Treatment Details:

Heather has pale skin and dark hair.

Comments:

Cristianos Hair Removal Clinics:

Heather June 2008

I would like to put in a recommendation for Cristianos who make a very special effort for their trans clients.

After a series of reassuring emails I went to the clinic for an initial test patch. Kerry, who is the Registered Manager at the Bury clinic and also works at the Altrincham clinic, has a wonderful way of putting you at your ease and so clearly wants to make the experience helpful and stress free. She also cares very much about providing a thorough and effective service. All questions are carefully answered and the sessions are also a wonderful time for girly questions to be answered. She also offers evening and weekend appointments which are very helpful in avoiding clashes with work.

It is probably very important to have realistic expectations of hair removal. Dark hair absorbs the energy from IPL or laser more effectively than fair hair and a pale complexion means only the hair gets hot not your skin. For maximum success prepartion is essential, so in the months before ensure you lose any trace of your tan.

Another consideration, if you have dark hair is not to delay until you start to go grey! I have found VPL very effective but I was careful not tan the summer before I started treatment and have kept out of the sun as far as possible during the year my treatment has taken. Do note the timescale as it takes several visits and with increasing gaps the whole course of treatments will be something like a year. A simple calculation will also show that this is likely to be one of the most expensive parts of transition, especiscally if you wish have to face, legs, body and arm hair all removed.

I was fully prepared for a lot of pain having read horror stories on the internet but was very surprised at how little discomfort there was. At worse like a series of pin pricks. Indeed on some evening appointments after a longs day’s work it has been possible to doze through much of the treatment. However the bikini area is rather more noticeable and a certain, but acceptable, level of discomfort must be expected. The face however, was a rather different experience. I am glad I did not start with this as it was painful and if I had not known how successful VPL had been elsewhere I would probably have found it hard to return. But the pain soon passes and within an hour all is normal. Subsequent treatments on my face have been easier as the density of hairs diminish.

The treatment is not dramatic, there is no smoke and apart from red dots around each follicle there is little reaction to show for the session. After a few hours the red dots are gone. After a week or two the density of hairs noticeably reduces as they finish their growth cycle and do not grow again and the new ones grow back much finer. As the sequence of treatments proceed the power is turned up to remove these finer hairs but the energy that can be absorbed by these finer hairs is the same as the coarser hairs could absorb from the lower power and the discomfort stays about the same. The intense light is transmitted through a cooled gel and the application of the gel is often more of an unpleasant surprise than each pulse of light.

Kerry has used VPL for everything except my ears where she has used the laser. This does give a sharp pain but it quickly passes. I have yet to experience the electrolysis that will be needed for my few grey hairs but I do expect to find that painful.

The treatments have exceeded my expectations in terms of its speed and effectiveness and in the lower level of discomfort from that which I was expecting. The cost of each session reduces after the first 4 and the clinics offer special combined packages of two or more areas at reduced costs and it is worth catching these special offers.

Cristianos has put a special pack of information together for TG clients as some trans girls start their journey by visiting the clinic and don’t know what to do for help and advice. She has also put me in touch with a wonderful hair stylist. It would be difficult to imagine a more complete and well thought out specialist hair removal service for trans clients.

Pre treatment	Pre treatment
Post treatment 1	Post treatment 1
Post treatment 2	Post treatment 2
Next treatment will appear here	Next treatment will appear here

Heather May 2009

Today was a very special day; my last IPL treatment. While I still have a little further electrolysis to come, mostly for white hairs on my face after 16 months my body and face is now hair free. I hope it might be useful to share my experiences and what I have learnt on the way.

There is a definite cost saving in using one or more of the packages available at Cristianos for having several areas treated together. I went for everything and for transgendered clients intending to go forward for sex reassignment surgery (SRS) a full Brazilian will probably be needed anyway so don’t forget to include it in your plan.

The cost of sessions decreases significantly as the treatments progress and there is less hair to treat. Do not be put off this is one commitment where prices fall rather than rise with time. There is no way to rush this and it helps to understand how hair grows and how IPL works so the client can do everything to speed the process and minimise their costs. In easy steps.

a) IPL works best on coarse dark hair in a pale skin. The whole process is better and more complete if you are on hormones. So plan for your tan to fade and stay out of the sun until it does (you may need to take into account any foreign holidays you have already booked) – If you want a quick result you will not be going back in the sun for 16 months or more. The fading of your tan should coincide with the latest point you start taking hormones. Although starting them earlier is no problem.

b) Your first consultation will be a test patch to find the right levels and to ensure you are a suitable candidate and medically suitable.  This might be months in advance if you do not want to give up your tan only to find you could not be treated.

c)   Each hair on you body only spends a third of its time growing. It can only be killed while it is growing. So when an area is “zapped” there is no point going back over that area again until about 6 – 8 weeks later when the next batch of hairs will be growing. After three sessions six to eight weeks apart each hair will have been zapped once while it is growing and can be killed. Each area will need at least 3 treatments for each of the growth cycles. In other words 9 treatments each eight weeks apart gives you the 16 months plus as the minimum cost effective treatment programme.

d) The treatment takes longer if you miss sessions so that a group of hairs is missed during their growth stage and cannot be treated effectively until 24 weeks later. There is no gain in paying for sessions more frequently. One of the really nice things about Christianos is that they refuse to take your money, no matter how enthusiastic you are, for extra treatments at a shorter cycle which will actually bring no real benefit to the client.

Preparing for a session involves shaving the intended treatment area a few days before so the hairs to be treated will only be a few millimetres long. IPL (Intense Pulsed Light) treatment is simple for the client:

a) A cold gel is spread on the bare skin to be treated – this is often the most uncomfortable part.

b) The operator and client wear special glasses to protect their eyes

c) The machine is set to emit the correct level of light energy for the client, their stage of treatment and the area being treated. This is one reason why a test patch is needed before treatment can commence.

d) The light source is held on the cold gel on the skin and an intense pulse of light is given out. The dark hair absorbs the light energy and becomes hot enough to kill the root of any hair growing in that area. If the skin is tanned it also absorbs the light and the skin gets hot. In this case because some of the energy has been used to heat the skin the hair root may not get hot enough to be killed. The cool gel stops any overheating of the skin and prevents discomfort.

e) I have not found the level of discomfort significant and have often dozed off during sessions except those on the face and bikini area.

f) The length of a session depends on the size of the area to be treated and the stage in the treatment programme.

g) There is no satisfying puff of smoke or immediate disappearance of the hairs and the first session can feel a little of an anticlimax.

After a session I found that each hair that has responded to treatment will probably be the site of a raised red spot that will subside over a few hours to a couple of days. The hairs may well appear darker and continue to grow but will fall out after a few days. Hairs on the face can be shaved as normal the next morning. After about a week the effectiveness of the treatment can be noticed with definitely reduced hair growth – deep happiness!

A few weeks later it is as if you never had the treatment as hairs that had not been in their growth stage for the first treatment start to grow. – disappointing! However soon, enough of them will be in their growth stage to be worth treating and the process repeats from point 4 above. Every so often the treatment area may be waxed so that that how many hairs are actually growing in that area may be assessed. This helps plan the treatment more effectively.

No permanent hair removal process can be quick and IPL treats large areas quicker than most and with minimum discomfort provided you are a suitable candidate. I have a better quicker result than I ever hoped for by sticking precisely to the guidance given. Yes I have missed going out in the sun and it has been a little complicated for one summer avoiding getting a tan but now I have a perfect result and I am off to buy my first bikini!

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