The (Not Really) Joys Of Facial/Body Hair....

As I've mentioned before, in what has turned out as a cruel bit of irony I was blessed with my father's (and the rest of his families) penchant of losing my hair.  I always kept mine very short so it wasn't a huge deal, but by the time I was in my mid to late twenties it was obvious and at M's (my wife at the time) urging I gave in and started keeping it shaved.  However, in an even crueler bit of irony, I have enough hair everywhere else, including my face, to make a Wookie blush.

In the earlier years when I thought of transitioning and instead tried to make myself happy with cross dressing it was an issue for me.  I could cover up the majority of the body hair with the right clothing, but the lack of my own head of hair and the fact that I had 5 o'clock shadow by say 9am, well it was just never a pretty picture.

Well, then along comes the middle of 2012 and my decision, with J's support, to transition.  I knew it would be a lot of work:

• I'd need to lose weight - which I needed to do anyway, but now I had an "incentive" so to speak.
• I'd have to work on my voice - still a work in progress and currently my biggest hurdle.
• I'd have to pursue therapy, HRT, and eventually SRS/GRS.
• I'd need a new wardrobe.  I had plenty of "cross-dressing" clothes, but the majority of those were ill fitting, not appropriate for my age, and so on.
• I'd have to get a decent wig and learn how to take care of it.
• I'd have to learn how to do my own makeup, I had played with the basics such as lipstick and eye shadow, but I would need to learn the subtleties of those and things like foundation and concealer - well I wasn't even sure where to begin.

All of those things seemed doable, some harder than others, but doable.  The one thing I wasn't sure about was my body hair, especially my face.  It is so thick and heavy, I just wasn't sure how much success I could have with it.  I spent countless hours during countless nights researching laser hair removal including the various types of lasers, success (and in some cases failure) stories, and so on.  I looked into electrolysis as well, but as thick as my facial hair was I didn't see that as a viable option, short of perhaps diving into something like E3000 and the cost of that seemed prohibitive - at least early on since while I was certain I wanted to transition, I also didn't want to suddenly bury us with a lot of expenses in case it didn't work out - and in this case there would've been a plane ticket, car rental, and hotel room to consider; and there would be therapy to pay for, new clothes, and so on.

As such as I focused on the laser hair removal.  I focused on places where I could pay by the treatment versus a package (such as Ideal Image) for the same reasons I had ruled out E3K, although in this case travel was not an expense I had to concern myself with.  It was either late July or early August of 2012, and I settled on the St. Louis Laser Liposuction Center, which is about 10 minutes from home, close enough that I could run over on my lunch, then grab some fast food, and be back home (ie at work) in a timely manner.  I can't remember if it was J or M (I think the latter) that went with me for that first session, but regardless I think they would agree that it was a joke.  The laser technician was very nice, but I don't know if it was lack of experience on her part or simply trying to cover her backside, but basically among the forms to fill out was one for me to assess my skin type for treatment.  For what I was paying ($229 for my face, NO neck) I expected her to be able to make that determination.  The admin people out front basically had no idea what was going on, it reminded me of some of those hair salons where each stylist is basically a contractor renting space - that was the feeling I got and I wasn't overly comfortable but I went ahead with the session anyway.  

It hurt, a lot, but I made it through.  The technician advised me to come back in six weeks and when I tried to make a follow-up appointment, the admin people couldn't take care of that and advised me that they would call me when it was time for another appointment.  Paying for the session was another joke, that took a good 15 minutes for them to get straight, Now I'm not trying to slam that particular business, I just didn't have what I felt was a good experience there, perhaps I was the exception and perhaps they'd be great for you, I'm simply relating *MY* experience such as it was.  I was not amused when I left and I decided I'd give up on laser for the time being and revisit it later on.  In hindsight this was a major mistake on my part.  Not the fact that I wouldn't go back there, but rather the fact to put it off and not immediately look into somewhere else.  

I struggled with shaving, which was fine, but it meant I was limited in how often I could go out as my face simply couldn't handle the abuse it got for me to shave it like it needed to be.  Additionally it took a LOT of time which meant I couldn't "just go", so I didn't get out as Madison as much as I wanted to  Finally in early 2013, D mentioned a place where she had started going - Infinity Laser.  She was paying $149 for her face (and I thought her neck too, but in hindsight I think I may be wrong about that) and spoke highly of her technician - Susanne.  I thought about it for a day or two and decided to schedule an appointment and it was a great choice and I probably owe D a lunch or something for it.  I've talked about Susanne and Infinity in other posts so I won't dwell on them, but I would give them the highest possible recommendation I could as she's been wonderful.  I was disappointed that I was paying more than D, I was at $249 but that was for my face AND neck so I wasn't too overly upset and the price would drop to $149 on the sixth session.  I've been happy enough that I just finished my 8th session and the bulk of my facial hair is gone; although some has turned white which I knew was a possibility.  However, those white hairs aren't nearly as big a deal and enough hair has been cleared that even if I choose to have some electrolysis done to clean things up, it will be so much less now that I'll be very happy.

All of that being said, the impetus to write today's entry is my last session on Monday night.  I think I may have mentioned before but I had never inquired as to how high the laser was set, I just knew it hurt.  Well I was talking with D and she mentioned hers was at 43 I think, so I asked and I was at 23 which made me feel like a baby as it did hurt and I was using the numbing cream and D does not.  Now I know she had far less hair to start with than I did, and as I said I don't think she's doing her neck which is where a lot of pain is, but still I felt like a huge baby.  So this last time Susanne turned it up to 27 and I managed to make it through pretty good, I was all but juggling the stress balls instead of trying to pop them.  Maybe having J in the room was part of it, I don't know, but it went really well.

That is until I left and the cream wore off.  I felt like the area around my lips had been stung by dozens of bees.  Now I've hurt before post-laser session, but never quite like this.  My face is still bad enough three days later that I haven't even considered leaving the house.  I won't say for certain it's the lasers fault or even all it's fault as I'm also sick ("Flu"-ish symptoms) so perhaps that's affected things, but it's frustrating to not be able to wear makeup and go here or there.  Hopefully it'll subside by this weekend since J is off both days; but if not then I guess it is what it is and I'll move on and be happy.  Regardless I couldn't be happier with Infinity Laser in general and Susanne specifically.  Happy enough I'm contemplating having them start on my shoulders and/or my back when I go back next since those are hard for me to reach on my own...

- M