transgender/hair removal
About
Hair removal is one of several services commonly used by transgender people undergoing male-to-female transition (MtF), although the majority who use it are cisgender women (and sometimes cisgender men) due to transgender people being a relatively small percentage of the overall population. Consequencly, hair removal service providers are not necessarily friendly towards transgender people ("trans-friendly"), although many are.
For this reason, transgender people tend to look specifically for trans-friendly providers, both in order to avoid dealing with discriminatory behavior (which may be unpleasant) and also to "vote with their dollars" for more tolerant businesses, thus promoting more tolerance in the community at large.
Types
Those transitioning are mostly interested in permanent hair removal (especially from the face), so this page focuses on techniques which accomplish that.
Methods for permanently removing hair include:
- electrolysis
- laser hair removal
- intense light flashes (ILF)
DIY Options
While there are home electrolysis kits, they are awkward and time-consuming (although not expensive) for use in removing facial hair; they are best for removing a few follicles from locations which can be examined directly (rather than in a mirror), e.g. arms, legs.
There are home laser hair removal kits as well, but we are not aware of any that actually work.
ILF is a relatively new technology which combines an intense flash from a digitally-controlled strobe light and a radio-frequency pulse. While (again) designed mainly for cisgender women and not approved by the FDA for use above the jawline or on genitalia, personal experience with one such device (the Elos Me) seems to have been somewhat effective on facial hair when used over an extended period of time (dozens of weekly treatments). (I should probably write up my experiences in detail and link to it. --Woozle (talk) 20:58, 5 August 2016 (EDT))
Related
For information about trans-friendly providers, see trans-friendly. (Eventually I need to work out how to pull up a listing specifically of trans-friendly electrologists... --Woozle (talk) 09:15, 11 August 2016 (EDT))