I'm starting menopause, is it too soon for Laser Hair Removal?

Factual Questions
1

I’ve hit 36, and I am in the first stages of menopause (10 years early). I really won’t mind saying goodbye to Aunt Flo, and fertility, but the biggest pain in the butt about this change is the change in the amount of hair. I’ve always been a little fuzzy, but now I am scared that I will soon be the bearded lady! The plucking, waxing and all the constant ingrown hairs on my face are a major annoyance.

I have seriously been considering laser hair removal, and my mom says it has been successful for her after 4 treatments. The prices I have seen for “Full face” in my city are around $250 per treatment, and considering the money and time I spend on daily, weekly and monthly removal, the money doesn’t seem that bad for something that will help.

We have the same skin and hair type, extremely pale, almost colorless skin, and dark coarse hairs.

My questions are:

Since I am just starting menopause (Last year in July I had 2 periods in a month, and after that I have missed periods randomly, but I haven’t stopped completely, I have night sweats, and I have been far more “hormonal” on an emotional level, and my doctor says that this is the start of menopause), is it better I wait because this hair is only going to get worse until the end?

What is the long term effectiveness? My mom only got it 3 years ago, and she still looks clean, but will I need to go back in about 10 years?

My mom went to our old family doctor (who now specializes in laser hair removal, and veins) to get it done, but is there a difference in going to a spa, salon with nurses, or a doctor? My former doctor is way over on the other side of town, but there is a really nice looking spa with nurses and a dermatologist in my area.

I’ve heard that you need to let the hair grow out for a few days, and perhaps shave instead until 3 days before the treatment from a friend of mine. Do I have to? Will I need to hide in a cave for a week before each treatment so that I don’t look disgusting? I really don’t want the hair, but also I am a vain woman, and having hair show for even 3 days would be just torture for me (my hair grows super fast, I could handle switching to shaving from plucking & waxing for a few weeks so that more follicles have hairs in them but after that, 3 days without shaving or plucking and I would have almost half a centimeter).

What about afterwards, I hear it feels like a sunburn and the the hair falls out, - should this be done on a Friday, so I have a face by Monday again? Or does it take longer?

Have any of you had it done, and when you went through menopause, did hair issues get worse? Please help me decide if it is time to visit the laser beam people.

2

A good way to tell how your menopause is going to go is by looking at how it went for your mother. Did she end up as the Bearded Lady? Then chances are good that you will, too.

But if she didn’t, then I definitely think you’re hitting the panic button way too early. Why not wait and see before you start spending money on it?

All I’ve had so far, in mine, is one of my eyebrow hairs got a little wack and now grows straight out at an angle, and my scalp hair is definitely 50% thinner.

I think you need to separate “should I have laser removal” from “should I have laser removal because I’m perimenopausal”. The two things aren’t really connected.

If laser removal is something that you were considering anyway, go for it. But if you’re thinking that you’d better have it done now before it “gets worse”, I’d wait, really. There’s no way of telling beforehand what your own particular hormonal storm may do as your endocrine system convulses for the next 5 or 10 years or so. I can think of a lot more interesting things to do with $1000 in the meantime.

3

Well for my mom, menopause came on fast - same as it is going for me - and so far I am almost cloning the way it went for her. Perimenopause (which for her started same as me with a double period month) started for her at 36 and by the time she was 37 she has been period free for about 6 months. If I am close to my mom on this I will probably only have about 6 to 12 more months to my last period.

Because it went so fast, all she can say is when it set it, she got more hair - she’s not too sure about the timing, that is whether or not it got worse before she hit menopause - or it was just the start of turning into a bearded lady. She did say, once she was over it, it didn’t get any worse besides some hairs which turned white and grew all crazy and corkscrewed.

Body hair and face hair have always been an issue, I am fuzzy, as was my mom, but like my mom I wax religiously, and pluck frequently.

It is more or less a guarantee that I will get laser hair removal, and if it works well on my face, there are quite a few more places I’d like done. Despite being frugal, paying for “vanity” doesn’t seem that bad, I color my hair, get waxed, and buy makeup. Currently I wax my lip and chin once a week on Sunday, and monday through friday I use a razor, and tweezers if the hair is very nasty.

I probably can wait 6 months to a year longer, if I really should, there are many days where I feel I am losing a battle with hair, and it is really bumming me out to wake up to a bunch more black thick hairs on my chin which I know I shouldn’t pluck until the weekend when I have enough time to wax. I also have to wear makeup thicker to cover the black spots, because with glassy uber-pale white skin, even shaved - I can see a black dot where the hair and root is just below the skin. Right now I am at a point where I just hate waking up to face my face.

My main fear is if I start too soon, and I am going to get hairier - that I will have to tack on some extra treatments, and the previous treatments will have been a waste - and being frugal I too can think of many other things to spend money like that on.

4

Well, I would say that if the hair bothers you now, then go ahead and get it fixed now. I mean, life’s short, ya know? Why save up for some possibly mythical post-menopausal rainy day, why suffer with a self-image that doesn’t please you, if you have the wherewithal to get it fixed?

Also, it’s useless to count how many missed periods you’ve had and to try to make some kind of estimate as to how long until you’ll be “done” with menopause, at which point you’ll pop for the hair removal, because I am here to tell you that there’s no way you can tell–I went 18 months, yes, that’s a year-and-a-half, without a period, I assumed I was “done”, and when I suddenly had another period I was sure it was cancer, and barged my way into the gyno’s office on that basis for a quickie hysteroscopy.

No cancer.

“Proliferative endometrium”. IOW, “you’re not done with menopause yet”, and, “Yeah, some women can have weird timing on the whole period thing, it doesn’t really prove anything. Keep using birth control…”

So don’t put up with your current hair situation and make yourself unhappy on the assumption that “soon” your menopause experience will be over and you can then deal with what’s left, because it may not be “soon”.

5

I would go ahead and start with the laser hair removal. I mean, even if you have to go back in 10 years, that will be 10 hair free years that you’ve enjoyed, right?

Everyone I know who’s had the laser hair removal has been pleased.

Apparently the laser to stop excessive under arm sweating, on the other hand, can have horrible, horrible side effects (one of the worst stories I’ve ever heard.)

6

I think you should get opinions from two different laser clinics. There are different types of lasers and different techniques. They will have the broadest cross section of experience, where posters here will only have one or two personal experiences.

I do not think you should worry about whether or not you should do it. Unless the wolf is at the door, if you can find the money, do it and do not look back. You are young; it’s bugging you now and it is clearly affecting your daily life.

Go ahead, get it done, and feel good about it. I see where DDG gave you somewhat conflicting advice: “Well, I would say that if the hair bothers you now, then go ahead and get it fixed now. I mean, life’s short, ya know?” in the first reply and “…if you’re thinking that you’d better have it done now before it “gets worse”, I’d wait, really.” in the second.

Yeah, there are other things to do with $1500. Yeah, you might have other aging processes make your face bad again. But you are way too young to be worrying how your face looks every day if you can fix it now.

7

There is a ton of good information here, courtesy of the Mayo Clinic. Look at this in particular:

It’s not going to remove your hair completely–it’s only going to decrease the hair count. And you have to have multiple treatments in order to achieve even that.

And success or failure has nothing to do with menopause, with whether your body is putting out more hair because of lack of estrogen, because this website is talking to men, too–as men age, too, their unwanted hair growth will inevitably continue, and they may need repeat treatments in the future.

Question: is there some reason you’re considering laser hair removal and not electrolysis? Good info on it here.

I’d go for it, whether electrolysis or laser. You sound like you’re tired of waxing. If it does grow back, then it’ll probably come in lighter and finer, and that would be progress, wouldn’t it? :smiley:

8

No, I don’t think that’s conflicting advice. I was saying that if she wants to get it done because she wants it done, because she’s tired of waxing, then she should go ahead and do so.

But if the only reason she wants to get it done now is because she thinks she’d better get it done now before menopause makes it worse, then she should wait, because menopause might not make it worse.

9

I think I will go for it!

The laser seems cleaner & less time consuming than electrolysis to me. Plus it always seems like I get a little girl who’s never had even one body hair in her life at a salon or spa doing my waxing when I do decide to have someone other than me do it. These girls always give me ingrown hairs, while when I wax myself, I never get even one ingrown hair. Now I just get my brows shaped in the salon, since I don’t want to look like I have a cold sore from a slew of ingrown hairs on my lip.

I will shop around, for sure - there are a couple clinics here in Calgary which will do a free consultation some along with a spot test as well.