A randomized clinical trial on the comparison between hair shaving and snipping prior to laser hair removal sessions in women suffering from hirsutism.
OBJECTIVE
Hirsutism or excess hair growth is a common dermatological problem in females, affecting up to 10% of females worldwide. We aimed this study to compare the two hair-shortening methods shaving vs. snipping among hirsute women regarding the outcome of the therapy and also the paradoxical hypertrichosis phenomenon (terminal hair regrowth) 6 months after the final therapy session.


METHODS
In this study, 129 premenopausal women affected by hirsutism were randomly divided into two study groups according to hair-shortening method: shaving as group A (66 patients) and hair shortening by scissor as group B (63 patients). Each patient received six alexandrite laser therapy sessions every month for six consecutive months. Chin hairs in a 5 × 5 cm2zone were counted, and the paradoxical hair regrowth was evaluated four times during the study: once at baseline, once before the third session, once before the sixth session, and once 6 months after the last laser session.


RESULTS
Before the third session, the counts were 15.06 ± 5.20 in group A and 13.07 ± 4.44 in group B (P = 0.022); both counts were meaningfully less than the baseline count (P < 0.001). The counts before the sixth session were 2.80 ± 1.16 in group A and 2.71 ± 1.12 in group B (P = 0.673); the counts were significantly lower than the previous session (P < 0.001). Six months after the last laser session, the counts were 11.27 ± 9.30 in group A and 8.15 ± 3.12 in group B (P = 0.012). Paradoxical hypertrichosis was observed in three patients of group A vs. no patients in group B.


CONCLUSIONS
We found that alexandrite laser therapy is really effective for treating hirsutism. Both shaving and using a scissor for hair shortening showed similar short-term results, but in one-year follow-up, paradoxical hypertrichosis was only observed in shaving group and also a lower hair count was observed in the snipping group.
Member of Iranian medical laser association, Babol, Iran.
Robabeh
R
Alijanpour
Faculty of dentistry, Babol university of medical science, Babol, Iran.
Fatemeh
F
Aliakbarpour
D000328:Adult; D001461:Barbering / Q000379:methods*; D002680:Chin; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006204:Hair Removal / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000379:methods*; D006628:Hirsutism / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D006801:Humans; D006983:Hypertrichosis / Q000209:etiology; D053685:Laser Therapy; D053844:Lasers, Solid-State / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008875:Middle Aged; D012008:Recurrence; D055815:Young Adult
hirsutism; hypertrichosis; laser therapy