Today I had myfirst session of laser epilation and it really did go faster than I expected. Everyone was so nice and happy for me.
The feeling itself was really a mess.
The joy of finally starting this step (I have lots of hair dysphoria).
The pain of the shoots themselves.
and more that I wont get into.

at the end I noticed my face was all wet though I did not really realize I cried.
Later I understood those were tears of joy.

Awesome! It'll take some time, but having to worry less about shaving all the damn time is going to be great. And help with skin irritation.

Laser was the first thing I ever did for my transition and it made a huge impact on my dysphoria

It's a rough few months while you can't really shave between sessions. But it's so worth it in the end. Not having to shave every morning.

So glad for you

Why couldn't you shave after laser? I was literally shaving the next day (my laser tech said it was fine too).

Yeah, I spend less time shaving because of it.

Like now I'm starting to have hair free zones and some with. So it's even worse if I let them grow 🥲, but then again shaving is way faster. (Like 4th session in 4 days)

I did some professional laser and electrolysis and I have a laser at home, though it's nowhere near as complex as the ones at the clinics it works pretty well for periodic cleanup. I think I'll probably go back for some electrolysis, though at some point. The laser (home or clinic) just didn't get rid of a lot of the hair. It did thin it out a lot and removed pigment from some, but that hair is still annoying since it still grows long unlike the peach fuzz, which I also have a lot of.

there's some old (completely unfounded) rumors that shaving hair makes the hairs grow faster. most likely this is a corruption of the fact that shaved hairs are thicker than new hairs once they start growing out for a few days, so a few days of not shaving looks like more hair than after e.g. epilating (with a shaved hair the thicker middle part of the hair comes out immediately, while fresh hairs begin with a finer tip).

anyway it's definitely something i've heard many people get told by their laser techs (mine included), but can be safely ignored :)

I spent nearly a whole year dysphoric as fuck because my laser tech told me to avoid shaving between sessions. And it wasn't even true!

Aaarrrrrrrghhhhhggbbblll

Why did I never search on my own!? 😭😭😭 Every website I just checked agree you can shave between sessions

Skin irritation is my mortal enemy

Yippie, lets go

damn, that's awful... i'm sorry :(

for what it's worth, you are absolutely not the only one to have fallen for that. i have personally already saved two other girls from that fate (one had just started and the other had been not shaving for a few months by that point), and that's just people i've met within the past year - there are certainly a lot more!
it's an insidious little thing because it sounds vaguely plausible so it's easy to just accept and never question it again.

congratulations!

laser is so totally worth it. i started in february, and in that time have gone from "no matter how close i shave i'll have a 5 o' clock shadow by 10am" to "spend a few seconds running over my face with an electric trimmer and it'll be invisible for 2-3 days".

Yayyy!

I really need to look into starting laser at some point, I always hear lots of good things about it.