Susan's Place Transgender Resources

So has anyone been full-time and still getting electrolysis on their face? How do you cover it up while growing it out? My foundation & concealer can mostly handle the first day of not shaving, but after that it's way too obvious. I think I need 3 days of growth for it to be long enough (though I suppose I don't know that for certain). I don't think I can wear a surgical mask all day at work....
I'm going to hope I can arrange my work days to have 2 days off together every week, but who knows.

Begin wearing a veil? Unless you are stealth at work you could try just being honest and tell then you are letting it grow for electrolysis. Otherwise it is going to be pretty hard to hide if makeup doesn't do it.

Hugs,
  Laurie

I used airbrush makeup. Primer acts as a glue. Matting down and mostly flattening the hair. Next a light layer of blush in problem areas- you can use the standard or airbrush variety to color correct. Lastly, the actual foundation, blush etc. allowed for a heavy-ish makeup look but not so bad as to look caked on.


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This is probably the thing I hate the most...it takes me a bit over a week to get the hair long enough for the tech to work on. As you move through the various clearances and the first hard "stumps" are removed you will get kind of very fine facial hair growing....whilst this is still obvious to some...some makeup will hide a lot of it for me. I also in the early days would shave everywhere apart from the area I was going to have worked on...this was good except it only left one largish area to work on which after about 10 minutes heats up the whole area and can cause further pain or worse...scarring.

In the end I would pick 3-4 area, prep them for treatment which means the longest she ever takes in one area is about 15 minutes....then she peels the dressing off a fresh Emla numbed area and does that....makes for a session where the discomfort is far more tolerable than it was. I a rapidly approaching the point where the hairs are so sparse I won't be able to cover them with Emla

Thanks for the tips everyone! I've been really looking at it as I'm growing it out for a 2 hour session tomorrow, and the only parts that really stand out is the upper lip (just about the only dark hair I have left) & my chin. The rest is light enough it might not be as noticeable.

Laurie - I like the veil idea!  :D  I definitely won't be stealth, but whatever job I get is likely to involve working with the public. Maybe 1 or 2 days a week they can have me work in the back or something.

I seriously should open an electrolysis shop open on Mondays.

That said, I just grow it out Wednesday through Friday and get assaulted on Saturday.  I just trowel on more dermablend on the last 2 days.

Well, my electrologist and I worked out some strategies. 

First, I make my appointments for Mondays, so for the three days of growth I initially needed, the 'last shave' was Friday morning, and the weekend was in hiding.

My electrologist concentrated on getting the 'muzzle' cleared first, the upper and lower lip and chin.  These are the most obvious areas for others to spot hair growth.  After a few months these tended to be free of thick and easily seen hairs, and the growth for electrolysis was mostly immature finer hairs, more easily hidden.

I used a hair style that largely covered the cheeks and jawline, hiding some gender cues and hair growth.  Rolling on that concealer helped as well.  The finer hairs are more easily hidden.

At over 180 hours in, I can finally get away without shaving for many weeks at a time.  In Monday's session I actually had some hairs that were 1/2" to 3/4" long, but they were fine, almost invisible, and mostly fairly far back on the cheeks and jawline so they were hidden by the hair.  My electrologist is on vacation now, so no chance of a sudden opening occurring for me to grab more hours, and I am keeping the remaining hairs shaved.

Quote from: Colleen_definitely on January 05, 2018, 09:32:20 AM
I seriously should open an electrolysis shop open on Mondays.

That said, I just grow it out Wednesday through Friday and get assaulted on Saturday.  I just trowel on more dermablend on the last 2 days.

I haven't tried dermablend yet. elf's concealers have worked great while shaved, but don't cut it unshaved. Since I'll be in KC tomorrow, I'll run by somewhere and see if I can find the right shade, then order online. Amazon's almost 1/2 the price of in-store for dermablend...

When I told my friend that's recently gotten her cosmetology license how much I pay for electrolysis, she's seriously considering changing her specialty from hair styling to it!

Michelle - That's what I'm hoping to do, if I manage to get 2 days off in a row. My hair currently does cover up the sides, so that helps. I'm still trying to figure out hairstyles. I'm in an in-between length right now where very few things work.

Yes, I started electrolysis only a few months before I went full-time.  I still have probably the better part of a year left to go.  Luckily, most of my facial hair is white.

I am not working, but I do have a lot of regular weekly activities.  I had to decide at which ones my presentation mattered the most, because there was no way I could fit three days of growing it out in between all of them.  Somebody had to lose. 

I decided that the volunteer fire department would be the losers.  When I came out to them, I warned them that I was going to appear, for the foreseeable future, with stubble at the Monday night practices, and why.  I make my electrolysis appointments for Tuesdays, which gives me Sunday and Monday to grow out my hair.  I am sufficiently dysphoric about it that I arrange ahead of time with my electrologist which area she wants to work on, and I shave everything else.

It means that, if I go out Sunday or Monday, I am not going to look my best.  But I figure that I have to make some sacrifices to get where I am going.  From a distance, I look fine.  Up close, there's no possibility of going stealth.  But I've no plans to be stealth anyway, so not a problem.

Ulta is a great showroom for amazon because they never have my shade of anything in stock.  They are good for having plenty of testers and mirrors though. 

I have had better luck with the dermablend cover creme than the other concealers I've tried.  When the stubble starts getting thick I still need a little pink color corrector over the top to make things more presentable but overall it's a better concealer.

At my current rate of beard growth it requires five to six days growth for my technicians to work with; which is very frustrating for me. This is one of the reasons that I travel down to Texas every six to eight weeks for a total face clearing. It does have me out and exposed with a furry face once every month and a half. TSA has been polite and not laughed their asses off when a polite older woman with a very furry face goes through screening. Doing it any other way would have me always with beard growth and my emotions wouldn't be able to handle that.

Tia Anne

I currently do blend (250 hours so far) and leave a 2 square inch patch grow for 4 days. Everyone at work knows I am trans so whatever. I did laser first so my black hair is gone and white is hard to see. I am starting thermolysis Tuesday and am leaving the about 8 inches square unshaved. Not fun, not fun at all. Money, facial hair, pain and it takes forever.

best time to do electrologist is in winter where you can cover in veils etc