Re: How do I get rid of this hair?

Posted By MichelleW on July 16, 1999 at 10:59:13
For the past ten years I have had hair growth on my chin on either side.  It is getting worse.  I use tweezers to remove them but now it seems to be growing thicker.  I feel like I have made this worse because at first it was only a few now it is alot and I am doing it daily.  I am afraid I will scar my face if I keep tweezing.  Bleaching does not work.  These are dark and stiff hairs.  Not as thick as a mans facial hair though.  How can I stop this?  I am thirty one and this is embarrassing.

[Derm-MD-ASR]

Posted By Derm M.D. ASR on July 16, 1999 at 16:27:02
Michelle:
Even if it's embarrassing, faical hair is not necessarily abnormal.  If it weren't so common, there wouldn't be so many ways to remove it.  Temporary methods include shaving (which does NOT cause hair to be thicker), plucking, waxing, using depilatory creams, or bleaching the hair.
Longer-term methods include electrology and laser hair removal.  Electrology was devised by an eye doctor (!) over a hundred years ago.  Electrodes are inserted into one follicle at a time.  It's uncompfortable and a bit slow, but the amount of hair it ounds like you have is do-able by this method.  It does take a number of treatments, though, often given weekly.
A newer and faster method is laser hair removal.  In 3 or 4 treatment, given every 6-8 week, many different laser systems can produce long-term loss of hair.   This is quite safe if done by people who know what they're doing.  It only works, however, on dark hair (so the laser light has something to shoot) and light, untanned skin.
Incidentally, if your periods are regular, it's unlikely that you have any hormone problems worth looking into.










Follow Ups:


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