this post was submitted on 20 Mar 2026
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Greybeards are an increasingly rare commodity, it seems.
I've been in the industry for 13 years, a technologist using Linux for 19 years - I think I'd count as a greybeard if I hadn't lasered it off as part of my transition lmao
If you don’t mind me asking, how well does that work? I’m very interested in never having to shave again lmao
Effectiveness depends on your skin and hair color, paler skin and darker hair get better results. Results are permanent, a dead follicle stays dead for good, but you won't get 100% removal with a single pass because of how hair follicles cycle in and out of active duty. You'll need to do multiple treatments over the course of several weeks or months depending on how your hair grows.
As someone with dark hair and quite pale skin, I was basically a perfect case for it. At 7 sessions so far, the number of hairs that still grow on my face are countable - 43 of them by my count - I still do have to shave but it takes like 30 seconds because they're all focused on my upper lip and one particularly stubborn spot on my chin. The important part is that when I shave, I have no beard shadow at all now. I may not 100% pass yet without makeup but it makes makeup way easier to not have to also collor-correct for beard shadow.
Others have answered with more detail but yeah, it also does take testosterone suppression or you'll have to go back every so often to address any new/rejuvenated hairs. A cis guy friend of mine has to go just about every year.
It hurts, it takes a while (at least on my face), and it costs a fair bit depending on where you're at... but when it finally starts kicking in, I would STILL say it's worth it.
Just for your information, it only works in combination with suppressing Testosterone. as long as testosterone is present in high levels it will come back
This is not true
I had Lazer done on face, chest, arms, legs, and genitals. You need to do like 8-12 sessions but I haven't had to shave in years. Though there are like 5 clear hairs now that I pluck.
You can get rid of the clear hairs with electrolysis, they have to target each hair individually but if you've only got 5 it won't take very long
Yeah, I just keep forgetting to make an appointment.
Are the many sessions because you only do small areas per session, or because you need to do the whole area repeatedly?
Repeated, hair growth happens on different cycles and not all will be active at the same time. Need a short root for the Lazer energy to kill the root and sometimes one hit does not kill the base and needs to be hit again. https://milanlaser.com/inclusive-clientele/trans https://www.reddit.com/r/MtF/comments/15zbz45/does_anyone_have_experience_with_milans_unlimited/
You need to get the whole area done repeatedly, the follicles only die if they get zapped during a certain phase in their growth cycle. Typically laser sessions are spaced about a month apart to allow time for previously killed hairs to fall out and the remaining ones to make some progress in their cycle, you can expect to lose like 10-20% of the remaining hairs with each session.
I can’t speak for lasers, but if you want to try something less permanent but -much- cheaper, to see how well it works for you or how you like it before you commit to laser, pick up an IPL device (intermittent pulses of light). It works similarly, but if you stop using it for a long time, the hair eventually grows back. Mostly.
Once you get it to the point that it’s not growing anymore, which is like 2-4 months of use as directed by the device itself, depending on your hair/skin combo and the strength of light you use (which in full fairness, it does start as a several-times-weekly commitment) you only need to do spot treatments every few months, which I understand is something you have to do with laser anyway every 6-12 mths, this is just a bit more frequent. If you stop using it entirely, you’ll start to get noticeable regrowth after about 6 mths, but it could stay thin for years. I have some places I stopped doing and they are still noticeably thinner and finer than places that never got treated at all, 5+ years on.
The one I bought was like $125 usd a decade back, so they can be pretty affordable, and might be all you ever want to use since you can do it on your own time.
I got one of those high quality hand held laser diod things, but I only succeeded in getting light burns, guess it's because I'm blonde...
I feel like greybeards were always people who care little for the standards/expectations of society.
They probably have a lot in common with trans people, who unfortunately are forced to overcome very aggressive and hostile societal standards.
But Greybeards have a lot of luxury relative to trans people. They’ve always gotten to do what they want because of competency as a bargaining chip. Trans people as a group generally don’t have that.
Anyway, I’m rabbit holing. We treat trans people awful and they do nothing to deserve that.
Edit: I don’t mean to say trans people aren’t competent, just that greybeards privilege exists because they’ve passed through a specific niche filter that the general population has not
Indeed.
A Transition Plan suggestion (?):
Lifecycle of a rust enthusiast.
Used to be the lifecycle of a ham radio nerd now those guys are all weirdo magats
So, instead of the length of their beard it's the length of their socks we should be considering?
Either, and I suppose in a few special cases both!
Both imply a higher chance of tech competency.
If I even knew how to get into the industry and become an IT, I would have done it a long time ago. But it seems like a weird esoteric cult to get into
I can't tell if there's a pun that's going over my tired head (I just walloped myself with an early spring bike ride while recovering from a cold) but IT like any career is pretty easy to break into. Go to school and get a degree (I found a 2 year networking degree was sufficient to put myself on a very nice career trajectory. I've already hit mid-high level in my career based off only existing less than a decade of work experience, my technical knowledge and my 2 year degree) then start applying to jobs as you get close to graduating. You'll probably start in the help desk, then after a couple of years or so of that you can start applying to more administrative roles, such as maybe an admin role at a MSP or maybe you'll get lucky and snag an internal jr admin role somewhere to get started out, then you can further specialize from there if you wish, but once you get a job that has "admin" in the title and doesn't crush your soul you're already at a good point to coast if you so wish
IT is what you do when you are good with computers and not so much with people. You get really good at making the magic number boxes work for the MBAs and start explaining RFCs or networking protocols so that they fuck back off upstairs so you can go back to digging through log files and pcaps. It's all just puzzle solving, reading and a crippling fear of social interactions.
People it's 2026. Most coders/IT are just fine with social skills.
A joke is a lot like a frog, it can be informative to dissect it, but the patient usually dies in the process.
I mean, maybe, but also I still hate basically everyone aside from my family and a small circle of friends. I tolerate being social with others because I have to, but especially these days you never know who is going to turn out to.be a secret massive bigot asshole.
I am both good with computers and not good with people. I mean, I can be good with people, but I prefer not to be. I just mean I don't know how you even get one of these jobs. It seems like there's no entry level and all of the jobs are just being fulfilled but other IT professionals who have moved in from their previous position.
This is pretty accurate. When I came up I worked in an MSP. So I had to deal with customers. It taught me a lot about being able to say anything to people. You can break any news to anyone, it's all in how you present it. So I gained people skills.
After I passed through that gauntlet and gained a breadth of knowledge, I went internal and gained a depth of knowledge. And I started out breaking the news in a way that I would break news to a customer.
Later after I proved my depth of knowledge I started being able to be blunt to any CIO or CTO I came across. And most of the time they'd send me reqs or tell me something was happening that required my skill set then would leave me the hell alone to handle it without kibitzing or bumping my fucking elbow.
When I started my own one man consulting shop I stopped giving shits at all. I found a good client and we have a good contract and most of the C levels like having someone on staff who just says what they're thinking instead of sanitizing it. The CIO doesn't necessarily like it but he's outnumbered.
All this really only worked because I did go through a few years of soft skill hell though. Price you pay and all that. Well, price I paid for this path.