This is my first post to the list. (And it’s rather long, too. I hope that’s OK.) I’ve been searching for a forum like this for a long time and I’m happy to find this.
I wanted to relate my own experiences about this. (A case of “Don’t do what I did!”)
Much like CoffeeGal, I also got into a lot of trouble with plucking. Had I known what I know now, I would have chosen to start electrolysis much earlier.
I’m a 53-year-old female and I’ve had a problem with excess body hair since I was 12 years old. By far the area that gives me the most problem, both physically and mentally, is my chin. I also have hair growth on my lip, but the hairs are lighter and finer there.
I started out with just a few stray hairs on my chin. This would have been in my early twenties. At the time, I was also getting my lip waxed every three months, and would have my eyebrows waxed about that often as well.
Those few hairs on my chin soon turned into six and then twelve. Before I knew it I was plucking two dozen. And then more.
I thought when I first started electrolysis that my chin area problem would be completely solved after a few sessions. That was not to be the case. (Not by a long shot.)
I’ve now been going to electrolysis for 17 years (once or twice a week). My problem is ten times worse than when I first started.
This is because I pluck in between electrolysis sessions. I just can’t stand to feel and see the dark hair bristles growing on my chin. I feel so self-conscious and just can’t face the world looking like that. (I also can’t bear to shave. I just can’t do it. It’s too much like what a man does, and I would feel like too much of a freak doing it. I also think it might make my problem worse, and I just don’t want to take the chance.)
My electrologist has suggested using nail scissors to trim down the hairs, so that I don’t have to pluck. I’ve tried that, but I can still feel all the little nubs and bumps and it still looks unsightly on my face.
In order not to pluck at all I would need to have electrolysis every 2-3 days like clockwork. (My electrologist is removing about 150 hairs a week. That’s when I’ve tried not to pluck as much in between.) It’s just not possible to go this often with my work schedule and family responsibilties.
My electrologist also goes on vacation with her family twice a year for two weeks. Consequently, I end up plucking even more then and my skin gets very damaged. (I pluck very closely and it sometimes tears the skin. I use very good tweezers made by Tweezerman.)
The effects of 17 years of electrolysis and constant plucking has resulted in my skin becoming permanently damaged under the chin. I have hyper-pigmentation, scars, pitting, bumps, scabs and open red sores at various times. I use make-up cover-up to deal with it as best as I can. (I don’t ever dunk my head when I go swimming now because it would wash away the cover-up on my chin and expose it.)
I try to keep my head down in public so people can’t see under my chin and I don’t like people getting too close to me in general in case they might notice it.
I have been to many specialists for my problem and have been diagnosed with IH (Idiopathic Hirsutism). The endocrinologist tested my hormone levels and they were “slightly elevated,” but not enough to make a diagnosis of PCOS. He thinks it’s most likely hereditary factors in my case (my grandmother on my father’s side of the family most definitely had this problem and a first cousin from that side of the family does, too), although hormones and excess weight (30 lbs.) most likely play a part in it as well. My mother and four sisters have also experienced problems with excess facial hair, but not nearly to the degree that I have.
I’ve been to an endocrinologist twice and a dermatologist three times about my facial hair problem. The only advice they could offer was to try and control the problem as best I could and that “there was no cure.” The dermatologist gave me a prescription for Vaniqa, but I find that it really doesn’t have any effect on me whatsoever. I was also prescribed Diane birth control pills prior to menopause, and those had absolutely no positive effect either.
I asked the endocrinologist what he thought of laser hair removal. He said that they “didn’t get good results” from their patients who tried it and he “wouldn’t recommend it.”
I asked if this meant that the hair eventually grew back and he said “yes.”
Even though I know that I shouldn’t pluck, I still end up doing it because I’m too self-conscious about the hair showing. My plan at the moment is to go to electrolysis twice a week and really try not to pluck in between sessions.
The only problem is that I’m also experiencing new hair growth. (Hair growth in areas where I didn’t have it before, such as my cheeks and on my neck.)This is another reason why I think I’ll always have this problem. Electrolysis gets rid of old hair, but there is new hair growing all the time.
I asked my endocrinologist point blank if I would have this problem the rest of my life and he said “yes.” This is what has got me really depressed lately. No matter what I try, I’m still going to have this problem the rest of my life.
I get even more depressed when I think of the future when I’m older and not able to look after the problem myself.
I picture myself being in a chronic care facility after having a stroke (or any other debilitating illness)and not being able to go to electrolysis or pluck. I would start growing a full beard within a week. I’ve already told my husband that he has to look after this for me. (My four sisters also know about this.)I suppose it’s at this point when I will finally be shaved, because there won’t be an alternative.
I also picture myself lying on my death bed and my grandchildren come to pay their last respects. I am slipping in and out of consciousness, but I’m alert when I hear one grandchild innocently ask, “Why is grandma growing a beard?” (I remember asking my own mother this when I saw my grandmother growing a beard on her death bed in the hospital. My mother told he it was a side-effect of my grandmother’s medication. Now I know the truth.
My advice to someone with a just a few chin hairs would be to get to the electrologist as soon as possible and not to pluck. I wish I had known this sooner myself.
I don’t know why I thought you were named Andrea. lol!