I’ve browsed through many stories on here and I’ve debated whether or not to share my own. What made me decide to finally make a post was reading others stories. This forum has helped me quite a bit from feeling so alone and awkward.
I think my problem is a mixture of genes and PCOS. I haven’t officially been diagnosed with PCOS, but I’ve always had irregular periods. I’ve had my hormones levels checked and they came back normal, although I had two hour blood glucose test that came back abnormal.
In the past, I was on the depo provera birth control shot between the ages of 16-21. I remember clearly, a good six months or so after I stopped birth control altogether, I started noticing a dramatic increase in facial hair.
I’ve always had a hair problem since I was younger. I remember having my mom shave my legs at 7-8 years old. By 4th or 5th grade, I got tired of my dark arm hair and started shaving it off. I remember feeling so much better with smooth arms and to this day I still shave my arm hair. Around 9th or 10th grade, the opposite sex became more of an interest to me and I started my first relationship. Becoming more self conscious about my body and the hair, I started shaving my whole body and to this day… that is what I do and it continues to get worse.
I’ve had about three laser hair removal treatments on my arms, which have helped significantly, but I think I’m due for a touch up, because there are some dark, coarse hairs coming through again. On the plus side, it had made shaving easier and I don’t experience razor bumps because the hair is much thinner. I’ve had laser done on my armpits, bikini line, and above the belly button about 5-6 times and it has shown excellent results. Hair has come back, but much, much thinner and more manageable for shaving. I’ve went from everyday to every couple of days for shaving in those areas. I just went for these areas about a month and a half ago and the hairs are so sparse that I can get away with shaving once a week. I’ve also had laser done on my chin, neck, and jawline about 6-7 times, which has always left my face feeling smooth and hairless, but within a month and a half the hair always comes back. Also, areas that the laser tech treated that didn’t have dark hairs, now have more hair growth.
Out of frustration from the laser induced hair growth on my face, I sought out an electrologist in the area for treatments. I went for a total of about six months and I went about every other week. The first few months went fine and I started noticing a considerable difference around the three month time period. Then I had a pretty big hair growth spurt and my electrologist started treating that, saying it was another hair growth cycle coming in. My electrologist usually did a decent job, but wasn’t the most professional of the bunch. My last treatment was roughly three months ago, because my skin became pretty discolored and pitted, which I believe had to do with a mixture of her poor time management skills and a different probe she started using.
Either way, I’m now considering joining the circus because my whole neck is freckled with discolored spots and dark, peppery hairs emerging from their follicles. At this rate, I doubt I will ever marry. I remember when I first started developing facial hair, I would try my hardest to hide it with plucking, shaving, and even squeezing the hairs out of the follicle, which left me with a ton of red marks on my chin. At the time, I was dating a guy and I stayed the night over at his house. In the morning, he was touching my face and his fingers went across my chin and I remember him saying, “hon, you are getting whiskers!” I remember being so embarrassed. A couple of days after that he caught me naked in the bathroom and noticed some marks on my butt cheeks and asked what happened. Too embarrassed to tell him I shave everything right down to my own crack, I said I didn’t know.
Overall, I’ve been single for the past two years. It feels like a blessing to not have to consistently shave and pluck to hide it from another person, but on the downside, it is extremely lonely. I just turned 25 not too long ago, which is young and I cannot imagine how much worse this problem is going to get for me. When the hair isn’t present, I feel confident in my appearance, but it is such a hard job to keep up with. Between shaving my whole body, blow-drying and styling my hair, brushing my teeth, plucking, makeup, and outfit… on a good day it can takes hours to get ready. It is physically and emotionally exhausting at times.
I know this is a long post, but I’m writing all of this tonight as a way to get the frustration off of my chest. After spending about an hour looking at myself in the mirror and crying, I searched online as for some sort of comfort. I came across a video that helped to make me smile and I would like to share it with you guys. I admire this woman’s strength, although I couldn’t imagine ever letting my facial hair grow all the way out!
