A randomized clinical trial on the comparison between hair shaving and snipping prior to laser hair removal sessions in women suffering from hirsutism

Summary Background and objectives 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. Materials and 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 cm 2 zone 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. Conclusion 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.