Zap! Zap! Electro Laser.

[emeraldmountain]

Hi,

 

I recently had my first facial hair electrolysis session for the light/white hairs 🥳, while also getting facial laser hair removal at another location.

 

Does anyone know how long to expect the electrolysis irritation to last and how to bring the irritation down? It's like bumps that look like little bug bites.

 

Anyone ever have the electrolysis and laser not play nice with each other?

 

The electrologist told me spironolactone can cause worse irritation from laser. Is this true? Never heard that before.

 

Thanks!

 

[emeraldmountain]

Also, how did you deal with having to grow out facial hair for electrolysis for several days every week in prep for a session (for a year or more 🥲)? It's psychologically uncomfortable, makes strangers definitively see me as a man, and makeup doesn't help (unless I don't know any tips). Thanks.

[AllieJ]

I haven't heard of any interaction with Spiro and laser, but as Spiro is primarily a diuretic, it could be linked to hydration. Yes, growing hairs for a few days before electrolysis is horrible, and for this reason I welcomed wearing a mask during Covid years. I am at 225 hours electro (I was 90% grey) and coming up to 4 years into my journey (interrupted by Covid and health problems) and I can get away with not shaving between sessions every fortnight. I have 6 more hours of electro torture booked until the end of this year, and expect that by mid next year I will be back to maintenance only.

 

It hurts, it is expensive, and having to grow hairs is dysphoric, and nobody would choose to do it, but we do, and we must, and it underlines how severe dysphoria affects our lives to willingly endure this.

 

Hugs,

 

Allie

[emeraldmountain]

Thank you for this @AllieJ. That must be such a relief to know that you're 6 hours away from the finish line.

[AllieJ]

2 hours ago, emeraldmountain said:

Thank you for this @AllieJ. That must be such a relief to know that you're 6 hours away from the finish line.

No, 6 hours left this year! Then probably another 6 months next year until I am done! So another 15 or so 90 minute sessions before I can feel some relief! I will cry and celebrate after that last session! 

 

Hugs,

 

Allie

[MirandaB]

I feel like the longer it goes on the quicker it heals for me. 

 

The unshaved look does come up sometimes when I come out to people, I explain I need to grow it to harvest it.

[Betty K]

I have a two-hour session of electrolysis weekly and have been doing so, most weeks, for over a year now. At first I let my facial hair grow for two days before sessions, but fairly quickly I realised that I could get away with one day's growth. Having had 16 laser sessions on my face, I now have very few brown hairs, so all that grows on the morning of my electrolysis session are some sparse silvery-grey hairs, which are barely detectable except from up close. So I take some make-up and a shaver to my session and get made up immediately afterward. I don't think anyone notices that, for an hour or two before my session, I am out in public unshaven. In my case, I'm lucky that I started laser almost a year before socially transitioning.

 

As to bumps after electrolysis, I do get them, but they generally go away within a day or two. Aloe vera helps, but honestly these days I don't bother. I think the skill level of your electrolygist plays a major part in what reaction you will have. Sessions with my first electrolygist hurt more and took longer to recover from -- and no, it's not that I got used to it, since those sessions were on my chest.

 

Incidentally, my electrolygist insisted on waxing my face before starting electrolysis on it, so as to make sure that all hairs that appeared thereafter were in the anagen phase.

 

Oh, and can laser and electrolysis interact? I have been told yes. Leave two weeks between them, was the advice I received.

[KathyLauren]

I never had any interaction between laser and electrolysis.  The respective techs both told me that there was no problem combining them.  I stopped doing laser, though, because my skin reacted too strongly to it.

 

The grow-out was embarrassing, but it had to be done.  I mostly scheduled my electro sessions for days when I didn't have to be in public for the preceding two days.  Occasionally that didn't work out.  The only solution was to own it.  My attitude was that this was what I needed to do, and if you have a problem with that then you have a problem.  The issue never came up, and I was fortunate that my facial hair was mostly white or light gray at that point.

 

I stopped going for electrolysis sessions more than a year ago, after five years (interrupted by covid) of treatments.  I still have some hair left, but it is not visible.  I shave it (it doesn't take long) and it is not visible if I forget.  It annoys me a bit because I can feel it with my fingers, but my wallet and I are tired of the treatments.

[gemmalouise]

2 hours ago, KathyLauren said:

but my wallet and I are tired of the treatments.

I can fully agree with that.  I remember reaching the point at which I could pretty much stop shaving forever.  I still many years later have to tweeze the outliers, maybe I should consider electrolysis.  Reading these stories is so often inspiring.  Sure we often suffer but its all worth it.

[emeraldmountain]

Thank you all for your helpful input!

[emeraldmountain]

12 hours ago, AllieJ said:

No, 6 hours left this year! Then probably another 6 months next year until I am done! So another 15 or so 90 minute sessions before I can feel some relief! I will cry and celebrate after that last session! 

 

Hugs,

 

Allie

I wish you the best with this year and next!