HRT and laser hair removal

HRT has a powerful effect on hair growth, and therefore on the results we are able to achieve during laser hair removal.

Blocking testosterone reduces the body’s drive to grow hair, and supplementing with estrogen causes existing hair to become finer and more shallowly rooted in the dermis. Although it takes a couple of years to fully play out, these changes begin quickly after starting HRT.

As a result, for our trans femme clients, being on HRT (either estrogen plus a T-blocker, or monotherapy) dramatically improves the hair removal results we are able to achieve. This is something we have seen here at Bluebird, again and again, over the last five years of treating our trans clients.

Because of this, we recommend that our trans femme and non-binary clients, for whom HRT is part of their plan, begin their HRT regiment before, or at about the same time as, they begin their laser hair removal. For our trans femme and non-binary clients on HRT, we are generally able to achieve permanent hair removal results of upwards of 90%.

However, we do have some trans femme and non-binary clients who cannot be on HRT because of health complications, or who simply choose not to be. For these clients we are still able to get substantial results, but we generally achieve overall hair reduction of 50-70%.

For trans masc clients, testosterone is a powerful driver of body hair growth. For transmen on T, we are able to achieve results in line with those of cis men, 50-70% overall reduction.

For our trans masc clients doing hair removal in preparation for surgery, we generally do four aggressive laser sessions, removing just the coarsest, darkest hair, and then move them on quickly to electrolysis to take care of what remains.