I am a 23 year old girl, living in montreal. I’ve hid this hairy part of my life from literally everybody in my life with extremely time consuming measures (plucking everything for hours, spending an hour in the shower shaving everytime) but enough is enough. I don’t have time for it anymore. I’m tired. Emotionally & physically. When I was about 13, I started growing some darker (but fine) duvet on my upper lip. My confidence took a massive hit. I bleached, nair’ed, waxed. Over the years it’s gotten worse, and i came to realize that it was abnormal hair growth. Hirsutism. I am COVERED in hair, literally everywhere. I’m in the process of getting my hormones checked, i know, i’m late about going this way but it’s just so hard for me to talk about it or show it and even let it grow for it to be seen. I get called crazy and obsessive when i have a breakdown and confide in someone about it (sharing about a ‘normal’ area, such as upper lip, and even that is really hard). My doctor said he didn’t think i have hirsutism. Tell that to the hair on my boobs. Ouch. Just writing this breaks my heart. It makes me feel so unfeminine and sad. Anyways, a lot of places the hair isn’t terminal but i’m afraid it’ll turn that way in a few years of time…
I pluck my upperlip, regrows within a week.
I don’t do anything to my cheeks but i can see fine dark hairs on them that bother me a lot. (I’ve looked at every other woman and nobody has it like me)
I’ve started having darker hairs on my chin (about 5, and the rest is a million fine hairs that i try to ignore)
My belly is covered in fine hairs, with darker terminal
ones from the belly button & down.
Boobs have hair too.
I suffer from ingrown hairs whatever the method i use.
I also scar very easily.
Hirsutism has ruined my entire life. Has changed my personality from a bubbly person to a self-conscious shy person who avoids talking to people from fear of them staring a little too long at my face and seeing what i see, too. I had to tell my boyfriend some part-truths today because i was crying hysterically over my electrolysis reaction (and also, because it’s on my face which is in front of him). His answer was that he ‘never saw a hair on my face’ that i’m ‘crazy’ and that i’m just ‘influenced by popular treatments i don’t need and the kardashians’. That if he ever saw a hair on my upper lip he would’ve thought ‘why the hell does she have hair there’. I can’t explain how much my heart broke in that moment, by the way. If only people calling me crazy would see. But i don’t have the courage & never will. I refuse to show myself like that. I feel like a monster. I’ve missed classes i realized have too many windows for entire semesters, because the sun hits my face in a way that makes me feel under the spotlight.
Anyways, that was a little background/i mistook you for a psychologist. Feel free to 100% disregeard everything above here, not a pity party, just some much needed sharing on a forum i’ve spent hours on in the last day and have found comfort in. Thank you all for sharing your stories and pictures, that truly helps me and is my source of strength these days.
After years of research and contemplating my solutions, I knew that electrolysis was the way to go. About hair removal, oh i know things. I know not to attempt laser on my face due to the possibility of it triggering more hair growth since i have hormone issues, but i’ve done it on my bikini and it’s worked meh. I was excited the first 1-2 sessions but it hit a plateau where the same patches stay sessions after sessions. She doesn’t mark anything and sometimes takes 12 minutes and other times 30. Sometimes it hurts and sometimes it doesn’t. Wherever i see red inflamed skin, i lose the hair, but she seems to miss spots all the time. (not ALL the skin raises, only spots the size of the machine’s head (a square) and they are very sparse and random)
BUT, my main concern is my face. I finally decided to splurge on electrolysis. I’m still a student so i have a tiny budget, but it is worth every single penny to me.
I had tested it a few years ago buying a groupon, and there was no pain and no reaction. I didn’t see results but that was expected after so little sessions (3). I ended up realizing i didn’t have the budget, really.
This time, I went with somebody who has years of experience (like 20-30 i don’t remember) and uses a microscope. A very nice lady, the place seems clean.
I first went in and was thilled by the fact that she had all these years under her belt, was using a microscope, was nice and the fact that i didn’t feel pain or had any crazy redness/swelling. It’s the morning after, when i woke up, that my little pink dream vanished. I came here and realized i hadn’t searched about all the effects electrolysis can have on the skin. Redness and bumps, i expected. Being covered in whiteheads and pustules, not.
I realize that this is a normal reaction for some people, now. I talked to her about it, showed hd pictures. She said that it was normal.
She estimated that I would be done in 6 months, doing 1 hour every week. I just have a hard time swallowing the pill of me having an upper lip full of pustules or red spots that look like hair from afar for 6 months. Because my skin doesn’t have time to heal in a week & it’s already being poked again.
Something doesn’t sit right with me about it.
Today, was my 2nd session. Like I said, my skin was super tender, dry and irritated from a week before. I still had one pustule, still had red dots and temporary scars from the reaction. Today hurt WAY more than the first time. My pain tolerance is very high, especially for something that is so close to my heart like getting rid of my hair, i sat quietly and still, but woo did it hurt!
I felt every poke as if it was poking through my skin instead of gliding in the follicle. I felt her just putting pressure in what felt like all types of wrong angles. She’s such a sweet lady, but i’m starting to be super worried about whether i chose the right electrologist for me. She also gave me the needle to being home, which didn’t worry me until i started reading some opinions about this practice here. I asked on my second apt how many times she’d reuse that and she said ‘oh it’s good for a couple of times for sure.’ And i watched closely after i handed it to her to see if she would sanitize it but she popped it right on the machine. Maybe she did last time, at the end of the session.
I’ll insert pics of my skin at night the same day of the treatment and healing. Tell me if you think this is normal. I also have pristine hygiene. Those pustules make me look like I don’t wash my face but… I do!
I’ve used a clarisonic for years which keeps my face clear of any pimples (which is why it’s incredibly hard to deal with this side effect).
I use a gentle cleanser by clinique, a light face cream and that’s it. Now that my top lip feels like it’s been through scorching hell, I don’t use my clarisonic and only gently massage it and rinse with cold water.
Following her advice, I don’t apply cream there anymore but she told me to buy polysporin.
Still reading about if i’ll follow that advice, but i bought it. Someone spoke against it on here.
I have Tea tree oil & 3 aloe vera plants at home. Haven’t tried yet, right now i’m just letting my skin breathe and do it’s healing thing on it’s own.
Feels like a sunburn right now.
Anyways, if you’ve made it here you’re my hero!!!
I hope this helps someone, maybe you can relate, and if you’re a professional & take time to reply i really, really appreciate you.
Did you do the upper lip? Did your skin scar/hyperpigment or break out?