddened skin worse.
Curled, shriveled up hairs	Laser heats the hair down to the follicle and destroys the hair. Upon zapping the unwanted hairs, they typically respond by curling up and falling out over a period of days that could last up to several weeks.
Hairs continue to grow	You may see treated hairs getting longer and seemingly continuing to grow. It’s possible they were accidentally missed by laser treatment or they could be treated hairs that are being pushed out by a new hair. They could also be a previously dormant hair starting to grow.
Some hairs aren’t falling out after treatment	Treated hairs often take two weeks or longer to fall out. Other hairs may fall out right away or within several days. Hairs falls out naturally after treatment so plucking is really unnecessary.
Whiteheads or a rash appear	After laser treatment, small whiteheads and zits may temporarily appear. As with any acne, your pores can get clogged which results in a whitehead. The treated hair might be blocking your pore until it falls out. Some people also have more sensitive skin and a rash along with whiteheads may temporarily appear. This is another reason why you don’t want to pluck after hair removal especially when your skin is already irritated.

How quickly does hair fall out after laser hair removal?

Hair doesn’t necessarily fall out right away following laser hair removal as discussed above. Some hairs might begin to fall out immediately. Other hairs may need several days or longer to fall out. You may notice hairs falling out two weeks after treatment. And some hairs won’t fall out at all and will hopefully be zapped during the next treatment.

Because of this, it doesn’t make sense to schedule another hair removal appointment 2 weeks after treatment as some clinics suggest. Laser hair removal clinics generally feel that a follow up laser hair removal appointment 6 weeks later is ideal.

And in case you were wondering, the time of year – the season – you get laser hair removal treatment done no longer matters either, something I discuss in the article link you just read above.

Can I do laser hair removal every week?

Scheduling laser hair removal appointments once every 6 weeks is your best bet. It enables hairs that were treated to fall out and for new previously dormant hairs to grow and be treated the next time you have a laser appointment.

If you had laser hair removal appointments every week or two, hairs from the previous treatment would still be falling out. New hair wouldn’t have had much of a chance to grow and be treated. You’d be wasting your time and money.

Laser hair removal only works on hair in the growth phase. Hair can only be treated by laser when it is showing above the skin, too. You shave prior to laser treatment so that the hair is slightly visible above the skin but not long enough to negatively affect the ability of the laser to hit the bottom of the hair follicle.

By waiting around 6 weeks in between appointments, treated hairs can fall out and new hairs can grow in that you can then treat during the next scheduled laser appointment.

Why is my hair still growing after laser hair removal?

You might feel inclined to pluck hairs after laser treatment because you feel that they are still growing.

In general terms, treated hairs may look like they are growing when in fact they are simply being pushed out by a new replacement hair. It’s also possible that the hair is dead from the laser treatment and is slowly removing itself from your skin. It could also be a brand new hair that was dormant during treatment but that now entered the growth phase.

It’s also possible that the treatment was done improperly. It could be that:

• The setting on the laser wasn’t strong enough and didn’t actually damage the hair to the point of destruction.
• That particular hair was missed for treatment by the laser practitioner.
• Your hair wasn’t shaved short enough and wasn’t able to be treated properly.

The pulse of the laser travels down the hair shaft to the bottom of the follicle. The shorter the hair, the less energy is spent traveling down the shaft and the greater the energy hitting the bottom of the hair follicle to damage it in an attempt to destroy its ability to grow a new hair.

It goes to to show how important choosing a quality laser hair removal practitioner is. The more skilled and knowledgeable they are, the better your success and the less likely you’ll even feel the need to pluck out loose hairs after treatment since they’ll fall out on their own.

How do you know if laser hair removal is working?

Within 5- 14 days of laser hair removal treatment, unwanted hair that was treated should be falling out. You can help the process along by lightly exfoliating your skin during shower without further irritating the skin.

Over time and with repeated treatments you should notice an overall reduction in the amount of unwanted hair that you experience.

There is a proviso however and it’s not something you typically read about. Laser and other hair removal clinics usually focus on telling you about their service, their laser machines, their clinic and things of that nature. They may show you before and after photos of clients. They paint a rosy picture of nice looking hair free people running on a beach on a sunny day.

What is often neglected is the issue of the hair growth cycle and what this means to you.

My hair removal experience and the hair growth cycle

I had hair that began growing on my back and shoulders area in my early 20s. It’s gross but it is what it is. I can’t remember exactly when I noticed it but it was probably around age 19 or 20 from memory. I tried a laser treatment but then after moving to a new country, started having Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) treatment as it seemed like a new, state of the art technology at the time that I thought might be better than laser. This started at age 29.

I ended up going for about 16 visits from memory over a 2 year period. I got busy at times and often didn’t go for maybe 3 months especially after moving cities and being farther away from the clinic.

The results?

I definitely noticed a reduction (to this day) in the total unwanted hair. But here’s the thing: I’m certain that while having the treatment, I had new hairs growing. So even as I was eliminating some hairs permanently, new previously dormant hair was growing in its place.

That’s why I ended up going for 16 treatments and not 5 or 6. The truth is, I could go for another few treatments now for some that remains particularly on the kidney area. Over time, dormant hair continued to pop up, making it look like the hair removal sessions weren’t working.

Why is this?

Hair growth and hair loss

Hair growth and baldness is determined mainly by our DNA. Certainly age, hair styles and hair care, disease, infection, diet and other factors contribute. Baldness can also be affected by stress levels and medications that you take.

The hormone dihydrotestosterone (DHT) is a derivative of testosterone and it causes hair follicles to shrivel up and die leading to permanent hair reduction and loss in that area(s).

But while DHT has a negative affect on hair growth on our head, it has the opposite effect elsewhere. That’s why you might notice back hair, shoulder hair and hair in your ears and nose suddenly cropping up that you’d prefer not to have! Some men – particularly men with hairy backs and shoulders – are more sensitive to the effects of testosterone than others.

Summary

Can I pull out hairs after laser hair removal? It’s best that you don’t. Treated hairs will fall out on their own over a period of about 5-14 days after treatment but hairs may continue falling out after that time, too. Research has shown that plucking hairs closely together might actually stimulate hair growth which would defeat the positive effects of laser hair removal treatment.

Treated areas on the body may redden and be irritated after treatment so plucking hairs isn’t a great idea as the skin has already experienced trauma and tweezers may not be sterile. Lightly exfoliating the skin in the shower is a better idea once the skin reddening has subsided.

Learning a bit about the hair growth cycle and why you have excess hair in the first place may help you better deal with the unwanted hair while scheduling your laser hair removal treatments apart from one another to hit as many hairs in the growth cycle as possible.

You don’t want to schedule appointments too close or too far apart. Your laser clinic should be able to help you manage this schedule for your specific needs. Having laser appointments about 6 weeks apart is usually ideal. It gives treated hairs enough time to fall out so you don’t feel compelled to pluck them while also allowing new hairs to grow in that can be treated during the next session.

With post hair removal treatment in general, it doesn’t hurt to care for the affected skin too. It can help to prevent razor bumps and blemishes after treatment.