I believe angelafking is a MTF on hormones. And, I think she was aware of risks going with machines and techs at ALC when she started.
Hi:
I also started by trying laser and hoping it would get rid of all of my facial hair. After 9 treatments with lightsheer I realized it wasn’t going to give me more than a partial reduction so I switched to electrolysis.My facial hair was mostly dark brown with some grey ones.The laser left me with many dark ones still remaining. Even if at times it appears the laser is working, given time regrowth can occur and did in my experience.
The laser wasn’t a total waste and I have since had 125 hours of electrolysis with excellent results.I am now just cleaning up a few scattered stubborn hairs in the neck area. I don’t need to shave or wear foundation makeup.
Female hormones/anti androgens don't eliminate the need for electrolysis on facial hair. Facial hair which has firmly established itself will be very resistsant to anti androgens.
Alicia
I believe angelafking is a MTF on hormones. And, I think she was aware of risks going with machines and techs at ALC when she started.
Actually I am not on hormones as of yet, and jimmyjames was correct. Though, I don’t know if I was ever REALLY excited. More of the idea that the progression seemed to be working and over time I could possibly complete things with very little electrolysis.
The real reason I have stopped is I would rather not risk my skin (especially on my face) to possible deep and unsightly burning due to high joules from the laser machine. I had no problems after 6 treatments with those kinds of things, but the risk vs. reward is too high for me.
Was it a waste of money? Probably. Did I learn a lesson? Definately. When I found HairTell I had pretty much made up my mind to try laser and then became more and more skeptical. I appreciate very much everyone’s support in my endeavors and all the input you gave.
Thanks
-A
We are glad to have you here and keeping us abreast of your work.
Maybe your story here will actually be heeded by others who read it in the future.
I actually have little trouble with chin hairs. I find the hair coming out of the corner of the mouth and coming down in a triangle from that corner to need more work than chins, and the neck is will still be having nit pick sessions when the face is looking like porcelin. In any event, good electrolysis could have arrested this area in a short amount of time (at least for me, as I don’t know anyone I did not get first clearance in 5 to 20 hours on for full face and neck) and then kept it looking finished from there with reclearances at least every 6 to 12 weeks.
Thanks for keeping your thread up to date. Try calling ALC corporate and asking for your money back. Do it ASAP.
Ah come on you know that won’t work. Especially since I’m still in the guarantee phase.
Maybe if I had gotten burned (literally) I would.
-A
There is nothing in the ALC contract or literature you signed that mentions patchiness as a side effect. It’s obviously related to the technique and type of laser used, i.e. missed spots. You are disfigured.
I am ZOOOOMBIE THREAD~
Well, looks like my pictures were deleted. That sucks. If anyone has them I would love to get them back.
Anyways…let’s get on with it.
I stopped going to ALC after my 6th treatment as I posted here over a year ago. I was very dissatisfied and was not having a good time of it.
Fast forward to March 2008. I started my transition and my hormone replacement therapy. I sought out a electrolygist in my area and spoke with her in length about my situation. She said she would love to help me, but thought I should take advantage of my 2 year guarantee with ALC to at least try and get a bit more cleared. So, I gave it another shot.
I’ve had 10 treatments now. The jawline, chin, and lip seems to be the real problem areas. Most of my facial hair is extremely sparse…probably close to an 80-85% reduction…it’s hard to give it a number when it’s sparse.
As for my experience with ALC since…that’s a mixed bag with a horror story. My first visit back we used the new Ameri-Lase or whatever the hell they are calling it. It didn’t hurt as bad as the Lightsheer, but I also didn’t feel like it was doing anything at all…I didn’t get much reduction from that.
The second time back we used the old Lightsheer I had been treated with before. I’m surprised they still had it actually. Unfortunately this was my first treatment after starting my hormone therapy, and I did not realize my complexion had changed so much…I had the tech crank it up to 34 and go at it. The pain was excruciating. We were stopping every 15 seconds so I could breathe. I felt so hot and in pain, but it just wasn’t hitting home that I was being burned.
After the treatment I sucked it up, threw some lotion on it (wrong idea), turned on the A/C in my car (wrong idea), and drove an hour to my house. I went to bed so I could go to work that night (approx 6 hours later).
When I woke up, my entire face was swollen. I had a huge lump (the size of a woman’s fist) on my neck that extended over my jawline. The lump was numb to the touch.
At this point I was freaking out. I was worried I would be scarred for life and look like Two-Face from Batman.
After a day the swelling and redness had went down quite a bit, but not enough that I wasn’t still worried so I went to the doctor and was given some ointment. They said I wasn’t burned badly (why was I numb then?) and I would not scar.
Well, I can’t tell now if I’ve scarred or not, but I do have some pigment change all over, which makes me look blotchy. This is very annoying as my complexion had finally cleared up due to the hormone therapy. Sigh! The reduction from the session I was burned on was amazing though…
I didn’t want to go back to ALC after that. It was mainly my mistake though, so we went with lower settings and I haven’t had an issue…nor have I had good reduction.
I’m going to start electrolysis a week from now and hope for the best.
The moral of this story is…
If you don’t want patchy results, don’t get laser on your face.
If you don’t want to risk being burned on your entire face, don’t get laser on your face.
My recommendation…just don’t get laser on your face.
Hi Angela:
I started out with laser(lightsheer) and after about 9 sessions finished with electrolysis.
My experience after going on HRT was that my skin was
more sensitive as to the threshold for pain. You may want to try Emla or something like that if you find the electrolysis at all painful.
If at all possible try to get full clearances in each session even if that takes you 2 or more hours at first.
Then keep regular appointments to keep it clear. Eventually the 2 hours will drop to 1 then a half hour, etc…
I’ve been there and done that so to speak, but eventually
you are going to be very happy once that hair is gone.
Alicia
I think you meant to write “9 sessions with laser and finished with electrolysis” 
If I were a male with dense hair on the beard area looking for complete removal, I would only treat with laser if I can find someone who has GentleLASE alex or a good Yag machine and considerable experience treating male faces. I would never go to ALC and let the inexperienced techs touch that area with their machines.
I think we have had enough people on here discuss male facial hair removal to say that LASER reduces the amount of hair on the face at best.
I have had 9 laser treatments so far (10th coming up next month). Some areas have been successful (neck, some of the sideburns, jawline) but some areas just don’t respond (lips, checks, anywhere there is a lot of white hair mixed in with the black hair.) It was less than I hoped for but made a big difference in terms of reduction, and with each additional treatment it seems to get better and better. I was fortunate I experienced no negative side effects at all, other than some very minor hyperpigmentation that went away in a few months. But I did a lot of homework, I spent more time researching and getting references than I spent in the actual chair being zapped. They had references from several TS I know who have had their facial hair removed there and I saw the results so I was reasonably confident (still a tiny bit skeptical of its efficacy) but confident in their reputation for safety.
One thing my electrologist said to me was that the hair in the area where the laser was effective (neck, lower chin) the remaining hairs were trivial to epilate and remove compared to the hair on areas the laser did almost nothing (lips especially.) I zapped a few hairs on my neck myself and found it to be true as well; the hairs took a while to loosen with DC only but when they came out they slid out easy, were straight and rigid, and had a large root bulb and a long intact sheath (a picture perfect epilation!) Even the more difficult hairs came out pretty easy, like the hair on my arms.