We perform lots of laser hair removal at Romeo & Juliette. Much of it is to get rid of hair that we’re used to always being there; it’s just not wanted any longer. Places like the underarms, the bikini line, maybe the legs.
But there are other hairs that show up out of the blue and are the singular bane of any woman. These random dark hairs are a product of our hormones and a condition known as hirsutism. These ugly hairs are just asking to have our 12 lasers in our 57th Street offices target them with laser energy.
Here’s some more about why these unwelcome visitors have shown up.
Blame it on the hormones
Every woman is different, but there’s one universal truth — no one likes seeing random dark hairs popping up on areas where men typically grow hair: the face, chest, and back. Hirsutism is actually a condition of male-pattern hair growth in women. That’s why these darn hairs are showing up in unfeminine spots.
Affecting about 5 out of every 100 women, hirsutism is fueled by androgens, which are male hormones. All women produce androgens. During puberty, teenage ovaries produce a mix of female and male sex hormones. This is why we start to grow pubic hair and hair in our armpits. You can thank this hormone mix for the endless ritual of shaving, plucking, waxing, and applying harsh depilatory creams to remove those very same hairs.
Hirsutism is different. It happens later, and the hairs grow in randomly. They tend to be spotty, unlike the uniform patterns associated with our pubic or underarm hair.
Hirsutism is more often than not caused by polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). This causes a woman to develop benign cysts on her ovaries, and this can mess with hormone production. Other causes of hirsutism can be adrenal gland disorders where they abnormally produce steroid hormones. Cushing’s syndrome occurs when your body is exposed to high levels of the hormone cortisol, which can happen from taking prednisone for a long period of time or if your adrenal glands are making too much cortisol. Hirsutism can also be a side effect of drugs to treat endometriosis or depression.
Laser energy to the rescue
At Romeo & Juliette, we can help you tell your hirsutism-caused hairs to hit the road. These dark hairs are easy to target with laser energy. They are usually quite dark, darker than your normal hair color. We set the laser wavelength to match the melanin in these hairs, and then we deliver very short pulses of laser light energy onto them. The melanin in the hair shaft absorbs the light energy, which converts to heat and travels down the hair shaft into the hair follicle where the hair is anchored. The heat damages or destroys the hair follicle, precluding it from growing these ugly dark hairs in the future
Want to get rid of those odd dark hairs popping up in the most unwanted places? Call the City’s laser hair removal experts, Romeo & Juliette Laser Hair Removal, at (212) 750-2000 and schedule a laser hair removal session.