I have a super embarrasing question: A few years ago I decided to go have the hairs on my chin laser removed. As anyone who has had this done knows, you have to shave the area prior to your treatment. I went every 6 weeks or so for a year. Finally, they told me "I'm sorry, your hair must be too light because this just isn't working for you". Now, because I shaved the area for a year, the hair on my chin is pretty bad (much worse than it was before laser treatment). I have to shave it EVERY morning now. I work 10 hour days so, by the time I leave work I actually have a "5 o'clock shadow"! It is SO humiliating. Is there any wax or home product that I can use that will remove the very short hairs and will last longer than a day?? All of the wax I have tried does nothing except turn the area red, it removes none of the hair. I am at my wits end and am way too embarrased by it to go to a salon every week. Please help!
I have a few stubborn "whiskers" on my chin...I am less than thrilled! I will tell you that I pluck mine...
I've never had laser treatment done....
I'm SOOO sorry about this...I would suggest that you start waxing instead of shaving....I've used Nads and it works well...and if you go to a salon and get a wax there it won't work?
Also get your hormones checked - you may have too much testosterone in your system which causes the hair on the chin and the chest....
I would also ask for my money back from the laser treatment center...they should've been able to see before one year that it wasn't working for you!!!
You may have ovarian cysts.. This is an example of one of the main signs.. Go and get a work up from your doctor..
OK, first and foremost - who told you that you must shave the area PRIOR to a laser treatment? That concerns me. I am very familiar with the process - and this is NOT a requirement, unless there is a special laser I am unaware of.
Secondly, if the hair is dark enough that it causes a 5 oclock shadow, it is dark enough to be picked up by the laser. Blonde/light hairs will not be picked up, dark ones will. That simple. Are your hairs dark?
Thirdly, I really hope you are going to a licensed dermatologist or the like to have these treaments. PLEASE do not go to some salon and let some untrained person do this to your face!
Do not use nair or anything like that on your face. Oh my.
Bottom line is this - if your hair is dark, the laser WILL work for you. I have never seen it not work on dark hair. Never. You need to talk to someone else at a different location and have them help you. I suspect the place you are going is doing something wrong. Call a dermatologist or skin specialist pronto.
Feel free to PM me if you need more info - and good luck!!
ps - (have you been evaluated for PCOS or anything similar? Oftentimes, hormones/cysts can cause this hirsuitism).
Well... you won't need to go to a salon every week. Once you've got all 3-5 growth cycles... you're looking at every other month to every 3 months.
LOL... I sometimes joke that having my son turned me into a man. Never needed waxing before... but for the past 8 years, I go in every other month. 15 minutes later and shebang. Done. My sister can go every 3-4 months. Sigh. Fine, sis. Just be that way.
The hair has to be at LEAST a quarter of an inch long for the wax to actually grab it. Which means letting it grow for several days. If not long enough, they have to be individually plucked. Plucking hurts sooooo much more than waxing (I cry, and besides don't have the hours and hours to do it). I'll pluck the few stray hairs that).
Just LOOK at the 'waxing menu' at your local salon;
- Brows
- Lip
- Cheeks
- Sideburns
- Jawline
- Chin
- Full face
- Full face and brow
- Neck
- Upper Back
- Décolletage
... And that's just ABOVE the shoulders, and it's all we women. Professional waxers just do that, all day, every day. 8 hours of waxing faces, legs, vajayjays, backs, arms.
I was embarrassed/nervous the first time I went. Since then... I LOVE LESLIE! She rocks!! (aka the woman I've been seeing for 8, going on 9 years now).
Correctly done waxing does NOT leave hair, but it does involve the correct temp wax, after cleaning and dusting, and the skin held taught, and the strip pulled away with a certain kind of flare that's almost impossible to do if it HURTS (aka, doing it yourself is next to impossible if you're afraid of the hurt, because the motion is wrong). After the hair has been removed there are 2 more steps to disinfect and soothe the skin (meaning the redness won't last more than a few hours). The whole process is a bit of an artform. While I'm terrifically loyal to my favorite waxer, I have been done by several others, including 2 students (never doing THAT again). It takes a lot of practice and skill to go quickly and near painlessly. A pro is VERY definitely worth the money, IME.
This many years in, I don't even turn red anymore for longer than a few minutes. And the hairs release so easily that I'm done in 10-15 minutes although the slot is for 30. My skin is just used to it. After about 18mo of waxing, this is just the way it's been.
Not saying you "should" wax. Just my experience with it. LOVE it, and totally not embarrassing.
I use Veet for everywhere else on my body and it really does work. You might see if they have a facial hair treatment. It's painless and takes like three minutes.
What kind of birth control do you use?
I was on the pill and had really stubborn upper lip hair. Tried lazar but it never helped. Turns out that the artificial hormones from my birth control caused the stubborn facial hair. Those trips to the salon cost me waaay too much money for me to find out it was a common symptom of my birth control...
I have a few hairs like that on my chin and I pluck them with a tweezer. The upper lip hair gets bleached. You might have to let the hair grow in a bit to get it with wax or tweezers. I suppose you could bleach it while it grows in a bit. My best friend had good results with electrolysis but it took a while. Some say laser is more effective but it obviously didn't work for you.
Pluck them! Get good, sharp tweezers. The results are as good as waxing.
My nutritionist told me that eating sugar can cause facial hair growth. She said it combines with progestorone, I think - can't quite remember the mechanics of it! But I've found when I don't eat sugar I don't tend to get chin hairs as much, so I think there's something to it.
Oh, I feel your pain. I hate my facial hair, and it just seems to be getting worse as I get older. I pluck every day, but plucking seems to cause me to have alot of ingrown facial hairs, which is even worse. Now, I am hairy and look like I have really bad acne! I don't think my chin will ever be smooth again :(
Oh my goodness! I'm so sorry to hear that. :( I have blonde chin hairs but there are so many that are so long I was considering laser treatment. (A friend once tried to pull what she thought was a stray hair/thread and it was attached - embarrassing!) But now that I've read this, I think I'll stick to plucking. :(
