Susan's Place Transgender Resources

I'll have my first appointment next week for laser beard removal. Is there a minimum and maximum length of the hair in order to allow the laser to burn it ?

When I had laser the hair was shaved to the skin. You need to grow for electrolysis but not for laser.

You have to be absolutely clean shaven.  Any hair poking above the skin will vaporise, potentially producing a minor burn.   I recommend not shaving the day before, and then doing a really good shave as close to your appointment as possible.

I was thinking that the hair had to be 1mm or so long. So I will shave the day of the appointment.
Thank you a lot Grace and mfox for your advice.
hugs

I second mfox.  Shave as close as possible, and as close as possible to the appointment time...  Like, I'd probably shave about an hour or two before if your appointment is first thing in the morning.  If you actually get a 5-o'clock shadow though and your appointment is after work or late afternoon, consider shaving later in the day (at work? ehhhh) or shaving again before your appointment.  My facial hair doesn't grow very fast.  Used to take about 2 days to get a 5-o'clock shadow, haha, so shaving the morning of an afternoon appointment wasn't an issue for me.

Thanks Kristina for your feedback. I too have facial hair which grows slowly. My appointment being at 5:30 pm, shaving in the morning or even the day before should do the trick.
BTW I love your avatar.  ;)
hugs

Quote from: KristinaM on September 25, 2015, 09:11:51 AM
My facial hair doesn't grow very fast.  Used to take about 2 days to get a 5-o'clock shadow, haha, so shaving the morning of an afternoon appointment wasn't an issue for me.

Mine takes about 2 hours. It's awful.

Quote from: KatelynBG on September 25, 2015, 11:05:58 AM
Mine takes about 2 hours. It's awful.

I'm so sorry!  Go go laser and HRT!  It has slowed my 5-o'clock down to about 3 days now, and it's all blonde hair...  I hope HRT causes this blonde hair to be less coarse and more vellus, otherwise I've got a lot of electrolysis ahead of me.

Quote from: lucie on September 25, 2015, 09:23:12 AM
Thanks Kristina for your feedback. I too have facial hair which grows slowly. My appointment being at 5:30 pm, shaving in the morning or even the day before should do the trick.
BTW I love your avatar.  ;)
hugs

Definitely shave the morning of though!  The shorter the hair, the better, seriously.  Even if you think the day before is good enough, the day of is even better.

Thank you!  It's the main character from the 80's movie, "Just One of the Guys."  It's a fair representation of my curly hair though, and what I would love to look like, hehe.

Quote from: KristinaM on September 25, 2015, 11:11:56 AM
Definitely shave the morning of though!  The shorter the hair, the better, seriously.  Even if you think the day before is good enough, the day of is even better.

Ok, I'll follow your recommendation.

QuoteThank you!  It's the main character from the 80's movie, "Just One of the Guys."  It's a fair representation of my curly hair though, and what I would love to look like, hehe.

I too would love to look like this girl ! I may dream...  :)

One small warning on shaving down to the skin.  If when you do that your hairs aren't very visible then leaving a touch of stubble will help for your first appointment so your tech knows where/what.
I didn't have that issue but did hear about it.  It's mostly an issue for women who have finer hair.
It can also be a problem for us as you get stuff zapped it gets finer and if you switched techs they might appreciate seeing a touch. 
Also, if getting electrolysis you need to leave a little so they can grab it with the tweezers.

Thank you Chrys for drawing my attention to that point. For the first appointment I will shave the day before. Then, for the next sessions I will ask the dermatologist.
As for electrolysis, it should take place after the laser sessions are over.
Hugs

Or u could say, "my hair grows here," and point at it with your fingers. The lasers cover such a big area now that it'll only take a few extra seconds to go "outside the lines" so to speak.

My hair is fine and scattered with holes here and there. So for the first session it's probably better that I am not clean shaven so that the dermato has a clear sight of the battleground.

my laser tech and I are still not sure after 4 sessions if its actually doing much of anything, her laser says its hitting hair but I don't really see any change and she cant really tell how dark my facial hair is because of some rather sever razor burn I always have from shaving twice a day super agressivly for most of my life. (stubble is like #1 on my list of disphoria induceing situations.

appointment #5 in a week or two

but to the issue at hand. YA shave just before hand and do it close but try and be genteel with your skin between the laser and the shaveing it can do a number on you.

Serena

Hello Serena,

As for me I can't shave more often than every 5 or 6 days, otherwise shaving is too much painful (burning and bleeding). Fortunately my hair grows slowly so it is not really perceptible for 2 days after each shaving. But then, during the 3 or 4 days after, seeing me in a mirror or just feeling the hair on my skin makes me hate myself.

The last time I shaved was on last wednesday morning. My first appointment is on next tuesday afternoon. I will shave on monday morning, in the hope that it will be ok for the laser session.

Happy to note it Lucie.  Hugs right back to ya  :-)
The laser and electro work but they take time.  I must have had 20 lasers to my face by now with who knows how much electro.  Portuguese hair is pretty tough stuff. 
Anyhow, stick with it and remember to take Advil like 20 minutes before you go in. 

Thanks Crys for your advice, but I try to avoid NSAID. For the first session I'll take homeopathic medecines. If this is still insufficient, then for subsequent sessions I'll take Ibuprofen. Also someone advised me to apply Biafine on the skin after the laser session.
I'll tell on tuesday evening or wednesday how it went.
Hugs

I had my first laser session yesterday afternoon. I had shaved 48h before and my hair was about 0.5mm long. The dermato said it was the perfect length.
The pain is briefly intense at each laser shot, but it subsides quickly after the shot.
Once the session was finished I had a slight sunburn feeling only, I did not have to take any pain-killing medecines. I just applied a soothing cream that the doctor gave me.
Next session in 4 weeks !

Gratz on the pew pew pew!  You'll love seeing your hair come in patchy in spots, hehe.

Sorry Kristina, I am french and my english language skills are limited. Especially I am not familiar with everyday english speaking. As regards your last post I do not understand at all the first part of it ("Gratz on the pew pew pew!"), and I am not sure I understand well the second part: Do you mean that my hair will get more and more scattered ?

Sorry!  Let me clarify.  It's mostly all "slang" that I was using I guess.

"Pew pew pew" = the estimated sound effect produced by lasers (laser beams, laser guns, etc...) in television and movies.  So I was saying congratulations on getting your laser done.  So, "Gratz on the pew pew pew" = "Congratulations on getting your laser!"

As for the second part, lasering doesn't kill the hair follicles in an area evenly.  It only kills the hair follicles that are in an active growth stage.  That's why you have to have so many sessions to effectively clear it all, because hair grows in cycles, and they're not all synced together.  So, after your first few sessions when your hair starts growing again, only the follicles that were dormant during your treatment will be the ones growing, so it'll come in "patchy" looking or, "scattered" looking as you put it.  You won't spontaneously grow hair in new places, don't take it that way.  It's just an interesting thing to observe, visually, about your hair growth patterns after a treatment.  You'll see if you let it grow out any at all and get some stubble.

Wow, that was a long-winded explanation of what I thought was such a simple post, haha.  I hope this one was more informative.

Thank you Kristina for these detailed and informative explanations.
I didn't know that some follicles are active while other are dormant and that the active ones only are killed by the laser. I understand now why I have to expect that my hair will get more and more scattered. I will be patient, I promise ! :)