Similar to my face, my chest has pretty thick and coarse hair and seems to grow just as face as my face. Even after shaving i have dark shadow on my chest, so wearing low cut shirts is tough.
Am I likely going to have to look into hair removal for my chest, or would HRT likely take care of this? I know everyone experiences different things on HRT, but has anyone been successful with removing coarse chest hair with HRT alone?
I also understand that I will probably experience a lot of breast/nipple pain while on HRT, so hair removal via laser probably wouldn't go over well while breasts are developing.
i guess my options are start laser hair now on my chest, and start HRT afterwards.
or start HRT first, and let enough time go by to determine if i need additional hair removal once breats tissue is developed and pain subsides.
Mine was substantial pre-HRT and got gradually finer. I waxed it a couple of times and it got finer yet. Now I do a seek and destroy bit in a well-lit bathroom and am finding fewer to tweeze every week. This week I've found only a half dozen or so popping up. I think I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now.
Pre-HRT I had a moderate amount on my chest, it was dark, but not very thick. At 6 months it reduced substantially and now at 10 months, I pluck a few every couple of days, but most of them are white and I have to feel around for them. Occasionally I'll get an ingrown one and those are a pain, especially when you can't see them.
It is a cruel joke that HRT makes the chest start growing before the hair starts thinning :-\
i think i may just keep my fingers crossed that HRT will take care of the issue. and then do cleanup afterwards. Financially it makes more logical sense. Even if the HRT does nothing to chest hair I will still be coughing up the $$$.
However if it does work, then I would be saving money by not spending it up front on Laser, etc. :D
the only downside is feeling silly wearing lowcut shirts until the hair is less noticable.
I resorted to electrolysis for chest hair. All gone! :) YMMV.
HRT took care of my chest hair. Now there seems to be some fine vellus hair that is nearly invisible, and that is it. It slowed growth on my legs, face and arms, but seemed to have a dramatic effect on my chesthair. FWIW my HRT includes Bicalutamide, Dutasteride, and micronized progesterone in addition to estrogen, and I couldn't accurately say which one did away with the hair.
Also I used to have these really dark hairs around my nipples and those got finer and finer until they were no longer seen. I would like to point out though, I have never had much hair on my chest or my tummy (which also went away), as always YMMV.
I kinda went to war with my body hair at the start of my transition and purchased six sessions for my face, chest stomach and back. After the third session there was no point in zapping any thing but the face, but they let me use sessions on legs arm and bikini area so not a complete lose I only really need to shave my legs like every other week for the most part now and my arm hairs are blonde, but I could have saved money. I'm pretty sure all the hairs that have become blonde would've regardless.
I had very little chest hair pre HRT. Now it is super fine very light very small hairs.
There has been some thinning but it is taking its time and I am sick of it. I had a lot. It is getting better. The back hair went first, and it is working inwards on my chest and belly. Does not reach out as far to the sides any more but the middle is still pretty thick.
Quote from: Tori on October 16, 2014, 05:07:38 AM
There has been some thinning but it is taking its time and I am sick of it. I had a lot. It is getting better. The back hair went first, and it is working inwards on my chest and belly. Does not reach out as far to the sides any more but the middle is still pretty thick.
was yours pretty coarse to begin with Tori?
I started with a forest.
That's good to hear, i'm like a chia-pet. Waxing hurt like hell on the first go.
just as sort of a followup to my original post here. I'm now about 3 months on HRT and Spiro. I still have coarse dark hairs on my chest and some on my abdomen, and i epilate now almost weekly.
Its hard to say for sure, but i think i'm starting to notice a slight reduction. But its sort of tricky to tell because of the epilator some hairs might not have grown back yet, etc.
it's still a constant battle, and makes it extremely difficult to wear any shirt or top, with a low cut neckline.
I'm hoping once i reach the 6 month mark on HRT, i will notice some improvement.
Hi Michelle,
I can report that for me my body hair has completely disappeared now, probably after year 4 or 5... back of upper legs and knees still a bit more than I would have liked, but an hour every 2 weeks with my trusty Epilator fixes it. Oh and back of hands still... don't think I noticed any increases in body hair.
It does vary from person to person.
I have had no Laser or Electro as yet... soon Electro on Face, neck, hands and laser on legs... (praying that will work)
L Katy :-*
I'm just shy of 5 months on estrogen and have seen substantial reduction of my arm/hand/leg/foot hair. It may be growing more slowly, but is definitely sparser. My chest and stomach are roughly the same as they started, though maybe more slowly. (It's hard to tell.)
I'm mostly waiting for HRT before sinking time, money, and pain tolerance on removal procedures. The one exception is that I did have one round (so far) of electrolysis on my upper chest. There's an area in the center that is a pain to shave for whatever reason, so while having facial electro done, I had them also wipe out the hair on the upper few inches of my chest. This is also nice because it corresponds to the area exposed by a mid-cut collar, so will perhaps make shaving less essential when I start wearing stuff like that.
I'm about two months on E and Spiro. Things are noticeably slower. I epilate my chest but the roots are so thick that the hair usually breaks and when the roots do come out they sometimes leave wounds... So much fun. Still working on it so we'll see. Theres always my Tria to fall back on but it's all I can do to get through using it on my face.
Quote from: emyrinth on June 22, 2015, 11:00:34 AM
I'm about two months on E and Spiro. Things are noticeably slower. I epilate my chest but the roots are so thick that the hair usually breaks and when the roots do come out they sometimes leave wounds... So much fun. Still working on it so we'll see. Theres always my Tria to fall back on but it's all I can do to get through using it on my face.
this is exactly my same problem with the epilating my chest!. its so frustrating. and then when the hair grows back you can see the dark spots before they are long enough so you are able to epilate again. its also incredible dysmophic to see dark chest hair and have growing breasts! :(
its like dealing with beard shadow on the chest! it makes me so mad. so I'm usually stuck wearing crew neck shirts while i wait until i can epilate again. i get the sense that things take years to clear up when you have thick androgen hair on the chest. i may just do electrolysis sooner than later. atleast enough so i can wear normal neckline type blouses and tops.
Quote from: michelle82 on June 22, 2015, 04:17:33 PM
this is exactly my same problem with the epilating my chest!. its so frustrating. and then when the hair grows back you can see the dark spots before they are long enough so you are able to epilate again. its also incredible dysmophic to see dark chest hair and have growing breasts! :(
its like dealing with beard shadow on the chest! it makes me so mad. so I'm usually stuck wearing crew neck shirts while i wait until i can epilate again. i get the sense that things take years to clear up when you have thick androgen hair on the chest. i may just do electrolysis sooner than later. atleast enough so i can wear normal neckline type blouses and tops.
/thumbs up sounds like a plan maam.
After about a year at "max" HRT, I only needed to shave my chest about once a month (very hairy prior)...now 3 1/2 years I just have a small touch up shave every three months or so, mainly around belly button, nips, and arm pits.
Only the pits can be seen beyond 5 feet, but the other two areas can be felt, so off they go.
I will say this, I can't remember what it was like to have the carpet of hair I used to have...there's one pic of me showing my chest at a pool, and I'm like "WTF?!" when looking at it.