2025: The Year of the Laser: Treatment 2 of 9

[kevin_standlee]

Today was the second of nine laser facial hair removal sessions. My skin healed faster after the first session than expected, so we're going to shorten the time between treatments from four weeks to three.



I'm looking more stubbly here than I did after treatment 1 four weeks ago, but that's because I did not shave this morning in the hope that it might help the treatment today.

The nurse-technician who does this work is excellent, and great to work with. Apparently she thinks I'm very funny when I tell stories like how I met Lisa. She asked to see a picture of her, and it took me a while to bring one up on Flickr, because usually she's the one taking the pictures, not being in them.

The real challenge now is that much of my remaining hair is coming in as gray, and gray hairs are much harder to kill with the laser. If I'd done this thirty years ago, it would have been easier. But thirty years ago the laser treatment they have now didn't exist, and I certainly didn't have the money to buy it even if it did exist.

Comments

[cmcmck]

Don't know if anyone has said, but you have nice cheekbones.

You may need to do some electrolysis on the grey ones.

Because back then there were no blockers and no hormone therapy until 18 meaning I was put through puberty the wrong way, I had to do some electro as that was all there was at that time and it still has its uses.

[kevin_standlee]

I knew that electrolysis was going to be a possibility going into this treatment. However, while the laser isn't pleasant, it's fairly quick, and anything it can knock down will help. Even after just one treatment last month, I noticed a marked reduction in facial hair.

Thank you for the kind words about my cheekbones. I expect that's a little bit of my native American genetic heritage. (Mom said that I was around 3/8 Cherokee-Chippewa as a consequence of my ancestors living in northern Arkansas when the Trail of Tears relocated those tribes to Oklahoma. Some of the people, particularly those who could "pass" as white, dropped out, married into my family, and traded abandoning their cultural heritage for avoiding being marched off to Fort Stinkindesert.)

[cmcmck]

I'm a quarter Romani so I know how it feels to be treated badly.

[megtreb]

As a cisgender female with a terrible facial hair problem, I feel your pain. I have been through electrolysis and it did not help at all. I now spend at least half an hour every day plucking hairs with tweezers. Honest to God, if I wanted to be a trans man, there would be a few problems to deal with, but growing a beard and mustache sure wouldn’t be one of them. It’s time to start doing serious research into epilators.