Epilating long term effect on facial hair?

[Stephanie]

"In religion and politics[and medical matters] people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing."
— Mark Twain

I wonder if people who are against the use of epilators on the face aren't perhaps the dupes of the electrolysis practitioners?    I don't doubt that electrolysis is highly effective in removing facial hair permanently.  What I do object to is the high price (measured in £000s) and the long time it takes.
Laser treatment sounds fine but does anyone know what the very long term effects of shining a laser on to the face are?   What happens if 20 years after laser treatment you have a very wrinkled face?*   What are the other long term effects that your technician isn't telling you about?  Or more scarily she doesn't know?   Anyone who knows anything about the history of medicine knows that in the past there have been some extraordinary beliefs and treatments.  These treatments have long since been utterly discredited but at the time they were often viewed with unshakeable confidence by their proponents and the public.  Anyone interested should read how Charles II was treated by Europe's best 'bleeding edge' physicians when he was dying in 1685.
    They shaved his hair off, raised a boil on his body and when this boil was burst they mixed the pus with wine and some pigeon excrement and rubbed the mixture onto the soles of the king's feet!   This was not even the most absurd treatment that Charles received from Europe's greatest medical minds.   The king's whole treatment from start to finish reads more like witchdoctory and quackery, rather than medical science.    Charles did not respond to this 'up-to-the-second' treatment and ungratefully slipped into a coma.   The doctors were so terrified at this that they fled the country and returned home without bothering to collect their fee!
On a personal note, when my mother was 5 or 6 years of age, she had her tonsils removed.  There was actually nothing wrong with her tonsils.  She had them removed because it was a medical fad at the time to remove childrens' tonsils.   Science is just as full of fads and fashions as any other facet of human behaviour.   However, as most people are not really aware of this they tend to take the pronouncements of science as gospel when they should adopt a careful and critical position.  I say to people who purport to know that epilators should not be used upon facial hair to provide their evidence.  Evidence if anecdotal should consist of several examples not just one.  Written evidence should follow accepted academic conventions.


* No pious comments like: ' I don't care if I look like a pickled walnut 20 years from now.  I will have a hair free face'.  I assure you that that if your face does look like a route map of the Rockies you WILL care.

[fusion_cannon88]

What is the best epilator out there?

[AbraCadabra]

Britney

Epilating your face is not a good idea. The epilator will twist the follicles and you risk ingrowing hairs developing. Your electrologist would have kittens if she knew what you have done.

Facial hair is best dealt with by electrolysis or laser (although there is no long term evidence that laser is permanent and white hairs still need electrolysis.

So please DON'T epilate your face, stick to the body bits.

Caroline x

I unfortunately have to agree, speaking from my very own experience. Epilating produced only one result in my face, in the long run, ingrown hair, with NO reduction in re-growth what so ever.
So finally I am accepting electrolysis only, and some shaving in between.

YMMV, mine does not ...
Axélle

[MissJessica]

I just bought an epilator and did my legs a few days ago. It hurt like crazy and it took some time, because I have thick hair, but 4 days later, my legs are still smooth. I love it! But the epilator I have came with different attachments and it says it would work on the face. Though, it is a woman's epilator, so I could imagine it would work on the thinner and finer facial hair, I don't know if I'd try it on my facial hair (also thick). I fear for my skin.

[Oriah]

Despite the importance of hair removal I consider it, along with psychotherapy to be one of the biggest waste of money for the average m2f.  Electrolysis is painful and expensive, eppilation is painful and not permanent, and laser treatments, while cheaper than electrolysis, isn't as effective.


There are now machines that can be used from the home to perform non-invasive "electrolysis" by using a conductive current to shock hair follicles with electricity, causing the salt water [NaCl(aq)] surrounding the follicle to turn into sodium hydroxide [NaOH] commonly known as lye.  Lye is toxic, a poison that in the proper amount can literally destroy the dermal papillae, cutting off blood-flow to the follicle causing hair to permanently stop growing.


These treatments don't cause immediate hairlessness, but if used properly will reduce hair by over half within three months......or much much quicker if you overuse it, but that comes with a risk of serious skin irritation.  I don't recommend doing that, although it's what I do.


These machines are rather cost effective, though they try to con you into buying a "conductive gel" without mentioning that hand lotion is a gel and is also conductive.......

[Alainaluvsu]

Despite the importance of hair removal I consider it, along with psychotherapy to be one of the biggest waste of money for the average m2f.  Electrolysis is painful and expensive, eppilation is painful and not permanent, and laser treatments, while cheaper than electrolysis, isn't as effective.


There are now machines that can be used from the home to perform non-invasive "electrolysis" by using a conductive current to shock hair follicles with electricity, causing the salt water [NaCl(aq)] surrounding the follicle to turn into sodium hydroxide [NaOH] commonly known as lye.  Lye is toxic, a poison that in the proper amount can literally destroy the dermal papillae, cutting off blood-flow to the follicle causing hair to permanently stop growing.


These treatments don't cause immediate hairlessness, but if used properly will reduce hair by over half within three months......or much much quicker if you overuse it, but that comes with a risk of serious skin irritation.  I don't recommend doing that, although it's what I do.


These machines are rather cost effective, though they try to con you into buying a "conductive gel" without mentioning that hand lotion is a gel and is also conductive.......

I've considered buying one of these products. You aren't the first person that recommends it, I have personally met somebody who uses it and claims it works.

[Genzen]

Despite the importance of hair removal I consider it, along with psychotherapy to be one of the biggest waste of money for the average m2f.  Electrolysis is painful and expensive, eppilation is painful and not permanent, and laser treatments, while cheaper than electrolysis, isn't as effective.


There are now machines that can be used from the home to perform non-invasive "electrolysis" by using a conductive current to shock hair follicles with electricity, causing the salt water [NaCl(aq)] surrounding the follicle to turn into sodium hydroxide [NaOH] commonly known as lye.  Lye is toxic, a poison that in the proper amount can literally destroy the dermal papillae, cutting off blood-flow to the follicle causing hair to permanently stop growing.


These treatments don't cause immediate hairlessness, but if used properly will reduce hair by over half within three months......or much much quicker if you overuse it, but that comes with a risk of serious skin irritation.  I don't recommend doing that, although it's what I do.


These machines are rather cost effective, though they try to con you into buying a "conductive gel" without mentioning that hand lotion is a gel and is also conductive.......

What is the name of this machine?

[Jellybean]

I stumbled upon this from somewhere within the depths of google, thought I'd share to add insight.

Recently bought an epilator with the specific intention of using on face first. It is a really good epilator too. Attached Image is the result of use on face for first time. (Note: this is 24hrs later) The circled areas are where I was able to epilate before I passed out from the sheer pain of every follicle of hair being plucked from my tiny pores. Yes, I passed out. Note: do not blow the hairs out of an epilator. You will get lightheaded in a heartbeat. A glass of water helped.

Without further story, the details:

Pain: it hurts. A lot. Like, a lot - a lot. Sometimes it is a kind of a nice pain, but while epilating, it is mostly just so unbearably painful. Endorphins would kick in, and I'd find the strength to continue, but it doesn't last nearly long enough.

After-pain: Oh Emm Gee!! Omg omg omg. I have never in my life experienced the type of pain I am feeling in my lower cheeks. EXTREME sensitivity to temperature change! What does this mean? . . . This means that when I feel a breeze against my skin, my pores try to contract. Normally, this doesn't sound bad, but there are literally 30pores that feel like I am being SHOCKED by an extremely powerful current of electricity. The pain is a shocking pain. Literally, it feels like I plugged in an exposed wire in the outlet and am holding the exposed end on my face. Once again, I have never felt this type of pain in my entire life.

Afterwards: I want to continue, and oh how I love the smoothe skin (it ALMOST makes it worth the pain), but tweezers are just going to have to do. I am no stranger to tweezers. I almost like he sight of pulling a hair slowly out with tweezers, doesn't effect me one bit. I could do it all day.

Love/Hate:
- I love the smooth skin!! So so much!!
- Hate the places where the top layers got ripped off my face.
- Hate Hate Hate the aftershocks of pain.
- Hate how this hurts! I never imagined such pain in my life!
- Hate the idea that I will have to do this again.
- Love the idea that it might weaken hair growth later.
- I loved seeing how many hairs get pulled everytime I opened the epilator to clean it. Oh how i loved the satisfaction of this. I am sure many other epilator users can attest to this.

I am not trans or anything, so HRT isn't for me.
I just genuinely hate facial hair on my face and wanted to share to inform of my experience. *shrugs*

Anyways, I'll bookmark this page and check back sometimes if anyone wants a follow-up or has a question or something.

Take care, and (for the record) I do NOT recommend epilating your face.

[Genzen]

Thanks for posting this! I recently plucked my hairs one by one with high quality tweezers pulling in the direction of growth to avoid breaking the hair instead of ripping out the follicle. 99% of the hairs pulled had the full follicle down to the root for me. I only managed to complete my neck and some upper lip after spending 3-4 hours working on it. The pain was bearable, but it left red marks on my face for a couple of weeks. I can also attest to the shocks and pain in the treated areas. Once healed I'm left with about 50% growth still growing. Not sure if I can handle another round of it. In the end I think this method would work if one can get past the pain. I imagine it gets better after a couple of clearings.

[adoradeny]

Epilating your face is a good idea, but you should know that it involves a lot of pain, of course, depending on what type of hair you have on your face. For instance, if you are epilating your fuzz hair you will feel less pain rather when you epilate the coarse hair. Also, for a less painful experience, you can choose to buy a manual epilator, but it will take a while.