I never understood why even we take hormones + anti-androgen/testosterone + DHT blockers, the beard STILL grows. The growth rate is slower and it becomes finer BUT it STILL grows, why is this so?
Quote from: Shelina on October 15, 2009, 06:19:41 AM
I never understood why even we take hormones + anti-androgen/testosterone + DHT blockers, the beard STILL grows. The growth rate is slower and it becomes finer BUT it STILL grows, why is this so?
For the same reason your fingernails do, my dear! :) (Both of which are keratin based appendages of your skin).
The hormones affect the coarseness - less testosterone, less coarseness - but natal women have facial hair too...it's just imperceptibly fine (except for some unlucky girls).
The effect of hormones on fingernails is less obvious - well, until a menopause when brittle fingernails can become a common problem.
Because it's still hair.
If anti androgens would stop facial-hair-growth then it should stop other hair-growth too, and we all know that women aren't all completely hairless.
Quote from: Miniar on October 15, 2009, 08:15:11 AM
We all know that women aren't all completely hairless.
I read somewhere that women are mammals. >:-)
Quote from: Renate on October 15, 2009, 08:18:16 AM
I read somewhere that women are mammals. >:-)
I've met one or two repltiles in my time. :D
and at least one amphibian
Hormonal changes have caused body hair to almost completely vanish in certain areas. I can go a month without shaving my legs where before I was shaving them every day. But those damn facial hairs are totally resistant. And even after they are zapped away I swear some come back just to annoy me!
It's one of the major reasons why we need to promote early transition because once a girl is cursed with the dreaded whisker disease :icon_headache:, it can take years to eradicate it.
Julie
With HRT my hair decreased in like strength of growing if that makes sense.
I don't shave anymore, but that's because I need to make sure hair grows inbetween my electro session, but also my hair is might lighter now and it grows very slowly.
I wish it would just go away though haha. Stupid puberty!
Why do you try that electro-hair or laser hair removal? Some of my friends are doing that with great success.
Quote from: Shelina on October 15, 2009, 06:19:41 AM
I never understood why even we take hormones + anti-androgen/testosterone + DHT blockers, the beard STILL grows. The growth rate is slower and it becomes finer BUT it STILL grows, why is this so?
Yes it does despite taking HRT and Anti Androgens....and even after having extensive laser. It will decline and slow down but it is still a problem and there isn't really a permanent solution.
I've had some electro... Its just that it now, even if less or thinner, grows back at a weird angle thats impossible to shave for even a day without it being noticable...
So I always have this constant five o clock shadow... And the stares kinda get to me sometimes when I'm more tired...
Once the follicles are active...they are always going to be active just perhaps less so...that's why they need to DIE suckers DIE! at the hand of a skilled cosmetic therapist!
I hope they find like a *beard reverse* type of drug that targets whatever substance makes our face the exception. If you pluck your eyebrows too much they stop growing...why not the face darnit?
Beard reverse.
Because, as my therapist (Dr. Sandra Sammons) put it, "testosterone is a one-way street without a cul-de-sac at the end".
As has been pointed out, even natal women have hair there, it's just usually too fine and soft to detect.
Testosterone affects the coarseness of the hair, and once it's taken effect, there's almost nothing one can do to turn back that effect. That's why TS women have to train their spoken voices for higher registries but TS men typically don't.
There is one woman at my TS/TG group who says she's had some luck with that Nad's gair removal gel -- supposedly prolonged use will thin out and then kill the hair root faster than prolonged waxing (and it's all-natural and non-toxic). She said it took a while to figure out for her face, though, because facial hair tends to grow in varying directions. It's just an option with a cheaper up-front cost than laser.
I've been on HRT and anti androgens for many years and had quite a few laser sessions but I still get some fine facial hair under my chin. It's almost impossible to erradicate it completely. :(
Quote from: Naturally Blonde on November 03, 2009, 07:58:24 AM
I've been on HRT and anti androgens for many years and had quite a few laser sessions but I still get some fine facial hair under my chin. It's almost impossible to erradicate it completely. :(
Depending on your age, it's really not that uncommon for even natal women in their 20s-through-50s to get a few little whiskers on their chins. Most just pluck the few hairs when they get long enough, and some say that after a decade of plucking, it'll either "kill off" the root or "fine out" the hair just enough to be barely noticeable. Yeah, it's impossible to eradicate completely for most people, but as long as most of it's gone and you're otherwise fairly "passable" in the face, a few stray chin hairs won't look that unusual.
Oh, believe me, I understand why you'd still want to get rid of them, I'm just being a voice of assurance that even non-TS women get them sometimes.
Yes, it's a bitch after a decade of HRT and loads of laser..