What exactly does "hair reduction" mean?

[Vestyn]

Hi everyone,

I've only just begun reading about hair removal so please forgive me for these naive questions. Everything I've been reading has been stressing that electrolysis is the only "permanent" solution, according to the U.S. government, but that electrolysis is expensive and time-consuming. A close-second seems to be laser removal, but then there are disclaimers about "hair reduction" and I really don't understand what that means.

Here are the possibilities I've come up with:

a) Hair that would once grow to, say, 3cm long, now only grows to 0.5cm. Or something.

b) One area of 50 hairs is treated with lasers and 47 of them fall out. And stay out forever. But then we have to pay for a second treatment to get those last pesky hairs.

c) One area of 50 hairs is treated with lasers and 50 hairs fall out. x of them grow back within the normal hair-growing period of time. So those x hairs are treated with lasers AGAIN (and maybe AGAIN and AGAIN...) and this time they stay gone forever.

d) One area of 50 hairs is treated with lasers and 50 hairs fall out. 5 years later, x of them have grown back. So those x hairs are treated with lasers AGAIN (and maybe AGAIN and AGAIN...) and this time they stay gone forever.

e) One area of 50 hairs is treated with lasers and 50 hairs fall out. x of them grow back, either right away or eventually, and no matter how many times they keep getting lasered, they just keep coming back.

The other question is what "x" stands for. If we've lasered 50 hairs, what's considered a "success?" Permanent removal of, say, 40 of them?

Thanks very much for the clarification!

[HelloHeidi]

Assuming you're talking about facial hair and not body hair, here's what I know:

Basically the answer to all of your scenarios is yes (except maybe the one about length.) Results from laser hair removal vary widely from person to person, and really there isn't one experience that seems to be more common than others. I've had laser on my thick, coarse beard twice, and it literally did absolutely nothing, however I've seen some others on this forum say they had a big reduction in their beard growth (meaning the number of hairs was reduced.)

Much more often than not, trans women don't get the results they need from laser alone, which is why electro is considered the way to go. Being that it is expensive and time consuming, it wouldn't be so advocated if it wasn't the best/sometimes only option. You could spend $1000 on a laser package and not see any results, but results are more guaranteed with electrolysis. Even with electro, hair grows in phases, so hair will return where it was cleared, but these are different hairs that weren't active when the last ones were cleared, so you need to keep clearing until all the hairs have been zapped.

Sorry this is so longwinded, but I saw no one had replied to you so here I am. If you're talking about body hair, HRT should see a great reduction in that in areas of male pattern hair growth (back, chest, shoulders), but is very unlikely to affect the beard. If you still want to remove body hair, laser would be the most common route for body hair.

[Vestyn]

Thanks so much for your reply, Heidi!

Interesting - I didn't realize there was so much variation from person-to-person. When you spoke off-handedly about sinking $1000 into laser, how much ground does that cover, normally? (In terms of...inches or centimeters or something...) And what about $1000 of electrolysis?

[Clhoe G]

You need to ask the dermatologist for an enzyme inhibitor and/or Spironolactone cream before getting facial hair removal by laser or electrolysis, I think the Spironolactone cream is used before treatment n the enzyme inhibitor is used after.   

[HelloHeidi]

Thanks so much for your reply, Heidi!

Interesting - I didn't realize there was so much variation from person-to-person. When you spoke off-handedly about sinking $1000 into laser, how much ground does that cover, normally? (In terms of...inches or centimeters or something...) And what about $1000 of electrolysis?

That all kind of follows what I said about a big variation. In my opinion, laser is usually insanely overpriced.  I got a groupon that I think was $200 or $300 for three "large area" sessions, the full face fell under this category. It honestly took her less than five minutes to do my face though, so really how much is that time worth? Usually they'll try to make you buy packages of laser treatments, say six or so. Each session can range anywhere from $100 - $300, but there's so much variation in machinery and the person operating it that it's really difficult to get a good deal AND a good result. I'd say electrolysis is anywhere from $70-$110 an hour, and results are much more guaranteed, even though it takes a long time.