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prednisone and facial hair

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Posted 8/25/2007 3:52 PM (GMT 0)
With all of the very serious health problems we face with lupus, this is a very superficial one (I feel silly even posting about it), but I just wanted to see if anyone has found anything that works for trying to get rid of facial hair.  I've noticed since I've been on prednisone I've gotten more facial hair, which I know can be a side effect from prednisone.  Fortunately it's all pretty light in color, but it still bothers me.  I get a lot of it on the sides of my face. I know there are some chemical hair removers, but I don't know how good the chemicals would be for my body of if there was a chance the chemicals could spark a flare.  I don't know anything about waxing and the whole thing sounds pretty painful. I've never been a vain person, but all of the stuff that lupus and the meds have done to my body isn't pretty.  I am 100% serious when I say I don't at all physically resemble the person I was pre-lupus. Any ideas on how to manage the extra hair?  
Posted 8/25/2007 4:00 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Hippi, I actually am the other symptom. I have less hair. Thinner on my head. Even my legs have more patches of thin hair than they used to. I don't even get underarm hair and very little on my um-um. I have always gotten some hair on my face. I think everyone does but we all can't afford the beauty salon for help. I have been watching a commercial on t.v. for somthing called tweezies (I think) . It rolls over your whole face and pulls hairs out by the roots. I am going to buy one the next time I see it on t.v.. I would feel much better with that than using chemicals. I have enough problems with my skin without adding more chemicals to it. I'll let you know how it goes or maybe some one here has already used it. I'd be very interested in hearing about it. I know how you feel. I look completely different too. I hate looking at myself in a mirror. I have big round cheeks! thanks to steroids.
love ya
carol
Posted 8/25/2007 6:12 PM (GMT 0)
Hi Hippi,

Facial hair is the worst. I don't even take Pred and I get it. I personally do get my upper lip waxed and its about $10 and I don't have to go back for another month or two especially since I have been going for a while. I don't mind it at all (the pain) but I can understand how some would. I used to take a Klonopin right before to relax me, the more relaxed I was the less hurt it caused. I used to bleach it but it was messy and with my olive skin, sometimes the lighter hair would be more noticable than the darker. Might be worth looking into the product that Carol mentions, sometimes those "as seen on TV" products are pretty neat inventions.

Take Care
Posted 8/25/2007 8:08 PM (GMT 0)
Carol, I'll let you be the guinea pig for the tv hair removal gadget - let me know if you get it. When I read your post, it weird because I have less hair on my head too and my leg hairs don't grow as quickly anymore either, but I've got the facial hair thing going on. Des, that's not too bad of a price for waxing - I'm guessing they could do the sides of my face too. I think I want to stay away from chemicals too, just because they probably aren't too good for you and my skin is really sensitive too. Thanks for the ideas
Posted 8/25/2007 8:45 PM (GMT 0)
We had a thread on this a few months ago and I think the "winning" suggestion that some people were using was something called "sugaring" -- some sort of string run over the face? I didn't really understan it. Although I have more facial hair (prednisone) and less head hair (cellcept) -- the facial hair is very thin (long) and very pale -- blens into my pale skin so I just ignore it. My heart goes out to those of you with darker hair, I can't imagine how much that might bother you.
Posted 8/25/2007 9:12 PM (GMT 0)
Hippi, when I was on a high dose of prednisone I had long blond hairs all over my cheeks, upper lip and especially around my ears and jaw line. Since I've lowered my dose, the long hairs are no longer there, probably because out of desperation, I shaved the lower part of my face a few months ago.

I used to have my upper lip and brows waxed regularly, and she waxed around my jawbone when I was first on prednisone and it worked real well. But later, as I increased my pred to a high dose I was afraid that my skin had gotten too thin and I was afraid to do it then.

Years ago I had all the hair on my face removed by the process Lynnwood describes. We call it stringing. My face was beautiful afterwards, but in my case it was extremely painful. A friend had the same woman perform the same process on her face and it didn't hurt her at all, so it's very personal. I think it's done more on the coasts than in provincial Oklahoma.

While I had always heard that shaving make the hairs grown in coarser, that hasn't been the case at all with me, probably because my hair is light and fine. It's not something I'd do on a regular basis though.
Posted 8/25/2007 10:29 PM (GMT 0)
Hey Hippiemom,

I am one who is sympathetic as I hate any body hair on myself. I personally have used the sugar wax kits on my arms, legs, etc and I love it. It has lasted a while with only touch ups needed every 5 days. One thing is I bought the Parissa brand at the health food store as the ones like Nair and others that say they are sugar based have chemicals. The Parissa brand does not have any chemicals, and does not give me rashes either. I hope this helps you a bit with your decision.

I know this disease makes us feel more self-conscious about ourselves!!! eyes eyes You said this was not related much to Lupus but to me it very much is. If we are not comfortable about how we look after having this disease, it is not going to help us with the self-image issues we are having in the first place, and make us feel more bad about ourselves.

You may not look like the same person, I know I don't, but we are different and have more of different view on life than most others do. Having this perspective makes you even more beautiful when we know more meaning of life and spiritually as well.

Leta
Posted 8/25/2007 10:59 PM (GMT 0)
Well said, Leta
Posted 8/26/2007 4:14 AM (GMT 0)
Hi hippimom--
I had a recipe for sugaring that a syrian friend gave to me. It was something like , 1 cup sugar, some lemon juice and maybe some water, don't remember. You cook it to soft ball stage, then put it on a greased cookie sheet. When it becomes just cool enough to handle, you roll it up into a ball and then spread it over your legs and rip it off like wax. If you skin is thin from steroids though, waxing might not be the greatest. I think lazer hair removal is good for dark hairs and nair or something like it, or waxing if your skin can handle it for the rest. Sometimes for arm hair, you can cut it short using a beard clipper with a guard and it loods much better and you are not shaving it all the way down. I'm sure there is another sugaring recipe, I think it is far better than waxing and if you are making it yourself, it is cheap and also more hygenic and works better--I've tried the kits. They get to hot and then too cold to fast. I know what you mean about all this hair. I just took the beard clipper to mine, luckily it grows back slowly. Also, I had home electrolysis kit and it worked well if you can stand the pain.
Posted 8/26/2007 1:55 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks for all the ideas. I'll have to look into sugaring to see how it works. I don't know if it was a good idea or not, but I took a closer look in the mirror last night under bright lighting and I'm way more hairy than I thought. I found some hairs on my upper lip that were about an inch long, so I tweezed those ones. But, I've got hair all over my face and have a lot of new stuff growing on my chin and my cheeks - all the places where Pat says she has her facail hair. Luckily most of it is light in color, but there are some dark ones in there too. I don't mind a little bit of pain to get rid of the hair, but I don't want to torture myself either. As with everything else about the physical changes with lupus, I'm probably much more aware of it than other people.
Posted 8/27/2007 2:29 AM (GMT 0)
Hi hippimom-
Brain working better, you don't add water. You need to add a tbsp or two to the sugar because it keeps the sugar from turning into hard candy, keeps it soft. It is also a natural germ killer. When it reaches soft ball stage (you drop a tiny bit in water and if it balls up) then you pour it out on a cookie sheet lightly greased with olive oil. You must let it cool a little until you can handle it without getting burnt, it will feel warm like a heating pad especially in the middle if you ball it up, but not burning hot. Any way, you smash it out on your shin in a strip and wait a second and pull it off. You will have this "hair candy" type ball of stuff and you keep using it until you are done. For some reason, the sugar retains heat pretty well. Anyway, when you get done you have a delectable treat for the whole family! NOT! Hope you find a good solution and be careful with store bought stuff you heat in the microwave, I burnt the crap out of myself because it gets really hot in some places though it seems cool in others.
Posted 8/27/2007 4:14 AM (GMT 0)
Re: Patty's comment--"Hippi, when I was on a high dose of prednisone I had long blond hairs all over my cheeks, upper lip and especially around my ears and jaw line. Since I've lowered my dose, the long hairs are no longer there, probably because out of desperation, I shaved the lower part of my face a few months ago."

I went through this two days ago. I went to hang out with friends on Wednesday and we took lots of pictures. When I went through them the next day I saw this round, fat, double-chinned face and was just sick about it! I sat down with a mirror which maybe wasn't the best idea, and nit-picked every issue. And just as Patty said out of pure desperation shaved parts of my face in the shower the next day! This is something that wasn't bothering me much until the other day!

I guess like we say "Prednisone is the drug we love to hate"
Posted 8/27/2007 7:08 AM (GMT 0)
Oh, yes, the lovely round face and double chin - or should I say, the hairy double chin. I looked at some of our vacation pictures and I swear I looked like more of man in some of the pictures. I joked about it, but the whole thing bothers me. I also notice that at 10mg of prednisone or more, I not only have a double chin, I've got these ugly jowls hanging down too. But, without prednisone I doubt I'd be walking.
Posted 8/29/2007 6:40 AM (GMT 0)
I was lucky -- I didn't get facial hair. I did lose some hair on my head, though!
Posted 8/29/2007 12:22 PM (GMT 0)
I'm catching this thread late, but I want to say that I've been shaving my upper lip.  Waxing does sound like a good idea though.  I didn't have any leg hair for a few months taking the methotrexate, but it's growing back now.  As for the prednisone, my docs want me to taper and I am now down to 7mg.  I'm also still a fat faced hunch back which really gives me incentive to taper!

Posted 9/5/2007 2:29 AM (GMT 0)
This is funny for me because I am taking a med to put hair back onto my head....IT IS WORKING. My wife is using a cream (79.00) a pop...called vanica Not sure about the spelling. That also, has worked.
Posted 9/5/2007 6:52 PM (GMT 0)
I got really mad about 5 days ago an bought one of those mini hair trimmers that only cuts hair. I have a mustache, the hair is not dark but not light either. So it is really visible on my pale as alabaster skin. It took half the hair. I will be getting the rest waxed off. I hate chemicals. My leg hair grows really slow and sparse so why the facial hair at 5mg of pred with a total of 5 days at 10mg due to flair inducing sun exposure- I took the extra to reduce the chance I would lose the remission. I am sleeping constantly and lost my glasses so I dunno when I will post again.
Posted 9/6/2007 5:58 PM (GMT 0)
Sugaring is the way to go in my opinion. It is a far more gentle alternative to waxing and threading. When calling around to find a salon that sugars be sure to ask if they use "strips" or "hand sugaring". The strips dont work as well and you can purchase them in any drugstore. To really get the hair from the root you need to have a pro that knows how to "hand roll" the sugar.

I get my brows, lip and bikini line done every 5-6 weeks. It does hurt but somebody really experienced can teach you tricks on how to lessen the sting. For example, when getting your lip done be sure to hold your tounge in the corner of your mouth. That will lessen the pain on your lip. Also, try to get an appt. in the late afternoon or early evening. When we wake we still have fluid that needs to be released from our bodies and it makes the sugaring process more sensitive.

I have been getting sugared since high school. I am allergic to wax but waxing isnt as effective as you can only hit the area once. With sugaring you can go over a single area up to 3 times which helps get all the hair. I wish you lived close by to me. I have a lady I go to that in my opinion is a sugaring genius. She is awesome!
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