How long did it take for you to get rid of your facial hair?

[ali.yo1991]

My electrologist says its gonna take about 2 years to get rid of my facial hair! Am I crazy in thinking thats a tad long? I go at least three times a month and around an hour to two hours a treatment. Is it just the facial hair that lasts this long? Or do all areas take that long? Ive been hoing since july and really havent noticed much of a difference.

[archlord]

Are your facial hairs to light to have laser ? It would be much faster if your beard .
is black .

My esthetician said from 11-13 session of like .. 20 -25 min

[cindianna_jones]

I went twice a week for a couple of years. I had my face completely cleared during each visit. Then I went about once a week for six months. I didn't get it entirely finished. I still have a few that could take the shock treatment. I just yank them every few days.

Cindi

[ali.yo1991]

Are your facial hairs to light to have laser ? It would be much faster if your beard .
is black .

My esthetician said from 11-13 session of like .. 20 -25 min

I have dark hair and light skin but I heard laser isnt permanent.

[Emjay]

I've got almost 100 hours on my electrologists' table and still have at least that much still to go, probably more if I'm completely honest with myself.  I have some pretty large spots on my face now where nothing grows back but other areas still look like nothing has changed.  When I started I had really thick facial hair so I knew it was going to be a long process in my case.

Electrolysis is permanent, but sadly it does take a looooooooong time.  Laser is a permanent hair reduction rather than removal.  If I had dark facial hair I would probably have looked into laser first, if nothing else to have knocked the beard down and then following up with electro to take care of whatever came back.

[archlord]

I have dark hair and light skin but I heard laser isnt permanent.

You arent going to growth new follecules on t blockers. But yeah electrolyse is stronger but takes ages to see result. Better to get rid of what you can with laser if you are lucky enough to have dark hairs then get rid of what remains with electro

[Ashey]

Laser cleared most of my face after the first time, but I had sparse hair to begin with, and they were thick and dark and I'm very fair skinned. I think I was also more inclined because I remember plucking this one odd hair growing alone along my jawline when I was a teenager and it never grew back. So most of my face has been cleared and haven't had regrowth, but I still do have some hairs along my upper lip, ONE on one cheek lol, and a few under my chin. The upper lip hairs have thinned from HRT though. I usually just pluck them and so after several treatments I stopped and haven't gone for over a year. I will be going again soon though, to clear the remaining hairs. However, on the flipside, a friend of mine who's also transitioning has gone several times already (same place as me) and her hair reduction has been very gradual, and she'll still need quite a few more appointments.. But she started with a lot more hair than I had. YMMV and all that...

[Ms Grace]

I think you need six to eight laser treatments but it could be worth it to thin it out. I've heard laser isn't necessarily permanent either but it will make a difference and the rest you can deal with through electro.

Sorry to say it will probably take up to two years with electro. A lot of it depends on the method (thermolysis or galvanic, I recommend the latter as the most effective) but also how many sessions you have (I was going, on average every two weeks), how long the sessions last (mine, on average were three hours), how much pain you can tolerate in a session and how much you can afford. All those factors tend to stretch the process out to two years...there are a lot of hairs in the beard and moustache so it is a vey time consuming process. I've racked up about 120 hours over two years...almost finished, maybe another ten hours.

[Karen5519]

One of the major reasons why it takes so long with electrolysis is each hair follicle has three growing cycles.  You have to go back to that same follicle three times to kill all the hair before your face is cleared.  It does take a long time if you go to the local electrologist for an hour a week or so.  I would suggest that you look into going to a place like E-3000 (www.electrology3000.com) in Dallas.  Back when I transitioned it was E-2000.  I went for two days at a time maybe five times.  They are able to totally clear your face and other areas, if time permits, during each two day period.  Yes, it can be expensive, but if you are looking at getting this completed in the shortest amount of time I would consider using them.  You are in the chair all day long and their operators who do the clearing as the best in the business.  They use lidocaine to numb areas on your face where you experience the most pain.  The first session can be rough and it takes a few days for the swelling and redness to go away......but after that it gets easier each time.  They can clear any part of the body including the areas around your genitalia.  What I paid there was money well spent! If passing is important to you then you need your face as well as other areas of your body, where you have coarse hair, cleared.

[Maybebaby56]

Hi Ali,

I have been doing, on average, a couple of hours a month of electrolysis (that's over $250/mo, all I can afford, really) for over a year now.  I had a light beard - dark hairs with an olive complexion.  I have most of my face cleared after about 28 hours of electrolysis.  Apparently I am very lucky!  Another 6 or 8 hours should do it, but that will still add up to about 18 months of treatment.   My electrologist often also gives me a quick full-face laser treatment along with it. The only whiskers I have left are white.  I often hear of girls putting up with 200+ hours of electrolysis, and I can't even imagine that.  But then I can't imagine doing it all in a couple of days, either. There's no easy way out, I guess.

Terri

[Hyperduck_23]

My beard colour was a mixture of light blonde, ginger and completely translucent, so electro was the only option for me.

I've been going for a bit over 2 years, started with 3 hour sessions every week and had a face like a hamster for a while; the colour of the hairs & some other weirdness meant it was pretty hard to shift them so it was 'welcome to the painy season' for a while there!

The session lengths have reduced and are now around an hour every 2 weeks. I've not shaved in over a year and just put up with any regrowth (there isn't much) that then gets zapped at my next visit. All of the dark hairs were removed first so anything that is there is fair and not the strong, coarse beard hair.

It's a long game, especially if you have awkward facial hair (joy!), but well worth it in my opinion. Would've been nice if I'd have had hair that could've been started with laser, but you deal with what you're given.

[Lagertha]

I had 16 laser sessions during 2 years ... on mostly dark brown and some medium brown hairs. Now I do 1 session per year when a few darker hairs come out. Lighter hairs turned into vellus which is what most women have plenty off.. 

I paid like $700 for all laser sessions. If I hade done electrolysis it would probably cost me around $10,000 or more.

[Joi]

Over the past yr. I've had about 30 hrs. of electro.  chest, face, neck.  I'm almost totally gray so laser isn't an option for me.  I've given it a rest for while as the last two hrs. was on my upper lip and around  my lower lip.  Took about 3 wks. for the swelling to subside.  Have decided that I'll wait until I have recovered from GCS for more and then I'm thinking about going to Dallas and E3000.  I've heard that they only charge $120 an hr. for 2 electrologists working in tandem.  I'm paying  $75 an hr. for one.  So it's actually cheaper.  Just the expense for the  trip to Dallas & fortunately I have family there and its only a 5 hr. drive from home.

   

[Rachel]

I had three laser sessions then started combined electrolysis. I am about 70 hours in. I go 2 hours a week. I suspect 200 hours for face. I need to start considering getting my 1st genital sweep done soon too.

[Jenna Marie]

It took me six months with laser to be almost totally hair-free (I have maybe a dozen stubborn hairs left that I just pluck for now), plus a couple of touch-ups a few months later. Laser is permanent, it just can't guarantee getting ALL the hairs - it's called "hair reduction" because electro can guarantee that 100% of the hair is gone and laser can't promise that every single one will be dead. But for people who are a good candidate for it, like me, the difference between 100% and the 99.99% result from laser is barely worth mentioning. And I liked the speed and cheapness of laser...

6+ years later and I've seen no regrowth, so it definitely was permanent on me.

[Lady_Oracle]

13-14 sessions of laser. I do have some hairs left but they're so small and not really noticeable. So my upper lip and chin area is like any other hairy hispanic woman. Some of my cousins now have more hair than me in those areas

I do plan on getting electro at some point but I went through a lot of pain with laser so I'm just like holding off till I put myself through another cycle of incredible pain 

[RachelsMantra]

Laser is permanent. They just can't say permanent because it's not FDA approved for permanent removal.