From a reader:
Andrea-
I recently discovered Hair Facts, and I am very impressed at the work you have put into it. I wish I had seen that site a year ago.
I am a male to female transexual. For roughly the past year, I have been going to a clinic for Laser Hair Removal. I had 6 sessions on my chest and 11 on my face. The chest hair has grown back, and most of the facial hair is still present. (There has been some reduction in facial hair.) I have stopped going- I brought up some complaints about the quality of service I was having, and some information came out that seemed very questionable.
Of most contention is the issue of maitenance treatments- I was told recently that maintenance treatments are common for every 6 months or a year, but I was never told anything about this when I started treatment. My consent form makes no mention of it. (The closest it comes is “Multiple treatments may be required for permanent hair reduction.” All I thought is that it takes 6+ treatments. They do mention the maitenance treatments on their website.
I want to get some of my money back. Can you help me? What advice do you have?
As I mention on my site Transsexual Road Map, laser hair removal is unlikely to be enough by itself to remove all of your androgen-driven facial hair.
If you are on anti-androgens, that can help, but most women in our community require completion with electrolysis. Laser is kind of diminishing returns. After a year, you will probably not see significant improvement beyond what you have now. For reasons not yet understood, not everyone responds to laser hair removal, and the lighter your hair gets with each treatment, the less effective laser is. Most people see a reduction of one-third to two-thirds of hair, and the rest has to be zapped.
While you may be able to talk them into some free maintenance, it’s hard to say without reading your contract. Most places make no guarantees of results, though if you are diplomatic about making your dissatisfaction known, many will be willing to help out. It’s unlikely you will be able to get any money back unless you have some sort of results guaranteed in writing.
I recommend considering switching to electrolysis on your face and doing any maintenance you can get from them on your chest and body. Darker the hair, the better with laser.
Take care,
Andrea