Addendum to Yesterday's Post

One thing I forgot to mention in the video of my fourth laser hair removal appointment is that on my way out of the medical building, I ran into a long-time family friend whom I haven't seen in a long while.  Someone who's known me since I came into the world.  She was on her way in for an appointment so we couldn't talk long, but she asked me what I was doing there.

"I'm getting laser hair removal," I said quite frankly, surprising myself again.  Who is this person who has taken over my body and wants to tell the world?

She was interested, not shocked or turned off.  "Really?  I thought of getting a No-No," she said.

When we're hirsute, I guess we forget that most women have at least some issue with a little errant body hair somewhere, not to mention the kind that is normal and expected for all women to have.  And even if they don't experience the unique kind of emotional and physical pain of growing a beard or a luxuriant patch of chest hair, most at least are far from horrified by those of us who do experience it.

Something else she said was that she had a friend who had owned and run an electrolysis clinic for many years, and being ready to retire, wanted to hand it over to her.  I was way too excited by this, even knowing that she had turned down the offer.  A part of me would really like to work somewhere where I could meet other hirsute women all that time and hear about their lives.  I fantasize about that sometimes.  But I know I would not be good for business, because I could never in good conscience treat someone who had not received a proper diagnosis from a specialist first.  Still, it's fun to dream.

Let's see... I was gone for a month so what else is new?  I've committed to camping again this year.  I wonder if the experience will be much improved by the laser treatments I've been having?  

Vlog: Fourth Treatment

I apologize for the month-long absence.  I have been really sick.  And I mean, three doctor's visits and three different prescriptions kind of sick.  A kind of sick I haven't been since I was a child.  I managed to kick H1N1 in a week without medical help, so this has been a real low point in my year.  But I'm better now, and well enough to be able to lie still for the laser.


After my fourth laser hair removal treatment, I asked the technician if there would be a point where we would call it; that my chin would be as good as the laser could ever make it.  And she basically told me that that point was now, and it was time to come in twice a year for touch-ups.  She has said to me more than once now that the chin is a very "hormonal" area, and if she's seen in her many years of experience that the chin is particularly difficult to laser "pew-pew" into submission, it's time for me to accept that.  The good news is, she expects that touch-ups will only be needed on my chin, so I'll be looking at around $50 a touch-up instead of the full amount.

So what now?  I don't know. 

Being sick, I had ample time to view my face with almost a week's worth of growth.  I show the pictures in the video but will post them here as well:

Really, this is still an enormous improvement over my chin in it's natural state, or even as it has been with medication.  But look at all that coarse blond hair that the laser won't ever be able to kill. 

I ramble on in this video about how my goal of eradicating the dark hair was really just me deceiving myself, and that really in my heart of hearts I want to get rid of it all.  As much as I would tell myself that I could live with noticeable hair if it was blond, to be perfectly honest, I don't want to have to deal with that either.  I want perfection.  Who doesn't?  Most of us are struggling to achieve an ideal set before us by our culture.  I want my pre-pubescent hairless chin back. 

I mention some realistic next steps in the video, but I'm not sure which one I want to take yet.