Oh, one more thing, I see that a patch of hair was left on your right side. Did she avoid this small area because there is a mole there?
Thanks very much everyone! 
and thank you to those of you who gave great advice!
Dee - it took 12 hours to get to the stage that the fourth picture shows. I’ve been going in once a week for 5 weeks so far and the appointment lengths have ranged from 45 mins (that was the first week so it wasn’t a particularly long session) to 3.5 hours (however during these longer sessions I had a break in between). I was pleasantly surprised when I got the 11th hour free - my electrologist does a free hour for every 10 hours you pay for
I haven’t actually asked my electrologist about the small patch of hair she has left on the right side. I am assuming that yes, it is because of the mole. I remember at my initial consultation she asked if i had any moles then she made a note of it. I don’t know if she plans to do this area in the future or leave it, but I’ll ask her next week! Are you able to do electrolysis on hair covering moles? The mole isn’t raised, it’s just a slight marking on my skin really.
I’ll make sure to update my signature with my details! I’d LOVE to share the name of the amazing woman who is doing this for me, but at the moment I’m still feeling really insecure and I feel that sharing her name will identify too much about my location etc. But once I get a bit more confidence I will most definitely share her name - she really is a godsend!
I’ve finally noticed a few hairs starting to grow in - just dotted about here and there. Surprisingly, the hair isn’t growing in the section that was treated in week one! Which means I’ve gone nearly six weeks with no hair growth in that area!
My electrologist is doing her best to clear sections bit by bit so that I don’t need to shave that area. If she dotted about here and there it would be a nightmare having to take the razor over the area (as I’d still have so much hair and would need to shave!) I’m really so happy that she understands what I need and does her absolute best to make things as easy as possible for me.
Oh! I love this thread! Thanks for the information in your signature. Always helpful.
We can remove hair from moles, but in my locale, electrologists need a doctor’s prescription to do this.
I think your case will inspire many!
I agree Dee,I love this thread too. Electrolysis,as it should be. Well done Paradise, you will certainly inspire many.
A different view would say, Electrolysis professionals have been deluded into thinking that they require such a thing, based on training and fear tactics of the governing bodies, and those calling themselves “the authorities”. In fact, getting such a thing is only a hedge against a law suit. It discourages many from even asking for the treatment, while discouraging many practitioners from providing the service, and thus driving people back into the hands of allopathic medicine.
Dee and and I have many discussions on these subjects, so I am not sandbagging her here. I just keep trying to get her to take the pill that will bring her out of The Matrix.
I’m curious to know how everything is going for you, Paradise. I hope you are closer to reaching your goal of being hair free.
Hi sevastra
I haven’t been on the forums for a while now, but thought I’d pop back on and give everyone an update
I’ve lost track of how many hours of electrolysis I’ve had now - probably somewhere in the region of 25-30 hours. The novelty of keeping track of everything wore off after 6 months… 
Now I just head along to my appointments, get it over with, and then forget about it until the next week.
My electrologist is only working on the right hand side of my face at the moment. We both think it would be beneficial to my mental health to get an area more or less completely cleared, so that I can see the difference, as opposed to working all over my face and not being able to see a visible difference as easily/quickly.
The hair coming through on the right hand side of my face is noticeably sparser and finer. It’s definitely working! Some days it’s excruciating, others it’s relatively bearable.
I’m still crippled with paranoia, and suffer mildly with the agoraphobia, but I keep reminding myself that I won’t feel like this forever. Now that I’ve started the electrolysis everything is looking up - imagine I hadn’t gone to that first appointment and I was still back at square one?!
My electrologist is AMAZING, I can’t sing her praises enough.
What an inspiration you are! Thanks for sharing your journey, I’m so glad you are feeling better too. That’s awesome that it is taking so long for the hairs to grow back!!
Another quick update -
I feel like the luckiest person in the world right now - I am being given free private laser treatment at a very prestigious hospital!
I’m really struggling to pay for my electrolysis. I think I’ve nearly spent £2000 ($3099) on treatment so far, and we’ve only covered one side of my face. Now that I have a better concept of my hair growth, I predict it is going to take around 2.5 years of electrolysis before I can finally stop the shaving and be comfortable with my face. So that’s going to add up to around £7000 or so, which I just can’t afford.
So the free laser is a GODSEND. I really wasn’t looking forward to having to start the electrolysis from scratch on the other side of my face - I don’t think I could endure the pain again. I know that I’ll still need electrolysis afterwards to clear up the rest of the hair, but knowing that I don’t need to go through it ALL again from the start is such a relief.
I’ll strangely miss my electrolysis appointments though - I see my electrologist as a friend now, and I see her as the person who changed my life (or at least, made a good start).
I went for a laser consultation yesterday, and had a test patch done. The laser was only on half strength to see how my skin would cope, next time we’ll put it up to full strength. Thankfully, I found the laser a LOT less painful than electrolysis. I know it was only on half strength, but I feel as though I will be able to tolerate it quite well on full when the time comes, based on how comfortable it felt yesterday.
I have the usual worries, induced hair growth, scarring etc… but as I keep saying to everyone - it’s worth it if my quality of life improves!
Wow… well I went for my first proper laser treatment today and… OUCHIES!
I almost pity my naivety in my last post, when I believed the laser would be less painful than the electrolysis haha
Thankfully, the whole process was over in about 3 minutes, so the speed of treatment is much more preferable compared with electrolysis.
My face was insanely red afterwards, and the pain/heat lasted for a short while after the treatment. Ice and aloe vera calmed this down though, and I even managed to go shopping (in public!!) after I left the hospital (albeit, wearing a scarf ) The redness has now completely gone and I’m hoping that it remains that way when I wake up tomorrow!! I don’t have a clue what to expect in the way of after-effects with the laser on my skin though, so we’ll see!
I’m curious about the hair-shedding process. Will I be aware of the hair being shed, or will it happen gradually and inconspicuously? Also, should I expect all the hair that was treated to shed, or will the laser have not been effective on some of it?
You wont notice it so much. Expect some red spots to show up within 24 hours, dont panic when this happens , it may take a while but they will subside even if it takes a week or two or more and you will get this lesss and less in later treatments.If you were to run a white facecloth over your face right now ( I dont recommend this but if you did ) you would notice a few hairs in the cloth. The pain, and the smell of burning hair, are also less and less with later treatments.
Yes, it REALLY hurts. The upper lip was almost unbearable for me, and the one place I had them go one shot at a time or turn don the power of the laser.
Seana
Ahh, I figured that the upper lip would be extremely painful! The doctor asked me if I wanted my upper lip done as well as the rest of my face, but I declined because I just had a feeling that it would be excruciating!
That’s good to know that the pain and the smell of burning hair will lessen with continued treatment. I wasn’t prepared for the pain or the smell, so I got a bit of a shock today!!
I always thought I had a high pain tolerance - or, at least, I cared more about getting rid of the hair so I just dealt with the pain… but jeez, that was tough today… I had to apologise for getting mascara all over the goggles because I teared up so much during the treatment!
Thank you for your reply
Just thought I’d share this here in case it gives anyone a laugh
I’ve just got into bed and I thought I’d inspect my face, as I haven’t really had a good look at it since my laser treatment earlier. Everything seemed normal until…
WHY IS MY FACE GREEN?!
Wait, I must be mistaken… I must just be tired… I blinked, then looked at my face again and, sure enough, there were lots of green patches all over my face!
My heart nearly stopped… no one told me about this after-effect!!! I hadn’t prepared myself for green skin!! What did I do?! Was I infected?! Had something gone wrong?!
I sat and panicked for a few minutes whilst staring in horror at my face… then I touched my monstrous, mutant-green skin… and I realised that I could easily wipe the green patches away…
Turns out it was just blobs of aloe vera gel…
Phew, what a relief! Although, this means I’ve been walking about all day with a green face and not one of my family members pointed it out to me!!
You had me seriously concerned for a few moments…I had never ever heard of green skin after laser.
For comparison sake, the first time I went I had 2 techs work on me, each on one side of my face ( it was done at a school) . One side is almost clear after a couple days. This is the side the technician who was not so talented worked on :
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/66437553/100_1487.JPG
It all healed up ok n the end, but was what I meant by dont panic if you see red spots.
Ah I see what you mean! I usually have red spots on my face anyway, from years of tweezing and ingrown hairs damaging my skin etc, so I’m used to marks like that, so hopefully it won’t bother me too much if I do get some red spots Thanks for the picture! It always helps hearing/seeing what other people’s treatments/experiences have been like!
I’m back!
Haven’t given an update in an awful long time, so here goes!
For a quick recap - I have thick, coarse, dark(ish) hair over entire beard area (I’m female), made worse by 10 years of tweezing and various hair removal attempts. VERY fair skin. Finally plucked up the courage (no pun intended!) to ask someone for help and started electrolysis last January. Had about 8 months or so of electrolysis (30-40 hours, I’d estimate) then a family friend who is the top professor in the dermatology department of a great hospital offered me laser treatment for free. (An absolute blessing for which I will always be grateful, as there’s no way I could have afforded electrolysis for years).
So, I’ve had quite a lot of laser - around 10 or 11 sessions so far, I think (I had a LOT of hair). Think the laser is LightSheer Diode and it’s been on the highest setting (50, whatever that means!). At first it was excruciating but, in my opinion, preferable to electrolysis as it was over in a couple of minutes, as opposed to the hours I’d lie in agony with my electrologist. Whenever my laser technician asked if I needed to stop I let him get on with it, meaning it was all over in 3 minutes at the most each time. My pain threshold has significantly improved, I’m now quite relaxed when I go for my sessions, knowing that every moment of physical pain is leading to less emotional pain.
So, my laser technician has suggested that going back to electrolysis now might be a good idea. I’d say the laser has reduced the hair by around 65%, which is fantastic for me, as it was a crippling burden before. Now, I’m still aware of the hair, and still have to shave every day - but I can actually leave the house and am not as paranoid every second of the day - sometimes I even manage to forget about it!
The main change I’ve noticed is that I’m starting to open up to the idea of dating or being in a relationship again - something which I’ve not even contemplated for many years because of this. Still not 100% comfortable, but at least I’m slowly letting my barriers down!
So, I’ve just booked an appointment with my electrologist (who, by the way, is an amazing woman and fantastic at her job)… that’s in 2 weeks I think and I’m looking forward to it!! The hair that’s still on my face is significantly finer, so I’m hoping this means that she won’t need to use as high a setting as before when the hair was stubborn and coarse? So fingers crossed it’s not as painful!!
For anyone who is worried about laser or electrolysis or is swaying towards one more than the other - all I can is both of them combined are working wonders for me. Everyone will be different, but I have complete faith in both methods and the professional angels who carry out my treatments.
You had 8 months of electrolysis initially with total treatment time of 30-40 hours… you should have almost been done or at least made considerable progress with no reason to have to pursue Laser.
So, I would look for a new electrologist who can actually give you results in a reasonable time-frame (total treatment hours) to finish up.
Another point I would make is waiting 6 months after your last laser session before starting electrolysis. Regrowth from laser continues to come through for months and it’s always best to know how much hair you are really dealing with before starting electrolysis.
Maybe I’m being a bit harsh but it does seem like you probably experienced too much regrowth from those electrolysis treatments if you put in that many hours and still had enough bothersome coarse hair to make laser a viable option.
everyone is different what could be the near end for some may be only start for others or half way through. She did say she had a full beard of hair growth this normally takes a good 2.5 - 3 years to get rid of for TG.
I have been going for a year this month I started 10 minutes every 2.5 weeks I now go 10 minutes every 5-6 weeks and added in new area upper lip.
I suspect as I’ve had a few random growths I’ll be going for another year before I say its all done but I should be going less and less time between.
I wouldn’t put laser to my face even if offered free too much risk but I don’t have a full beard I know women with PCOS who have done laser and its been a god sent to them. Hopefully it should quicker your progress.
I’ve seen her photos and I know what properly performed electrolysis is capable of. There is no reason it should take 2.5-3 years. 40 hours of electrolysis should have at the very least reduced the amount of active follicles to a level that one would not consider having to pursue laser.
I also replied in your thread but the HairTell servers ate it, I think it would have been useful for you.