Still04,
After reading your post, I share Barbara’s concerns about what your expectations are and what people perceive as “natural” or “desireable” as far as what ideal hair clearance constitutes.
As Barbara indicated, the fine vellus hairs are natural to both genders, to some degree, and it is only when these hairs accelerate into anagen growth, becomming thicker, darker, and deeper that they become a problem on the female face.
While I was doing my clinical work as a student, I had a client, who became a regular, that was absolutely obsessed with becoming “hair free” on her face. At one session, where I only saw 6 of what I would call problem hairs, I called the instructor over and showed her what I was trying to deal with. We moved away from the treatment area and I discussed the situation with the instructor. After getting my thoughts in order, I went back and told her that we were done for that session, unless she had another area that needed work.
You would have thought that I had struck her from the look I got from her! I immediately invited her across the street for a cup of coffee so I could talk to her privately. She accepted.
Over coffee, I explained patiently that there were certain things that are considered disfigurement within the electrology profession. These include, but are not limited to, making unusual designs within a person’s hair patterns (remember we are dealing with proven permanence here), working a hairline where it is perfectly straight and regular (like a cheap wig), and total elimination of all hair from the skin surface.
I told her to try the following if she didn’t believe me; shave all of the velus hair off of her face and see what her friends, family, and coworkers had to say over the following week or two. She took my advice and at her next appointment, we started on her bikini line and underarms - leaving her face completely alone.
What most of us do not realize is that there are acceptable norms for gender and the presence, or lack, of hair on various parts of the body. While this very rarely gets discussed, people do notice the differences but rarely notice exactly what is wrong. Like Barbara stated, removal of all of the vellus hair from a woman’s face will give her a waxy or, more to the point, a masculine appearance - as if she was shaving her face. This appearance is normal for males, who shave on a daily basis, but is alien to the average female with normal hair patterns. She related that several of her coworkers, and her brother, had mentioned that something looked wrong with her skin.
I do a lot of work with the TS and this has also become an issue with several of my post-op clients as well. Prior to transition, they were absolutely intent with getting rid of all of their facial hair, as the vast majority of it was anagen hair of a deep, dark and thick nature. Post-op, they no longer were producing the androgens and new facial hairs are usually of a vellus nature, which gave them exactly the feminine look that they actually needed to be able to “pass”. It is the small things, that most of us are not aware of, that can make or break our appearance of beauty and glamor.
Besides the possibility of overworking the skin from trying to remove all of these hairs, we are actually detracting from the very thing we so desire to keep; a natural look of beauty. The important thing with most beauty is to enhance the ideal appearance, but not to overdo it!
I hope that this will give you and idea of what you should reasonably expect from a good electrologist - and why so many of us are always looking for ways to increase our knowlege of what is currently stylish, but also of what is natural as well. This is the main difference between a pro and the uninformed. A lot of people can learn to use an epilator, but not everyone has the talent to become an artist within the field. We all need to have a grasp of when the job is done!
All the best,
Joanie
