I haven't posted on here in a very long time. Honestly, I went through a rough self-doubt phase because I am bald. My therapist, whom charges $$$ per hour, told me 18 months ago that I should just accept it and go with wigs. But of course I am very stubborn and convinced myself that I could get a transplant. So I went and had 4 consultations, each giving me different answers but the same price-tag $12k+. Without the $$ to get the transplants I decided to try hair treatments like Minoxidil 2% and 5%, only to find out months later that only some of the hair comes back, but not in the areas on the frontal lobe or in glossy areas.
Recently, I decided to have one more consultation by a Dr. Toby Mayor whom has been a top notch in the business for a very long time. He looked at my head and then looked me in the eye and said, I have been lied to by the other doctors, and the only reason any of my hair has come back is because the HRT has stopped the male pattern baldness; the minoxidil had very minor effects. He also said A transplant for me could never give the density required to pass as female. How enlightening and humbling.
My other issue was my red and blonde facial hair was very thick and continued to grow quickly, even with the HRT. Oh, and 16 months of laser treatments only pissed off my skin and made it red and tender.
All this B.S. put me into a Long 8 months of depression, self doubt, regressing back into the closet and feeling hopeless. Meanwhile, I continued the HRT but lived completely as a man and hid my breast development. I even let my facial hair grow out from time to time to keep my co-workers off the trial..
In February I decided to call E3K in Carrolton Texas. They asked me to grow my hair out for a week then email some facial pictures. Once that was done they gave me a estimate and I set a date, their nearest available was May 2013. So I waited patiently for months for this to happen.
In May I made the trip to Texas and had 14 hours (actually 2 technicians simultaneously for 7 hours) of electrolysis to my face; take in mind I had a complete beard and mustache when I arrived. Even though they inject your face with a numbing agent it is very, very painful, to the point it made my eyes water and toes curl. When done my face swelled like a balloon and began to leak oil; day#2 of recovery was the worst as my face was so swollen I could only put a straw in my mouth. It took 7 days for the swelling to go down, and about 14 for the scabs to clear; my Avatar picture was taken about day 20.
Even though I have to go back once again to clean up any new hairs, my face is very clear and I don't need to use beard concealer anymore. I can shave in the morning, which is funny because there isn't much to shave, put on make-up and 12 hours later my face still looks good.
My confidence is back, even so where I have accepted the whole wig thing. I have spent the last 3 weeks living full time at home, going out by myself and with my kids, like I did last year before I got depressed.
My local electrologist says it would have taken a year or more to do what E3k did for me in 7 hours; just amazing and cheaper too! I mean Compare $65 per an hour session times 100 hours ($6500) to the $115 an hour E3K charges for 14 hours ($2200 W/travel costs).
If you have a light complexion or sensitive skin and light facial hair don't spend a penny on laser treatments; go electrolysis. If you are bald, get some real good consultations for transplants, but if your as bad as I am (ha! you'll never see!) then look into other hair replacement systems or wigs like I did. Invest in a good wig and learn how to take care of it.
Now to work on my voice and name change ;-)
