I always had a bit of fine ("downy") facial fur, but it's gotten a lot worse in the past couple of years in the areas that men would grow facial hair ... moustache, chin, and sides of the face. Mine are all super pale colored, blonde or gray, and they are driving me nuts. Laser won't work because laser only works on dark hairs. I was told I shouldn't shave, and I believe it because I clipped some of the hairs and as they grew out again the were even more noticable, I guess because I'd clipped off the fine end and what was left was thicker and more stiff.

I've considered waxing but I've got Rosacea and very sensitive skin.

So now I'm thinking about plucking. I've begun with about 10 or so of the worst offenders. Anyone else doing this ? It seems very time consuming, but on the other hand I think it might net the best result. I'm looking for opinions.

I can't believe I'm actually going to put this in writing but I shave. I have a fine blonde mustache, and about every couple of weeks, I take hubby's razor and gently shave in a downward motion. I don't shave anything else on my face. It does NOT grow in thicker, and it works for me!

John Stossel from ABC news has a a "Greatest Myth" show that he does a couple of times a year. One of the myths was that shaving actually makes the hair grow back thicker. I believe him.

I've always wondered if actresses and singers shave, because when you see those big closeup photos they never have a single fine hair on their faces, even the dark haired girls like Angelina Jolie !

What I hate is that at my workplace they installed halogen lights in the elevators, and those lights make my facial hairs literally sparkle. I don't even want to get on when anyone else is on. :-)

I actually waxed my upper lip once. It left a big red mark, and pulled off skin! Here I was trying to sneak this by, and it was so obvious what I had done! It took TWO weeks for the redness to go away! Never again!

I dunno. I'm growing rather fond of my cookie duster. Now hubby knows how it feels to kiss someone and get rug burn!

I have the fine, downy hairs on my upper lip and lower half of my face. I usually ignore them, but sometimes I use something called SurgiCare to remove them. It's a cream depilitory just for the face. Wipe it on, and 4 minutes later, wipe it off. The hairs don't grow back dark or anything, or thicker. And sometimes I just shave them off. It doesn't hurt and looks better, but the cream gets it off closer.

WriterMom

I am a waxer, but I don't get red anymore. I used to get red for maybe an hour or two. After you wax often enough the hairs actually become thinner in the area you wax because you kill off hair follicles. I have a nice dark mustache if I don't wax, and I don't want stubble!! So for me, the waxing work.

Yeah, I'm a waxer too. I'm dark haired so I have to do it at least every other month or so... I wax my brows too...
I can't imagine the pain of having to tweez them out... ouch. Not that the wax is easy at first but at least it's all at once. I'm not sure I could tweeze that 2nd whisker. :-)

For Rosacea, have you ever tried sipping a Tablespoon of flax oil daily? I've heard it helps.

the ones on my chin are driving me crazy. they are coarse & abundant & i can't pluck, wax or use a regular razor on them because then they get ingrown. i heard that there is a shaver for the face made for women, but i haven't been able to find it. the dermatologist told me that that it should stop after meno, but i heard it gets worse. i hope that is not true.

& the full moon is friday....

I've recently noticed what looks like a fine, pencil moustache above my top lip! No one else seems to have noticed, including nearest and dearest, but I notice every time I look in the bathroom mirror. I'm naturally dark haired so of course the moustache is dark. I recall though, seeing a woman from India bleaching her top lip. This is what I'm going to enquire about.



LOL

How about a Sugar wax? Have no idea what it is called in the States..but it is much gentler than a hot wax, really a sugar base.
I have plucked the 4 or 5 that have shown up in the past year but still find that getting it *spot* waxed has worked better (also rather sensative skinned)-

I shave too! LMAO! I love it. Makes my face feel smooth, Of course I pluck the coarse ones out. I have one of those electric shaver jobbies. I swipe my cheek areas, chin and upper lip once a week.

LOL....same happened to me....so NOT cool,right??

I'll bet actresses and other famous women, especially those in their 40's and up, shave. You see closeup photos of these women and they have no facial hairs at all !

Some facial hair is common among young women, especially certain ethnicities, and I don't think it looks bad at all ... until it starts growing in like a freaking beard and moustache ! Mine sparkles under halogen lights, I just hate to get on the elevators at work because they've got overhead halogen spotlights. I'm waiting for someone to get on there and gasp when they look at me, I'll look like Charlton Heston in the 10 Commandments or something. :-{>

Hey there,
This is a funny topic!
The pictures of actresses are touched up. That's why you don't see any facial hair or blemishes. This is a fact.....;-) I used to be in the business (sort of).
I go to an esthetician for threading. It's a very old method of hair removal where hair is "plucked" out between two pieces of thread. It's not available at every salon, not everyone can do it. But, when it's done correctly, there is no redness left like waxing and it's very precise. So you can get the exact shape of brow that you want. You can have it done anywhere on your face and it's very fast. I go for brows and upper lip.
Doesn't work so well on the bikini line though.....;-)

Cathy

I gave up bleaching the few upper lip hairs that arrived until I noticed this past year, they're quite abundant now and a little too moustachey of late. Gave up and shaved one day. Got one of those little personal shavers. I like it. Takes about a month or so before it comes back. Tweeze in between.

A new finding, On the bright side, I don't have to shave my legs as often!?!!!! LOL

I have to tell you all that I've been obsessing about my facial hair, still wondering exactly what I'm going to do about it, and now my obsession has invaded my dreams !

A couple of nights ago I dreamt that I was looking at myself in the bathroom mirror, and I noticed that some (I would say about a dozen) of the hairs were really long and thick, like whiskers ! And when I decided to pluck them, it turned out that they weren't just single whiskers but bunches of hairs ! Oh my god, when I woke up and went into the bathroom and experienced reality again, it was such a relief !

the aesthetician i go to does a procedure on me called dermaplaning. its using a scalpel (!) to scrape your face and get rid of the dead skin. its amazing. i was scared at first, but a lot of my friends did it and their skin looked awesome. so i tried and it makes your skin instantly soft and amazing (kind of red for about 30 min). the very best thing is ALL of your facial hair is gone!!!!!!!!!! she actually says people come to her just for the hair removal purpose. i find that an unexpected benefit.

I wax and pluck intermittantly (upper lip, chin) but have looked longingly at my dermatologists signs about
laser hair removal. I am just scared it will be, oh, $4,000 or something.

Anyone done laser hair removal?

wordsmith

My dear Friends

At the risk of getting alot of hate mail I do not get any facial har.I do not know if this is because of the HRT I have been taking for years

Warm Wishes
Elizabeth

I've started noticing a mustache myself. I've looked closely (or as closely as I can with these bad eyes) and the darker hairs are kinda interpersed around the thinner normal ones. I'm a brunette so that doesn't help. I haven't worried about it so far, because it's not that noticeable yet.

I have some really tough ones on my chin. I've had a couple of them practically since puberty, but they've gotten steadily worse lately -- probably nearly 20 by now. I pluck them whenever they get obvious.

This is the weirdest though. I found a baby fine hair nearly 3 inches long growing out of my forehead! About a 1-1/2 inch from my hairline, all alone. What was even crazier is that it wasn't even noticeable to the eye, and not just to me but others as well. Trust me...I asked. I just thought -- what is this? Am I turning into a unicorn?

My mom is 67 and has the extra hairs. She shaves her upper lip and plucks the chin ones. I can't imagine plucking my whole face...YOWCH! I've heard that both plucking and waxing will eventually make the hairs finer. Something to do with the damage to the follicle, as someone else posted here. I don't think shaving makes it grow in thicker so much as it makes it SEEM thicker because it's chopped off flat instead of having a taper at the end like a normal hair.

On a side note, I may not have to worry about the extra hair. My internet guy (who I've known for about 8 months now and may get to meet pretty soon) LOVES hairy women! I don't get it myself, but he would rather his ladies have leg hair, underarm hair, pubic hair. Supposedly he's into the natural look -- the earth mother naked in the forest idea. I've always hated shaving, so I may have found my dream man!

Yes I have done laser hair removal and it works really well. I use to pluck my chin and it was getting scarred from ingrown hairs and i got tired of it. Mine was about 250.00. I have a few new ones that i need to have done and I want to try the dark ones on my upper lip.I am an obsessive plucker. It is a hard habit to break. I still have some stiff little suckers but the are light and laser does not get the light ones.

Waaaaah !!!! I am so jealous !!! But I don't hate you. :-)

That's my problem. Mine are all silvery-blonde ! And they sparkle under the halogen lights, I just hate to be under those lights now !

I'm thinking about being a Santa as a part time job next winter. :-/

I've noticed these fine hairs as well, I have a couple of dark ones on my chin that it pluck. I have to use a mirror.....can't believe this, I can't remember what to call it...frustrating!! One side is magnified...remembered, my mind is going too!! Every so often I look in this mirror, I use it to put on makeup as well, to check for those hairs that can't be seen by my eyes now. I often check around as they sprout up anywhere...I've had one in my forehead too and my neck....it makes me feel a bit yucky, not supposed to have hairs growing in odd places!!

Cheers choco

This is a really funnny thread ladies. Anyway, I've found that laser does NOT work in the long term because the increase in facial hair is due to the hormonal loss, ratio of e to Androgens, etc. Botton line: This is hormonally related. Save your money and don't spend it on Laser treatments! Plucking does hurt and damages/scars the facial skin (sometimes). What I've found to work incredible well, without side effects (and I'm sensitive to meds), is a FDA approved drug creme called Vaniqa. Now for the bad news......Insurance doesn't cover it. However, shop around. Costco seems to have the best price compared to the big name pharmacies. And, yes you do need a script from your doctor. Most people find it takes 2 months to start working at reducing and hopefully preventing most regrowth. I've been lucky and it started working within 2 months. The drug causes the root to "weaken". And, any regrowth has been minimal and extremely fine. I'll occasionally pluck the stray hair but it is fine and doesn't hurt anymore because the root ball is so small. Also, make sure you apply the creme in a very very thin amount. Less is more. Otherwise you might experience some skin irritation. Regards, J.

I always went and had my upper lip waxed. Just went thru the pain,better than the mustache. Now though I have it threaded, its fast, ok...hurts a little, but better results and I only pay $8.00 for it in Houston and it last about 3 weeks. The one or two long ones on the chin or around neck somewhere seem to want to stay, as if they are made of metal or something. ha.

Teri , What is Threaded ? I have never heard of it ?

My girlfriend has this problem she uses Nair hair remover cream for the face . I think it is new on the market here in Auastralia. If that is any help to you..

gizzie

Oh dear can't 't spell AUSTRALIA forgive type errow..

gizzie

I got a good pair of tweezers and a magnified mirror to battle those pesky chin hairs!!

I get waxed and tweeze in between waxings. Surgi Cream removed NOTHING except maybe a layer or two of skin. Posts re spearmint tea and Epilady sound intriguing. Take after my Mom for this...no escaping those genes!

I get some really nasty, coarse, black hairs on the bottom on my chin, which I regularly pluck. They feel like men's whiskers! So most days I find myself running my fingers along my chin to feel the stubble and decide which ones are long enough to be plucked! Before meno, I had some light, wispy hairs on my cheeks and upper lip, but I have light hair, so they didn't show up that much or really bother me. Well, that "peach fuzz" went away when I hit meno, but even worse, now I'm growing a dark beard!

Dinah