Going As Far As I Possibly Can
Those who keep following this blog and don‘t only look at the pictures maybe remember that I wrote that I epilated/plucked/waxed everywhere, except for my beard, which I only shave. I had tried to epilate the beard as well almost two years ago, but didn‘t get very far due to the pain factor.
I‘ve always assumed that laser isn‘t really an option for me due to the fact that my hair is (would be) blond. In any case, since my entire body is hair free and without shadow/thick stubble anywhere except for the beard area, it seemed to me that I had reached the limit of my possibilities - and I also knew that what I had done was both rare and drastic already.
However, not too long ago, a fellow fan of the (totally) hairless look mentioned to me how special it would be to be entirely smooth and stubble/shadow free everywhere, including the face and neck. Going for the full alopecia look, so to speak.
After my failed attempt from 2022 I had felt comfortable with the situation as it was; as much as I loved the smooth feeling and the shadow less look, the one advantage I had always seen in the shadow was that it kind of makes a statement that not having hair is a conscious choice. I still think that.
But I couldn‘t get rid of the thought how nice it would be to experience at least once what it is like to literally have no trace of hair anywhere, that nothing could be felt or seen because everything had been ripped out, and even initial regrowth would be barely noticeable. I also assumed that at least most of the beard would grow back if, after having achieved the goal, I wanted to go back to having a beard shadow.
Remembering how impossible using the epilator on my chin, around the mouth and on the neck had felt, I decided to follow a different approach this time: I took the (hot) wax I use for my nostrils and ears and applied it on all those most painful areas. That worked somewhat ok on my neck, even though ripping off the wax felt definitely already above my pain threshold - only that I didn‘t have a choice, it had to come off one way or another.
(Before the painful moment, and what the wax managed to get, though you are not looking at the same wax on both photos.)
On my chin and above the mouth, however, the wax ended up pulling at the hair, but would eventually let go and rip out next to nothing (still painful, but not as bad). My attempts at pulling out individual hairs with tweezers also failed; what I mostly did was just pinching my skin.
For that reason, I figured all that was left to try was, again, the epilator. So I did a wet shave and waited about half a day, and then simply started. The epilator already managed to grab some of the very fist stubble when applied the right way. I kept going as long as I could, often only a split second, before the pain got too intense.
(No, I still cannot really recommend this… )
Then, after a break of a couple of hours, I did another session. That wasn‘t the best idea because some spots were already severely irritated. The beard area is really hard to work on with an epilator, much of the skin is somewhat loose, apart from being very tender. Going over the same spots multiple times should be avoided, which I mostly ignored till things started to look really bad.
Though things were much better the next morning, I still ended up looking like this for two days:
On the third day, I did wet shave and most of the red dots came off. I could already notice that the beard was getting thinner:
(The shadow has already diminished.)
Later that same day, I took the epilator to the beard area for the third time. While this is by far not over, I am slowly getting impression that I am getting somewhere.
As said, if I manage to epilate the beard completely, I‘ll have reached the full alopecia look, which is an exciting thought. If I then kept on epilating, I would expect for my beard to become as low maintenance as the scalp and brows already are. Regrowth would likely diminish, maybe cease in some spots (or would the entire beard eventually disappear?). The question will be if I like the look enough to keep tweezing.
