Long telogen phase for body hair? Are you sure?

[Pangloss]

I understand that body hair's main disadvantage for transplanting is that it has a short anagen (growth) phase and very long telogen (resting) phase.

But in the past, when I have had my back hair waxed at a salon, it always started growing back in only 7 to 10 days.

I also have a lot of annoying hairs in my ears and on my ****. I pluck them, and they are always growing again in 1 to 2 weeks.

I realize that, possibly, the new growth is hairs that were in invisible telogen, and not the same hairs that I plucked.

If that's the case, I must have zillions of latent telogen hairs, which seems unlikely in my ears.

Other possibility is that the hairs were broken, not plucked. But I can feel the difference between when I break a hair and when I pluck it, and usually my plucks are successful.

One more possibility is that, for genetic or other reasons, I have a MUCH shorter telogen phase than the average. This would be an advantage for transplanting these hairs to my scalp, even though it's a hassle when trying to keep my body hair well groomed.

Does anyone have similar experiences?
 

[Pangloss]

Hmm, no replies. Well, maybe someone can at least tell me: I am assuming that when you pluck a hair with a tweezer, that follicle goes into telogen. Is that true or not true?

[Melvin- Admin]

You’re confusing the rate of growth with the anagen phase. The anagen phase is essentially the hair follicles life cycle, it’s typically how long a hair follicle lives. That should not be confused with how fast the hair actually grows. The reason the scalp hair can grow so long is the fact that it has a long life, unlike body hair that has a short life-span. The only other hair that has a similarly long life cycle is beard hair. 

[Melvin- Admin]

1 hour ago, Pangloss said:

Hmm, no replies. Well, maybe someone can at least tell me: I am assuming that when you pluck a hair with a tweezer, that follicle goes into telogen. Is that true or not true?

That is not true, plucking hair has no bearing on the hairs life cycle. 

[Al - Moderator]

On 5/17/2020 at 8:33 AM, Pangloss said:

But in the past, when I have had my back hair waxed at a salon, it always started growing back in only 7 to 10 days.

I also have a lot of annoying hairs in my ears and on my ****. I pluck them, and they are always growing again in 1 to 2 weeks.

I realize that, possibly, the new growth is hairs that were in invisible telogen, and not the same hairs that I plucked.

 

I agree with you. My body hair grows back really quickly after I pluck it. Now that I've had over 4600 body hair grafts transplanted to my scalp I can say that my transplanted body hair grows faster and longer than my native scalp hair. It does take a bit longer to get started once it's first transplanted, but after about a year it really kicks in and the growth speeds up.

[Pangloss]

On 5/19/2020 at 7:32 AM, Melvin-Moderator said:

That is not true, plucking hair has no bearing on the hairs life cycle. 

Really? Even if the plucked hair has the bulb on the end? I don't know where I got the idea that plucking terminates the anagen phase.

[Melvin- Admin]

1 minute ago, Pangloss said:

Really? Even if the plucked hair has the bulb on the end? I don't know where I got the idea that plucking terminates the anagen phase.

No, the hair follicle is superficial, what grows the hair is the dermal papilla under the skin. That is why you have to completely remove the hair follicle from it's root in order for the hair to grow, you cannot just pluck a hair follicle and transplant it. I hope that makes sense.

[Pangloss]

On 5/19/2020 at 11:43 AM, BeHappy said:

 

I agree with you. My body hair grows back really quickly after I pluck it. Now that I've had over 4600 body hair grafts transplanted to my scalp I can say that my transplanted body hair grows faster and longer than my native scalp hair. It does take a bit longer to get started once it's first transplanted, but after about a year it really kicks in and the growth speeds up.

That's amazing, BeHappy, and goes counter to  what we are usually told. Studies I read said that the body hair usually grows a little longer on the scalp than it did on the body, due to recipient influence. But if your hair is growing longer than your native scalp hair, what is that telling us about anagen phase of body hair? Maybe that it's very variable from person to person and some of us hairy apes have very long anagen phases?

You had beard, chest and stomach hairs transplanted, IIRC. I hope one day you will be able to estimate the percentage of these hairs that grew. So many doctors are saying only a very low percent of them grow, beard being the exception.

[Pangloss]

6 minutes ago, Melvin-Moderator said:

No, the hair follicle is superficial, what grows the hair is the dermal papilla under the skin. That is why you have to completely remove the hair follicle from it's root in order for the hair to grow, you cannot just pluck a hair follicle and transplant it. I hope that makes sense.

Thanks Melvin. Yes, that makes sense. But I think I read somewhere that one doctor who is experimenting with follicle stem cells (Is it Dr. Goh?) has gotten plucked hair to grow when implanted.

[Melvin- Admin]

6 minutes ago, Pangloss said:

Thanks Melvin. Yes, that makes sense. But I think I read somewhere that one doctor who is experimenting with follicle stem cells (Is it Dr. Goh?) has gotten plucked hair to grow when implanted.

Wow he’s still around, I haven’t heard his name in years. It’s a scam, and everyone knows he was literally splitting hairs. 

[Pangloss]

On 5/19/2020 at 11:43 AM, BeHappy said:

 

I agree with you. My body hair grows back really quickly after I pluck it. Now that I've had over 4600 body hair grafts transplanted to my scalp I can say that my transplanted body hair grows faster and longer than my native scalp hair. It does take a bit longer to get started once it's first transplanted, but after about a year it really kicks in and the growth speeds up.

So maybe what the delay in growth means is that the body hair  telogen phase  is longer than that of scalp hair, but the body hair anagen phase for some of us is also longer than the average, enabling your body hair to grow long, and then when it finally falls out, take a long time to regrow.