Hey everyone

So I started Androcur about 1.5 months ago. I wanna have everything done, GRS, boob job, ffs etc.... But that all has to wait as I'm still quiet young ( i realize that im extremlly blessed to be to start my transition so young). I live in South Africa so i'm half afrikaans (Dutch and french) and i'm half Arab. And due to that lovely arab blood I have been cursed with a large amount of dark body hair on my chest, stomach, ass, thighs and legs, and a very light splattering on my back. I also suffered from acne until a month ago, Thank you androcur But my biggest concern is the hair. How long will it take before the body hair just falls out or thins out?? I'm also obese so is this maybe a factor? Im just so confused about the hair situation as laser hair removal at the moment is out of reach due to financial reasons... And my doctors want me to lose atleast another 60 kgs before i can start estrogen.....

Any advice or info will be greatly appreciated!!!

Regards
Rae

Mod edit: no dosages.

It can be really unpredictable. My body hair could be worse, but it's still fairly bad. I don't have that much hair on my torso, but I have very noticeable amounts of hair on my arms, legs, and lower back if I don't keep it managed. I also have really deep follicles, which means that even if I wax or epilate, there will be lots of new hairs breaking through the surface in only a day or two. Also, I get a ton of ingrown hairs. HRT thinned my body hair somewhat, but that's pretty much it. I still have hairs in all the areas I had before, and this is after being on Androcur for about 3 years. I think that in general, the only way your body hair would go away completely is if you never had very much to begin with. You may get better results than I did, but chances are you will still need laser/electrolysis to get rid of your hair completely. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Well, if you'd like some weight loss advice, I can help with that at least. I am currently 175 pounds, down from my peak weight of 300 pounds, and I did it without even exercising that much.

Androcur will lessen the thickness and coarseness with time, but it will not make it fall out. Once you've started growing it it will keep on growing. You will need to resort to laser or electrolysis for permanent removal. Waxing will thin it out a bit but is still not permanent, at least not without many, many treatments.

Hi
I'm from SA too. Androcur will not let the hair fall out. Possibly only thinner hairs possibly less as one goes along Laser will give you much better results so I suggest you save whilst   continue your treatment If hair is your focus this is the way to see results. Focussing on your weight should eventually enable you to be on the full HRT treatment. You're correct its a  blessing being young and starting now. Make sure you understand everything first then choose what to focus on. First and move along ticking off the boxes.Research is your   friend and  Knowledge your strength.  Starting your journey with these will make it a steady informed one with fewer disappointments.
If been down this road and I have had many "what if I knew this back then "moments.
I wish you strength and clarity.
Mash

Hey Rae

I'm an ex-SAfrican - good to know there are a few of us here who might know or remember die ou Transvaal 

Androcur and HRT will probably both help, together with laser treatment.  I think that for most of us there's no magic bullet - things happen gradually using a combination of approaches, and one day you'll notice things like fine colourless hairs on your arms and legs in place of dark stuff.  And you'll be over the moon when that happens! 

Oh, I do miss a good koeksister....

I was on Androcur for the first few years, I'm now post-op. Where I really saw a significant improvement was my legs, lower legs especially and buttocks. It seems back hair responds quite well too and sometimes torso, usually in older people though, I've noticed. Arm hair hasn't changed a bit, neither has lower back hair which is light anyways. Recently, I've noticed much thinning and slowing in my thigh area....yay! After switching to shots.

I had electrolysis done on my face, torso and abdomen to remove the hair there. Years later, no sign of any hair regrowth.

You should notice that your hairs will grow slower though. Good luck!

@Miyuki Any weightloss tips will be amazing thank you <3

@Ms Grace Do you find that constant Epilation weakens the hair overtime?

@Mash Thank you so much <3

@JuliaMadrid Yeah I'm from the east rand in Johannesburg, South African born and bred hahaha, Yes koeksisters are amazing but unfortunately a big no no for me  I can't wait for that day to come!!!!

@KayXo Was Electrolysis painful??

Thanks everyone <3

Quote from: RavenAzrael on July 19, 2014, 10:31:28 AM
@Miyuki Any weightloss tips

Try cutting carbs and eating more fats, including animal (saturated) fats. Unconventional, opposite of what we've been told for decades but more and more doctors are realizing saturated, animal fats are not unhealthy, do not lead to increased cardiovascular disease and are actually essential for good health and optimal weight. The tide is changing...finally! Do your own research, ask around.

Quote@KayXo Was Electrolysis painful??

By the time I started electrolysis, I had already done laser, 6 sessions and that was a little painful but with Emla, a cream that numbs the skin, it helped a lot! So, electrolysis was a breeze, except for those few times just under the nose. Freakin ouch!

Hey, as an East Rand Girl you should be able to get the best koeksisters south of Pretoria 

Yup, KayXo is right... top lip electrolysis is really nasty... I get tears in my eyes when they catch a particularly sensitive follicle.

But laser is the first step for at least 3-9 months to zap a lot of your pigmented hair.  With luck, being so young, you will have very little light-coloured facial hair, so electrolysis should be necessary only for a few stragglers.

Quote from: RavenAzrael on July 19, 2014, 10:31:28 AM
@Miyuki Any weightloss tips will be amazing thank you <3

Okay, so what KayXo said is basically correct. Carbs, are your enemy, much more so than fats. My strategy for weight loss was to completely cut sugar out of my diet (or at least anything that tasted noticeably sweet, since sugar is in almost everything these days), and to eat only two strictly regimented meals a day (once in the morning, and once in the late afternoon/early evening) with no snacking in-between. Beyond avoiding sugar I ate pretty much whatever I wanted, including foods normally considered too high in fat for a proper diet, and I tried to eat an average of 1,000 calories per meal.

It was very difficult at first because I was constantly fighting against my old habits, but once my blood sugar levels started to stabilize (unstable blood sugar levels make you feel hungry whenever they start to drop, which contributes to overeating) things started to get much easier. After a few months of religiously sticking to my program, it was no longer a struggle, but rather just a matter of exercising a little self control. I lost the first 80 pounds or so over the course of the first six months, and it was around another year before I reached my current weight.

I did exercise at first, and I think when I stopped it did contribute to a slowdown in my weight loss, but I still lost the weight regardless. For exercise, I bought a metal dance pad and played Stepmania (open source Dance Dance Revolution) on my computer. If you do want to exercise to speed up your results, I think DDR is a really great way to do it. Not only is it fun, but it's also the most intense cardio exercise your body is even capable of doing at the higher difficulty levels. Do make sure to use restraint though, because it's very easy to push yourself too hard when your cardiovascular system is still out of shape. Stick to the easy level until you're very comfortable doing it.

Another tool for helping weight loss that I didn't find out about until recently, is chromium picolinate. While the scientific research on it has so far produced mixed results, I personally found it did a lot to improve blood sugar stability and reduce cravings for food between meals. It would probably be even more helpful when you are starting out, since that is when the cravings are going to be the hardest to deal with.

I used to ask my wife to wax my back! Neither of us enjoyed that much.  Before HRT, I was epilating everywhere except my face and neck (and waxing back).  I was HAIRY but not black.  More brown or lighter.  Since HRT, my leg hair has thinned and my chest and tummy grow very little.  I was on Spiro until about a week ago and am now on Androcur - blood pressure just too low.  So after 9 months on E + AA, yes, body hair has changed a lot but it is difficult to say what has caused it.  Probably a combination of all the abuse I threw at it.  If Laser works for you, go for it.  After that, if it is still too much of an issue, electro.  I epilate everywhere I can reach every week or 2 (less often in Winter) and it takes about 30 - 40 minutes.  Funny thing though, my back and shoulders are clear and haven't been touched since starting HRT so the stars can align.

My recipe for weight loss?  Eat whatever (you can over-complicate the food thing) but get bloody moving.  All I really need to do these days is get off my lazy fat arse and move.  Often.  For a decent amount of time.  If you have any obvious food vices (booze, sugars, juices), drop them.  Water is very good on its own!  Juices?  Eat the fruit rather than drinking the juice of 5 without the fibre and other goodies.  What I am paying for now is the excess skin in my face and neck following weight loss.  If you can avoid that, do.  At 52, my skin isn't as elastic as say someone 20 years younger ad I lost most of the weight in my mid 40s.  Adding it to the FFS bill!

Quote from: RavenAzrael on July 19, 2014, 10:31:28 AM
@Ms Grace Do you find that constant Epilation weakens the hair overtime?

Yes, but that is also being on HRT and having low T in my system. But by over time I'm thinking 12 months with initial sessions only a month or so apart. Now I'm down to every three months (although I'm probably not much hairier than many women now).

Huh, something to be thankful for as i used to be as hairty as a monkey but now dont have any on my chest back or butt and just thin on my legs and easily shaved just from hrt I guess. For everything you can hit it with laser then get after electro as often and as much as you can stand.  I just used numbing cream on my lip and can do it.  I take a tylenol and some allergy over the counter meds and sleep the whole appointment which can be five hours long.