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Do anti-androgens reduce facial hair growth on an AMAB? (piefed.blahaj.zone)
submitted 14 hours ago by to c/trans@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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My health care provider most likely won't prescribe any kind of estrogen, but it just hit me that they probably don't even know what testosterone blockers are. So...

Would a monotherapy with only anti-androgens help with reducing facial hair growth?

I'm quite tired of spending a fortune on IPL and my threshold for pain is so ridiculously low that it's a hell every time. They have had to order an opioid cream just for me...

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[–] [S] 3 points 13 hours ago (7 children)

Thanks for the headsup! 🩷

finally, i don’t know how long you’ve been doing IPL but if you’ve been through many sessions and it isn’t making a (significant) difference, it may be worth switching to a different studio which offers actual laser hair removal or even electrolysis.

I've been to eight to ten treatments (taking a break now) and I'm really happy with the outcome. It's just really expensive and painful and not permanent. Within a year or so, the growth comes back, because of the testosterone, according to them.

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  • [–] 3 points 13 hours ago (6 children)

    testosterone could definitely be a factor, but in general the only hair removal technique which is truly permanent is electrolysis. IPL is kinda the worst option available in that regard

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  • [–] 6 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

    Laser is truly permanent too. Its just that it doesn't permanently remove all of the hairs it targets. Each laser sweep will leave hairs and the more sessions you get, the fewer hairs that escape.

    I've had no hair removal except laser and my last laser session was 6 or 7 years ago, and I don't need to shave anymore. There's the odd hair that still comes through, but they're so few I can tweeze them.

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  • [–] 4 points 12 hours ago* (1 child)

    i have heard firsthand accounts from a couple of people who claim that a few individual hairs they'd had lasered off ended up coming back a few years later, and they kept needing to go back for touch-up sessions. maybe they were getting screwed over by their hair removal place and actually getting IPL, or maybe they were actually new hair follicles which hadn't been active during the initial rounds of laser?

    at any rate that is reassuring to hear :)

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  • [–] 2 points 3 hours ago

    It's likely a combination of some of the hairs not being removed permanently (which is just the laser experience) combined with some hairs being in the wrong phase. It also depends on skin/hair type. And in the US, some IPL services incorrectly label themselves as laser.

    Despite that though, it absolutely does do permanent reduction. So in Australia (where laser is much cheaper than the US), lots of folk tend to go for laser first, and then follow up with electrolysis to finish it off, because that works out cheaper and quicker than doing electrolysis for everything

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 13 hours ago (2 children)

    Oh... I actually asked about electrolysis (they call it diathermy?) to treat my white strands, but to have her do my whole face with that... Now we're talking Scrooge McDuck money and a lot of time... She'd be going in with a needle in each individual hair sack on this face? 😭 Poor her, poor me 🤣💔

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  • [–] 4 points 12 hours ago (1 child)

    you only need to have it done on the hair follicles which actually still have hair growing out. the normal approach (for dark hair on light skin) is getting laser done to remove all the darker hair quickly and cheaply, then go in for electrolysis to clean up the remaining stragglers (mostly lighter hairs).

    a hair follicle which has already been killed by laser would have nothing to electrolysize :)

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