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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   3281 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 27, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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I desperately need any tips for reducing pain with laser facial hair removal that might not be easy to find on Google.

I'm 2 sessions in so far, and this is so painful that I cannot find words to express it; I end each session with tears dripping down the side of my head, and I get flashbacks to the session for a few days afterwards that are so intense as to be distracting. I do not have any kind of anxiety disorder, but entering the second session I felt panicked at the pain that was coming (and it did not seem that “the anticipation was worse than the event”.)

I believe the technician is not actually mechanically fucking up and burning me, because I am experiencing absolutely zero redness, blisters, or lasting pain; but this is still such an unpleasant experience that I'm considering aborting the sequence even if they won't give me a prorated refund for the unused sessions.

First session:

  • Didn't take any special precautions
    • the clinic's website said “Most patients describe the laser hair removal process as uncomfortable or mildly painful”;
    • I am a pretty optimal candidate as I have rather light skin and medium/medium-dark facial hair;
  • Did standard recommended prep such as shaving 24h beforehand, avoiding vitamin A the week beforehand (applies to all sessions);
  • attempted dissociation / wandering mind during the session (applies to all sessions);
  • applied a cooling aloe gel provided by the clinic at the end of the session (applies to all sessions).

Second session, after asking the technician for tips and doing a bit of basic research (I'm not sure how much any of this actually helped):

  • 3000mg acetaminophen 30mins before;
  • smearing on a thin layer of lidocaine gel 30mins before, washed off at the clinic immediately before the appointment;
    • this was the technician's recommendation, though I just got whatever was to hand at the local store, which happened to be a 4% gel;
  • requested a stress ball to squeeze during the session.

Current plans for the 3rd session, coming up in around 3 weeks — asking for stuff to add/remove/change here:

  • avoid coffee the morning of;
  • drink water the morning of;
  • 4000mg acetaminophen 1h before, so it has time to properly kick in;
  • 100mg diphenhydramine 30min before;
  • smearing on a 1mm layer of 10% lidocaine cream advertised for tattoo artist use and applying saran wrap on top of it 30mins before, washed off at the clinic immediately before the appointment;
  • bringing a small plush toy of my own as a comfort item to squeeze instead of the clinic's stress ball.

I do not know what laser type this clinic is using; I suspect it's diode (810nm), but I sent them an e-mail this weekend asking so I should hear back within a day or 2. I have read that alexandrite (755nm) might be better and less painful for my skin type. I'm currently e-mailing other clinics in the area to see what laser types they have.

https://cambridgelaserclinic.com/laser-treatments/hair-removal/lasers-explained/ (edit: their great diagram doesn't seem to want to embed as an image)

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10886276/#:~:text=The%20800%20nm%20diode%20laser%20causes%20greater%20discomfort%20than%20the%20755%20nm%20alexandrite%20laser.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/pain/acetaminophen-safety-be-cautious-but-not-afraid

https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-warns-consumers-avoid-certain-topical-pain-relief-products-due-potential-dangerous-health

So why are you doing this yourself?

Aesthetically, I hate the presence of stubble between shaves. That said:

this is still such an unpleasant experience that I'm considering aborting the sequence even if they won't give me a prorated refund for the unused sessions

I also don't like the hassle of shaving, but obviously “hassle” pales in comparison to the goddamn torment nexus that this — I want to emphasize — was advertised not to be:

the clinic's website said “Most patients describe the laser hair removal process as uncomfortable or mildly painful”

Wait, you want a permanent babyface?

Being clean shaven is not babyface. I only really hear this from guys with beards, the same way I hear people with tattoos describe perfectly fine skin as a "blank canvas."

If you can pull it off, having no facial hair just looks better. Male movie stars generally don't have beards. I can't think of a single romcom where the male love interest had a beard. Male models usually don't have beards. Sure, in many ways these examples all appeal primarily to women, but even very male movies generally have clean-shaven stars.

If you can pull it off, having no facial hair just looks better.

Taste is subjective and all, but wow I disagree with this. If you can pull it off, facial hair looks way better than being clean shaven.

I think the majority of people would disagree, which is why I brought up movie stars.

I grow a nice beard. IME most people mildly preferred the beard but the minority that didn’t like it really didn’t like it.

There's a difference between a clean-shaven face (that has a visible shadow) and a babyface.

Aesthetically, I hate the presence of stubble between shaves.

A shocking response. I thought for sure you were a transwoman. I work with a few and can guess at the physical difficulties they go through.

I kinda sorta technically am, according to maybe 90% of peoples’ definitions; but I don't crossdress either publicly or privately (that is, I don’t dress as a woman; I do dress as a man.)

The question, “why would you undertake a painful process in order to remove facial hair?” contains its own answer; @Southkraut gave me no seed of direction on which to build a high-effort or interesting answer, so I figured giving a true and precise literal answer to his content-free expression of shock as-stated was appropriate.

I do enjoy trying to reconcile massively disparate philosophies of gender identity, trying to make a stance for my own when the counterparty is actually up for it; but that didn't seem to be the case here; I only had something tantamount to “can you believe this guy disagrees with my own opinion on what the consensus on the attractiveness of male facial hair is?”

That's a bit strawmanny, but then again now that I know you're a transsexual (I previously assumed you were a woman or simply a metrosexual) this behavior matches what others of your kind have displayed in the past; the rapidly escalated assumptions of hostility when faced with anything other than affirmation. And instead of asking simple questions and getting worthwhile answers to better understand each other, we can instead pattern-match the other to our preferred ideological enemy group.

@Southkraut I edited the toplevel to note that it looks like alexandrite was found to be less painful than diode when used on thin skin; I am pursuing the “switch to a provider that uses alexandrite” option in parallel with the “reduce the pain by whatever means” option, with the latter being my main request for advice.

Not to be smug, but...that's advertisement.

The steelman I've heard is that it's much less painful in the case of legs (which could make up a large portion of their treatments), where the skin is thick enough that the overpenetration of the 810nm beam doesn't matter.

This is probably the reason. I’d imagine most laser hair removal is actual natal women getting their legs depilated for beauty reasons.

Facial hair (esp mustache) on natal women is not a rare area of focus, though one where there’s likely the biggest difference in require laser application between amab and afab.

Underarm hair is extremely common, and supposedly worse for pain than face or even nether regions, though.

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