Slower facial hair growth?

[findingreason]

So, I have noticed that my facial hair is growing slower and not as dark as it was in the early HRT days. I thought I may have been imagining it, but one day I asked my wife to look at it, and she confirmed with me that I wasn't imagining things. I used to have to shave almost daily, and facial hair was darker at that point. It's still growing now in all the areas it was to begin with, just not as fast or dark. I still plan to start facial hair removal this summer/fall, but I'm curious if any of you other girls that had a late start on facial hair removal have noticed a slowing of facial hair growth after being on HRT for a while? (over 2 years for me)

[p]

No personal experience with this as I am not on hormones yet, but my electrologist said that anti-androgens and estrogen can cause facial hair to grow back more slowly and the hair that does grow can be thinner and lighter. I'm also interested to hear from people with personal experience though.

[KathyLauren]

I think mine has slowed down a bit.  I am dreading my electrologist telling me that I need to grow it for four days instead of three.

[Artesia]

Mine has definitely slowed it's growth down.  What use to be a 5 O'clock shadow by midday now takes until 5 O'clock to be there.  Still to much growth for my feelings though.  Saving for the laser/Electrologist, but it's going to be a while.

[LizK]

Yup Just noticed a huge slow down at about the 11 month mark...prior to that it had only slowed slightly

[Jess1701]

Yep. Mine has definitely slowed. I used to shave in the morning then by the evening, I'd need to shave again. My electrolysis tech said she definitely noticed a slow down in growth. I have to skip shaving that morning just so she can have to hair to work with. And a days growth is mainly fuzz.

[Soli]

totally in my case, much thinner, much lighter, much slower growth. These changes started with my  1st dose of Spiro in Oct 2015, I had noticed slight changes, these changes increased as I increased the dosage and added estradiol, then when I added finasteride, I saw a big step in changes in my hair then (and other things), and even much greater when I switched to Dutasteride, and even greater when I upped the Duta dosage to what it is now a couple months ago. I didn't shave my beard for 2 months. I've been pulling my upper lip hair daily since springtime 2015, with tweezers, never shaving it, and I started doing the same with my beard hair 2 months ago and stopped shaving. I let go past 5 days for I was very busy and I can see all the hair I used to have is still there, only so much lighter and thinner... it doesn't show that much, you know, from far away. I actually am amazed at this every day, and the rest of my body... shaving my legs every 5-7 days. I'm starting to look like my sister who should take care of her upper lip... I mean it's woman hair I have now, very soft and thin hair.

It's clearly Dutasteride that has had this drastic effect on ME, I use capital letters because I have a very swift response to all that I take (E, P, Spiro and Duta) and all my dosages have been very low from the start and I think I'm a special case... My T went down very rapidly to that of a woman's with very low Spiro, which I lowered to almost nothing now... and my head hair grows fuller, richer, filling little by little the very little balding spots that had started for this is a body that has a few decades... but still grows very slowly (it always has), just a tiny little bit faster.

Of course I would love to have money for permanent hair removal, but laser would not do much since so many hair turned white or blonde in the process and electrolysis seems unreachable for me money wise... but as for the rest of this transition, I'm grateful, very much, every day, I never thought my transition would work that much... of course I'd like more changes but I remind myself every day how much bigger and darker these hair were 15 months ago and I feel happy about it. Nothing will change my height and my deep voice so I'll never totally pass but I don't care because I'm happy with who and what I am now, trans, not a woman, not a man, not sure which could be the right word yet, whatever, I feel good.
: )

[Paige33455]

I've been on HRT for 13 months and my facial hair growth has definitely slowed.  When I first started hormones I was started on a low dosage which gradually increased every 3 months (coinciding with satisfactory blood work) to the "full level" it is now.  I've noticed a couple of things you may find interesting if not useful:

- I gradually reached my "full" HRT regimen level at 6 months in
- Beginning at about 8 months my facial hair growth definitely slowed  - prior to that time I didn't notice any change in growth pattern
- I started Electrolysis at about the same time as HRT after Laser proved futile (99% white facial hair) and the level of discomfort with the Electrolysis markedly increased as my skin changed more dramatically (beginning at about 8 months too)
- I highly recommend starting electrolysis as early as possible and getting as much of it out of the way as you can before starting HRT - I've had a  little over 100 hours and it has become seriously more uncomfortable over the last several months and my skin shows the signs of the procedures much more than it did before with more noticeable scabbing and bruising
- I have to let my facial hair grow for at least 3-4 days so I walk around with a perpetual albeit light white (thankfully) stubble that is often quite a nuisance
- Fortunately the hair on my stomach and chest are almost totally gone and my leg hair grows very slowly.

Best of luck with your journey..........

[TonyaW]

I think mine has slowed down a bit.  I am dreading my electrologist telling me that I need to grow it for four days instead of three.

I suppose we can take a little positive in that it means the estrogen is doing something.  It's not much when you feel like hiding the day before the appointment.

I had to go from 2 days to 3 days recently.  I'm hating the end of the 2nd day and make my appointments for first thing in the morning on day 3.  If she ever makes me go to 4 days I'll have to find a way to hide for a day. 
I also switched to fewer longer sessions so I don't have to go through it as often


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[LizK]

I suppose we can take a little positive in that it means the estrogen is doing something.  It's not much when you feel like hiding the day before the appointment.

I had to go from 2 days to 3 days recently.  I'm hating the end of the 2nd day and make my appointments for first thing in the morning on day 3.  If she ever makes me go to 4 days I'll have to find a way to hide for a day. 
I also switched to fewer longer sessions so I don't have to go through it as often


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I am out to 6 days prep...first 3 or so are bearable after that it is a bit touch and go...I can be feeling quite Dysphoric by day 4-5...it is that period where all the big stuff has been removed and we are mainly dealing with secondary and finer growth with the odd few tough ones still hanging around.... I time mine for a Tuesday so I have the weekend to grow...but I only do one general area at a time...so its not as if my whole face is 6 days...I don't normally shave every day...every third now...and each time there is less and less