I’m a Black woman in her 50s with unwanted hair on my face. What is the best way to get rid of it for good?

The best treatment is laser hair removal or electrolysis. The methods Google lists – waxing, tweezing, threading, plucking, epilating, Vaniqua and other creams – only remove the hair for a few days or weeks, and on Black skin they do something worse.

Waxing, tweezing and threading inflame the skin

Waxing pulls the hair out of the follicle and often a layer of skin with it. Tweezing, plucking and threading pull each hair out by force. Creams can irritate. Every one of these methods creates inflammation.

What does inflammation do on Black skin? It creates discoloration.

Why? When there is inflammation in Black skin, the melanin tries to protect the skin. It pushes more color to the surface. That color is always darker than your original skin. So every wax, every pluck, every thread can leave a darker mark, on the chin, the jaw, the upper lip and the neck. Do it for years and the dark marks stay and spread, and the hair keeps coming back.

The solution is not to remove the hair again and again. It is to treat the root.

1. Dark hair: laser hair removal. Laser looks for color in the hair. Dark hair is the target.
2. White, gray, blonde or light hair: electrolysis. Laser cannot see white. White is not a color, so the laser has nothing to aim at. Electrolysis treats each hair root one at a time, whatever the color. After 50 many women have a mix of dark and white hairs, so many need both: laser while the hair is still dark, electrolysis for the white and the very fine hairs.
3. Laser for white skin and laser for dark skin are not the same. On Black and dark skin the laser has to be the long-pulse Nd:YAG. Other lasers stay too close to the surface of dark skin and can burn it. Ask which laser is used before the first pulse.
4. Why the hair grows in your 50s: hormones change in menopause, and chin and jaw hair becomes thicker and darker. Because the hormones keep changing, new hairs can wake up later, so the plan has to follow the hair over time.
5. The dark marks that years of waxing and tweezing left behind can be treated too.

Eva Taub has treated Black and dark skin for more than 40 years, with laser for dark hair and electrolysis for white hair, in Newnan, Georgia (by appointment) and in Bay Harbor Islands, Miami. Women come to Newnan from Atlanta, Griffin, Sharpsburg, Alabama and other states.

Call or text Eva: 305-864-3333