This common beauty ingredient could cause skin problems

Dr Basil Athanassiadis

1 min read

11/10/2025

What’s in this article

• Vitamin A is widely regarded as effective for anti-ageing.

• Retinol exfoliates the skin by removing the upper dead skin cell layer.

• Repetitive exfoliation can thin the upper layers of the skin.

• Vitamin A increases the skin’s susceptibility to sun and environmental damage.

• Using Vitamin A before waxing can lead to removal of living skin cells.

• It is recommended to stop Vitamin A use 2–3 weeks before waxing.

• Informing your therapist about Vitamin A use helps ensure safe hair removal.

Experts believe that Vitamin A is the holy grail for anti-ageing.However, this may not be the case when you like to wax prior to treatment. Vitamin A or retinol exfoliates the skin which means the upper dead skin cells are removed and replaced by underlying fresh skin.

The repetitive shredding can therefore contribute to a thinning of the upper layers skin.

Vitamin A makes the skin more susceptible to damage from the sun. When you remove the outer layer, the skin cell layers underneath are exposed to elements such as the sun, environment and even wax.

When you wax your skin, you aren’t just eliminating hair follicles — you’re eliminating skin cells as well.
But if the dead skin cell layer is absent or reduced because of Vitamin A products, then some of the living cell layer below may additionally be removed by wax.

It is therefore recommended to ease off the Vitamin A for 2-3 weeks before waxing. Also informing the therapist to make sure your hair is suitable for removal.