Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Hi guys! I have a question and I thought you would be the best to answer it.

Contrary to what you would think, I'm not worried about a receding hairline or anything. Rather, I'm going to have my first laser hair removal session on my face tomorrow, and I'm worried about getting some of my hair lasered, or letting some beard stay. You know, int he are of the sideburns, where beard and hair meet.

Of course, I guess it wouldn't make much of a difference in the end, but I'm a perfectionist, and even such an unnoticeable mistake would worry me, and it would be permanent.

The reason I'm worrying about this is that I clearly remember accidentally shaving off a few strands of hair off during the 9 or so years I've been shaving. But I also remember being scared by the accident and trying hard to let the hair regrow by letting a space.

So both scenarios could have happened: I might either have some hair mixed in with my beard, or some beard mixed in with my hair.

Since pictures of this are apparently hard to come by - or I'm bad at searching - I would like those of you who (still) don't have facial hair, or have a relatively small amount of it, enough to make you sure you can't have messed up to tell me where your hair ends in front of your ears.

Of course, pictures would be appreciated, but if you can describe it accurately enough, it could suffice. I would like as much feedback as possible, so I can get a reliable average to compare myself to.

If I can compare myself to an average and determine if there's such an issue and, if there is one, which one it is, I can either tell the technician (who would probably not care or notice such a thing if I didn't) not to laser a certain area I could even draw, or shave a portion of my "hair" prior to the appointment.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Reminder: My laser appointment is tomorrow afternoon (UTC-5). I know I'm not exactly in advance, but please hurry up.

Have you tried to google image search of female profile, female face profile, and female hairline?  The last will give you more forehead pics but still has some side views as well.

I feel dumb.

_{There are some pictures.}

I was worried about that, too prior to my first laser.

What I did was let the beard hair (sideburns) grow out for a couple days, and I noticed there was a visible difference between regular hair, and sideburn hair...the sideburns are more squiggly and wire-y, when compared side-by-side with the regular.

Starting clearly above the wire-y hair, I pulled up the regular and secured it (using clamp-style hair clips) until there was only squigglies left. I then shaved everything below that line, and about 1/8" above it.

Since then, I have religiously shaved from that line down, and haven't seen any wire-y hair since. I also told the laser tech to burn it below the shaved line (she probably wouldn't have gone that high on the cheek normally, but since I asked... :) )

Now my "tendrils" are light and wispy, just like a gg's!   ;)

That last one is just from the front and you can't really the sides around my ears, but it might help. I'll leave those up for about 24 hours for you.

I also worried about that my first time. But I had longish hair back then and it's very easy to distinguish between the "wispy" light soft hair and sideburn stubble so the technician just nailed it. When I still shaved I would just kinda hold the long wispy hair up and shave downward being extra careful. I guess its harder without that obvious difference so I'm not sure how to help you. Even if you keep your hair short though you can grow out the border just a little so you can easily see and feel the difference in texture.

Also, my sideburn area is above the line where the "wings" of sunglasses would be...just above where the top of the ear joins the head...so it is rather high up, but the overall effect is very good.

I was going to say that it starts around the tragus.

Quote from: Nygeel on April 18, 2012, 08:29:31 PM
I was going to say that it starts around the tragus.

Yep. That's where mine are.

Hm, what's a tragus? Not in the dictionary. o.o

Ayden: Thanks, but I can't really see what's useful. Cool costumes, though.

Beth Andrea and Eve87: What a pity... If I'd known, I wouldn't have shaved this morning. Do you think it's something I will be able to see tomorrow morning? :<

Quote from: A on April 18, 2012, 08:44:12 PM
Hm, what's a tragus? Not in the dictionary. o.o

Ayden: Thanks, but I can't really see what's useful. Cool costumes, though.

Beth Andrea and Eve87: What a pity... If I'd known, I wouldn't have shaved this morning. Do you think it's something I will be able to see tomorrow morning? :<

(https://www.susans.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.infovisual.info%2F03%2Fimg_en%2F048%2520External%2520ear.jpg&hash=49e5979aa243a912a2f3d1d2618e1eee02bb25a6)
Hope the image works.

Thank you!

I would suggest, if you're not feeling at ease, to just show up with whatever stubble you can grow overnight in those small border areas. And explain to the tech and they will be able to easily draw a line above the stubble or something. Then shave the small area there and get zapped.

But they told me to get there as closely shaved as possible... Isn't there a chance they'll turn me away and charge me the last minute cancellation fee?

That would be very stupid of them. This is actually a suggestion I got from the laser tech who's doing my legs to be able to see where there's still some hairs.
If you just keep like half a centimeter of stubble at the top of your sideburns just so the tech can identify where they end and you have a disposable razor... they would be truly -censored- to turn you away. You can shave that in like 5 seconds after they've marked the area.
Or you can mark the area yourself if you can make it out tomorrow morning.

I think I'll "bring" my stubble. I don't have another mirror than my bathroom's, so it could be hard to see.

I have access to the Internet for 2-3 more hours before I leave for my appointment, and I'm sort of nervous, so I'm double posting in case you'd have some extra advice.

I left a good 3-5 cm of stubble on each side. I hope it's enough. Maybe I should've gone all the way down to the base of my ears.

The techs have told me they can easily tell where the whiskers are, and regular hair is....

Also, they told me to not shave for my first appt, so they could get "before" and "after" pics. I suspect that as long as you don't look like Grizzly Adams it'll be ok.

Good luck!! Take some ibuprofen or something about 1/2 hour prior. No caffeine, either!

Oh, and enjoy the gel! LOL  :)

Leaving now. I've already done a consultation and a patch-test, so for such things, it's OK.

Hope they can tell hair from beard as easily as yours!

I don't have ibuprofen. I'll take a big breath instead. I'll give news through my blog when I've time. Thanks !

I'm too late for my input to help, but I hope it went well A. :)

HECK NO, it didn't go well. IT HURT.

More seriously, yes, it did go well. The pain is quite something on the neck (I must have looked like a worm on the table, violently rubbing my feet together and grasping my hands with each zap), but somewhat manageable on the face, since I have less and lighter hair there. Didn't even need a costy numbing cream! Plus, it seems she treated me at a high power level already, so I've got to be tougher than I thought.

It's weird; feels like one little lightning hits you for each hair. You feel next to nothing where there's no dark hair, but every hair that's actually hit does a distinct sound and feeling. If I had a super brain, I could, probably count every one of them. She did my neck first, and I was glad to have a cold, wet cloth to cool my burning skin afterwards, but once she put an appeasing balm, I didn't feel much pain at all anymore. Actually, I felt more like I was just out of a hot shower with my wet, hot face. What sucks is that I had to buy their special solar protection cream, since I can't let the treated see the smallest ray of sun light for the next 48 hours, and I don't own a special solar protection product that would work on post-laser skin. Fifty dollars. D:

About the hair-beard line, I mentioned (a bit too much; I think she thinks I'm paranoid) my worries to the technician, and she said she could see the difference, and traced her lines accordingly. I'm still worried that she would make a mistake, but even though she's not much older than I, she looks quite competent, so I should trust her.

What's annoying, though, is that I have burnt, pitch black, hair residue still attached to the follicles that I must absolutely not touch until it falls on itself (it could revive an otherwise dying follicle), and I had to go to school with it. No one really noticed, it seems, but I still don't like it. Those things look like dead, crushed fruit flies.

I hope I see improvement when I next shave, the day after tomorrow. Next appointment in 6 weeks.

Well it sounds like you did just peachy!

QuoteThe pain is quite something on the neck (I must have looked like a worm on the table, violently rubbing my feet together and grasping my hands with each zap), but somewhat manageable on the face,

I wonder what it is with feet? I do the same thing when doing laser or waxing...seems to help, though. LOL

Funny, my neck isn't that bad. The worst area is the edge of the chin, because that little zapper-thing goes right to the bone...[ Ace Ventura]IT'S IN THE BONE!! IT'S IN THE BOOOOOONNNNE!![ /Ace Ventura]

That, and the upper lip...fortunately that area isn't too big...4-5 zaps and it's done.

QuoteWhat sucks is that I had to buy their special solar protection cream, since I can't let the treated see the smallest ray of sun light for the next 48 hours, and I don't own a special solar protection product that would work on post-laser skin. Fifty dollars.

I think they sold you on the post-procedure "special solar protection cream", because I've never had to buy (or use) anything. They just advise me to "avoid any significant sunshine for the next day or two." Which means, given I live near Seattle WA, that I just continue living normally. We don't get all that much sunshine here, and what little there is is usually attenuated by rain clouds.

Still, if I were in a heavy sunshine area, I'd probably just use a 30 SPF sunblock.

QuoteWhat's annoying, though, is that I have burnt, pitch black, hair residue still attached to the follicles that I must absolutely not touch until it falls on itself

That's the price of beauty, babe. It's worth it imho.

:)