Are There Any Ways To Get Rid Of White Facial Hair?

White facial hair can be bothersome if it appears at a young age. But why do they appear at such an age? The growth of a single strand of white hair is common, and you might have observed it on any face around you. These are so stubborn that even some of the IPL devices are less effective on such pigment-free hair. What are the reasons for its growth and how can we manage them? Let’s explore this in this article. 

Table of Contents:

• • Part 1: Why Can One Get White Facial Hair?
  • Part 2: Ways For White Facial Hair Removal
  • Part 3: Conclusion

Why Can One Get White Facial Hair?

Scientific evidence suggests that white facial hair is likely to be caused by hormonal fluctuations, just like coarse black hair. The difference between them is that follicular cells might get mutated due to different stress factors, leading to the growth of no-pigment hair. White hair is mostly grown on the chin, neck, and T-zone of the face, and there is no standard medical terminology for it.

Let’s dive deep into what happens in the follicular cells during the production of gray or white hair. 

We all know that hair naturally contains a pigment called melanin, which is responsible for producing black color in the hair shaft. The darker the hair, the more pigment it will contain. When there is less production of the pigment melanin due to any cause (follicular mutation, follicular trauma, degradation of melanocytes, etc.), it will turn your hair colorless. 

Sometimes, due to follicular or melanocyte mutations, you can observe the growth of a single strand of white hair surrounded by black ones; sometimes it grows faster, and sometimes it appears longer than others. These are all due to cellular or individual genetic mutations due to localized factors.

As long as these variations aren’t causing any problems, there’s generally no need to be overly concerned about them.

Vitiligo and other general skin pigmentation issues can cause white hair outgrowth. The majority of people who get these hairs may be suffering from a transient disruption of their pigmentation, like a superficial skin fungus from going to the beach or it could be caused by other factors like stress, poor diet, aging, genetics, vitamin deficiencies, smoking, or oxidative stress.

Ways For White Facial Hair Removal

There are a number of ways you can get rid of your facial hair, especially white hair. The decision to select any of the following methods depends on the rate of your hair growth, preferences, and expected outcomes.

Pluck, Tweez, or Epilation

These are simple and quick methods that allow you to manually extract hair one by one using a tweezer or epilator device. These provide good results when there are 2 to 5 countable hairs. However, with an epilator, you can manage a larger area as well. These methods help extract hair from the roots and are recommended for a few strands of white hair.

Use A Thread

Threading is a technique in which you twist the strands of threads and use them to pull out the hair from a selected area. Threading not only removes white facial hair but also helps to extract fine hairs from the roots. This technique is recommended if you have a small or patchy area of white hair on your face. 

Waxing

Waxing is quite painful for sensitive areas like the face. Although it helps to pull off hair from the roots and cover larger areas, it also causes ingrown hair, dark spots, and hair bumps afterward. Such marks are not tolerable on the face. Therefore, waxing is not recommended to remove your white hair from your face. Furthermore, fine hair is not removed efficiently and sometimes there is hair shaft breakage as well, leaving short and sharp hair.

Facial Hair-Removing Creams 

Depilatory creams, especially those formulated for sensitive skin like the face, help chemically dissolve hair from the surface of the skin. These are painless, quick, and cost-effective. Unfortunately, the hair-dissolving chemicals are dependent on the melanin pigment. Such creams will not dissolve white hairs from your face because of a lack of melanin pigment. However, you can find some advanced-formulated creams that are not dependent on melanin to dissolve hair, but they are quite costly.

Trim or Shave

If you are in a hurry or can’t afford any appointments with a dermatologist, face shaving or trimming suits you best. Trimming or shaving includes hair cutting, and hair cutting does not depend on the pigment of the hair. Therefore, it works for your go-to solution but it does not ensure long-lasting results. 

Hair Removal via Laser

As we all know, laser devices work best when there is hair-skin contrast and melanin in the hair. Because of these reasons, laser devices are unable to target white hair. Therefore, most IPL devices are ineffective in such cases. For example, Ulike Air 10 provides the required energy from its IPL apparatuses to effectively target darkly pigmented hair.

Some of the Ulike standard parameters for white facial hair removal via IPL include:

Facial Electrolysis

FDA-cleared electrolysis is a highly advanced and efficient method for eliminating white hair from the face. Electro means “current,” and lysis means “breakdown.” It means the procedure involves killing the follicular cells by passing an electric current through them. The current is not dependent on skin-to-hair contrast or the presence of melanin in hair; therefore, it is equally beneficial for white facial hairs as for black ones.

Conclusion

White facial hair can be triggering sometimes because these colorless hairs are more resistant than black ones. Extracting them manually, shaving them, or using depilatory facial creams, do not provide long-term solutions. However, innovative IPL devices like Ulike Air 10 or electrolysis can be very effective for a longer-lasting solution because they can target all hair colors. The choice of method depends on your skin type preferences, level of confidence in the chosen technique, and expected results. 

FAQs

Q1: Is it possible to naturally remove white facial hair at home? 

There are a number of home remedies and DIY facial masks to help remove the white hair. But this only helps in a way that it can make white hair less noticeable. However, sugaring, a paste consisting of sugar, water, and lemon juice, can help weaken the hair structure. It works in a similar manner as wax, but you do not pull off the hair; instead, you let it dry and peel it off to extract the weak hair from its root.

Q2: What is the reason for the growth of single, long white hair on my face? 

A long strand of white hair usually appears because sometimes it is unnoticeable until it grows to a reasonable length. Sometimes, it can be due to a localized mutation in follicular cells to grow colorless hair faster than others. However, this single strand of hair won’t bother you much with regrowth; you can manually pull it off using a tweezer.

Q3: Does white hair grow more quickly than black hair? 

There is no scientific theory that supports this concept. However, it is primarily dependent on visual perception. White hair is more prominent and noticeable in a group of black hair and we can perceive that it is growing faster than black ones, even if they are growing at the same rate.