Hi girls, I was hoping you could share some of your experiences with hair removal methods, as reading up on it is mostly making me very confused.

So I have fairly pale skin, with mostly black facial hair, though there is a small concentration of pale (blonde?) hairs, especially around the mouth/chin area (though I am a bit sun burned at the moment.. I suppose I should wait until winter for best results).

From what I have read, the best way to go about it would be to get some sort of laser treatment until the majority of the (black) hairs are gone, then have electrolysis for the rest? Is that a correct interpretation?

Lastly, I have found that clinics near me mainly offer IPL, which I am told is not too effective. A clinic a couple of blocks away also offers something called ' SHR / Soprano XLi (Super Hair Removal) ', anyone have any experiences with that? If not, what have you tried that worked? What type should I look for?

I am a student, so if I have to pay $200-500 per session I want to do thorough research first and make sure it actually works.

Thanks!

Most like i did use laser to get a fast clearing. Then finish up with electrolysis for the lighter hairs and then with regrowth. Electrolysis is the only permanent removal system. Laser will keep things quiet for a few years but will slowly come back.

Izzy

I just went through my 7th laser sessions and 95% of my hair is gone now (:

I have 'type 3' skin type which is darker than what you have.  The darker the hair, and lighter the skin the more effective.  I would highly recommend either a diode or alexandrite laser for you, but definitely not IPL. 

I also have a Tria home laser machine (~$450) which actually works for me too (I've tried it on other areas, and it's FDA cleared for use on the face too, although I haven't used it on the face yet because I had already started professional laser sessions). 

It was only $100 a session for me for a full face clear (sideburns, chin, upper lip), and you can also get package deals too. 

Quote from: mind is quiet now on September 05, 2013, 09:25:30 PM
Most like i did use laser to get a fast clearing.
Izzy

How fast is fast?? I can pluck my entire face in about 30 minutes to an hour and eliminate shadow. But my skin still looks rough there. I'm hoping the laser will make the whole area where the hair was smooth like a woman's should be. Will it? How many seesions? I'm hoping two. I know I'lll need more, but I'm thinking one or two will kill shadow. I do not have a lot of hair and it is not coarse. My ex used to say my hair was downy soft unlike a man's facial hair. But in two weeks Ill have the money so I'm ecstatic.

BTW OP do not do IPL. it is just light. Not really a laser. I don't know much about it though. But it should be like $300 for three sessions. Maybe even six.

Nah, so few sessions will only reduce your hair. You see, hair, however dark, is immune to being permanently killed by laser for much of its life cycle, and that's a pretty long cycle. Outside the short vulnerability window, the hair might burn and fall off, but it'll come back. I'm not sure it's completely impossible or just highly unlikely that hair outside the right phase will die, but either way, to even have a chance to attack every dark hair when it's vulnerable, you probably need at least 5 sessions. 2 will only leave your face patchy; something like that.

At 7 sessions, I still had enough hair everywhere to have a noticeable shadow, and it's only recently, at my 11th(?) session that my upper lip is clear enough for a little bit of plucking at the darker survivors to keep my upper lip okay-looking. Now I don't really have an ideal profile for laser, for sure, but since the upper lip and chin are the most stubborn areas, I think it's simply wishful thinking to believe those places to be even kind of clear before you reach 5 sessions at least. Not to mention that normally the technician will start you off with a lower, probably insufficient, power level, out of fear of complications. Heck, both clinics I've gone to have chickened off on my skin despite it being almost without any signs of anything having happened to it within an hour or two after the treatment each time.

And yeah, once hair stops growing through a pore, the pore will eventually shrink. Should at least.

I did my research and waited and finally brought an electrolysis machine and began doing it myself. Its been a long process but wow does it work. The trick is to do your homework and buy a decent machine. Anything with the name Apilus on it is a professional machine. They are not cheap but you can always re sell them because as I said they are good stuff.

Quote from: Katie on September 06, 2013, 10:42:13 AM
I did my research and waited and finally brought an electrolysis machine and began doing it myself. Its been a long process but wow does it work. The trick is to do your homework and buy a decent machine. Anything with the name Apilus on it is a professional machine. They are not cheap but you can always re sell them because as I said they are good stuff.

I am sorry but I cant imagin that being easy as you need to target individual hairs grats on doing it though I could never. I am curious how much 2000$ or more? 

Also seeming Ana E your a student budget laswer is cheaper and findint the right place you can save. Dark hair light skin is also the key to a good laser treatment. This will however cost a lot of money.

When I see plucking and lasers and such I just cringe. I did my hair removal the old fashioned way with an electrologist. She saw me through most of my transition as well as hair removal. I started off with what I would consider light facial hair. I was never very hairy to begin with. But boy oh boy it did take a long time. There are hairs that will be dormant for a long period of time and follicles can only be destroyed when they are in a certain active state. An electrologist is trained to know the difference.

I also remember hairs under my chin that were growing just under the skin and the skin had to be gently picked until the hair was available for treatment. I could never in million years picture myself trying to treat a hair like that with my own hands, I remember my electrologist told me the dangers of people plucking hairs which may cause the follicles to distort in ways that make electrolysis impossible,

People gender another person mostly from the neck up. You only get one face and one chance. I would have been disappointed in my own transition if I had pock marks or subsurface hairs afterwards. Even when I had electrolysis about 99% complete I was already making arrangements to have dermabrasion done to my face to smooth it out. In fact I was on a beauty regimen that bordered on rocket science. I wanted my skin to come out nice and smooth and it took a lot of effort and still does to have the soft glowing feminine facial skin.

Quote from: Joanna Dark on September 05, 2013, 09:36:23 PM
How fast is fast?? I can pluck my entire face in about 30 minutes to an hour and eliminate shadow. But my skin still looks rough there. I'm hoping the laser will make the whole area where the hair was smooth like a woman's should be. Will it? How many seesions? I'm hoping two. I know I'lll need more, but I'm thinking one or two will kill shadow. I do not have a lot of hair and it is not coarse. My ex used to say my hair was downy soft unlike a man's facial hair. But in two weeks Ill have the money so I'm ecstatic.

BTW OP do not do IPL. it is just light. Not really a laser. I don't know much about it though. But it should be like $300 for three sessions. Maybe even six.

I had mine done by the cool glide system, I paid for a block of 6. Had 2 a month for 3 months, then she gave me one extra for free. And it keeped the major parts gone for almost 4 years but after that they started to come back in force. As i said i had them zapped as needed with electrolysis. I think the money was well worth the benifit. But if you have the time and not caring to go full time in a hurry i would spend the money on electrolysis.

Izzy

Is the "nono" worth investing into for the rest of body hair? Like body, arms, legs? Every time I shave I break out and Nair so far is the only thing my skin tolerates but it's so messy and only lasts a couple days.

Quote from: Jasriella on September 06, 2013, 01:48:15 PM
Is the "nono" worth investing into for the rest of body hair? Like body, arms, legs? Every time I shave I break out and Nair so far is the only thing my skin tolerates but it's so messy and only lasts a couple days.

Check out reviews for the nono online, there are mostly negative ones.  Does seem to work for some people I guess.  If you feel you can trust their return policy (many complaints about not being able to get money back) you could try it.

Quote from: Alice Danielle on September 06, 2013, 03:02:15 PM
Check out reviews for the nono online, there are mostly negative ones.  Does seem to work for some people I guess.  If you feel you can trust their return policy (many complaints about not being able to get money back) you could try it.

3,269 of 3,348 people were dissatisfied with the product and their customer service about their refund and return policies according to Amazon......

Thanks for the heads up.

I'm probably going to be trying out the Clean & Easy Deluxe Home Electrolysis Kit sometime in the next few months.  It's cheap enough that I won't feel bad throwing it out if it doesn't work, and most of those who reviewed it poorly sounded like they were incapable of reading instructions.  I'll let you know if it works, since the price alone makes it worth considering.

I just looked back at the kit before posting this, and the front page has much, much more favorable reviews than I remembered.  Maybe I'll have to order one even sooner.

I did a pretty big review research for a friend, recently. Apparently the two big sellers are the Tria home laser machine and the Remington home IPL machine. Zap per zap, it appears the Tria is moderately more effective.

However, it's said that its horrible design makes it a big pain. People are complaining about the weight of the hand unit (FYI a man complained about this and how it made it hard to reach farther with it), the very short battery life, impossibility to use it while it's plugged in and long charging times and the very small treatment window hidden by a very large frame, all making the experience a huge pain in the butt. Many have said that the Tria may be quite fine for small areas like the face, but that it's definitely inadequate for the rest of the body. Reviews overall gave a very controversed image of it.

In contrast, reviews about the Remington were in average much more positive. Of course, it's IPL, so you need to change the lamp every 7500 zaps (if it's before they give you one for free) and it takes more treatments to reach the wanted results. However overall people seem to like it better for body hair removal.

Despite the fact that she wants it for her body and the reviews seemed to indicate the Tria isn't for large areas at all, my friend ended up going for the Tria. I hope for her sake that the reviews were wrong.

And do not do at-home electrolysis. I've seen one member here who described how she used it, and she obviously did it all very wrong, and didn't seem to realize burns aren't supposed to happen, ever. If she's happy with things that way, good, but I can't recommend it. No, actually, I must recommend against it. Electrolysis takes superior dexterity and specific training to be performed properly and with minimal risks. People don't go to esthetician schools for two years for nothing, you know. Actually many people aren't even accepted because of their lack of dexterity.

Even professionals don't do it on themselves, due to the danger of possibly twitching from pain and the uncomfort and additional difficulty from being on themselves and even maybe using a mirror which makes them struggle with left and right. The issue isn't the machine working, it's that you probably cannot use it properly, especially not on yourself.

Quote from: Katie on September 06, 2013, 10:42:13 AM
I did my research and waited and finally brought an electrolysis machine and began doing it myself. Its been a long process but wow does it work. The trick is to do your homework and buy a decent machine. Anything with the name Apilus on it is a professional machine. They are not cheap but you can always re sell them because as I said they are good stuff.

I have to assume you're doing your body hair and not your face.  I can't immagine taking the chance of damaging my facial skin by using any electrolysis equipment at home.  But maybe legs, chest, and dark arm hair might be more safe.      And I didn't think anyone could see the all the individual hairs in order to do self electrolysis. 

I did the same research when looking for an electrologist.  The Apilus Platinum and Apilus Platinum Pure are about $3500, but I think they're also the best professional machines.  They make my electrolysis fast and fairly comfortable since it operates in very short bursts of energy at 27htz, which also makes them super fast.  I have two hour sessions and actually fall asleep while the facial work is done.

Based on my research when you have dark skin and light color hair the electrolysis is better but if you have light skin and dark hair laser is a better choice..

Quote from: Horizon on September 06, 2013, 07:18:12 PM
I'm probably going to be trying out the Clean & Easy Deluxe Home Electrolysis Kit sometime in the next few months.  It's cheap enough that I won't feel bad throwing it out if it doesn't work, and most of those who reviewed it poorly sounded like they were incapable of reading instructions.  I'll let you know if it works, since the price alone makes it worth considering.

I just looked back at the kit before posting this, and the front page has much, much more favorable reviews than I remembered.  Maybe I'll have to order one even sooner.

You better stock up with replacement stylets too, because those things bend way too easily. I have this one, but because I was a bit too clumsy both stylets "died" before I managed to get some visible results. Though, those hairs which I zapped on my leg have not grown back yet - and a month afterwards the scars from my attempts went away too . Be careful with that - it works, it is strong, slow and can scar easily. Practice on less visible areas, use low settings and get replacement stylets

To answer your questions I got lucky with my machine I got it for just over 500 dollars. On the other hand the current gen model is over 3000. The platnum model is over 7000 dollars.

I have been doing my legs yes. There are going to be places that I cannot get at but hey I will just have to shave or trade chair time in the future with someone. Oh I brough a pair of loupes for doing legs.

As far as my face yes I do do that. Laser got rid of most of my hair years ago but not all. Did I make mistakes you bet ya. I got some burns but you know what they heal life goes on. My mistakes were basically having the power turned up to high because all I carred about was getting rid of the hairs. As time went by I learned to turn down the power so I didnt get burns. Theres an old statment if you do something 10,000 times you become damm good at it. Well I have done that much and if I was not lazy I would go read the counter on the machine.

I enjoying doing it so much I am thinking of getting the license.

Am I a pro? Nope I dont have the license. Did I want to pay thousands of dollars for a pro to do it? Nope. Contrary to what some might say this is not rocket science. It involves trial and error just as one would experience going through a training program.

Would I say that you should heed the advice of someone here saying only a pro can do it? Well let me tell you I have met countless trans people and I found that there are those that do and those that dont. Most dont and the strange thing is the ones that dont are often the ones you find at support groups professing all the dangers of hormones, surgery, ect. ect. What was even more interesting an observation is these are the people that have not lived through the process they are claiming is so dangerous. Well girls I lived through it I had all the surgeries. I survived. Hell I never even went to a therapist. Go figure.

Katie

Quote from: Katie on September 07, 2013, 12:16:37 PM
Well let me tell you I have met countless trans people and I found that there are those that do and those that dont. Most dont and the strange thing is the ones that dont are often the ones you find at support groups professing all the dangers of hormones, surgery, ect. ect. What was even more interesting an observation is these are the people that have not lived through the process they are claiming is so dangerous.

This is so true! I have got a lot of reviews of why home laser is not good for me and I can only do it on Friday evenings so my face would recover during the weekend and why IPL is so much better (it turned out those persons never had either...).

Ya found that out too. I used to work for the state doing HIV prevention targeting trans people. That meant I was constantly at support groups and all that. I would sit there with this smile on my face as I listened to a constant stream of misinformation or BS.

My favorite was the recurring theme about how dangerous hormones are. Strange thing is I met countless trans people taking hormones and not one person I met ever experienced problems. Note they were taking the standard dosage ranges. Or another was the danger of going to Thailand. Just try to overlook the countless trans people that have already gone there and survived. Also overlook the fact that their medical skills and facilities appeared to be the same as what they have in the USA.

Is it dangerous to zap the hairs on your face? Well you know you could burn. Yes that's true but it heals. Every cut or burn I ever got growing up healed. Surprising isn't it? I submit to you that driving a car, riding a bike, going out into the real world the first few months of transition, and taking a shower are all probably far more dangerous that anything you could do to yourself zapping the hairs on your face. Hell just plucking the hairs can cause infections.

So it all boils down to making a decision. That I will leave up to you the person considering this or that.

Katie