Female facial hair woes

Facial hair is great on men, not on women. When females start to grow excessive facial hair, their self-esteem is usually the first place to take a serious blow. Facial hair normally isn't too noticeable for females until puberty hits. Many teens will notice they have a mustache and they have to shave it, wax it, or tweeze it off. The frustrating fact about facial hair is that it will not get better with age. In fact the hair will continue to grow longer, thicker, and often darker.

If you are one of the millions of women that deal with unwanted facial hair, you are in luck. Unlike other embarrassing problems, you can actually do something about facial hair. First, talk to your doctor before you start tweezing it. A sudden onset of facial hair could mean you have a serious medical condition like polycystic ovary syndrome. It also could mean you have an overactive thyroid.

Women that are pregnant often have an influx of different hormones, some of which cause facial hair to occur. During pregnancy your hair tends to grow thicker, stronger, and longer. Once you have the baby, the hair usually starts to thin out again, but facial hair doesn't always respond the same for everyone. Your doctor may put you on medication that helps to regulate the hormones in the body that are causing you to grow excess facial hair.

So what are your treatment options? Fortunately there are several treatment options available. Let's start with shaving. You can get some shaving cream or soap and shave off the facial hair, but it will grow back and you will probably need to shave it daily in order to stay on top of it and reduce it's appearance.

If you don't want to shave your face daily, try bleaching. Bleaching is pretty common, especially for women that have darker hair and pale skin. The downside to bleaching is that although the facial hair may look invisible, people will still be able to see it close up. It will basically look like your arm hair, just whiter.

Tweezing is another option you have. Tweezing will get rid of the hair for several days, sometimes weeks at a time. However, it can take a long time to tweeze each individual hair. It works best for the eyebrows because this hair is thicker and darker. Using it on other areas of the face like the upper lip can actually be quite painful. If you don't know what you are doing, you also run the risk of damaging your skin.

Topical creams like Nair are effective at removing facial hair. The downside is that many people have allergic reactions to the chemicals that are used to remove the unwanted hair. Over-the-counter brands have not quite yet mastered the prescription brands. If you want to use topical creams, ask your doctor for a prescription, it's safer and better.

Waxing is another popular option for getting rid of facial hair. This method takes a few minutes. Warm wax will be applied directly to the skin and a cloth will be used to pull out the hair directly from the follicles. Waxing can be quite painful, but with the dangers of lasers near eyes, it is really the only long-term solution you have to remove unwanted facial hair. Normally waxing treatments will last for about 4-6 weeks. When you initially have the treatment, your skin will appear red and irritated for a couple hours. This usually goes away by the next day. Be careful to limit your exposure to the sun after a waxing treatment. The skin is vulnerable to the sun at this time and it can burn easily.