Alternative to waxing on Retin A

You are quite right! Waxing and Retin-A are not a good combo, at all! That's because waxing thins the skin, and Retin-A does the same thing. What you can end up with is not only red and irritated skin, but even lots of little wounds where the follicles are. You really do not want that. Your best options are either tweezing, if you do not have all that many hairs to remove, or threading, which removes hairs without pulling them from the follicle. You will have SOME level of irritation from threading, so do try it on a very small area first and see what happens before you decide it is a good option for you, A third option would be to not use Retin-A on the areas you are going to remove hairs from at all.

Thank you for your answer. I really appreciate it. Tweezing may be an option but it does sound painful. Threading sounds like a better choice then. I do not know much about it but I did hear that it achieves the same effect as waxing, meaning quick hair removal. I think they use actual threads for that? Have you had it done while using Retin A perhaps and if so, could you please share your experiences so that I know what to expect, in general, from threading? Another thing I am wondering is whether it would look weird to use Retin A everywhere on the face except the chin and mustach area.

Hiya,

Well, if you want to know more about threading works in practice it's best to go to YouTube and look for a few vids that show it being done, you know? That gives you a nice visual that just explains the whole thing so much better. Basically though, the practitioner uses a simple cotton thread that's long and she holds it in a particular way and twists it around, which removes your hairs completely. Unlike what was said before, mind you, you do need to know that threading DOES rip the whole follicle out, so to be honest, yeah, I'm not all that sure it would be alright with that Retin-A stuff then, you know what I mean? It's cleaner than waxing. That's to say, and it's not nice I know, that sometimes salons will dip them wax sticks in the wax pot multiple times. This saves them money but can give you a nasty infection. That's no risk with the threading. Using a new bit of thread don't cost much, yeah? Threading also doesn't rip the outer layer of your skin off, like waxing does... so yeah maybe it would be OK for Retin-A. Basically, I don't know, but I do know threading is a great idea in general for anyone who wants to reduce their risk of infection from hair removal.

Threading is pretty amazing. It's quicker than tweezing and in my opinion less painful than waxing. Yes, if you are on Retin-A, than it is a safe alternative to waxing, but you may just find that threading works better for you as a hair removal method overall. BUT I am not sure if it will work for the upper lip and chin areas. I personally only have very fine hairs there and don't imagine that it would work, which is moot because I am blond and they are invisible anyway, but I just don't know. You could alternative consider laser hair removal before going on Retin-A.

Hi,

I have been using Retin-A for four weeks now. I too have refrained from using it on my chin and upper lip area, which are not the areas where I have skin problems. My doctor said that this would be fine and so far, I absolutely do not have any problems because of that.

One thing I am wondering about, because I did read this, is whether Retin-A in fact has the potential to induce hairgrowth in areas where there was previously none. For instance, concretely, Retin-A is an ingredient in some hair regrowth formulas for bald men. This really has me worried, although I have not personally noticed any hair growth on the areas I am applying Retin-A... yet!? If anyone has any information about this at all, I would really like to know.

I have heard so. Some people are even discussing Retin-A as though it is a treatment for the regrowth of lost hair, from male pattern baldness for instance. That said, I use Retin-A for acne myself and I have not noticed excessive hair growth at all. I get acne on my shoulders too so I do apply Retin-A there, and I can't say that I am a hairy monkey now. I don't think this is something you need to be overly worried about, purely speaking from my own experience.

I use retin A and just found it it doesn’t matter where you use it, it’s absorbed into your system making all of your skin thin.