 Story of my terrible hair woes(long)-need help!
Hi I am new to this site and have so far really enjoyed reading all the posts. It's making me feel like I'm not so alone! I am 27 years old and have been dealing w/ facial hair (mainly chin) and body hair (unhappy trail and around nipples) since I was about 15, possibly 14. I got pregnant early with my first child when I was 18 and during that time I noticed the hair problem was getting slightly worse. Still I delt with it, shaving it off in the shower. At that time it was still manageable and didn't totally controll my life. It was just something that I delt with quickly in the morning and didn't worry too much about, though it still made me feel... inadequate as a women. I remember plucking the hairs off my belly and feeling the baby inside me kicking in anger, heh poor thing! Anyhow, when I got pregnant with my second child when I was 23 the hair problems were becoming a big issue! I was having to shave my chin daily with a men's razor. I could no longer just do it quickly in the shower b/c there was a lot more hair to shave and it had become coarser. Also the irritation was worse and I would have to exfoliate beforehand. To make matters worse, the little hairs I used to just shave off on my body were thick and coarse and had to be plucked, leaving me with scarring and ingrown hairs. I was so embarassed. Going to the gyno was a nightmare, I was so scared they would ask why I had bumps and scabs all over. I wished I could be like those other women I saw showing off their bellies, but sadly there was no way I could without feeling disgusting.
By 2006 the hair was just taking over my life. I worried so much about other's seeing the stubble on my face mid day. I avoided wearing a bathing suit like a plague. Wearing shorts was even an issue b/c of all the little bumps on the back of them and my arms. (that is KP.. i have such great skin...) It's sad b/c I am on the thin side and shouldn't' really be shy about my body. I felt I looked great after having two kids but the harriness was and is holding me back in life. Last year I told myself, "I just can't take this anymore." I was more depressed than ever and refusing to go out of the house unless I had my make-up applied to perfection, hiding any glimpse of my stubble. This is hard too b/c I have very fair skin (dirty blonde hair) yet black facial and body hair in the problem areas. So as you can guess, they are pretty d*mn noticable if I go even a day w/out shaving. I have tried everything under the sun to remove these hairs but shaving works the best. I have extremely sensitive skin and break out easily. Plucking has left me scarred as it has become close to an obsession removing these. I finally broke down a year ago and disclosed to my husband of why I was acting weird, hanging my head down in the morning, avoiding direct sun light- with or w/out make-up on. He was understanding but to this day I still feel like he see's this as vain. I'm not a vain person, I just want to be able to feel good in my own skin and be the person I know I am inside without freaking hair bringing me down and making me feel like less of a women.
I have gone to two doctor's about this. First one was a nurse prac. She looked me over and said well there's nothing she could do. My hair was completely normal! I was like wtf... you don't know what you're talkking about lady! I convinced her to at least give me Vaniqua, which just broke my face out and didn't do a dang thing! I went back and demanded testing. She told me they could test for excess testosterone in my blood. I was excited b/c I thought maybe I was getting somewhere. Nope. My testosterone lvls where normal to my dismay. I was told once again it was hereditary, nothing could be done, get laser. I cried on the way home, thinking there has GOT to be an explanation better than that! I went back and researched all I could on excess hair growth and found out perhaps it could be PCOS/hirituism. My periods were extremely long, hair thinning at the top, protruding belly but thin everywhere else, acne and of course the dreaded harriness. Also when I was pregant w/ my secound child they detected some large cysts through an ultrasound but told me they would go away.
Flash forward to now. I go to a derm about this issue. She tells me my acne's due to the facial hair and to get laser. Sigh....Fine. I convinced hubby to let me get it and go in for a consolation. It's been over a month since I've had it done on chin, upper lip (slight hair there but not nearly as bad as chin area), around nipples and tummy area. I've seen vry little hair growth in the latter areas but the chin is not budging so easily. I got to thinking, maybe I should have more testing done. I don't want this laser to be a total waste of my time and money if there is something wrong w/ me hormonally. I made an appt with a local lady doc. and hopefully I can print out some info from this site that will help her see that maybe my problem is not "just" hereditary. Okay if it is I will deal with it and continue my laser treatments and shut up. But if there's something wrong I'm hoping I can go on some meds in combination w/ laser and start to feel validated and more confident. My confidence is at it's lowest right now. I'm taking retin-A micro (which i had to convince derm to give me for the terrible acne on my chin-no where else). It's drying my face to h*ll and making me break out more first wk. Feel like a monster!
I'm sorry this is so long. I really, really needed to get this off my chest (and more lol..)! I know I'm not alone is this struggle, as I'm sure all of you have had similar problems to face. It just seems like such a long, hard to road to get to the bottom of this and I'm getting more and more determined to find out the cause and won't take no for an answer to those doctors that just wanna give me a quick fix and shove me out the door. thank you if you have taken the time to read this. It means a lot. I don't really have anymore to talk to. | 
