I have a lot of facial hair; and I’ve been trying to properly combat it for a long time now.

I first got a safety razor, for a close shave - but the dark hairs were very visible and grew out a couple of millimeters by the end of the day.

I tried laser, but apparently my facial hairs are both light and dark, not to mention also having red pigments - so there weren’t much results.

Then i tried pulling hairs out, one by one - this has the actual results I want, but I have to spend so much time on it, and do it around 3 times a week to even keep it sort of under control.

I have a epilating machine (pulling hairs out), that work wonders on my legs - but my facial skin hates it, and last time I ripped my upper lip pretty badly

I’m hoping for permanent hair removal, but I have to wait for my doctor to hopefully send me to a place (electrolysis)

Does anyone here have any experience with waxing the face or such? Should I give up and live with the dark shades of shaving?

  • ShaunaTheDead@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I have tried epilating before and I do not recommend it. I have a very high pain tolerance and it’s the worst pain I’ve ever felt, plus you have to maintain it daily because if you ever let it regrow then you’re right back to square one as far as the pain level goes.

    If you have light skin and dark hair I would recommend laser hair removal and then electrolysis to get the few hairs that laser will inevitably miss. I was able to get laser hair removal done for $1100 Canadian at a local clinic, but they did give me a 50% discount so I dunno your mileage may vary on that estimate.

    I think regardless of your skin and hair type I would look into laser. It’s relatively painless, cheap, and with new technologies they might be able to even help you if you have blonde hair or dark skin.

    • Adramis
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      1 year ago

      Yeah, if they can take even some of the hair out, it can save you down the road. Where we are laser is “Pay a lump sum for life-long laser on a given area”, while electrolysis is per session - IDK if that’s how it is where you are.

      Also, laser is one of those things where how well it works varies vastly by the equipment and the wielder. Even if the place you went wasn’t able to help you much, going somewhere else might work out better. My wife has had great results with Milan laser, and they seem to have very recent equipment. Supposedly their equipment works well even on dark skinned people, but we can’t vouch for that.

  • Ocean
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    1 year ago

    Been there with facial epilating. Noo thank you. I’ve started electrolysis which has been simple enough (though time consuming). I can see some results, but wow, I think I’m still not even a quarter of the way there with 7 hours done. It beats the pain of epilating though.

    I have no experience with laser, though. I’ve heard it is less permanent than electrolysis which is why I avoided it. Was it completely ineffective?

    • CassaOP
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      1 year ago

      Completely ineffective for me :/ I have friends with very good results. It does hurt quite a bit tho.

  • Entertainmeonly
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    1 year ago

    I’m curious about waxing as well but was just thinking of pulling them out myself like you describe. I would assume if you twizzed everything at once it would have the same effect as waxing though right? You say you have to pull your hair out three times a week? That sounds tedious.

    • CassaOP
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      1 year ago

      Yea, now maybe it’s that I have a lot or that I’m slow with it - but I end up spending quite a few hours on it - it might work for you! It’s not painful at least which is good in my book

      • Entertainmeonly
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        1 year ago

        I’ve not tried yet and definitely assume it would take some time to accomplish. What I was trying to convey was if you had to tweeze three times a week to keep up wouldn’t you still have to wax three times a week?

        • CassaOP
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          1 year ago

          Yes, but the assumption is that waxing will mean that I’ll get all the hairs, and that it will take far less time

  • Another Catgirl
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    1 year ago

    I tried facial epilation and it hurts like hell. Luckily the epilator I got can switch to a foil shaver attachment which is much less painful, so I only wasted half of the value.

  • LegionEris [she/her]@feddit.nl
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    1 year ago

    I was able to take advantage of quarantine a few years ago to get into the habit of routinely plucking all my facial hair. It takes time and dedication to get to the results, but it was worth it. Between rigorous tweezing and a hair growth inhibitor, these days I have basically zero hair that grows on my cheeks and minimal hair elsewhere. You can’t relent, but you will eventually see results. It’s definitely kinda the hard way to get there, but these days my face is soft and smooth to the touch.

  • mjsaber
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    1 year ago

    I would really discourage facial plucking an epilating - it’s a ton of pain and work and requires constant attention.

    As some have said, laser is a great start if you can afford it - it’s much cheaper than electrolysis, and by removing the dark hairs, it removes the beard shadow that can be really hard to conceal. I have finished lasering my face, and while I still have to shave almost daily for the white hairs, I no longer have a beard shadow.

    What I would recommend in the interim is a color correction concealer. If your beard shadow is dark/blue use an orange concealer.

    If your hair/pigments are red, a green color correction concealer should work for you to neutralize the color and hide the beard shadow that is still present after shaving.