Fed Up with Chin Hairs?

How can I prevent chin hairs? Why are they starting to grow, and how do I get rid of them?

Chin hair growth usually starts around perimenopause when a woman’s hormone levels are starting to go through yet another change. During this time, estrogen levels start to wane, leaving more testosterone to run wild, creating such things as coarse, dark hair on a woman’s chin. Who said getting older isn’t all fun and games?

You can’t magically prevent chin hairs any more than you can prevent hair on your body from growing. Electrolysis and laser hair removal are two procedures that can help keep hair from coming back once it is treated. Read the posts under hair removal (see link below) on these two procedures to find out how to help get rid of these unwanted hairs. I don’t recommend waxing the area; you will be removing too much innocent hair and may set yourself up for darker hair growth in the area. And tweezing usually winds up in disaster—especially if you are the type of person who doesn’t know when to leave things alone once you’ve gotten started tweezing.

I have seen many clients over the years who are concerned about hair growth on their chin. When I inspect this area, may times I find they have been shaving the hair there. What this does is create a very obvious coarseness to the skin (a razor is too harsh for that delicate skin), and just like the stubble growing out of a man’s face, stubble will result from shaving any area, including your chin. Usually the offending hair is dark, but I have occasionally seen white hair growth on the chin. Whichever color the hair is, it can be coarse and even causing some irritation, neither of which is desirable.

When I find a client who is shaving her chin for this or any reason, I implore her to stop shaving immediately! When you shave an area to get rid of a few (or many) stray hairs, you are indeed shaving off all hair in the area. And contrary to some people’s belief, the hair then has the potential to grow back darker and thicker than it was before. Since it is usually only a few hairs that are growing in the area, you run the risk of stimulating even more hair growth if you shave. Some people are lucky and dark hair doesn’t show up after shaving the chin, but it can affect the skin there as well as affecting all the hair in the area, not just one or two stray problem hairs.

My recommendation is to find a good electrolysis technician and to give this hair removal technique a good try. It would be more expensive than shaving, obviously, but the results could very possibly be long-lasting or permanent. (Laser hair removal for light-colored hair is available, where in the past it was only effective on dark hair.) If you have experienced irritated skin where you have been shaving, this will improve if you stop shaving, and having electrolysis treatments can take care of the reason you were shaving in the first place.

When shaving (and waxing as well), you are getting rid of so many unoffensive hairs in the process of removing the few bad ones. I recommend looking into electrolysis or laser hair removal before using these other, less effective and potentially harmful procedures.

For more information, see:

• Shari’s (chin hair) waxing story
• Hair Removal Options: Electrolysis
• Hair Removal: all links so far

Ladies, please—don't!