laser and electrolysis and vaniqua, oh my!

[harrykarry]

I’ve been lurking around this forum for some time now and I feel now is the time to actually do something about my facial hair.

I have had facial hair since the age of 13. At that time, I was able to control it by either plucking or trimming it because it wasn’t very numerous or dark. I tried electrolysis around the age of 20 and while I loved leaving the office with no hair and not having to do anything in between visits, I feel it wasn’t effective long term. I started using depilitories after that because by then the hair was more numerous. It was on the uppper lip and “sideburn” area as well as my neck. I have hair on my entire body but I shave what I can of it. I’ve had my hormone levels checked and have seen an endocrinologist and even tried spiro(can’t remember how to spell it). Nothing worked. The hair even seemed to grow back faster with the spiro so I stopped taking it.

I am now 36 and I believe I am starting perimenopause. The hairs on my face are much more numerous and dark. It is the whole sideburn area and side of my cheeks to just before my mouth. Some of them are lighter but there are a lot of dark ones and they are long, not short peach fuzz kind. I have a consult with a plastic surgery office for laser this week.

I’m looking for opinions on what to do. I’ve read about many people having induced growth from laser so I am very nervous about it. But, since I tried the electrolysis before and I don’t think it worked I’m not sure about going that route again. Also there are a lot of hairs so it would take quite a while. I was thinking about doing what I currently do which is using a depilitory and try adding vaniqua.

Ideally, I want something that will last a long time, but I know there is no magic cure. I just don’t want to look like a circus carny for the rest of my life.

[Deedra]

Welcome to the forum! A quality picture will help further opinions and advice.

An electrologist with a modern set up can remove a lot of hair . I would seriously reconsider electrolysis again. Get several consults near and far and keep a journal. You can keep a journal here in the open forum if you want to share your story with others.

I love accelerated peach fuzz cases as long as the client gives me the time to focus and go-go. I call it “let the wild horse loose strategy” for hair removal. You can’t make much of a dent with 15 minute appointments every week.

Do you really want to put your skin through repeated temporary hair removal with a harsh depilatory? Do you really want the expense and bother with Vaniqa. It has to be applied twice a day. It is oily. It may or may not slow the hair growth. When you cease using it, the hair grows just like it did before and then you are back to “Go”. Ugh.

Laser reduction is expensive and the outcome is a gamble for a woman’s face. You will still need an electrologist in the end, but explore the laser option if you must. My business is very good thanks to laser failures. On the other hand, my electrolysis business is very good because of the success laser reduction brings as well. Even when people are very pleased, they still need electrolysis for finishing up the 10-20 percent of hair that remains, that is not conducive for further laser treatments.

[harrykarry]

Thank you for your response. I’m aware that I will probably need to have electrolysis to get all the hairs that laser doesn’t get. It’s just that the area that I want done has a lot of hairs so I figured it would be best to start with laser to get the bulk of the hairs and, if needed, go to electrolysis to get any stragglers. I am afraid of induced growth from laser though which is why I have waited so long to look into this. But as I mentioned, it has gotten much worse over the past year or so.

I stopped using the depilitory for four days to see how bad it looks and I tried to take a picture but it didn’t come out well. If I look directly at my face in the mirror, it doesn’t look horrible. But, recently I was driving in my car and I looked at my face in the mirror with the sun shining on it and I couldn’t believe how bad it was. There were dark long hairs that I could sort of see in the mirror at home, but could DEFINATELY see in the sun.

I’m not going to use the depilitory again until after my consultation on wednesday, so I will see what she has to say about it.