Susan's Place Transgender Resources

I'm curious how far everyone has gotten with clearing their face. In your comments, please tell us how many hours of electrolysis or how many sessions of laser you've completed. If you did a combination, like me, tell us that too.

Also, please let us know if you are living f/t, p/t or are still not yet getting out as yourself.

For me, it took about 6-8 sessions of laser, and about 80-100 hours of electrolysis. I still have some hairs under my jawline that occasionally appear, but since I'm fulltime now for a year or so, I haven't wanted to finish that last 10% or so.

I am full time for a year now.

I still have dark hair on the upper lip and chin area.  But maybe I will be able to get things done, after I get a new job.  ???

But I will need electro on the grey hairs.


Janet

I'm not full time (yet, although I might as well be since my "boymode" is close to a complete failure now, lol) but i voted 90-100% by laser (9 sessions so far). i'm closer to 90% than 100% though and have one really annoying cluster of hairs on my upper lip and then just a hair here and there. I will get a few hours of electro next year when my laser plan expires.

I'm full time.

I did 7 hours of IPL.

About 100 hours of electro.  Dark hairs still occasioinally show up which depresses me.  I go for about an hour and a half every other week.  I usually only need to shave about every second day.

My face has been cleared a couple of times but grey/light non-vellus hairs keep showing up.  It takes a certain dogged determination to keep going and having a hot needle stuck in your face 700 times an hour.

This is not counting the other electro I needed for my surgery.  That was about 7 fun filled hours.

-Sandy(I feel like a pin cushion)

I'm defacto full time, with most of it done by laser. There's some grey left, and a tiny bit of black regrowth, but it's slow. I haven't decided yet if I'll go for more laser to get it or just have the electrolycist get it while she's getting the grey. After a recent binge I'm out of pain meds (it was worth it, nothing beats a short narcotics binge) and the laser place gives abundant refills so I'm tempted to go there  8)

I clear my face every time I go out in public!

I've never had much facial or body hair to begin with. I pluck and wax

I've had something like 12 full facial treatments with laser over the last year, and 3 more touchups on my upper lip. One electrolysis treatment for about half an hour.

I have a LOT of little blond soft hairs on my cheeks, it almost looks like sand (I can't remember how long ago I shaved, though.) I definitely need a couple more treatments on the major rough hairs, but I have to decide where to draw the line because i could conceivably be done in the next few months, barring unforseen growth cycles.

I'm part time, I suppose.

I had three laser sessions and didn't like it, I got burned severely on the second one. I have like 215 hours of electrolysis in the last two years, it's pretty much gone at this point. I go about an hour or two each month just to get rogue hairs done, it's kind of relaxing at this point, it doesn't hurt too bad. I just started electro down there and it doesn't hurt anywhere as bad as the first sessions on the face. Facial hair removal was something I planned on having done in a year and a half to two years. It's expensive and painful but kinda necessary to transition I think.

For anyone starting their transition (MTF), I would strongly recommend starting stubble removal. Especially if you do electro, it takes a couple of years if you go every week or two.

Trying to manage hair removal once you've gone fulltime is for the birds. If you're not willing to grow out your face for 3-4 days while going to work, along with another 3-4 days for the swelling to disappear, don't do electro while you are f/t.

Laser, for those who can afford it, and whose beard color will respond, is a good option if you are on the cusp of needing to go f/t. I personally just never found laser real effective for me.

Even though I don't have much facial hair, it is still a pain in the something, something. I feel for the girls that have to deal with allot of it

I'm kind of "pre-transitioning" (i.e. doing all the surface things but not yet able to go "full time" only because I can't afford any actual physical alterations).

Laser for the face is probably #1 on my things to do when the income is right...i try not to think about electrolysis right now - one step at a time.

From my tiny myopic view of life I'd say get the hair issues resolved first if you're MtF.  You will fly under the radar a lot easier.

Julie

hmmmmm......*sleepy yawn*......
It's too late for me to worry about it anymore.  I'm beyond full time.  I'm just another woman.  But no, I didn't have my face cleared.  I didn't have the money, or the time, or the same need that others do.  Sure.....I would RATHER not have to shave, but, OH WELL.  Life goes on.  Like Heather, I have light, fine hair.  I have about 30 or so dark upper lip hairs that require tweezing about every 2 or 3 weeks.  I takes that long for their sleepy little shafts to peek through.  Otherwise, I shave every day.  I could do it every 3 or 4 days without raising an eyebrow, but.......I like SmOOOOOOOthe.....ness!
Want to hear something really vain?  If I could choose between having my face magically cleared, but not buy new clothes, which I really like........well, I'd have new dresses skirts and tops, and......
shave.
Go figure.


Bev

I have a way to go, I started back in late 2004 with someone who turned out to be an incompetent rip-off, and by the time I realized it, I didn't have the capital to keep it up and had to stop for several months. Fortunately, I have very light facial hair, but that means laser won't work on me, it has to be electrolysis.

I have an excellent practitioner now, but have been full time for 2 years and nine months. I just can't wait for electro to be over to live my life. Fortunately, friends tell me they can't even see it when I grow it out for a session.

I hardly consider 90% to be "complete." That's still as many as sevaral thousand hairs remaining. Considering the tenacity of some of those hairs and the asymptotic behavior of the process, this seems like one of those situations where the first 90% of the process takes 90% of the time, and the last 10% takes the other 90%. So I'd feel premature in saying I'm even half-way done, with most of my face cleared and much sparser hair on my upper lip and chin.

for me, the urgency is in the mustache/gotee area. that's the place where I have the hardest time getting smooth and the quickest regrowth.

If that were clear I'd consider myself 90% done even if I wasn't REALLY.

Oops ! I should not have voted. I'm so USA'd that I forget I'm Asian, ie I have few facial/body hairs.
So sorry.

BTW www.Target (http://www.target) has Braun epilators that claims head to toe hair removal. Non-TG st8 man says it's permanent removal, he owns a Y'group called "Guys with Large, Sensitive Breasts"

I should start a Epilators that work thread

- gg

Yes ! and i voted in the minority in this poll.

90-100% done by electrolysis - over 300 hours in the chair over 6 + years to be free

C -

100+ hours of electro so far,  (including the lips cleared a half dozen times),
Interrupted by 10 laser sessions on the face, which took almost a year. 
Back to electro since fall, but on an irregular basis.

Here comes the beard- need to pick the pace back up!

It is pretty good level.  I have to wait a couple of weeks before the hair growth starts coming back.  I know I make it hard of the lady doing my electrolysis session since the hair is getting less and less. The mustache area and chin are still the problem.

Julie 

All cleared.  I have not shaved in over a year.  I get about 45 minutes of electrolysis every 6-8 weeks to remove any remaining terminal hair follicles as they awaken.  I generally have less visible hair than post-menopause ciswomen my age at this point.

I am at 90% gone, but I mixed laser and electro. I would say that 90% is gone from the laser and the other will be electrolysis.

There was no option for this and from what I understand I will do doing electrolysis for the rest of my life.

My facial  hair is at 80% gone with 230 hours under the electrolysis needle. Several others have commented that when the hair is gone and never returns, it happens rather suddenly. I am at that any day now point. 

Of course, I expect to do touch ups for many years. I am just looking to not have to shave daily anymore.

I've had around 30 appointments (all laser) and still have hairs on my chin and occasionally other places.

I am full time and consider myself to be at the 80% to 90% cleared level. I started with six laser sessions that did not do much at all and about 120 hrs of electrolysis through E3000 in Texas over a two year period. That ~120 hours covers both top and bottom. I can hardly wait to get to the maintenance stage

I have a salt and pepper beard but most of it is gray. I did a few sessions of laser and then switched to electrolysis three months ago. Making progress but still a long way to go - at least 9-12 months of 2 hr/week sessions to get to mostly clear.

I have done about 25 laser sessions and about 60 hrs of Electrolysis. I could probably do another 20-30 of electrolysis however I am able to manage with epilation about once a month. I have run out of money for any more hair removal but I am satisfied that I have no shadow and  require minimal maintenance. If I win the lottery then I may spend some more money on hair removal but I am really quite happy where I am.

Ever since the beginning of my detransition I've been very on and off about what to do with my face hairs. On one hand I hate them and want them gone cause they ruin my ability to pass as female again... but on the other hand they're my comfort blanket and I love them for just being a part of me now, and I feel like I can't part with them. If it's nostalgia, or that I genuinely like having facial hair, but just feel uncomfortable with it in public, I haven't figured out yet.

So I haven't done anything to remove them and I don't think I will, but also it's possible I'll decide that's what I want further down the road. I do live... kinda full-time as a woman again now, since July last year. And I say "kinda" cause I know I don't pass, sometimes I even go outside unshaven (intentionally) and I don't try all that hard to pass in general. I'm just feminine and wear my boobs, and that's about it. So it's not so strange I come across as a feminine man.

Most people think I'm amab, as far as I can tell, and very few even believe me when I've told them I'm afab. I don't argue with people about that anymore, just let them believe and gender me however they want. So I'm full-time in the sense I present myself as Laura and a woman, and kindly ask people to use she/her pronouns for me, but I'm consistently non-passing, partially by choice.

But regardless, I'm heavily leaning towards keeping my facial hair as it is. So it stays for now. Even though it's really a lot of it and it's a science to shave without skin-flaying myself in the process. Cause it brings me so much comfort in my privacy when I don't take other people's opinions into count, and cause I think I'd regret it if I'd get it removed.

More important than clearing my face, I gained a friend that will be my friend for the rest of my life. We are about 75% clear mostly the lips and a few stray hairs that grow because of the hair growth cycle. Anyone in the Tacoma WA area I recommend Nanci Vargas. Such an amazing ally. Such a beautiful person.