My point is only that the text books we studied in school said “an average male has 100 hairs per square inch.” I don’t know where the text book got that statistic. Although I have rarely seen a person born male who had 100 hairs per square inch come to me for hair removal, the straight males who have come to me for beard work just to free themselves from the shaving ritual have averaged about 200 to 250 hairs per square inch. Those people born male who were cross dressers and transgendered seem to have ranged from 250 to 500 and more hairs per square inch during my years of working on them. I was not saying this in a derogatory fashion, just pointing out an irony that I have noticed in my practice. When the UPS driver comes to safegard his living (they get sent home and lose a day’s pay if their supervisor doesn’t like the sound he hears when dragging a credit card across their faces) that guy often has 150 to 200 hairs per square inch.
Now, this is not a scientific study, but I have done work for 20 years on people across the United States, and some of my clients are from outside of the US, and what I have found is a strange, unexplainable proclivity for excess beard hairs in the trans community. Since being TG is genetic, could it be that some part of that also leads to excessive hair growth as well? It appears to me to be so.
Any one who wants to donate to a study to be done with scientific double blind protocols can send their money to me, James Walker.
I will not agree with James’ observation on this subject. I’ve had women with as dense facial hair as my trans clients. The use of medications like avodart and spironolactone have made a significant difference in how quickly their hair goes away with electrolysis treatments.
All that read, humans are born with about 1250 to 2200 hair follicles per square inch. (I’ve read an estimate of 5 million on the body.) How many of those will grow a hair? THAT is one of the great mysteries of the world and the reason that it is so difficult to give electrolysis clients a definitive answer to when they will be done.
James, no I didn’t think you were being derogatory. I thought it was a very interesting thing to say, and if you are right, I want to know the WHY of it. I’m still skeptical, however, I’ve been to several operators and never heard of this before. And speaking for myself, I could never grow a decent beard when I presented as male, so I am bucking the trend, if indeed there is one.
I do however think that hair growth is genetic. I think if you want to predict how hairy a person is/will be, is to look at their male grandparents and family members. Are they a hairy bunch? That would be a better predictor than the trans condition.
The problem with the links posted above in Miss Barbara’s post is the information presented is for scalp hair, not male facial hair. The two areas are very different as far as hair growth is concerned. Do you have any information that relates to facial hair only, Barbara? I would love to see something definitive, too. We are really at a disadvantage in this hair removal business because it appears that we have no good studies to cite, So, we just rely on observations for the most part.
men and women all have approximately the same number of hair follicles
under normal circumstances, men will produce more hair per square inch than a woman
a square inch on the chin/bearded area contains approximately 1,250 hair follicles
based on how long the hair is able to grow before it sheds, at any given time, you might actually see several hundred hairs per square inch on a male beard, and so too, a female - under certain conditions
Some clients finish electrolysis in under a year, others require more treatment time. Its all relative to the clients’ situation.
Over the past 2 decades, I have worked on many TG clients and many male clients and to date, they are as varied in the presentation of hair growth as genetically born males and females. Some presenting with more hair, others presenting with less hair per square inch.
Since my usual time to completion is 100 to 150 hours of electrolysis from a virgin beard to bare face, wouldn’t you say that 150 hours AFTER having LASER sounds like a lot? That is, assuming the LASER did any significant hair removal. [/quote]
Hi James:
Does that include all of the maintenance?
I have read many places that the average time is about 200 hours.
I have also seen one transwoman who took you 300 hours.
I only considered the laser marginally sucessful and certainly
not satisfactory considering my need to get rid of the hair entirely.
I also am extremely fussy (thats fussy not fuzzy!) about getting rid of
my facial hair. I have less facial hair now than most women do.
And no we aren’t going after the vellus hair, but any strays that
occasionally pop up. If I wasn’t getting another body area
done I probably wouldn’t be going to get electrolysis at all.
But while I’m there we will get rid of any facial hair that
has cropped up, but that only takes a few minutes.
I still don’t agree that the average transwoman has more
dense facial hair than the average male. A lot have less.
The lucky ones that is, who’s hormones were not quite
as rampant as the average.