Our client, Katie Sloan shared her experience with hirsutism and body hair on her face.
Why did you decide to have laser hair removal?
I have polycystic ovarian syndrome so I have hirsutism which I’ve struggled with since I was about 11 years old I have tried laser hair removal in the past and I had two unsuccessful treatments so one was when I was 14 with the NHS and another one about five years ago and I just didn’t really see any results and then I thought I’ll give it one last try just to see if it will work.
How have your laser hair removal treatments been so far?
I used to have to shave my face every morning and since I’ve had treatments even after the first treatment the hair has massively reduced and I could get away with only shaving my chin. At the moment I’ve had three treatments and I don’t need to shave I can get away with not shaving for four to five days which is quite big for me as I’ve shaved my face every day since I was 11. Due to hormones, it is something I’ll need to constantly keep on top of, all the hair can grow back so I’ll probably need a top-up maybe once every six months – year, once I’ve had my initial course of treatments to ensure that the hair doesn’t grow back.
How did you find Pulse Light Clinic?
I just looked on the website and I noticed that they had treatments specifically aimed at people with PCOS I saw a couple of videos and one with women with quite thick hair and I have very coarse hair on my face it was more like a proper man’s beard, it was very coarse and painful to remove. I notice she had good results and I thought that I was a prime candidate for laser as I’m very pale and the hairs are very dark so I thought I would give it a go as I didn’t have anything to lose, it could only be better than not shaving my face every day.
Was laser hair removal painful?
The initial treatment was quite painful because I had very very coarse hair from my neck until here (upper cheek) so I did use numbing cream on my first session but since then I haven’t used numbing cream because the hair that does grow back I’m possibly getting a few on my chin are very fine so it’s not as painful as the initial first treatment as the hair was very black and coarse.
It’s quite traumatic when you’re a woman and you want to feel feminine but yours growing hair on your face which is overly linked to being quite masculine so I would definitely recommend it for anyone who does have hirsutism from PCOS and just because I think it just made me feel so much more confident I don’t have to hide behind the hair because I would put it forward to hide my face and cake lots of makeup on and colour correct just so you cant see the five o’clock shadow.
