I'm pretty sure that I already know the answer (don't wait) but I wanted to run it past a few people to get others opinions.

I'm still two and a half months away from being prescribed hrt and went to see a laser clinic today to be assessed for hair removal. The lovely young therapist sat me down and asked me what I wanted done to which I replied "I'd like my facial hair removed". She responded with a smile "Why do you want it removed. Tired of shaving" to which I replied somewhat nervously "I'm preparing to transition and for SRS". She didn't even bat an eyelid but rather asked "Have you started hormone treatment" I guess she's done a few girls 

The therapist advised me that I have two options. Start removal immediately or wait until I had commenced hrt.

If I started immediately I would still loose hair however, the rate/amount lost wouldn't be as significant as it would if I was on hormones. The therapist advised that my male hormones would continue to drive hair replacement/regrowth. Once on hormones the replacement/regrowth will not be an issue due to the impact of the anti testosterone hormones combined with the female ones.

So the question is. Should I start immediately or wait till I'm on hormones? I think the sooner the better. I really dont want to be shaving when I'm presenting full time as a female (about 12 months away I think).

Like you said, vou know the awnser. So go for it. Sooner the better

Starting IPL is a good way to get rid of that nuwonted hair I know a couple of people that started befor thay started HRT and it wos fine for them you could talk to your Dr first just to be sure and safe. I am looking at taking a course in IPL so I can hellp other TS out so thay wont have to put up with the tipe of questions you was arksed.

IPL is not as good as laser.  Sorry...just not there yet.


With that being said.  Start Hair Removal IMMEDIATELY.  HRT does not make a huge difference when you are talking about starting it in a few months.  If it was years, the answer would be different.  The faster you start it the better.  Laser takes about a year to clean everything up anyway.

In the last month I went to two medspas for advice, though hormones aren't a part of my life yet. You may want to shop around and see what's in your area - both of them were in the local mall for me.

One used IPL, wanted $100 signing fee, $100 a month / 12 month contract for one treatment each month, plus additional services for $35-45 each (this included additional laser hair removal locations.) I had 6-10 treatments (6-10 months) suggested.

The other used a much more advanced process and the appointments would be calculated based off hair growth to kill the maximum amount of hairs per session. The lady here stated it would probably be a year and a half, with an effective warranty of 3 years I think for 2 additional treatments if I continued having hair growth (past 2, 75% off.) It was $1500 up front for the 5 treatments. Full body hair removal below neck, $12000 O.o

I'm going to go with the latter spa for my face because they use a better laser and because my moustache is getting increasingly blonde. It's very tempting to go with a year of IPL services on the rest of my body to thin it out/remove it while I figure out what kind of transition I want to do, though. Parts of me are just too difficult to keep shaved by a razor and it's miserable.

Laser is going to take some time to be effective. It is up to you when to start it but I started mine before I went on HRT.

Get laser now -- besides, it will hurt less. 🙂 The hormones won't take affect that quickly with hair growth, so, you might as well start. I started laser as I started HRT. As time went, I got more and more sensitive to the laser and to everything else. Laser hurts. I got my upper lip done yesterday, I cried. I also use face freezing stuff, it still hurts like crazy for me despite that. Other people are lucky in that they aren't as sensitive to the laser. I was told my my laser person that HRT makes you more sensitive over time. I know people who did laser pre-hrt and while on hrt and have mentioned the sensitivity. I don't know of anyone having any issues or having to do more laser treatments pre-hrt. And besides, you'll be on hrt in a couple of months, so, no worries.

I got my first laser treatment 5 days ago. I'm still waiting for the stuff to fall out. How long do I have to wait after getting zapped? I'm starting to feel worried, what if it didn't work? That's an awful lot of money to go down the drain. I've been on HRT for over a year now, not that I expected it to make much difference in beard growth one way or the other.

About pain: As I lay down to begin the treatment, I said to the nurse, Back in third grade the nun told us something I've never forgotten. She said women are stronger than men, being able to withstand pain better. The nurse said that her professional experience confirmed the truth of that. She added: It's because God made women to give birth.

Then I withstood the pain without a whimper, as though I needed to prove my womanhood. Actually, it didn't hurt that bad.  🙂 No doubt it hurt less because the power was turned down to a lower setting, she said it will be increased in later sessions to get at the finer hairs which should be all that remain by that time. I can't wait until this is completed!

hey hypatia,
i posted something in my blog about my first laser hair removal on my beard. it hurt A LOT for me. it took about 20-30 minutes. just on my face. i too was worried when i didnt really see anything falling out after about 4-5 days. i let my beard hair grow out and then i sat in front of my makeup mirror (7 x magnification, $100 at sharper image with backlight, i highly recommend it) and picked out the dead hairs. they were long enough to see. they appeared very dark black from being burned. i didn that for about a week to 10 days. they should start coming out after 7-10 days, be patient   i would pluck the dead ones and then if i pulled and they didn't come out, i left them alone.

they recommend 7-10 weeks for followup but i'm going in 5. i need to get blasted again because they didn't get all the hairs the first time, then the third appt will be about 10 weeks to let the next phase of hair grow in. my beard is very patchy right now with big spots of new hair and some that have a lot. i just told people at work i was tired of shaving and they, to my knowledge, didn't think twice about it.