I have dealt with unwanted hair for years, I’ve tried a variety of hair removal methods, from shaving to waxing to tweezing. In 2015, I decided to look into more long-term solutions and explored the options of laser hair removal.
Laser Hair Removal
The process involved multiple treatment sessions spread out over several months (I did about 5 sessions in that first year). While it was not completely painless, I found the laser treatments to be relatively tolerable.
The results were pretty good from the first time – the laser was effective at reducing the density and coarseness of the hair on my legs, arms and armpits. I noticed the hair growing back more slowly and finely after each treatment. The only downside was the bikini area. It was extremely painful when compared to the other parts of my body and to be honest, despite having considerably reduced the coarseness of the hair in that area the short term, in the long term it never fully eliminated it.
A few years later, from 2019 until this year I have been coming back to other laser clinics to do maintenance sessions but haven’t seen much improvement when compared to my initial sessions in 2015.
Moving to 2023 I decided to try to get rid of my facial hair, which was not coarse but did not look very feminine. I must say this was a mistake! After a couple sessions my hair became thicker in some areas and simultaneously, I started having some pimples in the treated areas. It was a big no-no! To be fair, I was warned that this area is hormonal and might have the opposite of the desired effect. I would not recommend it unless you already have very coarse facial hair.
Electrolysis
Unsatisfied with the lingering results of laser hair removal in my face, I decided to try electrolysis on my face about 2 months ago. This process involves using an electrical current to destroy the hair follicles one-by-one. I have to say, the electrolysis treatments were incredibly painful, something incomparable to the laser. The technician had to spend a long time carefully targeting each individual hair, and each session took about 1h just for the face. The price is not very appealing either, I basically paid as much (if not more) for 1h of facial electrolysis as I did for a full body laser session.
Afterwards, my skin was be very red, swollen and irritated for several days. I also experienced quite a few breakouts. My skin looked terrible and now I have dark marks from the scars it left on my upper lip. Worst of all, I noticed that most of the hair that did grow back after electrolysis felt even thicker and coarser than before.
The technician said these are common effects and that I need to be regular and perform treatments every 2 weeks to see the results, but I am not convinced.
Overall Takeaway
Based on my personal experience, I much prefer laser hair removal over electrolysis. While the laser treatments weren’t entirely painless, they were a lot more tolerable than the agony of electrolysis. And the results, while not permanent, have been much more satisfactory in terms of slowing hair regrowth and making the hair finer. Unfortunately, my experience with electrolysis was so bad and so expensive that I cannot imagine myself going through it ever again specially in the facial area.
Everyone’s hair and skin is different, so your mileage may vary. But for me, laser hair removal has been the better long-term solution for dealing with unwanted hair. I’m glad I gave it a try, even if it took a few sessions to get the results I wanted.
Regarding my facial hair, for the time being, I am trying to leave it alone while deciding if I should try to go for laser sessions again.