Permanent Hair Removal For Men’s Face Hair

As we’ve spoken about on Permanent Hair Removal Tips, the only true and FDA-approved permanent hair removal option is electrolysis. But other options can offer permanent hair reduction which might suffice, depending on your goals.

Why would a man desire permanent hair removal from the face?

• Eliminate the chance of ingrown hairs from shaving
• You have overly sensitive skin from shaving that you’d prefer to avoid
• Rid yourself of patchy beard growth
• You have tufts of hair growing in places you don’t want
• You’re just tired of shaving and don’t want to do it anymore
• You want to sculpt your facial hair permanently so you don’t have shave your entire face each day.

So reasons for permanent facial hair removal or reduction might be aesthetic or health-related ie. shaving problems. Men with sensitive skin or who are prone to ingrown hairs often desire a way to resolve this problem and removing facial hair to avoid shaving is an obvious answer.

Permanent Hair Removal For Men’s Face Hair

Electrolysis: As the only FDA-approved method of facial hair removal on the market, electrolysis may be used for facial hair removal. Each hair is removed one by one so it’s time-consuming and can be expensive as a result. It is permanent however with repeated treatments so once the hair is gone it’s gone for good.

It’s going to be more painful, more time-consuming and probably much more costly than the next options to consider, laser and IPL.

Permanent Hair Reduction For Men’s Face Hair

Laser Hair Removal: Laser hair removal is not permanent like electrolysis but may reduce hair on a long term basis by as much as 70%-80% at the high end. Modern lasers have adjustable heads so that the area being treated can be made smaller to target a more precise area. Modern machines also have a fast repetition rate and can cover facial areas quickly as a result. Appointments for laser facial hair removal are probably going to take you 30 minutes or less.

IPL Hair Removal: Like laser, IPL offers long term hair removal but uses a broad spectrum light flash rather than laser. Most people believe lasers are more effective than IPL for laser but you will still find clinics offering it for hair removal.

Electrolysis, Laser or IPL

If I had to choose at this point, all things being equal (cost and availability) I’d take a good laser option over IPL or electrolysis for facial hair removal. More focus seems to be on improving laser machines and since there are four types of laser (Ruby, Diode, Alexandrite and Nd:YAG) you often see newer machines combining 2 or more laser technologies to give you more flexibility to achieve your hair removal results.

So the trade off between electrolysis (permanent hair removal) on the one hand and laser/IPL (permanent hair reduction) also comes down to cost and time. Electrolysis will give you the permanent elimination of hair but it’ll most likely cost more and take much more time especially if you have significant facial hair to get rid of.

If you have red, light/blonde or gray unwanted facial hair, electrolysis might be your only choice. Laser and IPL don’t work very well on these hair colors unfortunately. Electrolysis on the other hand has no constraints on hair color or skin color.

Other Hair Removal For Men’s Face Hair

Shaving: Shaving of course is the common method for men to remove facial hair on a daily basis. It’s the cheapest (up front anyways) method of hair removal but chances are if you’re considering a longer form of hair removal for facial hair, you’re ready to move on from it.

Waxing: Not really an option. Waxing isn’t really meant for the face so I’d avoid it.

Depilatories: Again, chemicals like this aren’t meant for the face or anywhere near the eyes. They also smell very strong and can burn the skin if used improperly.

Conclusion

• Permanent hair removal for men’s face hair has one true option for permanent hair elimination: Electrolysis. But it tends to be time-consuming and thus expensive.
• Laser and IPL offer permanent hair reduction for men’s facial hair. They can significantly reduce facial hair if not outright eliminating it at a (most likely) lower cost, with less pain and less time spent than electrolysis.
• Between laser and IPL, modern laser machines appear to be regularly improved upon moreso than IPL which seems to be getting left in the dust by modern lasers as a hair removal option.
• Modern laser machines often combine 2 or more laser technologies and have adjustable treatment sizes to handle smaller, tight spaces on the face. They’re also very customizable for each patient’s individual needs.