Quote from: Ruth Ruthless on May 03, 2014, 10:09:46 PM
Can't speak for others, just for myself.

It really helps to know how to get a close shave even while doing laser, since it takes a really long time and lots of treatments before one sees results. The place where I am doing laser doesn't let me treat my face more often than once a month, and at first they wanted it to be once every two months.

I've done 3 laser treatments and my shadow is still fierce. Especially above the lip area.

Ditto. I'm looking for tips on what to do in the meantime .

I always shave in the shower. When I still used to have a lot of facial hair I had a fog resistant mirror (and if that fogs up you can use saliva to keep the fog off for sure). I find that shaving in the shower generally yielded zero razor burn. Now with only a few hairs that need to be shaved I don't need the mirror, just a few quick swipes every week or so and it's done.

Try your best not to shave until it's been 3 or 4 days after a laser treatment and you will avoid many of those whitehead things that tend to pop up just after the "pizza face" stage.

When in doubt about laser treatment healing time, refer to this graph:

I saw some shedding after the first treatment. I haven't seen any noticeable shedding after the second treatment and I am now 5 days after my third treatment, which is only half a treatment because they pulled a stunt* on me. The hairs that do shed are definitely not all the hairs or even 80 percent of the hairs that were present during the treatment like they claim. Feels to me like a lot less.
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Shaving in the shower is not an option for me except on days when I remove my wig. I glue it on to get the most natural look I can get and confidence and it's very handy while making out or sleeping with my girlfriend since I have experience with wigs that are not glued moving around in these situations. I keep it on for about 5 days at a time. So on days when I take it off I shower including my face and on days when it is on I shower only my body, and my beard doesn't wait 5 days to grow.

I wish things were like in that graph. Seems to me more like I had a beard before, I still have a beard, only each time it is maybe 10 percent thinner.



* THE STUNT

The bastards forgot to tell me about a release form releasing them from any responsability if anything goes wrong and now remember to tell me to sign it, and now I suddenly see that the contract I have doesn't include the neck area... (obviously as a trans woman who is doing laser on her face I wouldn't think to ask about the neck as well, right?)

So after they gave me two treatments including neck they realized I didn't sign the release form and suddenly they don't give me treatments for the neck unless I sign the release form. You know what the release form says? In return for renouncing any possability to make any legal claims against them I get neck treatments as a "gift" for free! As if I didn't make an agreement and pay for them already in advance... and I have no documents proving that I signed up for the neck as well. And the staff there says they can't do anything, the manager needs to come to an agreement with me... and it was the manager who told me two weeks before my third treatment on the phone that I need to sign a release form... and I said what is the release form for? And he said you will see when you come to the treatment.

So he deliberately avoided letting me know, because he knew I would have a problem and he deliberately put me in the situation where I'd have to sign it to get my treatment.

And when he called me back then I thought he was calling back in response to my nags to speak to the manager about being treated with transphobia by one of the staff that literally laughed at me and ridiculed me, but no... he didn't know about that or claimed not to know... He was calling because he said there were problems with my records and I need to sign that release form... In other words, they probably give it to everyone and they made a mistake with me and now they are pulling a stunt over me to cover their ass.

And now he is not available for a week already since the treatment and I am nagging them each day to let me talk to him.

I told them if he doesn't come back to me in the next few days, I'm going to sign up somewhere else for the neck (and to myself - shove your release form up your ass).

Learn from my mistake - inform yourselves exactly what areas are covered by your contract and make sure it is all written down in a legally binding way before you give any money or leave the clinic!

Oh and I tried shaving my upper lip and chin today with razor blade and conditioner against the grain. I did get a much closer shave than I do with my shaving machine, but I also got some sores and since laser works on light it's probably not a good idea to come to a session with sores on my face. Hope I can somehow learn the right technique to avoid them eventually.

If you can't shave in the shower, take a warm wet washcloth with a dab of gentle cleanser on it and hold it gently on your face for 2 minutes. The longer the better. This will soften up the hairs and skin, reducing the trauma from shaving. Also you can kind of use your fingernails to gently exfoliate the lather into your facial hair once you are done soaking.

The washcloth will help greatly. On mornings when I need to shave and I don't shower, I use it without fail. Also don't forget to wash all of the soap/shavecream off of your face or it will dry things out and leave you with redness/flakes/sores.

Hope this helps!

I'm not sure what you mean by gentle cleanser, lather and what type of washcloth... Lather is the gentle cleanser in a soaped up state? What is the gentle cleanser made of and how do I find one for me? Do you mean a towel? A paper towel? A disposable wet napkin?

Like wet a washcloth with warm water, and add a few drops of a facial soap, kind of get it to suds a little bit on the washcloth.

Lather is when shaving cream foams up. This also softens the hair and minimizes impact on your skin

One little word of advice. When you really start trying to get a really close shave, be prepared for hellacious irritation for about two to three weeks. You can skip a day but be careful shaving when your face is already irritated and don't even try to get a close shave while you have irritation. Eventually the skin will get used to it and then the irritation will go away. Then make it an everyday ordeal.