2. How many treatments do I need? How long will it take?
Starting Electrolysis on the surgical site early in your transition is paramount. Electrolysis is a process. It takes time. Hair grows in cycles and each hair needs to be treated several times. The surgical site is broken down into three sections, the shaft, the scrotum and the perineum. Each of those areas has varying degrees of hair growth, and they are in very different cycles. For example, the hair on the perineum will not grow as long as the hair on the scrotum. The hair on the scrotum will grow longer than the hair on the shaft. This illustrates different cycles of growth.
It is important that you know what your surgeon’s requirements are for hair removal. Not all surgeries are the same. Their specifications for hair removal and the order of importance of that hair removal will differ depending upon how they create your vagina. Some surgeons invert the penile tissue to form the vagina, others use the scrotal tissue, some ladies may need a skin graft, etc. Knowing what your surgeon wants will allow your Electrologist to form a better treatment plan for hair removal.
There are other factors that must be considered when thinking about the length of time it takes to become hair free and that is the amount of hair one has. Some ladies need less time than others because they have less hair.
The average amount of hours it takes to clear the surgical site is 55 hours. I have cleared someone in 33 hours over the course of a year, which is, frankly, not a lot of time. I have also worked on someone who needed 120 hours to clear. It comes down to genetics.
Another contributing factor that determines the amount of time permanent hair removal takes is how much surface area has to be cleared. The greater the area, the longer the time.
People often confuse the number of sessions with the number of cycles that need to be cleared. When you hear that it will take 5-7 clearings, they actually mean 5-7 growth cycles being cleared, NOT 5-7 sessions. Cycles deal with the time it takes the hair to grow in the sense of weeks and months. Hours deal with the amount of time it takes to clear those cycles over a of time. Sessions deal with appointments.
It takes an average of 55 hours over the course of a year (or more) to clear the surgical site. I work in no longer than 3-hour blocks of time (sessions). I hope that helps to clarify the confusion between these different words.