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7 Celebrities With Hirsutism Speak up About Beards & Hair Removal
These female celebrities are opening up about their facial hair.
Growing hair anywhere you don't want it can be distressing.
Whether you're tweezing coarse chin hairs or shaving upper lip fuzz, excess hair growth feels like something you need to hide.
But even the world's most famous female stars have experienced this exact struggle.
I’m talking about celebrities with hirsutism - those two things typically don’t go together. In an era of filters and airbrushing, we're so used to seeing famous women free of even the smallest “imperfections”.
Notably, they’re often completely hairless.
But a number of female celebrities have opened up about their excess hair growth, plus their hair removal methods. Their stories are relatable and help to normalise body hair.
7 celebrities with hirsutism
These famous female singers, actors, and activists have been vocal about their beards and other body hair.
1. Adele
Singer Adele was a female celebrity with a beard - briefly. According to the Daily Mail, the Someone Like You singer told fans at a concert she grew a beard while pregnant with her son, Angelo.
“When I got pregnant I had so much testosterone in me that I grew a beard...I only cropped it last night.
'It's actually true. I'm not telling a joke. I actually have a beard, but I'm proud of it. I call it Larry.'
Alyssa Dweck, a gynaecologist and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the New York Medical College, told Cosmopolitan hirsutism was common during pregnancy.
"Hair growth or hirsutism in pregnancy is usually due to hormonal fluctuations — an increase in secretion of male hormones or androgens from the ovaries and placenta.”
2. Cardi B
Cardi B is one of the most candid celebrities out there, and she’s not afraid to share any and all details about her life. Her social media presence is full of honest, real takes on motherhood, marriage, and going make-up free.
And she doesn’t hold back when it comes to showing off her body hair. In fact, Cardi B often shares pictures of her upper lip hair on Twitter or Instagram.
She’s also spoken out about how her facial hair has changed over the years, reports Women’s Health Mag.
“As I get older and I wax more my mustache is getting thicker,” Cardi said, rubbing her upper lip in the universal woman’s code for “is it time for my European Wax Center appointment or can I make this prepubescent ‘stache for another week.”
3. Harnaam Kaur
Harnaam Kaur is an activist and model with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). She shares photos of herself online to inspire other women with PCOS.
Kaur told Dazed and Digital she developed hirsutism at a young age.
“I hit puberty very young and started my period in year six. I had this moustache and began sprouting underarm hair. I remember looking at one of my teachers in school and noticing she had no underarm hair and thinking, ‘what is this sorcery?’ It was only then that I realised that people remove it, and I started going to the salons to get my facial hair removed.”
Kaur said she tried all types of hair removal methods, like waxing, shaving, and creams.
“I was in a lot of pain because sometimes the beautician wouldn’t hold my skin taut, so with waxing when the strip came off, my skin came off too. I had scabs from where it made me bleed. The hair came back so quickly and so fast; it was unbearable to go through that pain over and over again.”
Along with irregular periods, hirsutism is a common PCOS symptom and affects between 70% and 80% of people with PCOS. Excess androgens, or male hormones, cause hair growth. Treatment includes medication, exercise, diet, and supplements and other ways to naturally balance hormones.
4. Emma Watson
Actress Emma Watson has been open about how she deals with facial hair.
"It's funny—I was just talking to my friend before this about how in the Instagram era it's so easy to edit your life so that it looks perfect. But I bleach my top lip and tweeze my eyebrows and you'd never get to see that, even though it's a part of my routine.
“There's still so much shame around the things you do to get ready while you've got a towel wrapped around your head. It's important to me not to edit that out. I've been bleaching my top lip since I was nine. I don't do it very often, but I do it!"
Watson doesn't try to hide the fact that she bleaches her top lip, and she doesn't avoid talking about all the effort involved in getting red-carpet ready.
5. Keke Palmer
Actress Keke Palmer makes it a point to share her personal struggles with PCOS on social media. Some of her Instagram posts are filled with inspiring quotes about PCOS, and she often speaks about the work she’s put in to manage her hormones.
After battling facial hair and acne, Palmer finally received a PCOS diagnosis, reports Metro.
‘I kind of discovered that that’s what I was dealing with and it answered a lot of the questions to, not only why I had acne, but why I grow hair on my face or under my chin, you know I kind of have a lowkey beard going on that I have to shave every couple of days.
6. Tina Fey
Comedian Tina Fey has a simple approach to hair removal: remove it only when it’s a work requirement.
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Speaking to People, Fey explained:
“Remove your body hair only when necessary.”
“Body hair is a constant annoyance. Mostly I just let it be. Until I have to go into a professional situation, and then I have to shave from head to toe.”
In short, Fey takes a minimalist approach to hair removal.
7. Thandiwe Newton
Thandiwe Newton is an award-winning actress who has starred in some of the most popular films of recent years. A couple of years ago, Newton attracted headlines recently for a very different reason; she posted a picture of herself with hair removal cream on her upper lip.
At the time, BuzzFeed praised Newton’s post:
“The actress has spoken out to 1) show that WOW she is indeed human, too and 2) support other females who have moustache issues.”
How do celebrities get rid of facial hair?
Female celebrities with beards or other types of body hair use temporary or more lasting hair removal methods. Common methods are laser treatment, shaving, or bleach to remove unwanted hair. As mentioned, Cardi B has shown waxing is one way to remove hair, while Emma Watson opts for bleaching her facial hair. Reality TV star Kim Kardashian had laser hair removal to remove hair on her neck and forehead.
Speaking about laser hair removal, Tracy Evans, MD, a San Francisco-based board-certified dermatologist told Allure:
"Skin with many hormonal receptors, such as the groin and beard area, can take many more treatments.
"In areas where the hair is finer (thinner), the hairs are more difficult to target, so they require more treatments. If the patient has a skin color that is close to their hair color, it can also take more treatments."
When it comes to hair removal, I’ve tried it all. I have PCOS and grow hair anywhere you can imagine. I tried laser hair removal for my upper lip hair, and I loved the results. I fell pregnant after my second or third treatment, so I couldn’t complete the process. But my hair grew out softer and thinner, and I currently wax at home about once a month. A couple of years later I used laser hair removal for my bikini area. Again, I couldn’t finish the treatments because I fell pregnant. And, again, the hair was softer and thinner overall.
As these female celebrities with hirsutism show us, there’s no right or wrong approach to dealing with body hair.
Understand that body hair is normal
Celebrities have a massive platform - the messages they put out reach millions of people. Their openness encourages us not to be ashamed.
If you’ve experienced excess hair growth, you may feel alone, abnormal, and flawed in some fundamental way.
I won’t lie. I’ve tried everything to get rid of my excess hair: waxing, laser hair removal, creams, and shaving. But maybe a couple of chin hairs isn't a complete catastrophe. If you like, you can make the choice to embrace your body hair.
Don’t get me wrong here. I’m not saying ditch your razor and accept the bush. Rather, understand that your body isn’t bad just because you grow a beard.
If you're worried about your hair growth, check in with your medical health provider. Hirsutism is one of the most common PCOS symptoms, and excess hair may indicate abnormal hormone levels.
Featured image credit: Photo by Victoria Alexandrova on Unsplash
