PCOS/Insulin Resistance Support - Where does your hair grow?

I have read all the articles I can about PCOS, and I notice the hirsutism I am experiencing seems to be different than what is considered "textbook" hirsutism. I want to know if others experience this as well.

I can't believe I'm about to do this, but let me tell you where I am hairy:

let me preface this by saying I am not descent from anyone with heritage/ethnicity known for having a lot of hair. I have dirty blonde hair (not dark at all).

I have hair on my knuckles, enough that I want to shave it but am afraid of the upkeep (my legs are enough!). It's pretty dark. My arms have very dark hair (I use a "smooth away" on it, it rocks!) I also have hair on my belly--those are more like stray hairs though, although numerous. I have hair on my neck, and I cannot pluck it myself because I cannot see it until it is very long (eww), so my fiance plucks those for me so I do not have to be in public with big long hairs coming out of my neck-yes, he's a keeper!). If you drew a line straight down my neck from my earlobes, just under the jawbone, you would come to a small patch of where my neck hair grows, on each side (like where you take your pulse on your neck). It's weird. I also have hairy toes. My chest gets hairs too, which has been getting continually worse since I found the first hair when I was fifteen. I pluck it a lot. The worst, and I still cannot believe I'm telling this on the world wide web, is my behind. I have a hairier *** than my fiance. It's just as hairy as my legs, if not more. the hair is a mixture of dark, coarse hairs, and the fine, lighter ones.

Am I not only hairy, but also weird because of the location of that hair? I have never heard anyone else talk about butt hair, but then again, I don't suppose it's ever a pleasant subject, especially around girls. Unless I'm the only one with it--please say I'm not! :-D

No, you are not alone... Until I got the PCOS diagnosis, I thought that the hair in "weird" places was just supposed to be there... (I was a blonde for my whole life and was freaked out that there was darker hair all over!)

I have butt hair too... my fiance' is extremely supportive about all of it, and does the same thing with my neck/chin hairs that I can't see. My arm hair is slightly darker than I would like it to be, but I'm scared that if I mess with it, it will turn extremely coarse like the hair on my belly/ lower legs. I promise that you are not the only one out there with this problem!

Hopefully, one of these days I can get lazer hair removal and pew pew all of it away... but until then, we just have to deal with it :(

oi....I have tuch hair too...it is extremely annoying too because the skin is so uber sensitive that I cannot shave it or I get razor bumps HORRIBLY. Do my DH will Nair it for me (he is a keeper too).

I also have upper lip hair, chin hair, facial hair in general which seems to be getting thicker the older I get, fingers, toes, hands. I have super thick eyebrows too.

I had really thick sideburns, a very thick mustache and hair in the other places women try to avoid having hair. Probably the most obnoxious place were on my toes and knuckles. That drove me insane because it was SO painful to wax there.

where doesn't it really! I'm glad I can't see my back that well. I shave my arms occationally (and hands and feet and face, etc) and I shaved them last night and the razor must have been dull? I don't know but I got a burning rash on the inner upper arms OUCH!

I get health insurance next month. About a month ago my blood sugar was at 106 (12hr fast) and I'm gaining the massive weight.

Oh, I've been increasing my biotin intake lately and I'm not sure about the hair on the top of my head but everywhere else the stuff seems to be like miracle grow :) Whats a girl (?) to do?

hugs!

omgosh! kudos to you for bringing this up, I am always so embarrassed about things like this and always feel like im the only girl with this problem. But on my hand i don't have a keeper yet! So I get extra frightened when meetings boys because i am so conscious about hair on my body and I think they will run away if they see it !! IT helps a little to see other girls have a the same and did find someone eventually who didnt mind it as much !!

I have a little on my upper lip, but the absolute worst is on my chin and a patch that is under my chin. I shave that patch, and it's not noticeable. I pluck my chin every morning when I put on my make up which takes a good 5-10 minutes every day. It stinks. I hate it. :(

I've noticed the hair most under my chin and all along my jawline, but also my stomach and big toes. It's a little heavier than I'd like on my upper lip, forearms and yes, on my butt, but not super noticeable. I also have heavy hair growth on my inner thighs, up to the crotch region. It's so annoying to have to take so much extra time to get it all under control. SO far I haven't noticed any hair on my neck, but I'll start looking closer. Glad to have a place to talk about it and know that I'm not a freak!

knuckles, toes, backs of hands, chin, upper lip, sideburns or is that a beard?
Arms (going to try that smooth away trick, thanks!)
thighs

and the pièce de résistance.....

my dh says when I am ready for grafts on my head they can take it from my butt.

(sigh)

whatever

Lizzyloulou - Let us know if that Smooth Away thing works - I've been wondering about that.

I'm so glad that you were brave enough to bring this up! :hug:

You are not alone in your stuggle - as you can see - many of us PCOS'ers have the same problems you do. Since I was a teenager I started developing hair everywhere (and I too do not come from a family background that would indicate a lot of hairyness).

I have hairy knuckes, very hairy arms, side burns, upper lip, hairs under chin/neck, hairs on my breasts, a hairy tooshy, and hairy toes! It's a pain to keep up with it all!

But to me - those are all clear signs of PCOS - and I don't believe that all women with PCOS have the same signs and symptoms. Some women may have PCOS and still not even experience the hair growth aspect of it.

Your fiance' is definitely a keeper! My hubby also helps me a lot when it comes to sensitive issues like this, that's how I knew he was a keeper too. ;)

- Kari :)

Same here... I have dirty blonde hair and fair skin. the hair on my arms has become darker over the years, so I use my epilator on them. Hair on my inner thighs, butt, my toes, my fingers are fine though. I also have thick eyebrows, when I get them waxed I always hear how thick they are..

The only place I really would pay to get permanently removed is my chin, upperlip, jawline... the face is what everyone sees anyway and trying to keep it hair free make my skin breakout.

hair (I use a "smooth away" on it, it rocks!) :-D

So smooth away acutally works?! Do the smaller pads work well on facial hair?

Jenn - Yes, but...if you have sensitive skin, it'll make it kind of red. It's basically really fine sandpaper. Removes the hair, exfoliates the top layer of skin, and can be painful if you're sensitive.

Cool! My skin endures waxing pretty well. It's gets red for about 20 minutes then is fine. If my face ends up being too sensitive for it, then I can use it on my legs!

I have had a ton of laser--legs, bikini area, face, neck, lower back. It helped lots. I need to have a touch up now.

I have hair on my arms but started shaving it and love it now--it hasn't grown back faster--I have to do it about once a week. For years I bleached it, I think shaving is faster, cheaper and more effective.

I think the butt hair is the worst part of it all. I could never bring myself to have the lady that waxes my face wax there - I'd be mortified. But the boyfriend is a keeper as well he helps out with the hair in places I cant see to well. LOL.

I was at the doctor's office for a checkup the other day, and I had a laundry list of sorts to cover, since I lose my insurance in a month, and want to get everything in check before then. Anyway, I brought up that I had been losing weight and taking my meds (metformin, lutera) for a year now, and I was wondering if my acne was ever going to improve. I never had acne as a kid, and I started getting really bad chin breakouts at age 23 (around the time the PCOS kicked in). I'm almost 25 and I'm getting a bit sick of it. My doctor said he needed to ask me a couple of other questions to figure that out. Then, he asked, "do you happen to have any hair that you think is growing in places it shouldn't?" And I exclaimed, "well, yeah!" (kind of sounded like well duh!). I described all the places I get hair, and he put me on spironolactone and said it would probably help. I'm so excited that there is actually a treatment for this! I was starting to get chin hairs, and...just....damn. If I got paid by the hour for plucking and shaving, it would probably be enough to buy groceries every month. Anyway, I wanted to give an update, since I am the one who brought up this embarrassing subject.

hahaha YAAAAY hairy stuff. Love it. (not really, but let's see the humor, please)

The only place I've got weird hair is on the bottom of my chiny chin chin. And I wax my brows and my 'stache, but it's not any worse than my petite and definitely NOT pcos friend of Peruvian descent. I used to just pluck the strays on my chin but last time I was at the obgyn I thought, what the heck, let's find out if there are some DRUGS I can take for this. She said, why don't you try Vaniqa (is that it? it's something like that). Unfortunately insurance didn't cover that AFTER I filled the Rx and had to pay like $80 for one tube. Haven't tried it yet. Pretty sure even if it works I won't be buying another tube cuz I could just pluck/wax and it wouldn't be a big deal.

This may be related, but, does anyone else have dark-ish skin in their armpits? You know how some guys have that perpetual 5 oclock shadow, even when theyr're clean shaven? (gray-ish skin, instead of normal skin?) Well that's my pits. Even with a totally clean shave it's still kind of embarrassing to wear tanks. (I still do though, cuz anyone who cares can go F themselves) Anyone else have this? It's not on the nape of my neck or behind my knees, like that condition (forget what it's called, I think it's supposed to be PCOS-related), but it is in my pits. I also have verrrry sensitive skin in my pits - deodorants often realllly sting right after a shave. What do I do?? I hate my pits!

snoozle -- yes me too on the pits. mine are extremely sensitive too. I only use Dove Deoderant. I also have the skin tags as well.

I have hair on the chin thats about it, I mean I believe that arm hair is um normal and if you have darker hair then yes it is going to show up more than lighter. But just my own personal opinion. My coworker shaves her arms but for me, that is WAY too much upkeep! lol.

Big :hug:

Wow I almost cried reading the post... It's nice to read that others have the same problems as me the HAIR everywhere's and the Dark patches. I was perscribed metformin but I stop taking them b/c they were making me sick. I told my doc. if he could give me some less strong and he told me flat out NO. I'm just blessed to have found this site and I will be reading more post to get tips ideas and info..

Thanks everyone!

Hair. Hair. Hair !

I have light brown hair and very fair skin.


I shave

Legs
Forearms
Under chin
Big toes
Bikini line/area
Butt ! (yes...on the lower part of my "cheeks" ugh!)
Under arms (of course)


I trim with tiny electric trimmer (love that thing)

Sideburns
Upper lip
Touch up eyebrows
Lower back now and then

I pluck

Stray hairs on chest/breasts


I have this fantasy of putting on a swim cap and diving into a pool of Nair. :cool: Other fantasy would involve some sort of protective helmet and a full body laser that you tunnel through like a MRI or CT machine that would remove all body hair at the same time for one price ! LOL !


I cannot afford laser. I called today. 350 bucks for first treatment for face and neck. 6-10 req'd treatments for PCOS clients. :(:(:(

NOT an option right now.


Oh and I have DARK ELBOWS and a little bit of dark armpits but it gets WAY better if I AVOID SUGAR and CARBS. It's due to insulin resistance.

Oh oh oh... you are NOT alone! I've got my routine:

Shave: legs, under arms, chin, and mustache
Pluck: chest, belly, upper arms
Nair: lower arms and upper thighs
Wax: complete brazilian and pay extra for the backside

Yeah about the backside... one day I turned around in the mirror and was horrified!!!!! And my boyfriend said, "you didn't know you had all that hair? It's cute! Don't worry." At least he's so supportive! But I was like WHY didn't you TELL me it was like that??! LOLL

My ancestors are Scottish and Italian, so my fur is all dark XD and it grows everywhere, text book edition! lol!

When I was a preteen and attending a girls' ministry group we had a guest speaker who was an RN. She told us never to worry about hair growing on your toes or tops of your feet - it was due to having good circulation there and if it bothered you shave it off, but not having any meant your circulation was poor which of course is not a good thing. I've never worried about that particular place since. LOL!
The facial stuff is my worst issue. The others I cover up enough not to care so much. I've had 2 laser treatments but it turns out that different places use different types of lasers and they really need to be the same type in short succession to be effective. Someday.....sigh.

fwiw - spironalactone is a diuretic so while it might help with the hair stuff, if you don't have high blood pressure, I'd be a little worried about jumping on that bandwagon. Of course, if the bp is high, why not use something that does double-duty right?

kt

I have noticeable hair on my toes, knuckles, arms, chin, and stomach ... and I DON'T have PCOS. I tweeze upper lip and chin, I have an epilator for my arms and sometimes legs, and I get a Brazilian wax (which includes inner thighs and butt). I haven't gotten laser treatments, but I'd looove to not have to deal with the chin hair.

I love the RN comment about good circulation! :)

Kudos to so many great boyfriends out there. :)

I'm not a regular in this forum but I do have PCOS that has caused major hair issues.

I have a full beard - if I let it go it would be almost as impressive as my husband's. My mustache isn't so bad but I bleach it every once in awhile and pluck the hairs that refuse to get bleached (you know how there are always a few). I have a super-hairy back. My butt itself isn't really hairy but my actual anus has its own 'fro. I used to nair it obsessively, but a few years ago when my husband and I were dating we were... in the bedroom... and he asked why I had chemical burns near my anus (not in a mocking/taunting way - in a "do you need me to take you to the hospital" way). I haven't naired it in a long time!

Before spironolactone I was shaving my beard twice a day, now I shave once every other day. I've been sick recently and not taking care of myself since I could barely stand up long enough to pee and I was hoping that the beard would grow in and not be noticeable but it's still pretty awful, it just grows a lot slower now. But I will take that any day.

An update--I went to the doctor and, once I explained that my acne and hirsutism were not improving, he put me on spirolactone (aldactone) and I have noticed a big change. my acne has greatly improved (almost gone!) and my hair is growing a bit more slowly, and new ones are no longer popping up on a weekly basis. Perhaps this will help others with the same problem. Spirolactone, my new best friend--and it's cheaper than buying wax! :-)

Awwwww ... I'm not alone *tear* I hate the hair everywhere. I too havento shave from head to toe and I mean EVERYTHING!! Face, knuckles, back, stomach, butt, legs, toes ... THANK GOD I have a boyfriend who shaves the areas I can't see I love him. Oh! Oh! I also have the dark spots on my neck, underarms, elbow, between my legs :-X I say the same thing people don't like it F off. I am not going to suffer in the heat so I'm wearing a sleeveless shirt :-D

wondering if anyone has tried the rx cream vaniqa??? i know it is pretty expensive (i think around 80/tube) so it should darn well work! any users out there?????

I so thought people like me were afraid to talk about stuff like this. Now, I don't. I, too, suffer with lots of hair everywhere--face, back, down there in both places, legs and toes. I feel like I am doing, "My head my shoulders knees and toes," song with my 3 yrs old son. lol Anyways, I am on spironolactone and metformin. I still have issues. I shave everyday. My sister, who likes to give me pain, does the back waxing. I wear sleeveless shirts and dresses. Done.

ive noticed that this has been an issue since i became very overweight :(
if you lose weight will it stop?:?::^:

....

Yes I have tried Vaniqa & oh yea it's expensive $80 a tube!!!! I couldn't do it for too long but when I did it I did notice a slight difference.

Im glad to see this post. Its one of my other insecurities besides my weight.

My sister was diagnosed with PCOS and with that combined with some weight gain came the hairy chin.

I however am hairy everywhere! Its either the older I get or the more weight I gain. I shave my arms daily, and have chin hair, lower back hair, too much bottom hair for my liking, and stomach hair. It makes me feel so ugly. My boyfriend is fine with it and it doesnt bother him but I just cant get it through my head that its ok.

My sisters doctor told her if she got off the weight the hair would go away so Im hoping that will work for me. Or atleast it will go mostly away. Im tired of shaving! lol

Yes I have tried Vaniqa & oh yea it's expensive $80 a tube!!!! I couldn't do it for too long but when I did it I did notice a slight difference.
Glad to hear you're using this: I plan to keep it much more aggressively up-to-date than has been the case in the past, but don't hesitate to let me know if you find errors or need clarifications.:dizzy:

Hey!!! I noticed that I see a lot of ladies on here that don't post on the monthly WL support thread. Just wanted to let everyone know that it's there to chat about ANYTHING!! Not just weight loss. Feel free to check it out and post - I know I need as many friends with PCOS. I hate being "alone" here but I feel better coming on here :)

I've got this too! It's a bit relieving to know I'm not the only one - but I'm sorry that anyone else has to deal with this on a regular basis. :/ I always thought I was so weird...but hubby loves me the way I am. I have problems on my chin/sideburns and also on my chest. But I'm blond...so if there is hair anywhere else where it shouldn't be...I don't notice it as much I guess. I have noticed it getting worse since I've gained weight the past couple of years. I know someone already asked this question - but I didn't see an answer yet - does anyone know if the hair growth stops when you lose weight?

My 14 year old has a hair issue, she has lower back hair, very thick leg and arm hair so that when she shaves her legs the hair folicles really show. She also has upper lip and sideburn hair and I recently found out it even coats her butt. She was tested for hormone problems and is on a very low dose of Spiro at the moment as she may have a slight case of PCOS the dr says. We asked the dr about the Vaniqua and she says she has not had one single patient that it has worked on so not to waste our money.