Posted 5 years ago, 5 users are following.
I've had genital herpes now for just over a year. If I don't take suppressants I constantly have an outbreak, soon as it clears up its back again. If I have sex it's triggered, if I get my period it's triggers but my main irritant to it is pubic hair, wether that's keeping it or removing it.
I've started taking suppressants to hopefully keep the outbreaks at bay but I can still feel a bit of irritation, im not sure if it's due to thrush, an outbreak brewing or just because I've been afraid to shave.
If you get outbreaks what is the best type of hair removal to do without causing as many outbreaks?
1 like, 14 replies
We recommend that you don’t have facial laser hair removal if you have a cold sore. If you’re having treatment on the facial area where the cold sore is located i.e. your lip, nose or chin, we would recommend waiting until the cold sore has cleared up before having another treatment.
The main reason that having facial laser hair removal if you have a cold sore is not recommended is that Herpes Simplex can be stimulated by sunlight. As lasers use light, this may trigger the virus to become active. If you have a cold sore and have a treatment the light from the laser may cause this to spread. It’s safest to avoid the area until your skin has healed completely.
When is it ok to have laser hair removal if you have a cold sore?
If you are having treatment on a body area but have a cold sore on your face, you are fine to have a treatment as normal. Cold sores are contagious and can spread so it is essential that they are allowed to heal completely before having another session of laser.
How to prevent cold sores during your treatment course
A supplement called Lycine may also speed up the healing time of cold sores.
It’s important to note that you are absolutely fine to have laser hair removal treatment if you susceptible to cold sores. We recommend you use a lip balm with SPF during your full course of treatment. This will help to prevent an outbreak especially during the summer months.
If you suffer from cold sores this does not prevent you having laser treatment on your face. Book your free consultation today and speak to one of our laser consultants if you need any more information.
So I unfortunately learned this the very, very hard way. I am an extremely hairy, brown girl. I have medium tone skin but very, very thick black hair. It's a pain and honestly I knew I wanted laser hair removal since I was 10 years old. Finally, now being 21, I have the money/time to start laser hair removal. I first started with the brazilian and it went well. Then I did my underarms which also went well. I noticed some blisters about 10 days after my brazilian around the vagina area. I thought this was just normal irritation. I went to an obgyn a couple of days later and she immediately told me it was genital herpes and I was very shocked because the last time I had sex was 1.8 years ago and his only partner before me was a virgin. The partner before that was from December 2018 and I definitely could have contracted it from him. So basically it remained dormant for almost 3 years until laser hair removal triggered a primary outbreak. I have never had sores anywhere near my mouth or genitals before. I looked up a few things after and it turns out laser is a very known trigger for herpes outbreaks.
//www.who.int/news/item/01-05-2020-massive-proportion-world-population-living-with-herpes-infection
Oral herpes (HSV-1) is present (mostly dormant) in 66% of the world's population (source linked above), so if you get laser hair removal on your face, please get tested for HSV-1 before you start your laser hair removal! Otherwise, it may start an outbreak that could have been dormant for decades. HSV-2 (genital herpes) is only in about 13% of the world's population. But it doesn't hurt getting tested for both.
Anyways, now I am here. Having to live with genital herpes my whole life which probably would have remained dormant if it weren't for laser hair removal. Something I've dreamed of and wanted for so long ended up being my worst nightmare. I've gotten many STD tests before and made my partners get STD tests, as well (chlamydia, gonorrhea, and HIV) to make sure we are negative and I am very careful. I thought herpes could only be transmitted if there were actual sores (on mouth or genitals), but that is not true. It could be passed dormantly, and routine STD screenings never test for it unless there are active sores. (None of my partners had any sores or anything like that). I thought I'd warn anyone out there because I wish there was someone to tell me.
EDIT: I'm getting a lot of comments saying that this isn't true or has never happened to them. I just want to be clear that this can only occur if you have been infected already with HSV-1 or HSV-2 and are dormant. //www.researchgate.net/publication/330940575_Sunlight_and_Herpes_Virus This studies shows that:
“Sunlight is a potent stimulus for the alphaherpesvirinae reactivating. The purpose of this paper is to analyze various features of this correlation and several steps you can take to lower your risk of triggering a herpes outbreak after sun exposure” (Obiesan et al., 2021)
"Some of the following factors may trigger herpes symptoms: ... Exposure to heat or cold [5, 32].... Local tissue trauma may make herpes symptoms appear such as: undergoing surgery [33], laser surgery [34], ….” (Obiesan et al., 2021)
Just use this as a precaution. I'm not making any crazy claims. I'm just saying, before you think about Brazilian or facial LHR, consider getting tested for herpes simplex.