From many available treatments for hisutism, we can classify these treatments into two categories; the first is medical therapy and the other is cosmetic therapy.
Medical Therapy
There are a variety of specific medical and clinical treatments that are recommended based on diagnosis and severity of hirsutism. Most medications used to treat hirsutism are approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the USA, but they may not be approved specifically for the treatment of hirsutism
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Major medical treatments include the following:
- Birth control pills
- Androgen receptor blockers
- Glucocorticoids (steroids)
- Dexamethasone
- Prednisone
- Methylprednisolone
- Enzyme inhibitors
- GnRH analogs
Cosmetic Therapy
Cosmetic removal of hair in women with hormonally associated hirsutism may often be accompanied by medical therapy in order to be fully successful. There are two main types of cosmetic therapy approaches used to cure hirsutism:
Temporary Hair Removal
Temporary hair removal techniques have lasting effects for several hours to several days. Temporary hair removal can be achieved through depilation in which hair above the skin's surface is removed or epilation in which entire hair is removed. Depilation has lasting effects for some hours whereas epilation has lasting effects for some days. These two temporary hair removal techniques are described as follows:
Depilation:
- Shaving or trimming with manual or electric shavers.
- Chemical depilatories which are normally creams or "shaving powders" which chemically dissolve hair.
- Abrasion using rough surfaces used to buff away hair
Epilation:
- Waxing in which a hot or cold layer of wax based formula is applied, covered with porous strips of material and then removed
- Sugaring, this is very similar to waxing, but a sticky paste is used made from sugar, water, and lemon juice.
- Threading, also sometimes called fatlah or khite, involves using a twisted thread that catches hairs as the threads are rolled across the skin
- Rotary electric epilators which rapidly grasp hairs and pull them out by the root
Permanent Hair Removal
There are two types of permanent hair removal: electrolysis and laser treatment. During electrolysis, a very fine needle is inserted into the hair follicle. A mild electric current is sent through the needle. Modern electrolysis machines usually work in tow ways to remove the hair. The electricity directly damages the cells in the hair follicle, plus the electrical energy effectively “cooks” the hair follicle tissue to permanently destroy the hair follicle’s ability to produce hair. Since follicles are treated one at a time, it is somewhat impractical to use electrolysis to treat very large areas of the body.
Laser treatments may be used on large areas of the body, although their long term effectiveness is not as well documented as electrolysis. During laser hair treatment, a beam of light is passed through the skin to the hair follicle to destroy it. With lasers, the light energy is absorbed by pigments in the hair follicle and the energy is converted to heat. As the hair follicle heats up it gets cooked and this destroys the hair follicle and its ability to grow hair fiber. People with light skin and dark hair usually achieve the best results with laser hair removal.
