Dedication

Wanna know the last time I shaved my face? Thanksgiving. That would make it five and a half weeks ago. I had my last electro session on December 7th and my next one will be tomorrow (it was January 3rd when I first wrote this draft.) While I am not totally hair free on my face as of yet, you can see the results for yourself. I have been waiting to see if I could make it between sessions without having to shave at all, and this past month was the first.

It is actually quite shocking to me how different my facial hair situation is now compared to a year ago. It is amazing! Truly! So, let’s recap my electrolysis adventure shall we? I am pretty sure I began to have my first forays into the world of electrolysis in June of 2018. It took many small sessions to clear my face one full time. I think that first happened in September or so. Since then I have had my face fully cleared about one time per month, all done in one appointment per month. The last time, one person cleared my entire face in under 3 hours, when it first took about 20. That is quite the difference. Slowly but surely we are getting there!

When I say we, I mean my amazing electrolysis team at Dana Elise Solutions in Beverly Hills. They are the ones who are doing all of this back breaking work. And don’t kid yourself, however difficult it is for me to endure, it is just as difficult on them as well. It may not seem like difficult physical labor, oh but it is!

I recently received a very kind email asking for my assistance in getting into Dana Elise Solutions. The recap of things is that the woman who emailed me said they had tried to contact Dana through her website and had yet to receive a response. I advised the person to call Dana’s place directly.

What one needs to try and remember is that there are not many places in the entire country that can provide the services that Dana’s place does. The level of skill, talent, work ethic, kindness, and experience within all of the workers at Dana Elise Solutions may very well not be matched anywhere actually. What does that mean for you, the person who really wants their services? It means that you should be understanding that even with them putting in incredible hours towards their clients, there is never enough time in the day to serve everyone in a time frame that makes everyone happy. They try. They really do.

Okay, thus my advice is to call and talk to people. There is something to be said for developing a human connection. I think that many people struggle with that idea, but we as trans people often struggle with it immensely. We are often so insecure that it colors our interactions with others. The importance of taking the time to develop connections is huge, and generally that is done best in person, face to face, the next best would be actual voices on phones, and lastly would be any type of electronic communication. And when you do actually call, be nice, kind, understanding, and patient. Generally when approached this way, people will respond in kind.

As a side note to this post, which is really about how fabulous my electrolysis experience has been all thanks to Dana Elise Solutions, I need to address another topic, pain. Please do not kid yourself, electrolysis can be an extremely uncomfortable process, however, one’s individual experience of pain can vary greatly from person to person. While for me it is painful no doubt, I have known others who can sleep through the process. Why does one person experience something and find it painful while another can experience the same thing and it is not bothersome? I think what we are talking about is the human condition, we are all different.

I will freely admit, I feel pain, deeply, with most things, not just electrolysis. I have been a super sensitive person my entire life. An example of this would be a recent visit to a doctor. She shot me full of lidocaine and proceeded to cut into me. She asked if it hurt when I winced and pulled away. I said yes. She said, well is it a pressure or a burning, I said it hurts, she said okay, and proceeded to continue the procedure. I was in tears by the time she was done it hurt so bad. Most of my life people have told me that I am wrong and they disagree that I feel what I feel. Our society and how we treat pain is weird. Oftentimes we think, hey if I don’t feel it, you shouldn’t either. That’s odd. That’s not how humans work. My wife went through the same procedure that I described above and she didn’t cry, it didn’t hurt her the way it hurt me. Does that somehow invalidate that I felt what I felt? No, I don’t think so.

Thus I have taken an approach to life, and that is to expect things to be more physically painful for me than maybe they really will be. That way, I am often pleased when something is not painful, instead of being super bummed when it is painful. If I were to tell you that electrolysis will not be painful because I’ve known some people to sleep through it, and then you show up and find out that for you it hurts, I think I would be doing a disservice to all of you who take the time to read this.

Now I know this post is too damn long, however, hear me on one last thing…… despite how painful electrolysis may be, it is so damn worth it! I absolutely love my results, and I love my peeps at Dana Elise’s. They truly make a wonderful experience out of a shockingly painful event. I actually feel bad for them for how painful this is for me. It is not their fault and I deeply respect the fabulous service they provide me as they try and make it as pain free as possible. Dana and her team go above and beyond to make the experience as painless as possible. I have not heard any blood curdling screams during any of my visits there, and honestly, I have been the only one I have ever seen who is in tears.

I’m sensitive, always have been. Ask my dentist, it is the same thing. Ask my doctor, same thing, ask anybody, it’s the same thing. My sensitivity has nothing to do with with who is providing my services, it is a reaction that my body has to pain and the difficulty it has in responding well to lidocaine. I have been shot directly where they will work, and it still hurts. Honestly, it’s me, not them.

But again, lastly, whatever the pain, whatever the cost, whatever the time it has taken, every single moment of electrolysis has been so incredibly worth it. I never doubt my decision to have electro done, and I have never once doubted my decision to go with Dana Elise Solutions. Even though this sounds like a just a blatant plug for them, I do not receive compensation for this endorsement. I just love and respect them this much that I am willing to shamelessly plug them.

Okay, love you!

Love yourselves!

Love loving yourself!

Oh, I almost totally forgot, I feel so shabby in my photo due to the lipstick on my teeth! Eeek! It only ever happens with one shade of the lipstick I use and I frequently forget to even check it!