Pluck Hair: Safety Tips, Side Effects and FAQs

Women often resort to plucking unwanted hair when they see a few stray hairs on their chins, upper lips, or eyebrows. Although commonly used for removing facial hair, many people tweeze hair from other parts of their bodies as well.

You are all aware of the extreme pain you experience when you get hair strands out of the follicles one by one, right? But, there are many other risk factors associated with plucking as well.

Therefore, we will explore the correct way to pluck unwanted hair, the side effects you need to avoid, safety tips to reduce the side effects, and FAQs related to plucking hair in this article. 

Table of Contents:

• Part 1: How to Pluck Hair Safely at Home?
• Part 2: Side Effects of Plucking Hair
• Part 3: Safety Tips and Tricks to Pluck Unwanted Hair
• Part 4: A Safe and Nearly Painless Alternative to Plucking Hair
• Part 5: FAQs
  

How to Pluck Hair Safely at Home?

The risk of pain and other side effects is greatly reduced if you pluck your hair following all precautions. So, here is your step-by-step guide to plucking hair at home. 

• Get high-quality tweezers according to the area you are treating. For example, tweezers with angle tips work great for facial hair. 
• Then prepare your skin by washing it with a gentle cleanser and lukewarm water.
• Let the skin air-dry or use a towel to pat it dry.
• Apply a thin layer of powder on the skin so that the hair is clearly visible.
• Grab your tweezers and hold the hair at its base.
• Pull the hair out with a single tug in the direction of the hair growth.
• Remove every hair strand you see in the treatment area
• Wash your face again with cool water and apply a moisturizer 

Side Effects of Plucking Hair

It is often recommended not to pluck hair for several reasons mentioned in Why is plucking facial hair bad? Furthermore, here are the side effects of plucking hair you should beware of.  

1. Painful

The hair follicles receive active blood supply and deliver signals to the brain as well as neurovascular bundle lies near them. When a hair is plucked, it irritates the nerves and causes pain. Plucking hair follicles one by one can cause extreme pain.

Moreover, the intensity of this pain varies from person to person. 

2. Time Consuming

You can not pluck multiple hair strands as you do in waxing or even threading. So, removing hair with tweezers even from a small area like eyebrows can take up to 15 minutes.

Removing hair from the full face or other areas of the body can take an hour or more. So, plucking is not a good option for busy people. 

3. Ingrown Hair

At times, you break the hair strand midway in its length instead of removing it from the roots. These broken hair strands twist just under the surface of the skin and cause ingrown hair. 

This ingrown hair appears as a bump with a black spot in it. Also, it can get infected and inflamed resulting in folliculitis. 

4. Skin Damage

As hair growth does not stop after plucking, you have to pluck the hair again and again. This puts trauma on the skin and can cause hyperpigmentation, uneven skin tone, and scarring. 

Safety Tips and Tricks to Pluck Unwanted Hair

While following the instructions as we discussed earlier, here are some safety tips you must follow for a good experience of tweezing hair. 

1. Always Use a Clean Pair of Tweezers

One of the side effects of tweezing is folliculitis. Also, unclean tweezers increase the risk of skin infections. So, always use a clean or sterilized pair of tweezers. For this, use rubbing alcohol to clean the tweezers before and after plucking your hair.

Also, you can wash the tweezers with soap and water.  

2. Do Not Poke a Specific Area Again and Again

Pay attention to pulling the hair from the roots in one go by holding it from the base. However, only try once or twice to remove the hair if you break the hair strand or have an ingrown hair.

Do not poke the area multiple times as it might cause skin irritation, scarring, pigmentation, or infection.

3. Mind the Direction of Hair Growth

The correct way to pluck the hair is to pull it along the grain. Therefore, you should carefully look at the direction your hair grows and hold the tweezers at a slight angle in that direction. 

4. Only Pluck When Your Skin is Healthy 

Plucking hair on the skin with active acne or compromised skin barrier aggravates the condition. Additionally, your skin is hypersensitive around your monthly periods. Therefore, pluck only when your skin is in good condition and you are done with your periods. 

5. Pre and Post Care is a Must 

One of the ways to reduce the pain during plucking hair is to prepare your skin well. Washing the face removes impurities and using lukewarm water opens the pores. Consequently, hair removal becomes easy.

Moreover, rinsing the face after plucking with cold water along with moisturizing calms the skin.

A Safe and Nearly Painless Alternative to Plucking Hair 

Whether you follow the safety tips or take additional measures to reduce the side effects of plucking, pain, quick hair regrowth, and time consumption stay constant. That is why we suggest you switch to the Ulike Air 10 IPL hair removal device. 

This exceptional device has the following benefits in comparison to plucking unwanted hair. 

No Side Effects As Experienced by Plucking Hair

With Ulike Air 10, there is almost no pain in removing the hair. This is because you do not irritate the follicles as in plucking. Additionally, this device features next-gen ice-cooling technology to reduce pain. So, although you feel mild discomfort, there is no need to be afraid of severe pain. 

In addition, 1 session of hair removal with Ulike takes 10 to 15 minutes for a full body in contrast to 1 hour on a single area as in plucking. Lastly, there is no risk of hyperpigmentation, ingrown hairs, folliculitis, or skin scarring. 

No Need to Pluck Unwanted Hair Every Few Days

IPL hair removal provides long-lasting results as it kills the hair follicles. Within 2 weeks, you will notice that your hair is growing at a slow rate and its density is also reducing. 

Within a few more weeks, hair regrowth becomes minimal. Therefore, you can enjoy hairless skin without plucking your hair regularly. 

No Need to Buy New Tweezers or Sharpen Old Ones 

Ulike Air 10 comes with razors, an IPL device, a charger, and a storage case. This durable device can last for decades and needs no tweezer to remove hair. 

Therefore, you do not need to worry about buying a new set of tweezers or sharpening your old dull ones every few weeks. 

Suitable for Full Body and Facial Hair Removal

Plucking of hair might be done on the face, axilla, and even pubic hair, but it is not a safe method of hair removal for the full body. 

In comparison, you can use Ulike on your face, intimate areas, limbs, armpits, and every area where hair grows. Also, it is FDA-cleared and dermatologist-recommended. 

FAQs

1. Which Areas of the Body are Compatible with Plucking Hair?

Although people tweeze unwanted hair from almost every area of the body, it is not recommended to pluck the hair on the following areas, 

• Inside the ears or the nose
• Strawberry legs or ingrown hair
• On face with compromised barrier
• Area with active acne
• Hair grown in the moles

2. Does Tweezing Unwanted Hair Remove it Permanently?

No, tweezing only removes a single hair strand from the follicle. It does not destroy the follicle allowing it to regrow a new hair strand. Therefore, no matter how many times you pluck hair, they always grow back.

However, the growth rate slows down if you pluck hair consistently. 

3. Does Hair Grow Back Thicker if You Pluck It?

Plucking the hair from the follicles does not affect its density, texture, or thickness. It is because once the hair is removed, the follicle regenerates the same hair. So, it does not grow back thicker if you pluck it.

4. How to Reduce Pain Caused by Plucking Hair?

You can reduce the pain caused by plucking by,

• Scrubbing the skin well a few days before plucking hair
• Opening the pores by rinsing the face with lukewarm water or keeping a warm towel on the face
• Keeping your skin taut in the area you are plucking hair
• Letting the hair grow to an appropriate length before tweezing it
• Taking an over-the-counter painkiller

Conclusion 

Plucking is the method of air removal in which tweezers are used to remove the hair from the roots. This method allows you to stay hair-free for a month. However, it can cause pain, ingrown hair, folliculitis, skin scarring, and hyperpigmentation.

You can take safety precautions to reduce such side effects. Furthermore, you can avoid them by stopping to pluck unwanted hair. Instead, IPL hair removal can prove to be a better hair removal method for you.