Disturbing hair growth pattern early 30s

Hiya my fellow PE warriors.

I am 32 and noticed in the last few years since my late 20s my body hair wants to do weird things. As well as an increase in density and coarseness, it seems to be trying to join up in odd places.

I used to have nice defined patches of hair, on my chest, a few on my stomach but fairer and in a narrow line.

In the last couple of years particularly my stomach hair wants to grow the full length and breadth of my stomach and join up with my chest hair in one undefined course, wiry, hairy rug.

And now it is migrating onto the tops of my shoulders and even up the front of my neck in little outcrops.

I feel like the only permanent solution is laser, as I used to have an IPL device that after plenty of use has died and whilst it has made some of my hairs less course, they always come back. But as a man I feel a little uncomfortable about being that fussy with my body hair, but I suppose I will have to bite the bullet and it’s expensive.

It’s annoying because I was happy with my body hair in my early to late 20s but since my very late 20s/early 30s it seems to be misbehaving and getting all sorts of weird ideas :D

Laser is classed as permanent because it lasts longer than 5 years on average. You should get hair reduction for at least double that time and probably longer. It hurts like hell (you’re burning actively growing hair out of the skin) and takes many sessions probably over the course of a year with decreasing frequency. Expect to pay in the region of £3000 for a properly qualified person (it’s much cheaper for the people who may or may not cause permanent scarring).

But welcome to your man body. In your 20s you’re still developing that. Now you are in your 30s, it’s coming to fruition. There are quite a lot of chest pictures in the PR&P Forum in the full body thread. Maybe if you look through that you’ll appreciate your more hirsute look a little more. If you’re worried about attractiveness to the opposite sex, women tend to prefer men to have more body hair than them and sizeable percentage actively pursue hairy men (there’s an evolutionary bias for that). If you’re worried about your attractiveness to the same sex I don’t think you’ll have any issues.

You can choose to embrace your inner werewolf and you might find that more body hair is appealing if/when you start to lose head hair.

Welcome to middle age, where hair grows everywhere except where you want it to.

Several years ago (pre gray) I spent over $2500 on laser hair removal for my chest in an attempt to thin it out, all to no avail. Laser works best on certain colors and types of hair, and is ineffective on others. Hopefully you’ll have better success than I did.

Good point. Laser is crap on fairer/grey hair or darker skin tones.

Body groomer and bakblade, upper arms, torso,and privates, shave every 5 days. Takes 10 minutes.

Well, body hair is a favorite topic for me. Totally understand and share your thoughts.

So far mine grows mostly where I want it. No growth on back, shoulders or neck, yet. Thus no need of removal. But what you said about the shape on chest and stomach is what I’m dealing with, too. I like the treasure trail shape, mine though isn’t exactly like this. That’s why I trim it on the edges to have better shape.

Here’s a pic: Body Hair Only

Also, where it grows denser the colour is very dark. While at the edges and other places it is much lighter, which is not bad, too. Do you have somewhere a picture of your body?

I appreciate it brother, thanks.

I guess it’s the random outcrops that annoy me the most, like the finer hairs that have decided to grow up one side of my neck. And the hairs appearing on my shoulder tops. What next, back hair!?

I don’t mind hair where I can get to it and groom it but shoulder and back hair is a step too far :D On the other hand, I don’t like the idea of being vain enough to go into a salon and ask for laser hair removal, so that leaves me with more grooming and plucking out and shaving random hairs! Oh well!

Haha, tell me about it, brother. I have course black hair which is apparently supposed to be ideal for IPL/laser but between my at home IPL device and my body hair, my body hair definitely won and the IPL device is completely dead (it keeps acting as though it is overheating after a few seconds of use).

So now that leaves me with having to be vain enough to walk into a salon and spend money to have my hairs tamed!

Yeah but then you’ve gotta add legs as well, I trim my legs over the summer, takes 20 minutes just to do them! Then you have a load of hair that you’ve gotta throw in the trash, haha!

I don’t have a pic but it has recently annoyed me by finer but curly hairs growing up one side of my neck which is a new one on me!

I guess what annoys me is how it has gradually started encroaching on me in these last 2-3 years.

Same here. I can smell burning hair when it operates, and if I run it at full power some areas get sunburned, but I never could see any thinning, much less eradication.

I’m still using it since it’s paid for and hasn’t died yet, but the one I have seems to be a waste of time.

There are lots of ads for IPL devices out there, none of them mention things like flash duration and energy, at least that I saw last year when I bought mine. The pro-grade units might be much more powerful than the mid-price consumer IPL I bought online.

The pro ones do a much bigger area, so treatments can cover more ground. Lasers can only kill hair in it’s growth phase, so you have to treat the same area maybe 6-8 times, timed with different growth cycles, to reduce hair significantly.

The consumer IPL devices are crap. I have no experience with the pro versions.

Yes, that has been my experience as well. In fact, sometimes it seems like it made them grow back denser and more prickly and spiky, but that was probably just because they were starting from stubble again. On the other hand, I am pretty sure that the hair on my legs has grown back a little finer.

And it is a good temporary solution during the summer, when I have more disposable income, I’ll probably buy another.

Ditto on the sunburned thing as well.

What I would want would be one that automatically zaps every couple of seconds so then you just have to move it over your skin, maybe on the more expensive models they would have such a feature.

The gold standard for permanent hair removal is still electrolysis, where they slip a fine wire down alongside the hair shaft and zap the root bulb below. The equipment isn’t prohibitively expensive (used on eBay), but it requires good eyesight and motor control, so it’s typically not something you can do for yourself unless you’re a contortionist.

I know a couple who did that for each other, but that’s something that can be awkward to arrange if you don’t have a spouse.