Why are ingrown hairs most likely to occur on our bodies?

While ingrown hairs can occur naturally, the most common cause is due to shaving, waxing, or plucking, which interrupt the process of hair growth. Those actions “leave an incompletely removed hair and damaged follicle below the surface,” explains Dr. Waldorf. In terms of where people tend to remove hair most frequently: for women, it’s typically only on the body, though Dr. Waldorf notes, “We see it commonly on women with hirsutism, male pattern hair,” —meaning darker, coarser hairs in areas that are atypical on women, like the face/mustache-area. For people who choose to not remove their hair at the root—on their faces or their bodies—they will typically experience less ingrowns.