I was nervous about HRT too, it did feel like an indelible crossing line.

Its not, for E, cause estrogen is nice and gentle and takes its sweet time to kick in. Im sure if you started tomorrow 3 months from now youll be begging for it to work faster lol.

Can confirm. Granted, during the first week or so of starting HRT (at too low of a dose to do much - mostly just noticing the effect of spiro), the anxiety from the whole thing caused a fair bit of dissociation and I only continued taking it because I trusted the me from a week before that was super-excited for it. But after that, there was no way I'd be stopping willingly. And after 3 months (and E barely above normal cis-male levels), I switch to injections (at a dose that was eventually cut down by more than half) and I could tell the difference mentally the next day.

I keep hearing that E really helps the hair situation for a lot of people; I really hope it works that way for me as well!

When I started HRT, I assumed I'd eventually need laser for pretty much everything is I wanted to be content with my body hair. Honestly, at this point, I'd probably only serious consider it for my face and chest unless it was covered by insurance or really cheap. I'd still prefer less, but its not really a big deal anymore. Took over a year to get to that point though imo.