Shaving, waxing, trimming, using hair removal cream or dermaplaning? When it comes to hair removal, it helps to know the type of hair that you’re dealing with. Here, we help you get clued-up on the types of body and facial hair that exist and what you can do if you no longer want them.
Why do we have facial hair and hair on our bodies?
Hair helps our bodies regulate body temperature and even receive sensory messages. While these qualities were useful in our dim and distant past, they don’t serve much of a purpose these days with clothes, central heating and air conditioning doing a better job.
It’s also believed that body hair can help us to detect parasites and insects, another advantage that isn’t that useful anymore, unless you’re going on a camping trip!
The hair growth cycle
We each have an average of five million hair follicles on our bodies. Only around 100 thousand of these are on our scalps and the rest are on our bodies. At any given time, your hair will be in one of the four stages of growth:
- Anagen (growing phase)
- Catagen (transitioning phase)
- Telogen (resting phase)
- Exogen (new hair phase)
