Eliminating Facial Hair

Facial Hair Is Normal.

Although many women do have an occasional stray hair on their faces, in general terms they don't have facial hair except for their eyebrows. However with age and menopause there is a tendency for a little hair growth on their faces.

Most women will have some unwanted hairs on their bodies, or faces, special as they grow older.

Hair, and remember everyone has some facial hair, on a woman's face will normally be any of these:

1. Slightly darker hair on the sides of the mouth as well as some growth on the chin and cheeks.

2. The eyebrows. We all have eyebrows but they are all different and it is quite common for women to beautify them and reshape them, including removing a bit.

3. More abundant visible hair on their faces.

• Visible hair on a woman's face is quite normal, no matter the amount. It can be embarrassing and for the most part women prefer not to have them.

• The reasons can go from inherited traits, growing older, a hormonal imbalance or other medical reasons. If you find you are beginning to get an abnormal (for you) amount of facial hair it is best that you consult your doctor.

 Whatever the reason or how much, and you know you want to, here is a brief synopsis two of the methods you can use:

Plucking and Tweezing:

This is a great method to remove individual hairs that may appear on your chin or cheek as well as for sculpting your eyebrows.  It is simply a question of picking out the hair and pulling it out.  The best way of doing this is after a warm shower when your skin pores are relaxed and open.  This also means not doing it straight after waking up as your skin and face is still puffy from sleep.

Shaving Facial Hair:

About 3 billion people may be doing it, more or less regularly - but that is the other half. It works, it is inexpensive and easy to do.  But it is not the recommended method for women to eliminate facial hair. Not because (another urban legend) it makes you come out in more hair, that is also coarser. What happens is that the hair is cut off at an angle and the remaining (remember you are cutting hair from above the skin) is pricklier and tends to look more male.  Then there is the risk of shadows and so on.

The above two are inexpensive and easy to apply.  On the down side, hair removal is temporary (from a day to 10 days). Plucking is not practical for large areas of hair, and shaving - it is good for the legs, not for the face.

The next methods are facial hair removal with warm wax, cold wax, depilatory cream and laser hair removal.

When using warm waxing, you should be careful to check the temperature of the wax before placing it your the face, otherwise, if the wax is too hot, there is the risk of burns.

You apply it with a small spatula on the upper lip, moving from the center to the sides. You have to wait several seconds for the wax adhere to the skin properly.

Then you can place the wax strip (paper) on it and pull it out working from the center to the edge.

With cold waxing, the process is the same as in the previous case. As waxing is in practice the pulling out of hair (more hairs than with plucking which is individual hairs) there is pain involved.  A neat trick to reduce this is by placing a bit of ice against the lip, so it deadens the feeling.

Depilatory creams  does not have such good results.  It removes hair above the skin and so it grows back quicker.  You should also always try out the cream on a small area to check in case there are reactions (rashes) from the chemicals. Also be very careful to follow the instructions and never leave it on longer than directed.

Laser hair removal is an effective but costly method.  Although not completely permanent, there is a reduction of the amount of hairs, and those that do stay on regrow at a much slower rate. For best results, as laser targets the differences in the melanin (that which gives color to the hair), if you have dark hair and light skin, you are a prime candidate for lasering.