Let’s talk about PCOS and facial hair, also known as hirsutism. By definition, hirsutism is a condition in women that results in excessive growth of dark or coarse hair in male-like pattern - face, chest and back. And unfortunately, I know a thing or two about this! I was even featured in Yahoo Life's article spotlighting PCOS. You can read the article here.
Before I share the three things that I’ve been doing to get rid of my facial for good, I want to first share a little bit of my journey.
Over 10 years ago, I was diagnosed with PCOS by my gynecologist. The reason why I even went to see my gynecologist was because of the facial hair. At the time, I was in college and I just hated the sight of the hairs on my chin. The facial hair growth actually started in high school and it was totally manageable with a pair of tweezers. But over time, my facial hair was growing thicker and tweezing made the skin inflamed and I started to get redness, soreness and hair bumps. Not cute for a young lady trying to fit in and find a boyfriend. So that’s what prompted me to go and help!
When I made my appointment with my gynecologist, I was also overweight, had irregular periods and suffered from chronic fatigue. Getting diagnosed with PCOS was actually easy for me because I displayed three major signs of PCOS: evidence of high testosterone (facial hair), cysts on my ovaries and having irregular periods.
After I officially got my PCOS diagnosis, my doctor really didn't give me any solution to getting rid of the facial hair. I was prescribed metformin, but I didn't take it for long because I wasn't losing weight and it was making me feel sick all the time. So by the end of my appointments, my doctor told me to come her when I'm ready to get pregnant again.
So what happened after that? I became really desperate! I hated how I looked. I was feeling ugly and I was losing my confidence and I so I invested in laser hair removal. The treatments were successful! The hair was gone and my facial hair stopped growing! My facial hair was finally gone! It wasn't growing back. It was amazing! Unfortunately, my results didn't last.
A few years later, my hair started to grow back. I'm starting to see my facial hair growing back and now! Nooooo! And it's coming back and it's getting thicker and and now. The laser hair removal was temporary help. It didn't tackle the actual root cause of the problem, which for us, it's the PCOS.
After realizing that I wasted thousands of dollars on a temporary solution, I knew that I had to so something different. I need to get to the root cause of PCOS, which is an imbalance of male hormone due to high insulin levels.
I have gained more confidence in my PCOS and my facial hair, and it may be because I've learned so much about PCOS I know no longer think. That I'm ugly or I'm blaming myself for the face right here like the facial hair is definitely a symptom of PCOS. And I'm no longer feel masculine. I don't feel ugly me off, you know? But sometimes I do, like when I hide my face. But honestly, like, at this point, I've been going out in public with my facial hair.
So anyway, so that's one thing. But now that I have this confidence. And I like accept him not to have it accepted that I have facial hair. You know, now I'm ready to. Now that I love myself and love every inch of myself, I am now ready to start treating my facial hair and the hirsutism, and I've been doing a couple of things and I can't guarantee that it will work for everyone, but, my short period of time doing these strategies I have seen some improvements in my future here, so decreasing their growth and I know that because I don't have to shave every single day.
Here are my 3 tips that I've been doing to help with:
Improve they way you eat- I've been creating a lifestyle and diet where I'm not having a lot of processed carbs and not a lot of processed food, not a lot of high sugary foods and really making sure I'm getting an proteins and healthy fats every day by doing this. This has really helped me with the appearance of facial hair and I think it can help you.
Drink spearmint tea- Research has shown that drinking at least two cups of spearmint tea a day that can help to reduce the appearance of facial hair. And I'm going to give you a link to that article, so make sure you try that and I'll give you a link to a place where you can order your own spearmint tea. I typically order it from Amazon, but you can also get it from moms organic market and maybe some other stores near you.
Cocokind's Tumeric Stick- I also suffer from hyperpigmentation and this product has helped to even out the skin tone.
Lavender oil and tea tree oil- There is an article that talks about how using these oils can reduce the appearance of facial hair growth and slow down how fast the hair grows.
I this was helpful!
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