44 • FACIAL LASER HAIR REMOVAL – SESSION 3

Pain time again. Today, the 2nd of February 2017, is facial laser hair removal session number three, with the more aggressive laser. So that’s actually pretty exciting, as Debbie, my consultant, said at the last session that this laser doesn’t hurt so much. I’ll find out in an hour if she’s telling the truth :)

SINCE THE LAST SESSION

In terms of progress, there wasn’t as much hair falling out this time. I also still have that strip of hair along the right of my jaw, which is odd. I thought it was where she missed a bit during the first session, but seeing as it’s still there, it can’t be; I’ll ask her about this later. I’m also going to personally thank her for phoning me up the next day to see how I was.

Up until yesterday I was feeling a lot more positive, but my second Doctor Appointment sort of brought me down a bit and I’ve been crying a lot since; I just hope I don’t cry today. It’s positive though, all this emotional stuff takes my mind off thinking about having the laser done :) So in a way I’m not feeling any fear today, in fact, I just want to go to bed lol

The first photo shows more hairs falling out within a week or two of the last laser session, not as many as after the first one, but I expect that is because there wasn’t as many to get this time :)

This second photo was taken just before I shaved for today’s session. This is four weeks of growth, you can see how my grey hairs really pop now due to a lot of the black hairs having been removed. Looks a bit dirty, but I don’t mind, I can look past the grey hairs and see progress. If you compare this image with the three week growth photo I took before I started any laser, I’m very impressed. Sadly, all those grey hairs will have to be individually removed via electrolysis. Not only expensive, but time consuming :( Oh well, I’ll sort that out later lol

SESSION THREE

Before we got started I asked her about that line of hair on the right of my jawline. She said it’s from where she hasn’t quite overlapped the laser, so to make sure it didn’t happen again, would do this weeks session vertically, instead of horizontally. So there I was, sat on the white chair, headphone in one ear, trance music playing, Debbie standing by with the new laser … on the highest setting … Gulp!

“Are you ready?” she said.

“Yes,” I replied.

As Chie would say, BAM! It was laser time lol Vertically was a bit different actually, and I soon realised, as she made her way down my face, she would be doing my jaw line in one long line, instead of chopping it into sections. I didn’t like this thought, as the jawline is where it normally hurts the most, but I just listened to my music and tried to zone out. To be fair, once she reached the jaw I found it didn’t hurt that much. I can handle this, I thought. I would say we were looking at a level 6 pain for the most part. That was, until she got to my top lip.

F@#KING HELL

For some reason, that bloody hurt! F bombs were dropped. I couldn’t help myself: F@#K ME, Jesus, F@#KING hell. I didn’t enjoy the top lip at all with this laser, it was very intense and I feel made worse by Debbie going vertically, as this meant she had to do two lines across. It felt like she did more hits than usual. I would say this was a level 9 or even 10 pain, it really wasn’t fun. I couldn’t understand why that hurt so much when the jawline, that normally hurts the most, was ok. Maybe it’s because I have so many hairs on my top lip still and this more aggressive laser was zapping them all.

Whatever was going on, I was glad when it was all over. Debbie presented me with a cold flannel to place on my face, which felt like heaven. So soothing :) She said I had a really good response, with lots of flashes; meaning the hairs were getting destroyed. Looking at the photo below, taken directly after the session, you can see I certainly had a response alright :)

Ouch. I wasn’t lying when I said this was painful. The first photo was taken right after I walked out the front door of the clinic, so a few minutes after Debbie had finished zapping my face. I didn’t realise it looked like this till just now, when I looked through my photos.

By the time I got home, about an hour later, the red bumps and what not had completely gone as you can see in the second photo. My face was also looking pretty smooth, at least for me :) I like touching my face when it’s like this, parts are as smooth as silk. I keep thinking, one day my whole face will be super smooth … I can’t wait.

There was one really nice moment during this session. While Debbie was doing her thing, as the pain got really bad, one of my favourite trance tunes started playing, Sticky Fingers by Above and Beyond –

As the pain increased, the lyrics hit, making me tear up. ‘WE PAINTED THE PICTURE YOU WANT. I WANTED IT TOO.‘ played in my headphones and It felt like the universe was almost saying, this pain is part of you painting the picture you want :)

In that moment, the pain went away.

I returned for my fourth session on the 13th of March 2017, where it felt like I was being punched in the face by mini fists!