Removing facial hair

[Pat]

Help!! what is the best wait to reduce/remove facial hair (beard) without great expense, or excessive pain and permanently:?

[Carolynn]

Pat, as far as I know there is nothing that meets all your requirements. To date, electrolysis is rated as the only way to remove hair permanently. It is not inexpensive as it is labor intensive, and there is some pain. I used electrolysis at E-3000 in Dallas, TX. to remove mine. They give injections of lidocaine and then work on your face until it is cleared over the course of a day, or sometimes two days for heavy facial hair. Since hair grows in such a manner that only 2/3rds are outside the skin at a time, several sessions are necessary, sometimes as many as 6 in order to completely clear the face. The first time I had a lot of facial swelling after two days of treatment, and my face felt like a bad sunburn, but a burn cream is used for a few days and the swelling goes down over the course of a couple of days. I did not have that reaction again. I also did not need two day sessions any more.

The lidocaine injections are not too bad in pain compared to having electrolysis without any deadning agent at all, or just surface lidocaine cream. Once the lidocaine injection takes effect you can take a nap if you like or are tired enough. They do have to inject new areas as they clear one, so you would experience several shots. I found the area around the lips to be the most tender and sensitive to the injections, as you might expect.

My facial hair had a lot of light colored hairs in it, and still does have some, but they are not apparent under a minimum of foundation. Because of the light hairs, laser was not an option for me. However,
there is some success with laser, and though it is not proven to be a permanent solution, it seems to have good long term results if you have the right color facial hair and skin color. Dark, tanned skin can burn and you are usually not considered a candidate if you have that skin. It is not as costly as electrolysis, and is faster, and the pain seems to be less, though I cannot attest to that since I have not had it. Danielle on this board has posted her experiences with laser hair removal, I think under the Revelations thread.

There are measures you can take using a product called Vaniqa, that is a cream that used as directed will greatly retard facial hair growth for many people. If you have heavy, dark facial hair, it will not work as well as on a lighter beard, but will cut down on the frequency of shaving. Stop using it and it will come back as it was. It is not inexpensive (at about $50/mo), but some of my friends have used it between electrolysis and laser sessions.

Good luck Pat.
Carolynn

[KimberlyS]

I personally just do a double shave with a new razor. Once with the grain and once against the grain. I some times then take the electric razor to some extra troublesome spots to get. I have also found it works better if using a gel instead of just regular foam. The gel my wife uses for her legs works great.

kim
joe in a skirt

[Kimberly Kael]

I'm removing mine using laser and I can assure you it is not painless.

Nor is it inexpensive. One thing to keep in mind about the laser route is that there's a lot of variability among lasers (and laser operators - the mass-market chains may use lower power settings because their operators aren't as experienced at fine-tuning the treatment to the patient.) The medical spa I go to just starting using the LightSheer Duet (that's a link to an article) laser and it's startlingly less painful than the laser they had been using. Unfortunately it can't be used everywhere because it needs a good vacuum seal and so some of the most sensitive areas (under the nose, corners of the mouth) still need to be treated with the more painful equipment.