*pluck* OUCH! !#@%!.... *pluck*

[V M]

It is a spring loaded pen shaped device that you can load with a new sanitized pin. Diabetics use it to poke their fingers for glucose level testing. Look up diabetic supplies 

[Janet_Girl]

I have tried everything imaginable.  Plucking requires the hair to be long enough to grab, hate to not shave.  Yeah a transwoman who hates to not shave, but it looks horrible if I don't. 

Epilator on my face.    I hated it on my arms and you want me to..... never mind. 

Tried the Noxzema Hair Minimizing Shave Gel, I did not see much difference. 

Tried Vaniqa.  Very expensive and my result were less than satisfactory.

Nair for face.  Burned my skin.

Laser needs to be laser, not IPL.  I had IPL and they are back, Damn.  So I am stuck with getting laser, when I can afford it.

When it comes to the damned hair, I am RST.

Janet

[Ms Jessica]

Tried the Noxzema Hair Minimizing Shave Gel, I did not see much difference. 

I noticed that I had a lot less regrowth in between laser sessions.  It's one of the reasons I stopped using it on my face.  I didn't want a bunch of hair suddenly springing up when I was done with laser and was ready to stop shaving. 

I use it on my legs now, and it definitely slows down the regrowth.  I used to need to shave twice a week, and now doing it once a week is sort of pushing it.

One thing to remember, it doesn't actually make hair go away, it just makes it grow slower.  If you're worried about a beard shadow or something like that, it can help. 

[Ellieka]

Thank you all for the input. It definitely hes given me somethings to consider. I am just getting desperate. My facial hair is so bad, I can have up to three hairs sprouting from the same follicle.     

[sd]

I wouldn't pluck the face, it can cause problems for electro.

I have been epilating my legs for over a year and hair growth is slower than when I started. As to scarring for ingrowns, I haven't noticed any, but I never scarred easily.

Get a wax job done first if you decide to use an epilator, otherwise be prepared for some serious, drawn out pain that first time.

[Mister]

I'm surprised no one has suggested this-   orajel.   y'know, the stuff for a toothache.  apply it to the area to be plucked, wait a couple minutes and tug away, pain free.

[sd]

Interesting idea.
Probably a great idea for upper lip if you were to do it, small areas where it will hurt like hell (I can think of a few). But trying to use that for the front of your thighs (which can hurt like hell) would be costly I would imagine.

[V M]

I'm surprised no one has suggested this-   orajel.   y'know, the stuff for a toothache.  apply it to the area to be plucked, wait a couple minutes and tug away, pain free.

I like that idea. Especially for the upper lip. But then, plucking helps me take out my angst 

[Vexing]

I've been pulling out chin hairs ever since they first started appearing around age 18.
It became something of a habit; anything long enough and dark enough got pulled out.
As a consequence, only the blond hairs remain.
I don't grow boy hair on my upper lip, but I imagine that pulling it out would be ->-bleeped-<-ing painful!

[Ellieka]

why yes, yes it is. lol!

[Vexing]

Polynesian trans women (Samoan, Tongan, Maori) all seem to pluck rather than shave.
However, because it's more acceptable in their culture, they usually start plucking as soon as they start growing facial hair.

[jeanette-alexis]

Many years ago I decided I would wax my face.  I have made mistakes before but this one is near the top of my list.

I obtained the wax that you put on with a flat stick, let it harden, and then pull the wax up from the edge...no cloth was necessary.

I decided to start with my neck and covered an area from the bottom of my neck up to my chin.  It was probably about 3" wide.  I let it dry, grabbed the bottom edge, and pulled.  I promise I lifted myself 6" off the ground and not one hair had come out!  I tried again but only levitated an inch or so.  Now I am standing looking at a big glob of yellow wax and not knowing how in the heck I was going to get it off.

I started slowly (and using the same amount of force it would take to pull a horse out of quicksand) and little by little I was able to pull it up.  Think of removing one hair with a pair of tweezers very, very, very slowly....now multiply that by one thousand!!! 

When I finally got it off, I now had a three inch strip going from my chin down to my chest.  It was creamy white (if you discount the redness and the blood) and on both sides was obvious beard shadow.  I looked like a skunk!  The piece of wax looked like a porcupine.

I had no choice but to finish my neck although the strips of wax were much thinner.  When I finished, I walked to the trash can and tried to throw the container through the bottom of the can all the way to the pits of Hell!

I started electroysis a couple of weeks later.

[Genevieve Swann]

Ketsy probably has the best solution. Mine always grow back. Sometimes I get a small amount of nose hair and I yank them with hemostats, OUCH!!!

[V M]

I guess I'm lucky, my X-GF gave me a Gigi microwave wax kit and showed me how to use it correctly. Only prob. is I ran out of wax. So I'm plucking again. The only prob. there is that the thinner hairs have become more difficult to find and/or pluck and break off. Thus causing ingrown hairs. though the thicker hairs are annoying to see, they are easier to pluck. For those who can afford laser or electo., Good for you. Brag until your heads fall off. I'm offering advise to those that are not so spoiled and have a budget to work within 

[Ellieka]

Jeanette-alexis,

Thank you for that post. I was actually considering trying waxing but I figured it would be beyond excruciating.

[Annwyn]

If you're going to pluck, then atleast invest in one of those $50 do-it-yourself electrolysis kits, ya know the ones than kinda don't work but are better than nothing?  Surely a few months of that and you'll be set.

[Ellieka]

I have one actually and its much to difficult to use on the face unless you have some one else there to do it for you. It also takes a lot of practice to uses properly without leaving scars.

[pebbles]

I've done the exact same thing before... ultimately It's not really productive but it's a desperation move of spite. There is a technique I used (A type of wrist flick) so you pull them out in clusters of 4 or 5 every 3 seconds or so.

Even with this it's just not worth it least in my case I've spent 3hours on it before and only cleared about 1/4 of my face Even with my rather extreme pain threshold I just couldn't push myself further. After that I also needed to take a shower because I was covered in sticky coarse black hairs. (The papilla hair bulb makes them sticky) not only that for the day that area of my face was blue and red instead of skin coloured due to the trauma. that cleared up after a few days not before numerous white heads formed which I then had to treat.

the real kicker is that Facial hair regenerates alot faster than other body hair so unlike leg hair where if you wax it's gone for 4 weeks, in this case 1week later you get "shadow" back where the hair is growing underneath the skin there is nothing you can do to remove them during this stage and at 1.5 weeks it's fully returned to normal. No reduction it's not thinner it's as angry and strong as ever.

Oh yeah also the pain isn't conformal throughout if you rip out the ones on your top lip or ones near your ears those hurt 10xs more than those on your chin, the pain jumps from the nerves in your upper lip and ear, Your upper lip hurts your nose and eyes so you will begin crying like someone smashed you in the face. and your ears will begin ringing like someone slapped you in the side of the head. and this is for every single hair. It dosen't matter how high your threshold to pain is I personally cannot take begin smashed in nose 100 times every 1.5weeks.

[Ms Bev]

Hi there, Cami.
I know EXACLY where you're coming from.  This is my tweezing experience:

I could not stand to have upper lip hair mostly, but could not afford standard removal procedures.  One morning, I spent quality time under a good light with a good, fine-point tweezers (being the ex-biologist, I had good surgical micro dissection tweezers), and had been on hrt long enough that it softened my facial hair.  Before my shave, I pulled out every single hair. After the first dozen, I self-hypnotized to stand the pain.  In about an hour and a half, I had no hair left on my upper lip.  It was baby smooth, and remained so for days.  Then when they reared their ugly little heads, I pulled them all again, and noticed that it was easier to pull them out. Again, several days later, the same.
On the next round of pulling, there seemed to be fewer hairs, and on each new time, fewer still.  Then, after about half a year into tweezing, I was down to about 50 hairs to pull.  After another year, I had about 24 persistent hairs, and still do several years later, but now I pluck when I see them about once each 2 weeks, and it is painless. 
The more times I pulled them out, the easier it became.  They were not as tightly embedded, and became finer.  I also started on my chin at this time.  There are finer hairs left that I cannot see, and so, yes, I still shave lightly, but my entire face is baby smooth for about 36 hrs.
VERY important.......if you do this, pull slowly in the direction of growth, don't yank!  In the past 4 years, I have had one in-grow, and excized it with the same needle-fine forceps, gently squeezed the area, and forgot about it.  it made a small pink spot, which was gone in one day.
Okay.....long winded, but that's my experience.

Good luck!






Bev

[Ellieka]

Thanks for the Input and Ideas again ladies.

Yesterday I decided to attack my upper lip. I tried Misters suggestion of using orajel and to my great surprise it actually helped! I smeared a thin layer over my upper lip from one side to the other then massaged it in a bit and let it set for a few minutes. After about 1 minute I started to feel some slight numbing in the area so I went at them. While it was still far from comfortable it was at lease bearable and I could get relatively close to my nose with out bringing instant tears to my eyes.

Necessity may be the mother of invention but desperation is the mother of innovation.