my facial hair caused so much dysphoria one time that I ended up ripping my skin from exfoliating too much. Exfoliating helps to reduce the shadow but since mine was so heavy I overdid it, thinking it would work better. I just couldn't bear it anymore. Thankfully laser has gotten rid of most of the shadow which gave me a whole new sense of self. I still do have a slight shadow on my upper lip but it's not too bad. It looks like any other hairy Hispanic woman so I'm sort of content with that. I'm done with laser, the hairs I have left now are so sparse and light. I'm going to just do what any other cis women would do and get those hairs waxed. I'm not going to bother with electrolysis. I'm super sensitive to pain and don't have the funds to dedicate to that so it's not worth it at the moment.
I used to cry a lot in the shower when I'd have shave. Those were really tough days. Makeup would cover it but only for so long. I was constantly paranoid and had anxiety through the roof cause of my facial hair. Thankfully those dark days are behind me now.
As far as tips go, def exfoilate after your laser sessions, a couple times a week. Also if you're going to shave do a light exfoliation before and after to keep irritation at a minimum.
Wear eyeliner to bring attention to your eyes, so when you look in the mirror your eyes wont go straight to your chin/stache area. Take lots of selfies looking your best to continue to reinforce a positive body image.
If I were you I'd definitely would get on an AA. I know I wouldn't have had such great results with laser if it wasn't for my T being blocked completely. Estrogen will just battle with your T unless you're on a high enough dose to completely suppress your T but even then some people like me for example have stubborn testosterone levels that just wont go down unless you're on a tblocker. I was put on a high dose of an AA but originally I started on a low dose but the T jumped back up after about a year I think so yeah the dosage was raised.
