I was cursed with dark facial hair on my upper lip. Up until now I’ve been bleaching. My 4 year old son asks me all the time why I have hair on my lip and even tries to pull them off. Even in front of other people!!! I’m so embarrassed. I thought about waxing but I’m worried about getting whiskers. Is waxing a good idea? Does the hair grow back darker and courser? If waxing isn’t the answer does anyone know what is? I would appreciate any advice from someone whose been in my shoes. Please help!!!
Waxing is one of the worst things to do in your situation. It will in fact make the hairs grow thicker and deeper, making permanent removal more difficult in the end.
If you want the hairs gone, and gone for good, you need to do Electrolysis with a good practitioner. I suggest that you find someone in your area who is done and happy with the work performed. If you can’t find anyone like that, you should get a consultation and sample treatment with everyone in your area, so you can compare treatments and get the best work available in your area for the job of clearing your face.
You should be able to get to first clearance in a month or less, assuming you do the needed time and frequency over the next month. The key is to get first clearance as soon as possible, and keep it bare after that.
You will be happy to know that your electrologist can treat hairs before you ever notice them.
On the flip side, the face is one of the areas most commonly waxed by women all over the world, and I’ve heard very few firsthand cases of hair growing in any thicker because of it. Every single time I hear this, it’s coming from someone offering laser or electrolysis, and those aren’t the most reliable sources in the world.
If your hair is that dark and your skin is relatively fair, laser would probably be a good option to look into. Waxing shouldn’t cause any problems, but you do have a period when it’s growing back in that you can’t do anything about it, and if it’s really in a problem area like on your face, that can be less than ideal. On a small area like that, laser treatment would go relatively quickly, and wouldn’t cost too much.
In general, changes in hair growth are caused by hormonal changes in the body, not by whatever method you choose to remove hair. (Excepting laser, electrolysis, and other things that permanently kill the hair.)
Blood is what fertilizes hair, in the same way grass is fertilized by… well, you know the book title, “The Grass Is Always Greener By The Septic Tank”.
This is why when you have a cast put on your left leg, the hair on that leg gets thicker. The irritation of the cast causes increased blood flow over a protracted period of time in the area of the cast, and the hair thickens, and darkens. A dog bite or other blood rich injury can cause the same reaction.
I have actually had waxers send me clients because after a lifetime of waxing, their hair became so thick that it was even more painful to try to wax, and in some cases, the hairs had become so thick they could not be pulled out anymore on the first rip.
Yes, hormones will cause hair to thicken, and even multiply, but there are other things that can do it as well.
Perhaps some of you who have had a cast on a leg or arm can add your experience to this for Corvaith, since anything I say is just unreliable. I am, after all, one of those evil electrologists 
[ February 27, 2003, 11:54 AM: Message edited by: James W. Walker VII, CPE ]
hello betty
I waxed my upper lip for years and I never noticed my hair getting any thicker. I then had electrolysis on my upper lip and was extremly happy with the results.
Reflecting back on the years, i wish i had had electrolysis done on my upper lip sooner.
since you have never touched your upper lip for hair removal, it will be quicker to see results. my sincere advice would be to look into permenant hair removal for that area. Best to find a reputable one from a bonafide organization such as BABTEC(in UK). Good luck.
While I have not, in fact, had a cast on myself, no, I asked a friend about this, and they said that it seemed more like more hair than thicker, and that it shed in a few weeks. Like maybe just hair that was supposed to fall out hadn’t, because of the cast. So I went web browsing, too, and found several sites that mentioned the same phenomenon–in the same way.
When one group talks about hair thinning and possible permanent loss, and the other side is talking about it becoming thicker, darker, and considerably more difficult to remove… that ought to raise red flags for anyone.
Even if increased blood flow could make a difference, you’re comparing wearing a cast for a long period of time to one brief wax pull once every four weeks or so. Apples to oranges. By that kind of justification, maybe unsightly leg hair is actually caused by wearing pants too often! Or something. And my god, the collective eyebrows of American women…
The problem is twofold, James. You’re professionally biased, first of all. But it’s more than that. Lacking any kind of scientific proof one way or the other, logic ought to prevail.
I am not here to argue with you. Your friend has in fact confirmed what I have said. Blood is a fertilizer of hair. For some that is more hair, for some that is the same hair becoming thicker. For others it is both. The way the circulatory system runs from left to right even sets up a situation where your left side always has more and better nurished hairs than your right side. Section off a square centimeter on each of any normal male’s cheek and count number of hairs per square inch and this will be proved. You may even be able to see with the naked eye, or the slightly magnified eye, the difference in thickness. You don’t have to believe it. It doesn’t matter to me. One thing for sure, however, if you want permanent hair removal, waxing, or any other form of plucking won’t give it to you. Plucking will also delay permanent removal because it is taking out the hairs that one wants treated without having had them treated. Your electrologists must “get lucky” enough to have an appointment with you during a day that a previously plucked hair is actually growing, and visable to the electrologist. Since the electrologist can treat hairs that you can’t see yet, it is possible for a person to get and keep clearance if one only co-operates with getting to first clearance as quickly as possible, so that the focus shifts to maintenance and not a long drawn out thinning operation over years and years of one hour per month appointments.
Regarless of what you believe are the long term effects of repeated plucking of an area (add ingrown hairs and pitting anyone?). You can wax once a month for the rest of your life, or you can do a concerted plan of permanent hair removal that starts out big, and trails off in the end.
[ March 01, 2003, 03:28 PM: Message edited by: James W. Walker VII, CPE ]
Not everyone has the option of permanent removal, in either electrolysis or laser form, and even those who can afford it aren’t necessarily going to be interested in that much of a time investment all at once. Obviously, yes, waxing or plucking can cause trouble if you’re trying to do it right when you’re about to get another kind of treatment. But not everyone is, and you acting as if it’s an option for every person who posts here is extremely presumptuous.
If what you’ve got is really worth it, people will go for it without having to be scared away from their existing methods.
Everyone here does indeed have the option of permanent hair removal, just as everyone here has the option of driving a Mercedes Benz. I did not say a new one, you understand, but what ever car you may be driving, you could have got a Mercedes instead, if you prioritized enough to do so.
Does everyone want a Mercedes? No, not everyone. Are there people who want one, but erroneously think they can’t dream of ever having one? You bet there are!
Are there people who think ownership of a Mercedes Benz is just a flashy way of spending money while getting a car that is not worth the extra investment, while actually needing to be informed of the true value and long lasting quality that actually makes these very affordable cars (especially when purchased gently used)? You would be right again.
Plucking techniques offer a temporary solution that often gives results the client finds less than ideal. In addition, the side effects are real, and in some cases worse to the self esteem of the client, while costing the client money over the course of a lifetime. Sorta like buying a Ford Festiva as the one and only car you will drive all your life. It is cheap up front, but will cost you more as you pay for repairs more frequently.
Electrolysis may cost more upfront (actually, many ladies who wax can achieve permanence while spending no more or less than they spend on waxing during a certain period of time) but gives a superior result, and saves both time and money over the long haul. (The cost of ownership, the cost to keep the car on the road, of a Mercedes Benz is less than the cost of ownership of a Ford Focus over the course of 5 years. But that may be an unfair comparisson since the transmission won’t last that long and will usually need to be rebuilt during that time.)
In conclusion, people just want to know if waxing is a good substitute for electrolysis. The answer is “Not if you want to be hairless in that area for the rest of your life.” If it is just a fad that one will discontinue in a year or two, then it may be just fine to wax it. Just like a Ford Festiva is a wonderful car to deliver Pizza in while earning money for your PhD and letting your real car sit in the garage.
After 5 years waxing I got permanent results on my upper lip only (I’ve done on all my body up to today in a total of 14 years without results).
Medically speaking, if you had hair on your upper lip, and it stopped growing after 5 years, it was not the waxing, but something else, like discontinuing use of a drug that you were having an interaction with, or some hormonal imbalance that was corrected.
Although one might get enough scar tissue in the eyebrows or legs to cause permanent removal in those thin skinned areas, the lips doesn’t work the same way.
Many people also get permanent hair removal on their legs without doing anything simply because their circulation becomes less than it once was as one ages.
Hello, I wanted to tell you that after I started noticing some hairs on my chest, I started to pluck it with a tweezer. After a while, I started to notice more and more hair growing. I, then, read on a magazine that plucking causes the blood to react resulting in more hair. I stopped plucking and have been waxing which seems to work better. I guess waxing is less shocking then plucking. I can’t explain, but waxing seems to be softer than plucking. I know someday I should try electrolysis, but due to life circumstances, I have been unable to do this yet.