But isn't waxing, just a different kind of plucking? Same result, slightly different method.

I pluck my eyebrows and 2 mutant hairs that have always tried to grow on my chin. I never heard that you shouldn't pluck. Maybe an idea pushed by waxing salons or the waxing industry!

Tweezing isn't bad. There's that myth that hair removal, especially shaving, will make it come in fuller and coarser and that just isn't true. I started out waxing my fur stach and now I just shave it. I shave my entire face actually just because I don't like the peach fuzz. I do get stupid chin hairs - small patch on each side and I usually find something to tweeze daily. I can't imagine waiting to have the areas waxed! I can't see myself dealing with this in the long run so I do plan on getting laser treatments at some point. The only negative with tweezing is if you catch the skin it could get marked up. I say just have good tweezers and be careful. I like Tweezerman.

Slightly OT but FWIW I shave my arm hair too and have since I was about 15 just because I don't like it. If I were to start to let it grow, it's the same as it was when I started removing the hair.

I just shave it. Not going to go through waxing or plucking as long as I don't have to. But the errant face hairs have only been showing up for the past 3 years.

For me, a Caucasian Irish girl (not much hair), waxing has resulted in less facial hair. I think my hairdresser told me waxing can ultimately remove the hair follicle. For home removal, I use Sally Hanson Wax Strips. ($5 in the drug store). They are sort of a high power band aid. I prefer them to plucking because they grab all the fine hairs.

I don't know why anyone would tell you not to pluck/tweeze? The only possible reason that I could think of is if you tweeze the hairs before a waxing appointment, the hairs will be too short to get pulled by the wax. Waxing is just mass plucking. I have always just either waxed or plucked the hairs. I buy the wax from Sally Beauty Supply, I get the one that you put in the microwave, you put it on and it dries hard so you don't need the cloth on top. You just wait for it to harden and you pull the wax off quickly. It's simple to use, just be careful it's not too hot when you put it on.

I used to pluck but did not like the ingrown hair problem it caused. So I went to an esthetician for electrolysis treatments, and got them permanently removed.

I also use the Sally Hansen wax strips on my lip. i always have to go back and pluck a few random hairs i missed. i agree that waxing is the same as plucking. I started plucking (over plucking) my eyebrows as a kid many moons ago. Most of my plucked eyebrow hairs have stopped growing. I think i plucked the area between the brows too wide and I cannot get it to grow back. On the other hand, gray eyebrow hairs and long eyebrow hairs seem to be thriving.

I will shave my lip if i'm in a hurry and notice new growth. By the way, the best way to spot facial hairs is in the mirror in your car. Something about the glare of the sun really makes them pop! I keep tweezers in my bag for emergencies.

I found a battery operated facial hair remover at Marshall's. really just bought it as a lark. It works really well. I have to say that I have petty hairs but not a lot of them. I also so have those really light fuzzy hairs along my jaw line, so I just buzz them off too. I do all of this about once a month.

I get my brows threaded when needed, but I tweeze them weekly to try to keep them shaped.

I'm blonde and have very light, almost invisible facial hair - until you get to my chin, where the dark (and sometimes gray or white!) whiskers want to take up residence. I've never waxed because I refuse to let those things grow long enough. From the minute I can start to feel them poking through, I tweeze. Heck, sometimes I'll even take a razor and run it lightly along my chin just to quickly get rid of them. I cannot stand them! I have peach fuzz on the sides of my face and a tiny bit on my upper lip, and I use a hair trimmer to keep it shorn. Because it's so light and downy, that works well. The chin hairs threaten to become the bane of my existence, though, and search-and-destroy missions are a nightly thing in front of the magnifying mirror (horrors). I don't think I will ever forget seeing my grandmother, after she became very ill and shortly before she went into hospice and was still receiving care at home, lying on her hospital bed in a daze, making instinctive plucking movements with her fingers all around her chin. It was pitiful - but kinda told me all I needed to know about my genetic facial hair woes.

I'm blonde, too, and have very fine hair. Going off the pill worked wonders! Now I hardly ever even have to shave my legs any more, and I don't get anything but nearly invisible peach fuzz on my face. My eyebrows have always been very light in color so I never started plucking them.

Donna

Now I'm worried because I only pluck my eyebrows and this one single hair that grows under my chin and makes a quarterly appearance.

I've got Mediterranean and European blood and an mid-tone complexion. I have peach fuzz... should I be shaving or waxing it? (...rushing to the mirror to stare at myself for a while...)

I have a good friend who has made me swear within an inch of my life to tell her if I ever see a long, black hair protruding from anywhere on her head (she's blonde). I think maybe that's the key -- we just need to surround ourselves with others who are ready, willing, and able to be held stray-hair-accountable.

I'd pluck over waxing and my first choice would be electrolysis. I have it done and it works. I always thought waxing stimulated more hair to grow.

At work one day, I saw a chin whisker on a coworker that was also a friend. I was shocked that I had never seen it, it was long! I told her and she jumped up to look at it the mirror. We were both standing there discussing how in the heck it could be there; it must have grown overnight for neither of us to notice it sooner. She grabbed it between thumb and index finger and quickly pulled. Instead of plucking it, she curled it like a ribbon. She now had a chin ringlet. We laughed until our abs hurt. She said maybe she would just hang a bead on it but borrowed my tweezers and finally got rid of it. :-)

I have lots of downy fuzz for sideburns and down my neck. I learned how to wax it ages ago, in my twenties. It has definitely become sparser over the years.

Cattyles - you made me actually LOL! A chin ringlet! Hahahahahaha! I know exactly what that is, because I've managed to make a few of those myself! Oh, my goodness. We may have chin ringlets, but at least we also still have our senses of humor! :-D

Those of you that shave, what about stubble?

I use one of these because wax irritates my face. You have to get the hang of it and you'll tweeze some hairs that don't get caught up in the thing.

I hunt for random chin hairs with tweezers daily.

http://m.shop.nordstrom.com/s/tweezerman-smooth-finish-facial-hair-remover/4082803?cm_mmc=google--productads--Women%3APersonalCareAccessories%3ABathAccessories-_-1158269&rkg_id=h-47d32d231c29c44f654595ea138b9b95_t-1479412394&adpos=1o1&creative=44168621753&device=m&network=g&gclid=COz-6dHIsNACFQiOaQodqtgIaw

I hunt for random chin hairs with tweezers daily. Yep. You get to be 50-something and you suddenly have a new hobby that isn't actually much fun at all.

Cattyles - there's a little bit of stubble involved, which makes me feel gross. If I let it go a day or two, though, I can go back to "just" plucking, but if I need to destubble then I have to just shave it lightly again. It's a cruel taskmaster.

Add PCOS and an Eastern European grandmother to the mix and it's that much more horrifying.

I have some of those spring pluckers. OMG, the pain! My ancient mother has so many chin and lip hairs, it is awful. I know if i told her it would hurt her feelings. Wish I could think of a way to tell her. Her eyesight is bad and she could not do it herself nor would she go anywhere to have it done. The thought of doing it for her skeeves me out. I know, I am horrible.

You guys have given me a much needed giggle.

My DH told me there is a comedian who jokes about how, as men get older, they have hair growing out of their ears and noses. The comedian says that if women let that happen, they'd be institutionalized.

I too worry that someday I will be a little old lady and not have any idea what lurks. Or stranded on a desert island, or abducted. In all these scenarios the biggest fear is, of course, unwanted facial hair.

So who here can educate us first hand about electrolysis?

Shee, if you're considering laser down the road sooner might be better. It doesn't work on light or grey hairs.

I'm a plucker.

Yes, I'm a member of the club also. My hairs are under each nostril(!), either side of my upper lip, and grow out of the mole on the left side of my face, below the chin. You can't see the mole for my hair, but I know the hairs are there! I definitely keep a close eyes on those because they seem to grow quickly. I pluck the mole hairs, shave off the others. Altho recently I have started to pluck the ones under the nostrils. ow. But they don't come back as fast.

As far as my eyebrows, I have my hair dresser do those and she uses the wax.

Yes, tell me about electrolysis too. How much does it cost? Is it really permanent?

I have a lot of chin hairs. Too many to pluck so I shave every morning and night. I shave the mustache once or twice a month. I don't have any random hairs on my face. Tweeze eyebrows every other day and trim them twice a month. My eyebrows are black and coarse and I don't like them. My skin is very fair (I use ivory foundation).

Omg, Cattyles, I actually full belly laughed at that! That happens to me every month or so...not a super long hair, but I check my face daily. A few years ago I got my daughter one of those lighted makeup mirrors and now I use it every day to check for hairs. Sometimes I'll be sitting at my desk and can feel a coarse hair on my chin that I never even noticed that morning. How could it be that long and I didn't see it?! I agree about the car mirror-I have found some that way too. Never thought to keep tweezers in my car but now I will!

I'm also of Mediterranean and European heritage with medium completion. I have naturally dark brown hair and fairly hairy arms/legs, but somehow I was blessed to have blond hair on my arms. It's not as noticeable, especially in the summer. I also have blond peach fuzz on my face. I get the random black hairs on my chin, but I also get one blond hair on my cheek and one on my chest that always grow in the same exact spot. One time I was getting my hair cut and the woman who does my hair saw the one on my cheek. We had a good laugh at how long it was b/c even tho I knew I had one grown there, I hadn't noticed it had come back. She now checks me every time I go see her. I still haven't hit menopause but I was just reading that some women get hairier so I'm sure I will!

Ooh, that must be a drag, ladies. I found a pair of brow and splinter tweezers that come to a very nicely machined small edge (not a point). They are the only ones that grab my fine brow hairs. My sister has (last time I saw her up close) this single hair on her cheekbone. I'm the sort who would want someone to let me know, so I told her (it was about an inch long and dark. She just murred something like a vague acknowledgment, but didn't seen concerned. Ba? I would have run to a car tow company, anything. I would have offered to yank it for her (I carry a short pair of the aforementioned tweezers in my purse for splinters). Men with unprimed nose hair are gross; doubly worse if they also have ear moss.

Is there a particular hormone that stimulates the wayward hairs? Do men get them?

Many years ago I saw a woman crossing the street and noticed that she had an extremely hair face. She must have had some wild hormonal thing going on. What a burden for her. I'd probably want to wear a head scarf. (Well, maybe not after our election.)

I came across this. Moles or chocolate chips?

~~~~~~

ETA -- cat with hypertrichosis "werewolf cat" (fun read)

http://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/q-and-a/a41409/atchoum-the-werewolf-cat-interview/

Too bad we don't have fine fur to hide the wrinkles and such.

A few years ago I started getting lazer treatment for black chin hairs. She also used electrolysis for some lazer resistant hairs. After more than a year, I figured out that treatment could go on forever, not so much because I was so hairy, but that is just the nature of hairs. They don't pop out all at once so it is impossible to get them all. Now the six or eight black chin hairs are back. I pluck or shave.

I am the original poster and will add a bit more to my delema. I am 72 years old and enough of the hairs are white so it is too late for electrolysis for me. I wish I had done this years ago. I think I will start plucking except for the moustache area that I will continue to wax.

i see I am not alone . I am happy to hear from so many of you.

if I had young daughters I would encourage them to do electrolysis now.

My best friend has been getting electrolysis for over 5 years, and says she sees no end in sight. She also says it's very expensive, but I don't know exactly what that means.

I actually get a lot of pleasure pulling those nasty little black (or white) hairs off my the lower part of my face. And they DO grow overnight :o I use a Panasonic facial hair shaver (battery operated) for the peach fuzz on my face. It's an instant face slimmer! There is no "stubble" from shaving. We wouldn't do it if there was. I also confiscated one of my husband's beard trimmers to use on my forearms. I can't believe I was in my mid 30s before I heard of women doing that :/ I have zilch pain tolerance so waxing and electrolysis aren't an option.

Panasonic Facial Hair Remover for Women

As for the stubble question...the only place I have any actual feel of stubble is where the stupid chin whiskers are. The hair on the rest of my face is soft so when it starts growing back it doesn't feel or look like coarse hair. Since the ends are blunt cut it feels different to touch but it's fine and doesn't look weird. I don't shave every day. I'm actually not sure how often I even do it. And there's nothing wrong with peach fuzz, btw. I just think my makeup looks nicer on the smooth skin. I will say shaving does get a little tricky under my ear/side burn area. I have to be careful so it doesn't look strange there. Shaving my face isn't something I do in the shower with no mirror because of that.

I totally laughed at the chin ringlet.

Cindy - I've heard that about that about the gray. Some of mine seem to be partially gray now. I've been looking around recently and reading up on cost and how many treatments are recommended. Then there's the possible negatives of scarring, etc. Like anything else I know it's important to find someone who knows what they're doing. Still need to research more, but I'd like to have it done in the next few years.

I made a promise to my mom if she's ever unable to take care of her chin area I'd come to the rescue! I don't like to use the word hate but I do hate chin whiskers. So not fair. It's most frustrating if you can't grab the hair or it breaks off. Ah! I need new tweezers actually.

Texanjana - That has me concerned. I've heard it doesn't work on all people and I wonder why. I suppose there could be many different factors. Has she seen any decrease in hair or the coarseness of it?

Lisa - LOL That one hair...that's how it starts. :)

I seriously started having this chin hair issue when I was 29. I know other people in their 20s and 30s dealing with this too.

My DH is my plucker. We actually have a routine where I sit back in my home office chair and he examines my face & neck. He plucks the whiskers for me. I like it because I can't always see them and he likes to stroke the skin of my face-he always says I have nice skin. Yeah, I have few wrinkles and small pores but the trade off it I've got enough whiskers I look like an Italian Grandmother!

My BF has a full mustache and a beard on her chin. This started about five years ago and I'm pretty sure it was the onset of menopaus and now she has told me she has been for two years. I dislike it when she lets it go for a longer than usual time! We don't see each other as often as in years past but it seems when she comes to see me it's with the facial hair. She bleaches, which I think looks just as bad. Then at times it's gone, so she must wax. She says if she shaves it will only come in darker. I've actually never mentioned it to her, she comments on it to me, and in a manner to say, "I don't care, it is what it is".

Am I'm awful to say that it sometimes embarrasses me when we go somewhere?

I had electrolysis every month for five years. Did it kill any of those unwanted hair follicles - NO. Talk about throwing money away. Now I just pluck them, or, for those I can't get hold of and/or see, ask my daughter or granddaughters to do that task for me. Will look into the waxing.

I am a fan of electrolysis. When I was about 50, I became concerned about hair on my upper lip which I thought was getting coarser. By then I was hearing stories about older women with moustaches, and a I didn't want to go there if possible. I found a good technician and went about three or four times a few weeks apart. She started with the coarser hairs so they could be rezapped if need be over the weeks. The results were great for me - sorry to hear that's not the case for everyone.

I also had electrolysis done at 2 different points in my life - pre kids and post. The pre kids part worked fairly well but obviously I was young, focused on the fine hairs on my upper lip - fair skin, dark hair, not pretty. Years later after my kids were born the chin hair started and I tried it again, different person doing it. That hair was much more coarse and so required a stronger zap (technical term there!) to be effective, plus in a few weeks I'd be back for another treatment - who knows if they were different hairs or the same. I ended up with a couple of burns and still have the scars. It was expensive - over $100/ per treatment and I don't think a bit of it was permanent. I wish the laser had been available while my facial hair was still dark - now it's mostly white with a few dark ones.

eta: there is a hormonal component for many women, not just peri/post menopause but also birth control pills and all the fluctuations that come with pregnancy. Going off bc pills after many years seemed to cause a flush of new hair for me.