Hello, I’ve recently started having electrolysis on my facial hair which is like a man’s beard.I think I have PCOS but when my doctor gave me Dianette it made me feel really bad, so I stopped taking it.I haven’t been back to the doctor because I read that there isn’t much else he can do, but my electrolygist is telling me that I need to have a proper diagnosis because it might not be PCOS.Also she said that if I had a hormonal problem and didn’t sort it out then new hairs would replace the ones she is killing, so electrolysis might not work.she also said that I might be oversensitive to normal levels of hormones(!!!) I just wanted to know what anyone else thinks about this, because I don’t know if she is trying to scare me or something.Apart from that she is a nice person and uses blend with a Sequential VMC machine, which I see from this board is a good machine, and she seems very knowledgeable.I go every week for a 3 1/2 hour session for £84, which is pretty reasonable, but if my hair is going to start coming back then maybe I should stop.It’s all very confusing!
Hate to disappoint you, but there could be a lot of truth to what she’s saying. Electrolysis does work, but only on the hairs that are treated. Abnormal hormone levels can stimulate dormant hair follicles to grow new hair.
You should try to see your endocrinologist to diagnose your condition. There are different meds to help you. If one makes you feel bad, there are others to try. This condition can progress further and even become life threatening. You should not delay taking care of it.
Continuing electrolysis at this time is reasonable (to my opinion), but might not be very productive in the long run if your condition remains untreated.
Good luck, and listen to my advice.
If you look at the prospect of having 1,000 follicles per square inch, and your electrologist removing the 5 to 15 hairs per square inch that you may be starting out with, if you don’t fix the problem that is creating hair in the first place you will have to look at the rate at which your body is taking follicles that don’t grow hair, and recruiting them to start growing hair.
Let’s say that you are recruiting 3 new follicles to grow hairs per square inch every 3 to 6 months. Although your electrologist may be able to catch up to your current problem, new hairs will continue to start until you either get the condition under control, or you finally get to the point where each and every follicle has started to grow a hair, AND been treated via electrolysis. Although you can reach a point where you look finished and can maintain that look in a short period of time (short in the view of an entire lifetime) you would still have to have periodic short treatments to keep the look of being finished unless the problem making you grow hair is stopped in its tracks.
If you divide 1,000 by 3, you get 333 cycles of 3 months, which is 999 months before all 1,000 follicles would have presented and been treated. That is over 83 years before one could get to the point where an untreated medical condition could get to the point where further hair growth would be impossible.
Bottom line, find out if you can treat the root problem and use electrolysis to take care of the hairs you already have, because no drug will get rid of a hair once it is here.
Thanks so much for your advice YB and James!I had another appointment yesterday and she gave me a couple of books to read about hormones and hair growth.I’m definitely going to stick with electrolysis now and I’ll go back to my doctor too, because I really want to get rid of this hair for good.
thanks again
Nona
Thanks for getting back with us.
Keep us posted on your progress Nona, and do us all an additional favor. Please post your electrologist’s contact information in our Referral section. We have no end of trouble getting good referrals for our UK readers and posters.
I can think of no better way for you to thank us for the services received here.
Just thought I’d give an update 
My doctor told me I don’t have PCOS or a hormonal problem, but I am very overweight so I have joined Slimmers World to see if losing weight will help.I am now having about 1 or 2 hours a week because my ‘beard’ is thinning out nicely.I use a shaving oil now instead of soap to shave inbetween appointments and my skin is much softer as a result.Another find is Dermablend makeup, which is really good at hiding any shadow because it stays put all day.I’m glad I stuck it out because although I’m still shaving every day, the situation has definitely improved.
Congratulations!
I wonder if the average gal would find it to be motivation to hit the gym if they knew that the more overweight they get, the more hair they will grow?
I had a client who managed to get to 450 pounds and was well on her way to 500. A friend of hers sent her to me to treat her hair problem because she was tired of hearing her say that she needed a few hours to get ready to leave the house due to her plucking requirements.
She turned out to have a true male pattern beard. It was 100 hairs per square inch when I started with her, and ballooned to more than 200 when I finally got to work on a never been plucked hair growth cycle.
As I worked on her, I urged her to get herself checked out with her doctor, because it was obvious that if her body did not get under control, we were well on our way to going for treating all 1,000 follicles per square!
When all was said and done, her doctor confirmed that she had absolutely no problem other than her weight and the fact that EVERYTHING in her kitchen had artificial sweeteners in them. Since she was overly sensitive to these chemicals, both her weight and her hair problems were extremely negatively influenced by the artificial sweeteners. Had she never reached a size that was fully 300 pounds larger than her highest healthy weight, she would had never known the curse of unwanted hair all over her face and neck.
She spent a year working up from walking, to full on gym membership, and learned to eat right. I am happy to say that by the time we finished, she was a size 8 with no troubles other than her husband being jealous as all hell because she could not go anywhere without other guys noticing her, while he remained a solid 350 pounds himself.