Does pulling hair out of a mole turn it cancerous?

„Can I tweeze out the single hair that grows from a mole without rising the risk of turning it cancerous?” – a common questinon from my patients during my visitis.

Dispite the pervading misconception that this procedure hazards the malignant transformation, even by cutting, you don’t change the behavior of a mole. If you want to pluck, shave, wax, or use electrolysis on a mole, there’s no evidence that this will cause a melanoma, or any other kind of skin cancer.

Moles themselves don’t actually produce hair, hair grows through them. Hair follicle produce hair on nearly every area ott he body, including areas where moles occur. The dense cluster of skin cells growing together which forms a mole can cause darker pigmentation of hair growing through the mole. Sometimes hair appearing on a mole is vellus, which is shorter, fine, and light-coloured, compared to longer, dark, and thicker terminal hair, which can also occur on moles.

Perhaps the fear that plucking hairs from moles is linked to cancer stems from the fact that every once in a while a mole may turn malignant by itself, and you might blame what was done to it. But basically it’s very simple-removing hair from a mole usually doesn’t disrupt the cells. Plucking hair from a mole can lead to inflammation and perhaps infection, but that’s all.

The only cautation about moles is that it’s a good idea to keep them out of the sun, which means being sure to put sunscreen on moles as well as the rest of your skin. Any mole that changes its appearance should be checked by a dermatologist to make sure it is not in fact cancerous.