Why Do Some Women Grow Chin Hair as They Get Older?

Here’s why you have more of it than you did when you were 20: hormones. Though a significant minority of women of all ages have coarse dark hair growing on their chin and upper lip because of a genetic predisposition, most women who have excess facial hair have an underlying hormonal issue, says Doris J. Day, MD, clinical assistant professor of dermatology at New York University Medical Center. As we age, our bodies lose estrogen; testosterone, unopposed, causes us to grow more hair where men have it, on our faces (and to grow less on our heads).

With the loss of estrogen as we age, the male hormone androgen, while not increasing, becomes the more dominant hormone in the body, and can cause unwanted hair growth.

Electrolysis can treat these unwanted hairs regardless of the hair color. If the hairs are dark in color, they can be treated either with laser or electrolysis.