53 • FACIAL LASER HAIR REMOVAL – SESSION 6

Wahoo! I had a shave and didn’t cut myself. First time I’ll be going to one of these facial laser hair removal sessions without a cut on my face :) Today is the 16th of May, 2017, and it’s time for session number six. Since the last session, I’ve started wearing makeup outside a lot, so I’ve been shaving pretty much every day, which means I couldn’t take a four week comparison photo like I normally do. Doh. Still, lets see how today’s session goes.

SINCE THE LAST SESSION

Not sure if it’s linked, or if it’s to do with my hormone levels, but it seems I’ve had a bit more facial hair than normal this past week. I haven’t shaved for seven days, the longest period since the last session, and there seems to be a few more black hairs, especially on my upper lip and just below my lower lip. I’ll speak to Debbie, my consultant about that, see what she says. This is the first time since I started, that progress appears to have visually not progressed.

SESSION SIX

Sniff Sniff, can you smell burning?

The last session was pretty painless, I had fears this one was going to hurt due to the increase in black hairs, but it wasn’t too bad. It was about a 7/10 mostly. The top lip hurt, as it always does, however, the jawline and other areas were uncomfortable, but bearable. I actually arrived to the session really early, so spent fifteen minutes meditating in the waiting room. As I said, I was slightly nervous about the pain today, but while meditating I had this idea of saying thank you. Every time it hurts, say thank you. So that’s what I did. It actually stopped it hurting. In fact, it made me want it to be a bit painful, just so I could say thank you lol Honestly, you should try this, it works.

So as she was zapping my top lip … ARRGGHHHH, thank you lol OWWWWW…thank you :) Mad! Oh, and she started counting again, 1, 2, 3 … BAM with the laser. I said last session I didn’t like this, but was too shy to ask her to stop. Well, when she started counting this time, I said, “No, please don’t.” I have a soft voice, so she didn’t quite know what I meant, but soon realised and never did it again :) I can be self assertive! Thank You :)

The first photo was taken a few minutes after the session once I got outside, like last time, my face swelled up like Desperate Dan, looks bloody horrible lol but least there isn’t any sign of hair :) The second photo was taken a few hours later, and while the swelling was still there, all the redness and spots had gone.

The highlight of the session was definitely proving I can be self assertive. It doesn’t come naturally, so whenever I manage it, I feel super proud. Saying Thank You, every time it hurt, is also going to be a good tactic moving forward. I imagine it will be very handy when I start removing my grey facial hairs via electrolysis too; apparently that hurts more than laser. Thank You lol

*future me from the year 2021 here* The next session, number seven, took place on the 27th June, 2017, and while I continued to write about my experiences in my personal hand written diary, I stopped updating them to the website. I may do one big final Laser Hair Removal diary entry, because it’s now 2021 and I haven’t had a session in bout 3 years. I think in total I had about 14 sessions, and than started having electrolysis to remove the remaining grey hairs.

Due to the 2020 lock down and stuff, I haven’t even had that for about 14 months. So all I do now is shave once every two weeks or so, and pluck the black hairs that pop up here and there. I do want to do a roundup diary entry, as I have more progress photos to share, and also, I want to talk about the pain levels of electrolysis compared with laser hair removal.

I love that I named this diary entry the Thank You session, because it’s kind of a nice way to leave these for the moment. Thank you to Debbie, my laser hair removal therapist, and thank you Becky, my electrolysis … there was a lot of pain, a lot of tears, a lot of money spent you, but it was all worth it.

Thank You. *end of future me*