New chin or lip hair in your 40s or 50s is common and hormonal. When laser works, when it won’t, and why timing matters.
It often starts with one hair. A thick, dark one on your chin that wasn’t there last year. Then a few more along the jawline, or a shadow on the upper lip that you’re now checking for in the car mirror.
If you’re in your 40s or 50s and this sounds familiar, it’s extremely common, and it has a clear hormonal reason. It’s also one of the questions we’re asked most by women this age: is laser hair removal still worth starting now, or have I left it too late?
The honest answer is that for many women it’s worth starting, and timing matters more than most people realise. Here’s why.
Through perimenopause and menopause, oestrogen levels fall. Androgens (hormones like testosterone, which all women have) don’t fall at the same rate. So relative to oestrogen, androgens become more dominant.
Some hair follicles on the face are sensitive to androgens. As the balance shifts, they can switch from producing fine, pale vellus hair to coarser, darker terminal hair. That’s why the new growth tends to show up on the chin, jawline, upper lip and neck, the same areas affected in other hormonal conditions like PCOS.
It’s a hormonal change, not a grooming failure. Plenty of women don’t talk about it, which is why so many assume they’re the only one plucking in the car.
One medical note. If hair growth appears quickly, is heavy, or comes with other changes such as a deepening voice, significant acne or irregular bleeding after menopause, see your GP before booking anything cosmetic. Usually it’s ordinary menopause, but sudden changes are worth ruling out properly.
Laser hair removal targets the pigment in the hair. The laser’s energy is absorbed by the dark hair, travels down to the follicle and damages its ability to grow hair. Over a course of sessions, regrowth reduces.
So it works well on the coarse, dark hairs that menopause tends to bring. Many women find that after a course, they no longer reach for the tweezers every morning. Results do vary with hair colour, skin tone, the area being treated and hormonal factors, and we’ll give you a realistic picture before you commit.
This is the part that changes the timing question.
Laser can’t treat grey, white or very fair hair. There isn’t enough pigment in it for the laser to target. That isn’t a weakness of one machine, it’s how the technology works.
As we get older, more hair loses its pigment. So a dark chin hair you could treat easily this year may be grey in a few years’ time, and at that point laser won’t touch it.
That’s why clinics have started describing menopause as a reason to start rather than a reason to wait. If the hairs bothering you are still dark, now is when laser can do the most for them.
If most of your unwanted hair is already grey or white, we’ll tell you at consultation that laser isn’t the right tool. Electrolysis treats individual hairs regardless of colour, and your GP can talk you through prescription options for slowing facial hair growth. We’d rather point you somewhere useful than sell you a course that can’t work.
Most facial areas need a course of around six to eight sessions to start with, spaced several weeks apart. Some women need more.
Because the hormonal shift is ongoing, new follicles can become active over time, even after a successful course. That isn’t the treatment failing. It’s the same pattern we see with PCOS, and it’s why many women in this group book an occasional maintenance session to keep on top of new growth. (Our article on how many sessions laser hair removal takes explains the general picture.)
Laser gives long-term hair reduction. It doesn’t make hair removal permanent, and any clinic that promises that is overselling.
Menopausal skin often becomes thinner and drier, and some women find it more reactive than it used to be. That doesn’t usually rule out laser, but it’s another reason a patch test before your first full session matters.
Tell us about any medication you’re on, including HRT, at consultation. Some medicines make skin more sensitive to light, and we need the full picture to set the laser safely.
Darker skin tones can be treated safely with the right laser and settings. Our guide to laser hair removal on darker skin covers this.
If the new hair is dark, bothering you and you’re tired of daily plucking or threading, it’s well worth a conversation, and sooner tends to be better than later. If it’s mostly grey or white, laser isn’t the answer, and we’ll say so.
Autumn and winter are also the easiest time to start a course, because there’s less sun exposure between sessions. Our article on the best time to start laser hair removal explains why.
At your free consultation we’ll look at the hair and skin in the areas that bother you, check your medical history and give you an honest view of what laser hair removal can and can’t do for you.
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19 Lichfield Street, Walsall, WS1 1UG · Open every day, 10am–7pm · 01922 929850
