Help!! I’ve been scouring the web for info and advice. I’ve called every dermatologist and laser center in SF and I can’t seem to get a straight answer. Nobody seems to know what I’m talking about.
I am a woman in my early forties and have undergone the full electrolysis procedure twice for hair on my chin and upper lip. (NOT 2 sessions, but 2 complete 4 month long procedures). After the first set of treatments, I was hair-free for a good 5-6 years, then one day I realized that it had all grown back! So I went in again and the electrologist said that it was my 7 year hormonal cycle and that I would most likely regrow the hair every 7 years or so. So, I had it all zapped again and sure enough, it’s 7 years later and I’ve got all that hair back like an uninvited guest that just won’t go away!!!
I’ve recently begun to consider laser hair removal as a solution. I’m wondering if there is any reason for me to expect different results with laser? They’re both supposed to be “permanent” methods? I want laser hair removal to be the magic wand that will really permanently remove the hair, but I’m starting to get disenchanted. Especially when they answer my question with the same disconnected response, “The laser hair removal process only work on hairs in the active growth stage, so it will take several sessions before the hair will be permanently removed.” Uh, yeah, I knew that already, but it doesn’t answer my question.
Any thoughts or suggestions on this? Does anyone know about this 7 year cycle? All the professionals I’ve spoken with look at me like I’m from Mars when I ask about it.
You’re not approaching this in the right way. You need to look into the reason you’re growing hair in the first place. Which method you use is irrelevant in terms of when NEW hair will start growing in, which is what is happening here. If it’s that many years later, it’s your body developing NEW hair. It’s not the same hair that you had killed earlier. Changes in hormones could cause them, which can be after things like pregnancy or just come with age.
Both methods kill the same hair in the same way (laser, as opposed to electrolysis, is not that great on a woman’s face especially for a relatively small amount of hair, and if the hair is not dark, dense and coarse). In your case, you need to go for electrolysis again.
Just FYI, hair grows in 3 cycles. You should read about this in the FAQs below. That means that 4 months is not nearly enough to kill all the present hair. That is not enough time for all hair to cycle through usually. That takes 9-12 months. That may be part of the reason you’re seeing some of this hair back, though I’m suspecting most of it is due to changes in your body and hormones.
No, a man who undertakes permanent hair removal after the age of 25 will have reached a stable point in his developement of hair on the face, and would not expect to gain any appreciable amount of new hairs on the face over time, unless it was a result of something like a drug side effect, or a side effect of something like diabetes.
Women, on the other hand, can gain a new hair every 26 days if thier hormones are out of line. In that case alone 7 years would equal 84 new hairs, at a minimum, and that would be very noticeable to a woman.
You could be the type of person who has this in her heredity, or you could have something in your diet, or drug intake that is keeping you growing new hairs as time goes by. It is hard for us to say what it might be without knowing more about you.
The important thing is, you can get the hair removed permanently, and get some peace. Most women who have a hair problem get it removed before their 25th birthday, then they may have to do another course around a pregnancy, and then again when they have “the change of life”.
Reza, for everyone, it depends on why you have the hair in the first place. If there is something in your body causing it to grow, and you don’t change that factor, your body will continue to produce at least some new hair with age, and you may require some touchups.
What kinds of dietary factors contribute to hair growth? I am pretty healthy, hardly ever eat fast foods. I eat mostly fresh and organic when I can. Mostly veggies and fruits, some grains a little bit of dairy. I don’t take medications, don’t smoke or take recreational drugs, light drinker. I was vegetarian for most of my life, I eat a little bit of fish and chicken now.
What kind of doctor can help me determine what is out of whack? I have uterine fibroids, as well. I know they’re effected by estrogen, so it would seem that my hormones are out of balance. I have yet to talk with a doctor who has any interest in finding the cause of the problem. I just keep being told that the only thing to do is remove my uterus. I’d love to find a way to get to the source of the problem instead of treating the symptoms!
First read The Diet Cure, by Julia Ross (if it is not available at your local library, it is easily purchased via Ebay or Amazon) and that will go a long way towards answering your questions.
You should not need to remove your uterus. That’s just profitering, with a side order of Eugenics. I would also add that a great place to save money on vitamin supplements would be www.buylemmon.com as they have many of the things you would need in fewer pills, so you could buy no more than 4 different pills, instead of a multitude of different single supplements. (They can do this because they don’t use fillers, and so there are more things in a single pill, and all are complementary and proportional.)
Most women in your situation require “The Glandular Complex” and what they call “The Muscle Protector” but is really an Amino Acid Complex. The Complete Protein Powder and Essential Fatty Acid Oil might also be of help. Vegetarians often ruin their hormone and/or amino acid balances.
You should see an experienced endocrinologist in your area. The uterus issue is what is most likely contributing to this. They could potentially prescribe a birth control pill that balances out your hormones etc. Unfortunately, whatever it is would only be balancing out the hormones while you’re on it. Either way, it would control the NEW hair that your body is currently regularly developing. And electrolysis and/or laser would kill whatever is already there now.