Hair Removal Advice Required

[Guest Amber90]

Hi everyone,

So I'm in a bit of a bad place at the moment. The one area where my gender dysphoria hits me the most is when it comes to facial and body hair growth. The presence of such hair is causing some serious discomfort to my day to day life at the moment. It's very difficult to talk to friends and family about this problem; because they really can't get their head around why I am so distressed by it all. It's distracting me in my job and even my free time is becoming an absolute nightmare. I actually try to spend as much time as possible sleeping or dunk, just to try and forget about it's presence.

Naturally, I'm not content with continuing with these "solutions" to the issue at hand, so I'm really trying to sort it out as soon as I can. Basically, my body hair grows at an incredible rate, is terribly thick and is also extremely dark. Shaving really does not do the trick for me. After shaving, black stubble is still completely visible all over my body. When I go out dressed, I have to cover up my entire body from head to toe and wear silly amounts of foundation to cover up my facial hair. But even that temporary solution doesn't work, as in several hours, the hair has grown enough to become visible through my makeup once again.

The other problem is, I can't keep up shaving at the rate my hair grows. Seeing as I'm unsure as to whether I want to go full time or not, I'm attempting to live as a girl for prolonged periods of time, just to see how comfortable the whole experience feels to me. However, if I continued to shave whilst giving the whole full time thing a trial, then I would have to do so around three times a day. It takes over an hour to shave my entire body, meaning I would have to find an hours spare time in the morning, mid afternoon and evening in order to try and at least keep it under some form of control.

Seeing as I'm in full time work and have many other responsibilities outside of my worklife, this sort of time is not available to me. So I decided to purchase a Braun Silk epilator several weeks back. I heard that such a device would slow down the regrowth process, and would not leave stubble visible after the procedure. Well that sounded like something which I could have benefited from.

Anyhow, after spending £100 on a device, I was a bit sad to discover that it will not work on my body. I moisturized, exfoliated and prepared myself in every way that I was informed, yet to my disappointment, it was a complete disaster. The epilator simply breaks my hairs, even on the lowest setting; the hairs it even does manage to pull out keep coming back ingrown, despite exfoliating multiple times a day; and I'm finding it next to impossible to get all of the hairs out with the damn device. For the past few weeks, I've epilated every single day, but the problems are just getting worse. I feel as though I've completely lost this battle with my body, and that is an absolutely traumatic feeling for me.

I currently have ingrown hairs everywhere. They are not infected, but seeing as they grow under the skin, the device simply cannot get to them. The exfoliating products will not get them out from under the surface and the attempt to tweeze them all free is monstrously time consuming (I spent eight hours the other weekend trying to pry them all out individually, but there were so many that I didn't even manage to get a quarter of the way in that extremely lengthy period of time).

It's now gotten to the point where I am epilating, exfoliating and plucking until one o'clock in the morning. I'm even doing these procedures when I wake up first thing, however this is constantly making me late for work. My gender dysphoria in regards to this hair is so intense that my attempts to try and slow it down is completely taking over my entire life, and it's really ruining everything.

These days, I seem to be spending my life either epilating, crying myself to sleep because of its failure to give me a smooth body and constantly thinking about it during my work hours. I can't even look at my own body anymore without feeling sick from the sight of its ghastly presence. It's just too intense and becomes even more unpleasant with every failed attempt.

I have managed to sort therapy out at a gender clinic, however that appointment is not until 2nd September (they are fully booked up until that period and I cannot seem to find any other clinics in my area). I plan on discussing this hair issue in detail at the appointment, however I don't feel as though I can wait that long to sort out the problem. I seriously want to be able to at least temporarily get rid of it as soon as possible, so I can start being Amber again.

I'm also saving up for laser removal treatment, but seeing as that is going to take me until at least mid 2014 to get the insane funds for this procedure, that is also a solution which is not just over the horizon.

So I was wondering if anyone could help to point me in the direction of another form of hair removal treatment which might help me out in the mean time. I mean I've looked into hair removal cream, however past consumers of this product have had very mixed reviews on this procedure, plus I don't know which products to purchase.

I also looked into electrolysis, however it seems a little too costly for something which is potentially temporary (plus that also requires some hefty saving which will take a considerable amount of time for me to obtain).

All the trans people I've asked in real life have simply shrugged their shoulders and declared that their body hair growth simply is not as intense as mine and that shaving once a week works just fine for them; so they can't really give me any advice on how to get a smooth body with such rapidly growing hair.

So if any of you lovely people could help to point me toward some solutions which may temporarily help remove thick, black and rapid growing body hair, then I would be forever grateful

Much love,

Amber

xxx

[Guest Xeriis]

I also really hate my body and facial hair. I've tried waxing, many different razors, a couple epilators, and a couple creams. In the end these were the two things I found that helped.

I know for me HRT has greatly reduced how fast my hair grows and made it much finer, although I'm not sure if HRT is something you even want to do.

I did recently start laser hair removal. I used to think it cost a ton and was slowly saving up for it, but decided to do a consult anyway. I found out for one session for all my facial hair it's only about $100 Canadian (very close to $100 American). Generally I'm told it takes several sessions to get rid of most hair (about 6-10), but you have to wait about a month between each session (at the place I go, it may be different there). So I thought to myself, yeah I can afford that much a month and so it's slow going.

The epilator I had would work okay, but often also just broke the hair off and to do my entire body it just took a lot of time. A few trans friends of mine have recommended doing a few sessions of laser to greatly thin out the hair then get electrolysis done to clean up the last little bit.

I hope this helps a little.

hugs,

~Scheris

[VickySGV]

Have you talked with your doctor about the heavier than normal hair growth? If not do so!! You could have a problem with your endocrine system that could lead to being prescribed less than HRT strength testosterone reduction medications. What is the condition of your father and your mother's side uncles and grandfathers?? In that case it could be heredity too which is another kettle of fish. The big deal is that it is causing pretty heavy stress on you. That stress alone needs attention which can be handled on its own, but if handled with someone also qualified for GT, so much the better.

If I understand you, your thoughts about electrolysis being temporary is related to your frame of mind, because electrolysis done by a skilled technician is permanent!! No going back on it. Laser is slightly less "permanent" hair removal, but is permanent hair reduction depending on how it is administered.

[Guest CassieX]

Hi Amber,

I've heard from my electrologist that some of her other clients have reported good results from using the Tria laser in conjunction with electrolysis on body hair.

http://www.triabeauty.com/home-laser-hair-removal

I'm hoping to get one to try out later in the month.

For body, I use a combination of shaving with Aveeno totally smooth shave gel and an IPL laser treatment from my dermatologist I get every couple of months on my arms and chest. I noticed that the IPL pretty much eliminated my underarm hair after a couple of sessions and HRT really helps thinning out the hair too in conjunction with the other treatments.

I've never been a big fan of epilators as it felt akin to using a weed whacker on my face and body. It might be alright for people with very little or fine hair but it is just torture for those of us with thick or wiry hair.

One product I can really recommend for preventing ingrown hairs and bumps is PFB Vanish.

http://www.pfbvanish.com/

I use it after my electrology sessions and shaving. It has cut down my ingrowns to almost zero and from reading the bottle can be used in conjunction with waxing, tweezing and laser too.

Hope this info helps!

Hugs,

Cassie

[Guest ~Brenda~]

Ummm, Please be careful with such products. I have seen so many come and go.

[Guest DianeATL]

I too hate body hair and was hairy all over. Mine may not be as dark or as coarse as yours but it was abundant. For me, waxing is a good solution for now until HRT for non facial hair.

I started years ago with back and shoulders. At first you could have braided my hair there (ewww gross). I started with once a month waxing. Some debate whether that kills the hair, I can confirm for me it did. Now my back and shoulders are smooth, I get a few random fine hairs waxed off 2-3 times a year now.

So earlier this year I started having the rest of my body waxed. Since I just started, I have to go every month and the down side is that you have to let it grow out to a quarter inch or so before the waxing works well. But my hair is light enough in color now (gray) that I don't look too bad when I am at my hairiest.

I went to several women's salons for waxing at first and had OK to bad results. I finally found a gay man who does waxing for men and he really knows what he is doing. He prepares the skin by cleaning with a witch hazel or something, then powdering it all over, after waxing he rubs in a wax clean up/ skin care product to help it.

It takes a couple of 3 hour sessions to get everything but my back.

Hope this helps.

Diane

[Guest CassieX]

Waxing didn't work for me at all. My skin is too sensitive and last time I tried it at a popular highly rated salon, I ended up with red and blotchy instead of clean smooth skin.

I was talking to my dermatologist friend after a laser session yesterday evening and she told me to beware of waxing on the face, particularly around the eyebrows as it can cause hyper-pigmentation from the process or burns if the person doing it is inexperienced.

That being said, I'm not poo-pooing waxing on the body, it works on millions of women, just not me due to my sensitive nature.

Cassie

[Guest DianeATL]

_Cassie,

_{No doubt everyone is different; My wax guy says I have a lot of hair but it is very fine in nature so maybe that is why I have had such a good reaction to it. But anyone should start small with something like this and see how it works for them.}