"I feel more feminine with my beard” says woman who refuses to trim her excessive facial hair

• 
  

Harnaam Kaur, who is suffering from a condition known as polycystic ovary syndrome, which causes excessive hair development, has revealed that growing a beard makes her feel more feminine.
The 23-year-old said a beard first started to appear on her face when she was just 11. The hair quickly spread to her chest and arms, and the condition made her the victim of taunts at school and on the street.
She even received death threats from strangers over the internet.

Applying mascara: Miss Kaur has now decided to stop cutting her hair after being baptized as a Sikh

However, Kaur has now decided to stop cutting her hair after being baptised as a Sikh – a religion in which cutting body hair is forbidden.
She said: “I would never ever go back now and remove my facial hair because it’s the way God made me and I’m happy with the way I am. I feel more feminine, more sexy and I think I look it too. I’ve learned to love myself for who I am nothing can shake me now.”
According to Daily Mail:

During her early teens, Miss Kaur was so ashamed of her beard that she waxed twice a week, and also tried bleaching and shaving.
But the hair became thicker and spread – with Miss Kaur feeling so self-conscious that she refused to leave her house. She even began self-harming and she considered suicide. 
She said: ‘I got bullied badly – at school I was called a “beardo” and things like “shemale” and “sheman”. I can laugh about it now, but back then it affected me so badly that I began to self-harm because it felt better than all the abuse I was getting.

‘I’d talk to people with a hand over my face and I wore baggy, tomboy clothes to cover up the hair on my chest and arms.
‘I didn’t want to go outside my house because I couldn’t take the stares from strangers so I’d lock myself in my room. It got so bad that I just didn’t want to live anymore.’
Despite all the opposition, she took the step to bear her beard, and now embraces the thick hair on her face and chest. 
But at the age of 16, everything changed for Miss Kaur when she decided to be baptised as a Sikh. It meant she would have to let her facial hair grow out.

Siblings: Her parents have come to terms with her decision – and her brother Gurdeep Singh, 18, is her biggest supporter

The decision proved controversial – especially with her family. Miss Kaur said: ‘My mum and dad didn’t want me to do it – they didn’t think I’d be able to have a normal life if I had a beard.
‘They worried I wouldn’t be able to get married and that I’d never get a job. But I wanted to make my own decisions and live for myself – not anyone else. I’d had enough of hiding.

Out in Slough: Miss Kaur (centre) with her younger brother Gurdeep, 18, and friend Surrinder Bhachy, 40

‘I’d had enough of the bullying and the self-harming and the suicidal thoughts. I wanted to change my whole outlook on life and I thought I thought it was time to stop locking myself away – I had to do something about it.
Her parents have come to terms with her decision – and her brother Gurdeep Singh, 18, is her biggest supporter.