The Electric Kool-Aid Vaniqa Test

I’ve been using Vaniqa now for 7 weeks, still too soon (hopefully) to see the full effects. The manufacturers say, "In as little as 4-6 weeks, you may find you're spending less time tweezing, waxing, shaving, bleaching, or using depilatories to manage your facial hair. That's how you'll know VANIQA is really working." I guess it’s working then…

For the first two weeks I carried on shaving, stubble continued to return but noticeably slower than usual. Then I let it grow for a few days and plucked the whole lot, something I used to do quite regularly. The difference between plucking and shaving is amazing; even the closest shave can leave a little roughness especially under the chin and around the jawline, and most people find it’s impossible to lose their shadow altogether by shaving; dark hairs are still visible under the surface of the skin. Plucking eliminates all shadow and leaves your face feeling like any other woman’s for about a week. The problems I had doing this though were:

1. When the hair starts coming through again, after a week or so, I got loads of spots and bumps as the hair pushed its way through the skin.
2. At this point the hair would be about surface level, plenty of shadow, no chance of gripping the hairs with tweezers, not enough growth to even shave.

Fortunately I don’t work full-time and got round this by timing my plucking sessions so I could leave the hairs to grow out for a few days before shaving again. I found it was better to shave for a few weeks before plucking the whole lot again.

So, as I say I plucked after 2 weeks on Vaniqa, the shadow has not returned since. Hairs are still coming through, but extremely slowly, and not all at once. I spend about 20 minutes each day searching for hairs long enough to pluck. It’s a little frustrating because I can feel plenty of them, like pin pricks just sticking out through the skin, but too short to grip with tweezers. It’s nowhere near a full beard though, it doesn’t feel totally smooth but you couldn’t strike a match on it, and the main thing is you really can’t see any hairs. Most that are coming through are pale and fine. Hopefully they will continue to reduce to the point where I would be happy to let someone touch my face!

We’re not there yet, but I haven’t needed to shave for over a month, which is great. Apart from saving a small fortune on Mach-3 blades, shaving never really worked for me. I was always left with little red dots, especially around my neck, and any raised pimples would unavoidably have their tops cut off. I’ve always had pretty bad skin since puberty, shaving was the bane of my life, and I pretty much tried everything, so please don’t bother sending in your shaving tips!

I’m still getting the lumps as hairs push their way through, but not so many all at the same time. Presumably if the growth continues to slow, and the hairs get weaker I’ll get fewer lumps. A girl on one of my Yahoo groups sent me her "Vaniqa Log". So far I’d say my results are consistent with hers. She has seen continual, gradual improvement, and after about a year was having difficulty finding any loose hairs at all. Coincidentally one of my friends in Kendal started using Vaniqa on the same day as I did, but I have yet to compare notes with her.

In conclusion I’d say so far so good. I may never need to shave again, but although growth is already manageable, I think it will take several more months before my complexion resembles that of a natal female.

In the past I spent hundreds of pounds on Transformation’s magic cream to reduce facial hair. It doesn’t work. At all. You might as well smear custard on your face. Vaniqa is only prescribed for female hirsutism, so unless you’re a natal female I presume you’d have to be under the supervision of a gender specialist to get it. You can buy it online, but it’s very expensive.

IPL and laser didn’t work for me, I got some effects but it was never going to clear my face altogether, and my final session left me with several small blisters. Electrolysis, even if I could have found a TS-experienced operator (essential!) around here, would definitely have caused my sensitive skin problems. Prescribed Vaniqa looks like it may be an affordable and viable solution to what I view as the biggest problem facing anyone in transition (cue scary music) - facial hair.

If anyone else is using it, please drop me a line.

Happy plucking, girls.

xx