i decided to transition into this career path as it was a way to materially impact the lives of fellow trans people and erase boundaries that they face. It sounds dramatic, but I think of myself as less of an aesthetician and more of someone who helps improve mental health and makes you harder to discriminate against in daily life.
I am not one to impose traditional norms of femininity on anyone, but the world we live in is how it is.
I operate with a severe sliding scale payment model, which slides upwards to the extent that wealthier clients are able to pay it forward to fund free sessions for folks with less means, and downwards to the extent that it costs me money to work on someone (that is okay and everyone deserves this kind of service if they want it)
In addition to my own little practice I'm also working at another clinic which is also trans focused, and does a lot of work for folks who are prepping for lower surgeries as well as general gender affirming hair removal. This also means I work with a lot of trans dudes who are prepping for their lower surgeries, so it's not only trans fem folks
Ask me anything about hair removal
edit: Have a question in the future and this post is really old? Feel free to reply or DM me - I've been posting here for years and it's unlikely to stop until i'm a corpse
How much of your labor would it take to do a total removal of facial hair for one person?
Depends drastically on the person. I'll note that I focus primarily on electrolysis because I like the precision and the fact that it has the same success rate for every type of hair / skin.
Nothing happens overnight, and anyone who promises a quick fix is lying to you to get your money or is simply uninformed.
We're at the mercy of hair growth cycles; the hair you see growing on someone's body at the current moment could be only 1/5 - 1/4 of the potentially active follicles. Each follicle goes through a lifecycle of growth and shedding, but these lifespans overlap. To see every active follicle on someone's target area will take up to a year or more.
The larger clinic I work at divides the face into vertical strips about 1.5" wide, and we clear one of those strips per session (~2-4h) and then loop back to treat the regrowth and follicle we ignored on the previously treated areas. re: ignored follicles, a caveat is that we take care to not treat too many follicles close to one another, since the density of follicles creates a risk of overtreatment (skin damage, pitting, various other bad scenarios) if we just go full hog and zap every follicle at once.
This can often be frustrating for the client since its not linear, but results in a better treatment in the long term. Sometimes for folks who experience a lot of dysphoria with their upper lip and "goatee" area hair we will prioritize that, but again it's not the most efficient long term solution for complete removal.
By the time we reach the other end of the face that we started on, the first area is usually pretty well taken care of with only the occasional stray stubborn hairs remaining. Then we proceed back across.
I'm still newer to the field so my speed isn't as great as some, but for someone who is faster, in the case of an extremely dense follicle pattern, could be upwards of 80 hours when all is said and done, possibly more for an extreme case. As you do more sessions the amount of time it takes for clearances and the amount of time between sessions will drastically reduce. So yeah, this is a 12-18 month journey.
If I had to recommend a SPEED CLEAR ASAP route, for a candidate with pale skin and dark hair it would probably be a lot more efficient to start with laser and then bring in electrolysis for the stubborn hairs. Unfortunately for friends with more melanin in their skin the efficacy of laser is reduced a lot.
So yeah I don't have good news.
is laser hair removal one session? how does the price of that compare to electrolysis?
i've had six sessions of laser on my face and chest and a lot of hair is seemingly gone for good, unless you pay attention to it being a bit patchy you can't really tell i've had any treatment
my skin is very fair, but my bodyhair is lightbrown to blonde so it could have been more effective, six sessions cost me about $700 (a pass over my face and chest each session)
I was also supressing my T at the time so I had less active hair follicles generally (to my understanding)
i'm not the op but this was my experience, I wouldn't get more laser in a hurry due to the expense.
it was fun watching hairs fall while I had it done at least
thanks for the info! i might go for this once im a year into taking E
No form of hair removal is "one and done forever" and I cant stress that enough
The pace of electrolysis is slower, but has a vastly higher follicle kill rate compared to laser. So it might be more efficient in the long run, but thats on a case by case basis.
Some folks might find that having a lot of laser sessions accomplishes virtually nothing, some folks will find that it gets them to the goal line. Every body is different
How are you able to charge more for wealthier clients? Like how do you even get them to provide income without them suspecting you're using that info to charge them a higher fee?
sliding scale is normally expressed as "here's the initial price of <highest amount>" and then the price goes down. Same thing but people would rather see the price "discounted" from $200 to $150 than see it raised from $100 to $150.
I don't arbitrarily charge people more money on a whim, I have a base rate and allow people to volunteer information during my booking process which will then effect the rate.
I offer discounts for folks who are unemployed, on disability benefits, and a number of other circumstances
You are also able to identify as high income + "I want to pay it forward" in this booking process
I'm a cis guy
I hope you don't mind too much, but I'm wondering what my options are for diy (I think going somewhere would just be out of my price range right now, and I'd feel really weird). I know about epilators but I've heard they hurt a lot/don't give the best results/have some other drawbacks. I saw on reddit some (cis?) women talking about some expensive diy laser machines (like $400), and how effective they were for them. I don't have a link unfortunately. I suppose what I'm really wondering is would something like that be effective, especially as a guy? How would it compare to going somewhere? I know you aren't "supposed" to use it on your face but if I did, would I be damaging my face or is it a eye safety measure?Hope I'm not too far from your expertise, and no one minds me being here.
That's okay, I come from a family that has many cis people so it's a demographic that is near and dear to my heart. In fact both my parents were cis, and I even have multiple other cis relatives
One of the main reasons I practice mostly electrolysis and less laser is because those with densely rooted terminal hairs (read: most body hairs on a body that has had a lot of testosterone at some point) is unlikely to get perfect results with laser
These machines are likely IPL laser devices, so google for more information - Worst case could be hurting your skin, best case would be a pretty decent reduction in hair growth and some thinning of hair
You'd get better results from a salon with a more powerful laser, you'd get better results than that with electrolysis
$400 would probably get you 4-6 laser sessions at a good salon, so that might be a better investment unless you're looking to cover a lot of surface area
I dont know enough about the risks of DIY machines to comment too deeply on your question about dangers of DIY. Eye damage is a risk with all forms of laser to my knowledge, but you can get special glasses that filter that colour spectrum
this is cool as hell. ive met a number of trans people going into this field all around the world, yall are heroes and help eliminate anxiety for transition for so many people
how is the pay?
The pay is okay. If you run your own clinic and are booked solid you could easily look at 100k+. I took a beating because I had to travel 3000 miles to find a clinic in my country that specializes in trans folks and has multiple employees. I haven't really thought about potential money very hard because I'm already a lot in debt and do a lot of pro-bono work. Thankfully I have some friends from home and my wife who are helping me scrape by while I hone my skills.
Right now I do more free work than paid work, but it's worth it for me because I'm developing my skills which will result in happier trans people in the long term. It's also a blessing to be in a position where I can offer these services for free for those who wouldn't be able to access them. It's a blessing to help my community.
Hey, thanks for the AMA!
How was your week?
Also, I picked up a cheep home IPL and I've been surprised at how is slowed my facial hair and really done a number on my body and leg hair (I do my face every other day, body about once a week because it takes so much time). I've gotten some laser done before and will get a another package in the future, but this is helping to fill in the gap. My question is, if I stay on a routine with this, can I approach the results of a laser clinic? Or is it just a temporary slowing?
My week was challenging because it's lonely here, I'm far away from my loved ones and community. But eventually I will bring these skills home when I'm more confident
it is unlikely that you will be able to achieve permanent removal, as laser / IPLs are best classed as "severe reduction in hair growth" and not permanent removal. But for the ideal laser recipient, its such a slowed pace that it may as well be permanent. It is unlikely you will achieve this with an at-home DIY laser treatment with a cheapo machine
I'm glad it's working for you, and depending on how long you've been HRT you might see further gains in hair rate slowing and reduced density, finer hair texture etc. <3
So, because I’m poor as balls (and if electrolysis is covered by Medicaid, I’m lazy and afraid of pain), I perennially try plucking with tweezers—and I’ve almost plucked everything, before giving up each time. Besides pulling in the direction of the hair and grabbing the base as close as possible, any tips?
What I do btw is pluck in stages—a bit every day. My logic is that the hair will start growing back in stages as well, so maintenance would consist of just plucking some baby hairs every day.
I don't know a lot about the practical aspects of tweezing on a day to day basis. I do know how it can impact hair growth.
Something I would caution is that tweezing repeatedly can cause your follicles to become more densely seated and potentially grow coarser hairs, and could also result in deformed follicles which will make permanent removal harder down the line. Tweezing can be described as "topical irritation" which will increase blood flow to the follicle. Hair is an evolutionary positive trait as far as our bodies are concerned, and if the hair keeps getting removed our bodies will work hard to make sure they stay there.
That being said, plenty of people tweeze their entire life without negative impact so if that works for you, it sounds like you have a solid plan.
How do you recommend finding a technician? I had a few groupon specials with very poor results and professionalism; one tech did not know about cooling gels and did not offer lotion afterward. A friend recommended me a very expensive dermatologist's office. While I have been saving for it, I want to try to find a cheaper option in my area.
If you have trans friends, ask around!! In my home city there's quite a few electrologist, but one of them is a staunch ally and does great work and therefore all the girls there end up going to her. We also have a trans focused laser clinic back home which is based as fuck
If you don't have trans friends, try and find a regional resource like a reddit for trans people in your state / province
