Please help me with my skin problems caused by excess hair...

[HairyMary18]

Recently diagnosed with PCOS which has caused me to have excess facial hair (basically a beard) for the last few years.
Only treatment option available is to go on the contraceptive pill but I am reluctant to do this as we will be ttc soon.
I've had laser hair removal which didn't work, bought a lumea prestige but returned it as it had no effect, tried waxing/epilating/threading but the hair is too course. Used to pluck daily but it was very time consuming and left me with ingrown hairs.
The only thing left to try was to shave, which I now do daily with a fresh blade in the shower using a shaving oil.
This means my chin is constantly irritated and I'm left with little razor bumps as the stubble is constantly growing back through.
I feel I cover the redness and 5 o clock shadow up well with makeup but the texture issues make me really self conscious.

I wondered if anyone could offer me any advice on products I could use to prevent the shaving bumps? I've thought about acids but the skin on my chin is very sensitive and I wouldn't want to make it worse. I use a cleanser in the shower before shaving and a post shave balm afterwards. (I might as well be a man! )

Facial epilator. Gives you a mix ch better finish than shaving and far faster than plucking.

Do you have any idea why laser didn’t work? What colour is the hair you were treating and your skin colour? These days laser can handle the majority of skin/hair colour/types. I had male pattern hair growth - beard/sideburns/neck/cheek. It was utterly miserable and wrecked my confidence. I had a course of laser in my early 30s which sorted it out amazingly and another in my early 50s when it started to return due to the menopause. When I say courses it took forever - about 18 months of regular treatments to get on top of. I have very fair skin and very dark brown hair and the facial hair was coarse and black.

There was a thread that was nearly identical to yours on here about 6 months ago. I can’t link but the OP was given some cream and medication (not the pill as I remember) and one lovely PP sent her their unwanted Lumea. She got amazing results from the combination of all these and sounded so happy.

I hope someone who can link threads will show up soon and someone who can advise on irritated skin problem. I so empathise. I wonder if you didn’t have long enough laser treatment. As I say mine took much longer than I or the centre I went for to do the job. I went to Skin who I thought were really good and very professional.

Thanks so much for your replies.

@FairyBatman - I bought a facial epilator but it only pulled out a couple of hairs as its just too coarse. I even let the hair grow a couple of days thinking it may have been too short but it just tugged at them and wouldn't pull them out, making my skin sensitive.

@Luxesoap - I read that thread and was so happy for the op but disappointed that the Lumea didn't work for me as I felt like it was my last option! I was prescribed the same cream but it gave me acne so I stopped using it as I found it easier to cover my shaving rash than the spots.

I have fair skin and blonde hair but the hair on my chin/neck is I'd say 70% brown, 10% red, 10% blonde 10% black. I had 6 sessions of laser at Skin in 2014 and it literally had no effect. So I found a clinic that used a medical grade laser in 2016 and had 10 sessions. It was so expensive but they assured me it would work, however all it did was improve my skin condition. The hair grew back each time and I believe I now have even more since then!
I was actually offered 3 more laser treatments on the nhs but I refused as I felt it was pointless and didn't want to waste nhs' money.

Fellow hirsute sensitive skin PCOS sufferer here who couldn't tolerate conventional epilation methods. I was going to ask how many laser treatments you had as I needed loads as well but did get a good reduction with it in the end. But I see you've tried it plenty already (though I ended up doing something between 12-16 sessions in total with twice yearly top ups but I saw results within the first couple of sessions).

For the bumps I'd say BHA may be your best bet, it is an acid but it's anti inflammatory and generally okay for sensitive skin. CosRx do a derivative that's slightly more gentle. Paula's choice 2% perfecting liquid is probably the best BHA around, you can get a travel size to try first. Are you using shaving foam to shave? I'd switch to an oil cleanser instead, shaving foam is high pH which irritates sensitive and acne prone skin.

You could consider electrolysis as it will work on any hair colour but as it's a one by one method it's a lot of time and money investment.

Otherwise there are anti androgen medications like spironolactone but you can't use that whilst ttc/pregnant. But you can try spearmint tea, you need to drink a fair amount of it daily, it's not comparable to a medication, obviously, but it can help some enough for it to be a lot more manageable.

I have PCOS too although I’m thankfully past the TTC stage. It sounds as if we have similar colouring. I have threading and pluck the coarsest and blackest hairs. I even taught myself facial threading using Youtube as you don’t need to be as precise as an eyebrow threader.

Please don’t have electrolysis as a PP recommends. I’m now 45 and have very pockmarked and prematurely aged skin where the needles were used. It looked fine 15 years ago when it was done.

Stupid idea but anyway! I have a lot of hair on my face but it's fair, and I dermaplane it myself. Done using a scalpel on dry skin, and despite having sensitive skin it's never irritated
Might be worth a go?

@botemp Thank you- I've found a travel size of the Paula's choice for £9 on Ebay so I could give it a try. I've seen the Ordinary's AHA 30% + BHA 2% peeling solution is much cheaper - could I use that instead or would it be too harsh?
I use a cleanser to remove my makeup then cleanse again in the shower leaving some on the skin then I use a shaving oil which helps it glide.

@mumdom With threading do you have to let the hairs grow? I shave every morning as I hate the shadowy appearance of the hairs growing back through and obviously it feels stubbly.

@YesQueen Is your hair coarse or like peach fuzz? If use my razor without oil/cleanser it is very painful and makes my skin irritated so I'd be reluctant to dermaplane on dry skin.

No the Ordinary is a full on peel and very strong, not to be used as a leave on product. Definitely not suited for sensitive skin. eBay is not cheaper than the normal price, I think lookfantastic carry it and they have free shipping. Cult Beauty also carry it, think shipping is free with them as well but I'm not in the UK so not certain on that one.

@Luxesoap that was me 🙂

Can someone link the OP to my thread? I can't on my app 🤷🏽‍♀️

OP - I have Vaniqa cream here if you'd like me to send you a tube - it's very expensive to buy but I've a spare one

Let me know

Dermaplane isnt recommended on coarse hair just peach fuzz. The only thing that will get rid of your hair is electrolysis. I had really thick coarse and packed hair. Needs around 100 hours for full removal. I won't lie it definitely painful and expensive but I just couldn't face shaving the rest of my life. I was exactly the same. Irritated red bumpy skin. Nothing helps as you have to go over it every day with easier. I'm about 50 hours in and it's such a huge improvement - if you have a good therapist there will be no damage to the skin

@Isit7yet Thank you, I did look into electrolysis but it's not something I can afford right now but could save up over the next few years (depressing thought! )
Do you have it every week? After the approx. 100 hours is over do you have to have top up treatments or does it just not grow back? Has it improved your skin condition?

No, it doesn’t need to be terribly long for threading although you’ll need to stop shaving for a few days so probably best attempted after a bank holiday weekend! A tip I picked up on MN was to apply a layer of baby oil mixed with a tiny drop of tea-tree oil and massage my face with it before threading. The oil seems to stop the irritation and improve the grip of the thread.

@botemp You're right, look fantastic have it for £9 and 15% off atm! I'll order it now!

DO NOT HAVE ELECTROLYSIS. It’s one of the things I regret most - I had a proper clinical practitioner not a beauty therapist, and it has still wrecked my skin as badly as the PCOS, just in a different way. I look like a smoker but I’ve never so much as touched a cigarette in my life.

@FlugTheJug That's so kind, I read your thread at the time and was so happy you had such improvement. Can I ask, how is it now?

I was prescribed Vaniqa a few years back but it made my skin much worse and I didn't see any reduction in my hair growth so stopped using it. I'd be reluctant to try it again but thanks much for the offer.

As I said upthread, it looked fine at the time, and it did work. The premature ageing didn’t emerge until years afterwards, and I know it’s the electrolysis because my upper lip and chin were one of the very few areas not affected by the PCOS acne.

@mumdom That's such a shame as I hoped that electrolysis would be my last resort. Could you have a chemical peel or dermabrasion to smooth your skin where the needles were used?

I would say mumdom has been very unfortunate with skin issues. And to be honest with the level of hair on my neck and chin I would always choose damaged skin over the beard. I spend around £65 for an hour's treatment a week. It obviously would go loads faster if I did more but I find it hard to lay for the two hours. My hair has been getting thinner and less coarse. Hair is less dense and I have large patches of bald areas. Once the hair root has been destroyed it will never come back. Lase didn't work for me. Home options like lumea weren't strong enough and I couldn't use the cream as I was TTC.

My only thought is that you’ve had about 16 laser treatments whIch for many people would probably do the job but mine took about 2 years of monthly treatments to sort out plus top ups 🙈. I went without holidays and any treats to afford it and got all 40% off offers going at Skin.

It’s such a confidence sapping thIng. I do think it’s grim that male-female sex change can get laser on the NHS but women like us get no help or the bare minimum. If it’s a few hairs ok but when it looks the same as a mans it’s just utterly depressing. I hope you can find some solution. Could you just keep using the Lumea as much as poss and keep going till you hopefully see some progress? how Long did you try it for?

I've a marked improvement..but I am still gonna have to go for whatever is "permanent"

There's a PCOS UK group on Facebook that's been helpful

@Luxesoap I used it once a week for about 12 weeks and saw no improvement at all. Other reviewers and my friend who has one used it once a fortnight and noticed a difference after the 2nd treatment.
The one I bought had a 100 day money back guarantee so I returned it and got my money back.

@FlugTheJug I'm too scared to join a FB group just in case anyone see's my posts, I'd rather stay anonymous.