Since our estrogen levels drop as we reach middle to later age, body hair growth corresponds by becoming sparser and thinner, too. In fact, most people will see a significant slow down in the production of leg and arm hair.
If baldness runs in your family, hair loss can occur on your legs as well as your head. Losing hair on your legs is also connected with a number of health issues, like poor circulation, diabetes, thyroid conditions, fungal infections, folliculitis, hormone changes, and pituitary gland disorders.
When people think of hair loss, also known as alopecia, they likely think of losing strands of hair from their heads. While this type of hair loss might be the most noticeable, you can lose hair from virtually any part of your body, including your legs. Leg hair loss is common with age in both men and women.
Hair on the underarms, legs and pubic areas stops growing after three to six months. And even if you've never shaved at all, there's a limit to the length, ranging from 2.7cm to 5.4cm long.
For most women, this occurs sometime between the ages of 44 and 55. When your ovaries stop producing estrogen and progesterone—two hormones key to menstruating—this is when you go into menopause. Estrogen and progesterone also happen to be linked to your hair's health, including its growth.
As you age, your pubic hair, just like the hair on your head, will naturally start to thin and turn grey. Part of the aging process includes hair loss and the slowing of the rate of hair growth.
Pubic hair and hair on the body doesn't usually grow back after the menopause, this is due to levels of estrogen and progesterone remaining low as we continue to age.
All the hairs grow at about the same rate, but the hairs on our head keep growing for months to years at a time, which is how they get so long. Meanwhile, the hairs on our arms and legs are only programmed to grow in the anagen phase for a couple of months — so they only gain a little length before they stop extending.
Hair won't grow back thicker or thinner
If you're afraid that no longer shaving means that hair will grow at a faster rate or it will come back a different texture than before, don't be. That's a myth, and there are absolutely no changes to hair when you take a break from your razor.
“[Body hair] keeps mammals warm. It protects their skin from a lot of external influences, from abrasion, from water, from chemical attack, all sorts of things,” she says.
Other body hair is not as sensitive to testosterone. Consequently, overall, women lose sexual and body hair (arm pits, abdomen, chest, pubic, leg and thigh areas, and around the nipples) after menopause.
As you age, your body and face also lose hair. Women's remaining facial hair may get coarser, most often on the chin and around the lips. Men may grow longer and coarser eyebrow, ear, and nose hair. Contact your health care provider if you have sudden hair loss.
As we age, our prolonged exposure to testosterone starts to play a visible role on other body hair as well. Just like it transforms the vellus hair on a young man's face into a thick beard, it also changes the nearly invisible hair that grows in places like our ears into thicker strands.
There are some benefits to not shaving like better sex, a reduced chance for skin infections, and a more regulated body temperature. Ultimately, you should go with whatever style makes you feel comfortable.
Just like waxing, shaving can cause ingrown hair outbreaks. The more you shave, the more you damage the skin. This leads to painful ingrown hairs. You don't even realize they're there until it's too late.
In general, we recommend shaving every two to three days if you want a clean shave; three to five days if you want to simply style or trim; and if you want to just let your hair grow, then simply stop shaving. How quickly hair grows also depends on the area of the body.
Frictional alopecia is the loss of hair that is caused by rubbing of the hair, follicles, or skin around the follicle. The most typical example of this is the loss of ankle hair among people who wear socks constantly for years.
All body hair that sprouts during puberty—think hair on your underarms, genitals, and chest hair on guys—is controlled by hormones. Since our estrogen levels drop as we reach middle to later age, body hair growth corresponds by becoming sparser and thinner, too.
Hormonal changes
During puberty, an increase in hormones called androgens triggers the growth of pubic hair . As a person ages, their body begins to produce fewer androgens. This may result in pubic hair loss.
You'll also notice physical changes in your breasts. Estrogen keeps the connective tissue of your breasts hydrated and elastic. In the hormone's absence, the breasts shrink because the ducts and mammary glands shrink, and the breasts become less firm and lose their shape.
We know a lot about changes in pubic hair with the onset of puberty and about complications associated with pubic hair grooming, but less about changes with aging and menopause. The scant data we do have suggests that the growth rate and density of pubic hair decreases with age for both women and men.
Does pubic hair cease growing once it's reached a certain length? All hair grows at a contstant rate, but eventually falls out. With body hair, which typically does not grow as long as head hair, the rate at which it falls out is greater. This results in hair that appears to reach a certain length then stops growing.
Once the anagen phase is over, the follicles stop feeding the hair new cells and it stops growing. This is the catagen phase. It may still get pushed up the shaft so it looks like it's still growing, but it's not.
VULVA: After menopause, there is a loss of pubic hair and the labia shrink in size.