Hi:
I have posted this elsewhere on the board, but thought I would join my sisters down here on this board to say hello.
I think that having a hair free face is worth all of the time and money needed to get rid of it, especially if your hair is dark colored, and shows like a dirty rag. If you need something like dermablend to hide the shadow, then at the end of the day hairs are poking through it, you have a problem. To me getting rid of the hair is a necessary evil.
My posting in another section:
Hi:
I have been following this forum for at least a year and would like to add my two cents worth as a new member.
I am an MTF Transwoman and started off with laser facial hair removal almost 2 years ago. I had 9-10 sessions with the Lightsheer Laser Diode system. It semed to work OK at times, but I kept getting a lot of regrowths. My normal hair color is brown, but I have some greys and white ones too. I would describe my facial hair as rather dense when I started. I had what would be described as a beard shadow, meaning even though shaved, you could see the darkness through the surface skin.
So, rather than continue with the laser, which probably helped somewhat, I switched to regular electrolysis about a year ago. In the past year I have had 50 hours of thermolysis which seems to be working. I can see light at the end of the tunnel.
Also about 5 months ago I started on HRT, which doesn’t help with the facial hair growth, maybe slows it down, but helps in other areas of the body. It does seem to make me more sensitive to pain however.
I take some tylenol 3’s before treatment, which consists of 2 hour sessions. I also apply emla ahead of the treatment. The pain usually occurs towards the end of the sessions.
For after treatment, if there is swelling I use an ice pack,(frozen corn). I also use a paste I made of zinc oxide and tea tree oil, or body shop brand mattifying moisture gel. I will also use an aloe skin care gel too.
In my current state, I try to allow my hair to grow for 4 days prior to my treatment. This is so she can see my hair, and get her tweezers on it to remove it after treatment.
I am really starting to see some results, but one thing I must pass on is that one has to be patient, and stick with a schedule.I had a pretty tough beard, but it is getting better all the time.
Alicia