My therapist thinks I should be on female hormones (well so do I actually), but as my body begins changing I'm going to have to start thinking about my facial hair. I can't afford electrolysis, so does anyone know how I can get rid of my facial hair via a more cheaper alternative?

joanne-f (imported) wrote: Sun Apr 06, 2008 7:15 am My therapist thinks I should be on female hormones (well so do I actually), but as my body begins changing I'm going to have to start thinking about my facial hair. I can't afford electrolysis, so does anyone know how I can get rid of my facial hair via a more cheaper alternative?

I saw a laser hair removal system on EBAY but I don't know it that works. Saw your message to Danya. Good luck I hope everything works out.

Hi Joanne,

I'll PM you a link to some info on home electrolysis. Some TS women have had success with this on facial hair but it's extremely time-consuming to do it yourself. Please note the warnings in the info, too.

There are a few links on the web site where I found this for commercial products, so I'm not posting it here.

Best of luck

-Danya

Hi Joanne,

Welcome to the Archive.

As far as facial hair removal goes, there are only two proven ways to do this that I'm aware of. Electrolysis and laser and take my word for it, electrolysis is just no darn fun...unless you're into pain.

Laser is so much less painful, but neither one is cheap. As far as a "do-it-yourself" thing, I have heard of some home electrolysis kits that you can purchase. I just don't think that I could inflict that kind of pain on myself.

Thanks for all your replies.

One other point is that if you are a natural light blonde or have a significant amount of white or grey in your facial hair, laser is unlikely to do a satisfactory job by itself. Laser works when the pigment in the hair root absorbs enough energy from the laser to to kill the roots. If the hair doesn't have enough pigment to absorb the energy, no hair removal. I know that laser hair removal centers are advertising new lasers that are purported to work on blonde hair, but in running trans support groups for years, I have yet to see a case of satisfactory facial hair removal of blonde hair just by laser.

Transward

I am one of the few successful cases of home electrolysis. Total investement was under $75. There were a lot of hours over several years. I could do around 50 hairs per hour. The gadget to use is an Inverness One Touch. On ebay they are around $20. Let me state right up front, home electrolysis sucks. It sucks a lot. I would estimate that 99% of the One Touch units sold are used on 3 hairs or less. You have to be motivated and desperate to work through the first couple of hours of the learning curve. There is a reason TS spend thousands of dollars having professional electrolysis when they could do it themselves for under $100. Home electrolysis sucks.

I got the unit on Ebay and tried it with the 9volt transister radio battery. It took about 2 minutes to loosen a hair. Took me several tries to discover that. It hurt. It hurt a lot. Did a little more research. There was no other permanent removal method available that I could afford. So I hooked up the unit to two 6volt latern batteries to give me 12volts. Time to loosen a hair was reduced to around 35 seconds. That was acceptable. I learned that the first hair or two always hurt the worst. After a few hairs in a small area I guess the endorphins kicked in and after that it was not nearly as bad. Only took a few hairs to learn about lining up the probe with the whisker and how it went into the folicle. Within an hour or two of practice I was pretty good at lining up the probe with the hair folicle.

I distracted myself by doing electrolysis while on the computer. I would insert the probe using a 5X mirror and good lighting. I would hit the start button on a countdown timer set for 35 seconds that I got from Radio Shack. I would read or look at pics on the internet till the beeper went off. Remove the probe, pick up tweezers, remove the whisker, set down the tweezers, pick up the probe, insert the probe, repeat for an hour or two several times a week.

The Inverness is designed to do a few hairs. I wore out 3 of them doing my entire face. The cord between the base and the probe holder breaks.

I had a gender therapists who deals with a lot of TS ask me who was doing my electrolysis. She said it was the best job she had ever seen. I haven't needed to do any more since about 5 years ago. I probably need to spend a couple hours eliminating the strays that have popped up over the years. As it is I can shave once every 3-6 months to get the few whiskers that remain. No beard shadow makes a big difference in passability. No whisker stubble is wonderful. The cheeks were fairly easy easy to do. The upper lip is the most sensitive area. The chin seems to have the most densly packed whiskers. I had trouble getting the probe to insert on the neck until I learned to use my free hand to pinch an inch and insert the probe where the skin was held firmly.

If you try it, remember it sucks. It sucks a lot. But if you are motivated, it works and does a fine job. Electrolysis means the current breaks down the water molecules in the folicle into hydrogen that escapes as a gas and the hydroxy ion that poisons the hair root. That reaction is self limiting by the amount of water available in the folicle. Professional electrolysis uses high energy to zap the hair root as quickly as possible to remove the maximum number of hairs per hour. The high energy has a much higher risk of skin damage. Galvanic electrolysis is low energy and slow but safer.

I hope the night finds you well

Bernadette

I have recently seen ads in catalogs for a home use laser. The price was around a hundred dollars. I have no idea if they are affective. You may get a better price if you do an internet search. Home electrolisis or laser I think your looking at a very long treatment period. Good luck.

Well it's probably worth a try as I don't think I've got any other option...

i got a home laser system for £95 its a slow process but my pubic hair will be gone in a few months its a rio its slow but it works ! keep a eye out i got mine in post xmas sales