Yay! Glad you like it! It took me several sessions to do everything below the neck at first. That was before starting hrt so it was terrible. I remember slowly eating dark chocolate in between short breaks to counter the pain. Hopefully you’re still happy with the epilator and get to unlock the euphoria soon! There’s always some pain for me but the bliss kicks in so hard and fast it doesn’t even matter.

I just learned that cacao contains anandamide, one of the endocannabinoids, so maybe eating the chocolate helped train my body to deal with the pain? Who knows!

Fortunately, there is a cheapish laser salon in my area that works well for my face, but some women have told me that they get their laser done by the students at a cosmetologist school that’s even cheaper. It might be worth looking into whether that’s available in your area.

An epilator works great for the rest of my body, and my skin feels much better to me after the hair has been pulled all the way out. It only really hurt the first few times. After that the pain turned into pleasure. Seriously, it feels so nice that I have to remind myself to not just bliss out. My sense of general happiness even stays improved for days after as well! Try the epilator. But don’t use it on your face!

Don’t dare use this one on your face, but some folks make their own electrolysis setups. It will cause scaring if you don’t know what you are doing.

Behold the elder-lore, once sung 'round internet campfire tales of yore! /j

Transfeminine Science has a thorough discussion of the concerns:

These suggestions include progestogens having known antiestrogenic effects in the breasts, animal studies finding stunted mammary development with high doses of progestogens, clinical publications cautioning against premature introduction of progestogens in female puberty induction due to concerns about possibly stunted breast growth, clinical use of progestogens to treat macromastia in cisgender females, poor breast development with estrogen therapy in cisgender girls with a disorder of sexual development that results in high progesterone exposure, and breast development with estrogen and CPA (a very strong progestogen) typically being poor in transfeminine people.

Folks very much are starting earlier now! A recent paper noted that, “[m]ost patients who started progesterone began after 1-6 months on a standard GAHT regimen (59.3%).” But only two women were doing rectal administration in that study, which is what everyone online says works best.

My first year of hrt was all diy. I added progesterone after a bit more than eighteen months of slowly increasing estrogen, with the advice of a doctor, around seven years ago. At the time my dose of e was 6mg/day buccal, and p was 100mg/day oral for the first six months, then the other way. Maybe a year after that, a different doctor increased p to 200mg and eventually started me on injections around four and a half years ago. It’s been more than eight and half years now since I started hrt. The younger woman I was when beginning would be thrilled with where the girls have ended up, but I’d still like them a bit bigger.

been on e for a several months now

It kind of blows my mind that folks are starting progesterone so early now. The old lore was to wait at least two to three years due to fear of stunted growth.

I wish more cis folks knew that to me, simply being me, is as normal as being themselves is to them. I’m not a walk on the wild side, nor a walking queer chyron. I’m not your token, your conversational curio. I’m not your unicorn!