How many points on a 10 point scale has laserd (shadow) improved ur passibility?

[Evelyn K]

I'm soon to get it done, but what I found odd was applying foundation to simulate having my beard shadow removed kind of made me feel like my face was washed out. It could have been the light tone of the foundation, or I'm just not used to it.

I have to admit a slight beard shadow kind of adds dimension to the lower part of the face even though it's masculine and wrong and I'll still need to get it done either way.

Say you where a 5 before laser, how many points did it add for you in your opinion?

[Alainaluvsu]

A couple pictures may be worth a thousand words:





As you can see, it was visible when shaved and the density was full coverage. Now, some remains still, but I dry shave it every day (with some water) and I'm for the most part okay. My sides are almost non existant, I tweeze my chin and the sides of my mouth (and as you can see that would've been impossible pre-laser). My upper lip still has a bit left, but it's nowhere near as dense and there are some empty spots. The hair that is left is MUCH finer all over to the point where you don't see it unless you're a couple feet away, even if I don't shave for the day.

This was achieved after 7 treatments. If I put a light amount of concealer over the problem parts, you don't notice it unless you're inches away and really looking for it. But, as you know this works for dark hair on light skin the best. I'm probably the perfect candidate for laser.

[Carrie Liz]

Depends on the circumstances.

If you have a lot of beard/mustache shadow that takes daily shaving plus a lot of makeup to cover it up, it will probably be a BIG help. Beard/mustache shadow is one of the primary things that makes one look more masculine.

If you don't have a lot of beard/mustache shadow (which I didn't,) though, it really won't be a big help passability-wise, but it sure is nice to not have to worry about covering up the shadow with concealer all the time!

In my case, even pre-hormones I had almost no facial hair, to the point that shadow really didn't show up at all unless I let it grow for a couple of days. So on a scale of one to ten it improved my passability by about 2. The only thing it really did for me was eliminate a source of dysphoria and make it possible for me to go out without worrying about makeup. So again, not a passability issue, just a quality-of-life issue. It's really nice to only ever have to tweeze dark hairs or shave maybe once a week at the most.

[defective snowflake]

It got rid of what shadow I had, still have a lot of grays, but shave those everyday, so they aren't noticeable unless someone breaks out a magnifying glass. It probably improved my possibility a little, but didn't help get rid of the ugly in my case.  I do still have some dark hairs pop up every now and then, but I yank those puppies out when I see them in my magnifying mirror. 

[Ms Grace]

A couple pictures may be worth a thousand words:

Indeed! That's a great change Alaina!

Sadly my beard was too light to laser. The positive side to that is it is fairly hard to see after a good close shave. I'm going electro...sooooo slow, soooooo expensive

[Ltl89]

I have pale skin and dark hair, so I'm sort of the ideal laser candidate.  At this point, I forget how many treatments I've had (5 or 6), but it's made a huge difference.  It's not perfect and still requires me to shave daily in order to seamlessly hide the shadow without makeup, but that shadow has been reduced drastically.  I was one of those people with dark facial hair and always needed to shave in order to have a clear face.  What it's done so far is amazing, though I have still have some ways to go and don't know what the final result will be. 

[lemon_ice]

I have similar worries, my natural hair colour is brown/dark blonde with natural highlights running through which will be great as my hair gets longer, However similar to the hair on my head, the hair on my face is a combination of dark and light with probably around 70% dark and 30% light-blonde, so there will be some issues with laser I'm sure. Have any of you girls found that HRT has had much effect on facial hair, especially on lighter coloured hair?

[Lady_Oracle]

For a while I thought I was unpassable cause of my facial hair but after about a year or so on hrt I was male failing. I didn't start laser till late last year and I had very dense facial hair. The kind where when I shaved, I'd have have that bluish shadow all over. Despite that I was still being gendered correctly by strangers so idk.

On a personal note though, laser has given my confidence back finally. I was super self conscience since I started hrt cause of it. I feel like I can start going out more without being paranoid about my face. So four sessions of laser and happy to say most of it's gone. I'm really hoping I won't need electrolysis since I'm super sensitive to pain. 

[TerriT]

It's not just that it eliminated the hair. My face skin was improved by X 1000. I never have to worry about burn or ingrown hairs and all that miserable stuff. I don't know how much more passable it made me, the jury's still out on that one. But I did lhr way before I started E and it took years off my appearance. I seriously looked like 10 years older with my bad skin and beard.

[warlockmaker]

Facial hair is one of the give aways, close shave and makeup is a temporary solution. I started Laser some 15 years ago, I had dark hairs  on the face and I remember I had to shave daily, as I'm part Asian my hair density was minor compared with westerners. The laser was quite effective on the body but not so effective on the face. So I stopped laser for about 12 years and then started HRT and became aware of a substantial amount of white hairs on my face and have been doing electrolysis for the last year, its in the clearing stage now but it took alot longer than I thought. OMG what a difference tho.

[Sydney_NYC]

I've had 6 sessions and after the 4th session it eliminated nearly all my dark hair except around the lips. Laser made a huge difference on pass-ability. I'm still doing electrolysis on the white hair, but I can skip a day or two and not see any hair, but can feel it. Not longer do I have to use the MACH-10 razor to get a close shave, not I can use a cheap disposable and be just fine, but I use a Mach 3, since that is what I use on legs. I probably will have one more session needed for lips and that it. My electrologists is clearing about 1/3 of my face each session and it will probably be half then whole, then every few weeks to months, to done. Laser reduced my electrolysis time by at least 60% or more.

[Evelyn K]

A couple pictures may be worth a thousand words:





As you can see, it was visible when shaved and the density was full coverage. Now, some remains still, but I dry shave it every day (with some water) and I'm for the most part okay. My sides are almost non existant, I tweeze my chin and the sides of my mouth (and as you can see that would've been impossible pre-laser). My upper lip still has a bit left, but it's nowhere near as dense and there are some empty spots. The hair that is left is MUCH finer all over to the point where you don't see it unless you're a couple feet away, even if I don't shave for the day.

This was achieved after 7 treatments. If I put a light amount of concealer over the problem parts, you don't notice it unless you're inches away and really looking for it. But, as you know this works for dark hair on light skin the best. I'm probably the perfect candidate for laser.

Alaina you are one of those exceptional examples by far...

If you don't mind me re-inserting this snap of you, from
https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,138923.msg1140114.html#msg1140114



I'm at a loss for words...

[Evelyn K]

Studying the replies I think yes, it's a given that eliminating your beard shadow will help with your passability.

But to what degree on the sliding scale did it improve your passability in your opinions?

What I'm getting at is this, eliminating your beard shadow means some features of your face will be highlighted more, for better or worse. Say, your jaw line will become emphasized more depending on its shape instead of being de-emphasized when it was darker (makeup theory). Or your chin might appear more prominent.

Eliminating your beard shadow may unwittingly emphasize some of your masculine features. Or it may not.

Has this been anyone's experience?

One thing I'm looking forward to - hopefully - is a thinning of skin around the beard area where all those follicles where. Less tissue weight around a soft jaw shape is probably welcome.

[Eva Marie]

I didn't have real thick facial hair in the first place so that helped. I've had 6 zaps of laser and my facial hair has noticeably thinned out; this has helped greatly because I am no longer constantly checking the mirror for traces of a beard shadow and I can stay out longer.

I also fought the bluish shadow on my upper lip but I seem to be getting the upper hand on that problem now. Only the gray hairs remain and those will need electro after the laser is done (I bought a package of 6 more laser sessions).

Sliding scale? I'd say that it greatly improved my confidence and my passability on your scale. I don't think it emphasized any male features that are in my face either. Last weekend I attended a ladies expo here in L.A. and I didn't get too many weird stares from all of the hundreds of women that were there, even when i was in the ladies bathroom when there was a line (that's really scary when you run into it for the first time!). No one said anything if they figured it out.

[Evelyn K]

Was it your experience that the upper lip shadow is more pervasive than the rest after zapping?

It appears to be a consistent complaint and I'm wondering if I should zap my upper lip first and keep a close beard shave. Then do a full beard and lip zap #2 on the 2nd run.

[Eva Marie]

Was it your experience that the upper lip shadow is more pervasive than the rest after zapping?

It appears to be a consistent complaint and I'm wondering if I should zap my upper lip first and keep a close beard shave. Then do a full beard and lip zap #2 on the 2nd run.

Yes! That area is by far the toughest area to clear or so i've been told. I've got it thin enough now that some deft work with a razor is enough to keep it clear pretty much all day, minimizing that blue effect enough to simply be covered with some foundation. Before it was tough to cover the blue, and using heavy stuff like Dermablend to cover it just made the area stick out more and look worse.

It makes sense to me to clear as much as you can with laser before jumping into electo for the rest.

[Evelyn K]

So I've decided to wait on the laser. At least until I am absolutely sure I am starting to male fail.

What's the point of getting zapped if you're not going to pass anyway... ya knoa? If I don't pass, at least I can fall back to androgyny and keep my shadow.

[Jenna Marie]

I'd say... I don't know how to use the scale, but some laser pre-HRT meant I was able to pass a good percentage of the time even without makeup, if that helps. I have very, very pale skin and very dark facial hair, so once the thinning of skin on estrogen also set in I had TERRIBLE beard shadow in the surviving patches even before there was stubble - it was clearly visible *under* the skin. Removing it made a huge difference. I can't pinpoint exactly how it changed my face/appearance beyond the obvious, but my features definitely seemed to be more delicate and feminine overall.

There's also really no comparison between foundation, even well-matched carefully applied foundation, and total lack of facial hair.

[Alainaluvsu]

Alaina you are one of those exceptional examples by far...

If you don't mind me re-inserting this snap of you, from
https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php/topic,138923.msg1140114.html#msg1140114



I'm at a loss for words...

Is my avatar not a good reflection of the change? lol!

No, in all seriousness I don't mind at all. Thanks for the compliment. It's hard to go back and look at those photos. It's pretty hard for me to believe I'd be as lucky to go from that to what I am now when I see it myself. I hope I posted them to help somebody

[KatelynRain]

It's difficult to put a point to it, but it would rank as one of the most dramatic ways that I could pass better, and for longer periods of time. 

Before, I would have to cake on heavy makeup and concealer to cover up shadow, and that doesn't nearly as natural as only having to use sheer foundation now. 

Also, my shadow would start to show more noticeably through my makeup in a few hours - whereas, now I never have to worry about that.