A woman with a four-inch beard has told how she feels fantastic after giving up shaving her face. The Seattle woman has decided to embrace her natural beard after years of battling with it. Coral Sanchez has a condition called polycystic ovary syndrome, which affects how her ovaries work and causes her to grow dark hair on her face.
The 29-year-old woman from Seattle, Washington first realised she was growing facial hair at nine-years-old. Coral first began waxing her face as a child before beginning to shave at 12 years old due to bullying at school.
She would wear her hair down in order to try and conceal any signs of hair growth said would hide her condition by putting on a make-up foundation at school to try and conceal the stubble that would grow back by 2pm that afternoon
The condition is called hirsutism, which may be caused by a hormone imbalance and can result in dark hair growing on the face, chest and back of women.
Coral hid her condition in her adulthood and “wouldn’t let anyone get close” so they couldn’t discover her secret. She even managed to keep her condition hidden from an ex-boyfriend who she dated for four years.
In an interview with the Mirror, Coral said: “He never once saw me without make-up on. I would get up before him to shave every day. I felt hidden.”
However, three years ago Coral become homeless. She was unable to keep shaving daily, as she was living out of her car and did not have access to a bathroom. It was a moment that forced her to come to terms with her condition and embrace her facial hair.
Coral said: “I would do what I could shaving in the car. I was getting defiant about shaving. It was painful.”
Last year in March, Coral decided to ditch her razor completely after questioning why she wanted to continue shaving. She said: “I think I started shaving because it like that was what I was meant to do, It encouraged me to hide.”
After a full year, Coral now has grown a beard and feels “truly beautiful” for being able to live as her true self. Nowadays, Coral rocks a full beard and feels happier than ever.
Coral said: “It took me a really long time to really embrace my hair growth. Now I look in the mirror and smile and feel genuinely beautiful.”
She has been dating her partner, Illias Clark for nearly four years now and he has been very supportive of her embracing her natural beard. Coral met Illias in 2019 and instantly felt “comfortable” around him.
She said: “It took me a couple of months but it was really hard to hide things. It felt natural to tell him. He said, ‘It doesn’t bother me. You’re beautiful and your body does this naturally.’”
Coral has said her boyfriend’s encouragement helped her decide to keep her beard. She said: “I worried and thought, ‘you’re not going to love me anymore’ but he really encouraged me to stop shaving.
Coral has said her boyfriend’s encouragement helped her decide to keep her beard. She said: “I worried and thought, ‘you’re not going to love me anymore’ but he really encouraged me to stop shaving.
She then added: “It kind of hit me. I don’t want to hide anymore. Why am I allowing other people to take control in my life?”
Nowadays, Coral has a four-inch beard, which she sometimes dyes pink and purple. When she first began growing out her beard, Coral said she was “surprised” at how much she liked it. Coral says she still sometimes gets looks of “disgust” from strangers on the street, but does not let it bother her.
She said: “You can still be beautiful and feminine with a beard, I want to help others embrace how they look. I feel truly beautiful.”
