Electrolysis

[Feveth]

Well, that's my problem. I've known, as a fact, that I've been a transgender person for almost two years now, but the one thing truly standing in my way is facial hair. Electrolysis is expensive and it takes a long time. Right now, I'm just a broke college student. I really want to be full-time by my 10th anniversary high school reunion (2012), but it's creeping up on me! I get school grants (about $1 to spend leftovers) each school quarter, and I figure that would get me somewhere... but I have a big love for video games and all things new. I bought a hi-def projector (got a nice 84" HD pic in my room with surround sound). It's great and I love it and it will last me forever... but I always feel like I should be spending money on transitioning. I'm not truly depressed that I've been aware and not doing anything about it, but sometimes it gets to me more than others. I just finished up my first year of college, and I have three or four years left (leaving like 4-5 years until HS reunion to surprise everybody), but I'll be older than 24 and my HGH (human growth hormone) levels would have dropped by the time I got any money working on films... I think.

Does anybody have any advice?

Otherwise, here're three links to know me better.
- http://users.ign.com/about/Kudou-Yusaku
- http://tenshin.infinitydev.net/myroom.php
- http://tenshin.infinitydev.net/

[Leigh]

This is quite blunt but you put your money where your priorities are.

I know women who work two jobs and live almost on nothing just to bank a few xtra bucks every payday.

Cars, electronics, new furniture are just things, they can be replaced.  A human soul is almost impossible to replace once is has gone beyond the point of hope.

Leigh

[4years]

I know it seems obvious, but prioritize.

Which is more important? A new toy or less facial hair?
I suggest both, just not all at once. A new toy one month, a few less hairs the next, and so on.
It's a way to start anyway, and one thing about transition is patience.

[Feveth]

Well... I think I'm gonna go try and look for a job, though I'm completely limited. Being vegan, I refuse to work in a place where I have to smell or handle meat at all, and I can't do lots of box moving or I'll have sit-down problems...

I suppose Starbucks and Safeway are hiring, but those are about the only two places I could try to apply again at. Maybe I'll win one of these contest on this game I'm playing. *rolls eyes*

I've really been putting off any transition (heck, nobody at school even knows what I am), because of lack of funds for electrolysis. But today I found my old skirt from Halloween '03 and I put it on and I felt better; right, even. I also happen to live in a very small town, so transitioning around a bunch of religious and old people would be freaky.

[stephanie_craxford]

Very sound advice.

Transitioning is a slow deliberate and planned process.  I have to prioritize my expences.  I allow myself $50.00 per month for electrolysis on my face.  It is no way near as fast as I would like but it's all that our budget will bear at the moment, and I can live with that.

Sit back and take stock of everything, and come up with a budget that you can live with.  It will give you a good idea of the type of income you will need.  Most of us have had to make sacrifices, and comprimises it's just the way it is...

Good luck...

[Feveth]

$50? So like... an hour a month, eh?

How many hairs, on average, can get removed in an hour?

[Leigh]

It depends on the skill of the operater and what type that  they are using.

Before you do anything ask for references.  A bad operater can scar your face beyond belief.

Also, rememer that if you zap 100 hairs a large percentage will come back, so you won't be done soon.  It takes hours and hours.  Sometimes as many as 200+ if you are unlucky.

In many cases it is the largest expense of transitioning.

Leigh

[Terri-Gene]

My tech has been using Blend on me up until my last session saturday.  I to am short of cash to spend on these things and only get zapped an hour every 2 weeks, or twice a month at $60 an hour since she had to raise her rates.

She told me the options in the beginning, telling pure electro had the greatest kill rate, due to the acid flowing into the folicle and eating it out even if the probe wasn't quite deep enough, but could take up to a minute per hairand Thermo transferred to much heat to surrounding skin tissue with denser hair areas.  the combination of electro and thermo (blend)was preferred for face hair as it had less chance of scaring, could address 4 to 5 hairs a minute, but thermo was faster, more like 8 hairs per minute and had a higher kill rate when working in less dense areas, such as body hair.  with this method, around 8 hairs per minute was possible.

This saturday she commented that all along we have been going after darker hairs first, leaving the lighter white hairs, which by now were not close together and thought we would switch over to thermo to start getting actual clearing.  With a good operater, thermo has an 80% kill rate. So, we did my chin with it that session and I guess we will be using the thermo for the rest of it.  I want it all done by the end of this year.  So far I've accumulated only 30 hours with less then that estimated to go.  I'm just going to have to dig up enough to go every week when we get it down to the point where I can live without using a razor ever so I have enough every week to work with efficiently.  Right now, it's a week of sunshine and then a week of dreading each day as I need at least 4 to 5 days growth to get long enough to work with.  By friday night, i'm a wreck during WhereWolf week.  Totally humiliated.

Expensive?  Kinda, My tech says I'm pretty easy to work on, I don't care what she cranks her settings up to which makes for the highest kill rates and I don't keep stopping her or asking her to work somewhere else for a while which make it possible for her to address the max number of hairs per hour, and it will total about 6K by the time I'm done.  Others with denser hair and perhaps wanting much lower settings for comfort, can spend 2 or 3 times that amount.  From what I gather, you could get a decent SRS job for what some will spend just on electro, and Lazer will generally be only slightly less expensive and will still take about all a year as it takes about a half dozen appointments, 1 ever couple of months or more for the total number of sessions needed for complete clearing, and the debate goes on about it growing back in after a couple of years with Laser.

Terri

[stephanie_craxford]

Electrolysis is a pain  well it's not so bad.  I tried the laser route for my face and went in for a consult, the tech examined my facial hair and like yours it's light redish in colour.  She advised that she could try laser but she would not guarantee it's effectiveness.  So I went the electrolysis route for my face.  So far it hasn't been so bad, some spots hurt a little others not at all.  My electrologist (?) said that the worsed part is the top lip, and sugested that I go to my dentist to get him to freeze it, then she would do the whole lip, pain free, in one shot, or most of it.  Something to think about.  I know that my results have been excellent so far, and I'm very pleased.

[Terri-Gene]

Pain and electro?  It can be and it can be less so.  The settings can be turned up for higher kill rate and yes, it can be a wonder to behold, or they can be turned down to make it more tolerable and there is a point where while it may still hurt some, the kill rate is so low as to make it worthless unless you got enough pocket cash to come back forever.

I'm one of the odd ones, I relax on the table and just radiate it all out.  My tech uses comparitively extream settings for me and constantly asks if I'm asleep.  We have talked about her doing my genital area after the face and upper neck are done and lately she told me about a new cream she ran into at an Electro convention she recently attended.  She used it on herself and said it worked pretty well and didn't have the application and greasy working conditions of the other popular creams on the market.  Sorry can't remember the names of those as I've never used any pain killers at all, it just adds to the expense and for some of em, I'll be damned if I'm gonna drive downtown with plastic wrap all over my face.

Anyway, this stuff apparently is simply rubbed into the face and only takes about 10 min to be effective, and is not greasy or gooey, so it doesn't slow down the tech.

Still not looking forward to that genital zap, but it seems to be a common requirement here in the US.  There are some clinics that do it under anathesia in several sessions of a few or more hours each, but again, lots of money.  I'm gonna half to just pretend to be asleep and grit my teeth, that or go to thailand where things are more reasonable in price and they use a scrape technique on the skin after it is removed, so prior removal is unnessessary.  Can't figure out for the life of me why U.S. doctors don't use this technique, as it seems to be proven effective.

Terri

[AmyNYC]

My electrologist (?) said that the worsed part is the top lip, and sugested that I go to my dentist to get him to freeze it, then she would do the whole lip, pain free, in one shot, or most of it.

In my experience, the upper lip is by far the worst.  My tech usually just knows to hand me a tissue when she goes up there for any length of time, because I will most likely shed some tears.

If you want to have anesthesia done fine.  The office I go to does it in-house, right before they treat you.  But be warned, I don't think she can get most of it "in one shot".  I've had my upper lip cleared 3 or 4 times.  That was when there was plenty of hair there.  After those times, there's been another dozen sessions where there were another 6 hairs minumum to be cleared.  I'm due to go tomorrow, and again there's 14 dark hairs (I just counted) to definitely be cleared, plus a lot of small, light ones.  And I started all this at a fairly young age, when my facial hair hadn't really filled in at all.

I approach electrolysis like Terri does.  Spending money on anesthesia would just take money away from what could be more time on the table.  I just grin & bear it.

Amy

[Terri-Gene]

  "In my experience, the upper lip is by far the worst"

No argument.  Especially the fine hairs at the very edge of the lower lip.  I gotta say, a few of those got my attention, but I guess anywhere under the nose, especially up nearest the nostrils just naturally has to have a ton of alarms.  I thought so, but the lower lip was about the worst of it. and the upper lip seems to be remaining clear.

be a little happier when we clear the chin and jaw.  We can play forever on whats left and I won't be dreading wherwolfe weeks any more.  Its just getting harder and harder to stand allowing any at all to grow, and having to leave it alone all week.  such a thing.

Terri

[stephanie_craxford]

Werewolf weeks?  How much growth does your tech need to work with?  For mine all she asks is that i don't shave that morning and the amount of growth that I have by my 6:00 PM appointment is enough for her.  She uses a microscope, so I guess it makes a difference...

[Leigh]

You have no idea of pain until you have the genital area done.

Now I will admit freely to anyone that I am a masochist and I have never cried ever!  BUT that was more than I could stand without novocain.

Sticking a fork in your eye would be way more fun.

[stephanie_craxford]

OUCH...  didn't think of that one..  Hmmmmmmmmmm but I guess it's required for GRS?  Couldn't they do it while you are getting GRS, but I guess that would add to the cost and the time of the proceedure.  So generally speaking how much electro is required down there.

Oh the pain of it all, and so much fun to look forward to...

[beth]

Dr Marci Bowers has a diagram on her site showing where to remove hair and where to leave it alone. some of it has to be done before surgery. This would give a general idea but asking your own particular surgeon is the only way to know for sure.








beth

[Terri-Gene]

hahahahhahahah, yeah, not looking forward to genital electro at all, thats how we were discussing some new product cream she came across (my tech) at a convention and she says it makes all the difference for herself and has no problems working with it.  so I'll order a case, she going to start carrying it, To resale.  I'm going to try it while finishing the face with thermo, and I hope it works good enough for what comes later.  I can deal with pain, but it doesn't excite me much.  I can live without it.

As to WherWolf week.  No, I don't just grow out over day/niaght, and yes, my tech uses glasses like surgeons do while working.  I have a slow growth cycle and it takes a min of 3 days to be workable and things go much quicker, (more hairs per hour) if I give her 4 days growth, Its only about the 3rd day I begin to get a noticable "fuzz" around my chin that I start getting real down about it, and with 4 days, thats two days of going out and doing normal business while not wanting to walk out the front door for any reason, and you can't shave it off  for any reason or it won't get done.  Just one of lifes little pleasures, and believe you me, at the cost of this, I want the fastest results with least possible damage, so I give her what works fastest with the highest kill rate in the limits I can tolerate.  I think they call it "bang for the buck"

A question of time?  There is at least one postie here that did it, so draw conclusions from what hers took as a point on a scale, from what I gathered, about 10 to 20 hours.  depending always of course on density.  And kill rate percentages.  Take a look at yourself, judge the density and figure a good tech working at max efficient speed achieving 6 to 8 hairs per minute or toward 500 hairs per hour, but more likely somewhat over 300 per hour will be more like it.  Take a best guess judgment on your own density and filter in that 20 to 30% will grow back and need to be zapped again along with any new onces from the recycle effect.  Yes, looking at a nice chunk of money there, but nothing to have to show everybody before sessions

Terri

[Leigh]

Terri--NMLA? I think is what many use.

Some Dr. do not want any done and some ask you to make sure that you do none for a certain time span prior to surgery.

[stephanie_craxford]

Thanks a bunch everyone.  I went over to her web site, and theres a good amount of information there.  I can see where laser would be a good way to go if it works for your hair type.  I've had piecings in my genitals before and athough they hurt, I think that electro there would hurt just as bad.   

Thanks again.  This is such a great place to be.

[AmyNYC]

Yeah, I'm pretty much in "werewolf" mode all the time.  Anything less than five days growth and she complains there's not enough to grab.  When I'm on a regular appointment schedule of Tuesday and Thursday, I shave after she's done with me on Thursday, and then not again until after my appointment the next Thursday.  From talking to others who go to the same office, I have to let it grow out an abnormally long time.

I'm with Terri... The longer you let it grow out for each session, the more hairs they can treat, and the faster you can be done with it all.