Although we all have tiny, fine hairs all over our bodies, it can be humiliating for a woman to have excessive or dark facial hair. It goes against stereotypical standards of feminine beauty, and can make a woman feel unattractive. Fortunately, women don't have to live with this problem. There are many effective solutions, both short-term and long-term.
Tweezing
If there aren't many hairs, a woman may simply decide to use tweezers to pluck out hairs one at a time. Tweezers remove hair below the skin, all the way down to the root, whereas shaving removes hair only at the surface; therefore, the results of plucking hair with tweezers will last slightly longer than shaving.
Waxing
Salons and spas offer facial waxing at prices that typically range from about $7 to $20, depending on how much hair has to be removed. Like tweezing, waxing removes hair down to the root, and has the additional benefit of removing a patch of hair at once, including finer hairs that are hard to grab with tweezers. Many at-home waxing kits are available in drugstores and supermarkets.
Eflornithine
Eflornithine (brand name: Vaniqa) is a cream that dermatologists can prescribe to slow the growth of facial hair in women. It doesn't stop hair growth, but rather slows it down so that other treatments such as tweezing or waxing don't have to be used as often. It can take a month or more to see the full benefits of using this cream.
Laser Treatment
Laser treatments for facial hair removal use heat to destroy hair follicles. The practitioner "zaps" the skin with a beam of light, and that light seeks out hair pigment. Often, people consider the treatment it uncomfortable rather than painful, with many reporting that it feels like rubber bands snapping against the skin.
Laser treatments have mixed results, with most not lasting nearly as long as advertisements would have you believe. In a study published in 2007 in Clinical and Experimental Dermatology, 97.1 percent of hirsute women -- that is, women with dark, excessive hair on their faces or bodies -- treated with laser therapy had all their unwanted hair back six months after treatment. However, depending on your complexion and hair thickness, you may have positive results with this method. The FDA approves several types of lasers as permanent hair reduction methods.
Electrolysis
Electrolysis is the only known way to reliably remove hair permanently. A thin metal probe is inserted into a hair follicle, and it sends out an electric current to "zap" the follicle, destroying the hair at its base. It's a long process and can be uncomfortable, so it's recommended only for small areas and not, for example, for legs or underarms. It can be a good solution for facial hair, however.
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