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| Last year I
endured quite a few session s of laser treatment in a bid to finally destroy
the facial hair. I was told that laser can be ineffective after some time so I have put off writing this article until I had time to fully evaluate the benefits. I hope other girls may find this of use in deciding whether laser is the right way forward for them. |
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| I was starting to get depressed
about the daily ritual of shaving. Living full time as a woman is no fun when
you get a 5-o-clock shadow all the time and the only solution is very heavy
makeup. As a TS I take hormones of course but most studies agree that hormones and anti-testosterone drugs will have little if any effect on facial hair. Last year I decided to try laser hair removal as a solution to the fuzzy face look. I did a little reserach and opted to go to a laser clinic near me run by Lasercare UK. They were efficient at booking me in for a consultation to see if laser would work for me. On the appointed day I showed up at the clinic which is part of a local NHS hospital. The clinic was quiet with few people around for which I was grateful as you cant wear makeup at all prior to being lasered. After a short wait the consulting nurse came to see me. We went through a few medical questions and some general questions for their medical records and then i was given a view of the laser system and told about the possible pros and cons. The upside in a nutshell is no more facial hair, the possible downsides are that not all people can take the treatment, some will have very sensitive skin and the laser can burn them badly. Not all hairs can be destroyed, the laser system wont work againts white hairs as a general rule. I was cautioned that if I took treatment although its generally effective hair can come back later and also I would have to stay out of the sun while treatment is in progress. Staying out of the sun is advised as the laser will be damaging the skin pigmentation - if the skin is exposed to strong sunlight between teratments the skin can change color in the treated area permanantly so its to be avoided. I found the staff and the nurse very friendly and felt that they were honest about the up sides and downsides to the treatment. Dont let anything I have said put you off. Laser like any medical treatment is a gamble about whether it will fix the problems, offer a partial fix or just plain not work. These are all good reasons for using a serious clinic for this type of work. I have seen girls ripped off using beauty salons with light weight equipment that works ok for a bio-femme but just isnt geared up to handle the type of facial hair a TV/TS will have.
I was a litte disappointed I couldn't start treatment there and then but glad that I had finally got going on getting the face sorted out. Lasercare had a deal on at the time that if you pre-booked 6 sessions then the price was more favourable. I took a 6 session booking which I was told would most likley be enough to get rid of the hair. The sessions have to be 1 month apart so I was in for a 6 month treatment program. HOW IT WORKS..... The way lasers work in the facial hair is essentially the dark hairs are caught in a stream of intense laser light ( sometimes laser is referred to as IPL - Intense Pulse Light ). The dark hairs are in effect heated up enough to conduct the heat down to the follicle and destroy it. Thats why it works well on darker hair types and less well on paler hair. Dark hairs absorb more of the light/heat energy. To be effective the laser has to catch the hair at just the right time before the hair detaches from the follicle later in its growth stage. Because the hairs are growing out of phase you need space between each treatment to give the laser the best chance of catching each hair at its optimum cycle for destruction.
OW ! IT HURTS..... A month after the test shots I went back for my 1st session. I had been told by a friend who had had laser that it really hurt. The test shots they gave me wehere totally painless which I assumed was down to the burst of cold gas that gets fired with each pulse of the laser. So there I was laying on the couch - some opaque glasses on to protect my eyes and feeling the laser being put against my skin - ZAP ! Ow it REALLY hurt. It feels like someone pinging a huge elastic band against your face and when it moved to the top lip it really was painful enough to make my eyes water. The nurse told me afterwards the test shots dont hurt because they done on areas with little hair - what makes it hurt when they start for real is each pulse is heating up an area of hairs and burning them out. It feels like someone is ripping out a bunch of hair with each pulse. Of course the denser the hair the more it hurts. I was a bit surpised at how painful it actually was. After the first treatment my face looked a bit red and swollen and I was advised not to put makeup on for a day or so to give the skin a chance to settle down. The clinic also gave me some skin cream to use after each treatment. After the first treatment there was little to show for the session and I carried on shaving as usual and just hoped it would be ok. GETTING THERE....... To tell the truth I never noticed if the laser was being effective until after my third session. I picked up a slight skin rash and couldnt shave for a few days. I noticed on about the third day that there was far less hair - just a few patches and that vast areas of my cheeks now had no hair growth at all. Realising the treatment was REALLY doing what they said was big lift. Its hard to go through a treatment which is painful when you cant see any results. I would say to girls who are considering treatment give it a bit of time.
FINAL TREATMENT....THE VERDICT After 6 sessions the nurse was finding it hard to find anything to zap so I decided to stop treatment at that point. I was told if after time some areas grew back to come back for an odd session here and there on an ad hoc basis So how well did it work ? Well I was happy - its not cheap at about £500 for 6 sessions but its gotten rid of almost all of the hair. I have some pale hairs which the laser wasnt able to get rid of but compared to before its a huge leap forward. I still have to shave every day or so to eliminate the white hairs but now I can use just a light foundation each day instead of thick TV style makeup with loose powder so all things considered I have been more than happy. Its now quite some time since treatment finished and it seems to have been completely effective. I have one small dark path of hairs left - its about the size of a 10p piece and they will be dealt with by laser as soon as I find time. In the meantime they are just shaved off - its only maybe 12 or so hairs so not exactly a major disaster. So there you go - the treatment is painful though not unreasonably so and there are very tangible benefits if your skin can take the laser. Would I recommend it ? I think if you can afford it and your skin can take it yes - its far faster than electolysis and probably on balance less painful and the results were, for me anyway, very worthwhile. Lasercare were nice people to deal with, professional and certainly knew what they were doing, the staff were totally open as far as I saw and were totally trans friendly.
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