Re: Tweezing problems/Electrolysis question

Jounouchi wrote

> Wow, I had no idea that plucking distorted the hair root.

Repeated plucking, waxing or threading will eventually distort many of the hair follicles. You can often notice that on women, specially on the moustache area -- as the hair grows back in it's particularly noticeable because adjacent hairs are growing in all sorts of different directions.

> I always thought that it was one of the most ideal solutions right
> up there with waxing because they pulled it right out at the root
> and imagined that'd probably weaken it.

If the hair growith were weak anyway and not hormonally-driven, removing the hairs by the root might indeed weaken them. The thing is that that doesn't work for hair growth that's still being strongly hormonally-driven.


> I guess I won't do that anymore, ha ha.

Probably very wise, if you've got strong growth. In any case, with plucking and waxing you've still got that period of time when the hair's not quite long enough to get a strong grip on but still very obvious, so the whole world knows during that period that you've got moustache / beard growth. And the object of removing the hair is presumably that the whole world shouldn't know.

> I do wonder if it's hormonal. I had been very overweight and within a
> year, dropped a lot of it. Though, it began when I WAS overweight. I
> haven't gotten to a doctor's office in a long while since I haven't
> had insurance and hoped that I could just find a solution on my own.

One of the first suspicions when facial hair and overweight are found together is PCOS for which one of the other indicators is irregular or absent periods. The reason for the facial hair in that instance is the high levels of testosterone production and consequent high levels of free (unbound) testsoterone. On the other hand, some of us are very slim and still have a heavy grwoth of facial hair because of high testosterone combined with naturally-low levels of estrogen. Speaking personally, because my natural hormone levels are not a threat to my health I don't want to tamper with them.

> I was actually looking into Norelco shavers one day since they're
> specifically designed for beards.

A very important point. Another important point is that they're extremely quiet compared to most others -- easy to use in a washroom without attracting unwanted attention. They're also generally reputed to be the least irritating to the skin, though like everything else they take a few weeks of getting used to.

> What one would you recommend?

Model numbers keep changing and they do quite a lot of specials which are just cosmetic variations but exclusive to particular stores.
I've been shaving for 35 years and started by "borrowing" my father's Norelco -- in those days a simple two-head model, and certainly the small head of the two-head models is very neat. However the later designs, especially high up in the range, have a great many improvements and I've found that buying just below the very top of the range is probably the best idea. Certainly the batteries in the top of the range models are much better and they have the most recent head designs. Expect to pay a bit for the top of range models, though (around $200). One of the neat things about the Norelcos for many years is that they actually cut the hair just under the surface of the skin -- they catch it, take it under very gentle tension while pressing the surrounding skin down and cut the hair before releasing the skin -- all without damaging either hair follicle or skin.

Of course everyone has their own ideas and lifestyle, but shaving suits me very well and I still haven't found anything that would suit me better. My facial hair doesn't dominate my life and hasn't spoiled my life. For me, the whole thing was very difficult until I admitted to myself that I had (then, at 14) a moustache. Once I admitted to myself that it was a moustache as opposed to "some hair on my upper lip" the answer was obvious and the "problem" was gone. It takes only a minute or so a day, even now that the growth has extended to my chin over the last few years. And if I have something special on at night the Norelco can be slipped into my purse and I can use it for a quick run-over and be certain that nothing is going to show.