<a href="/images/laser_9.jpg"><img src="/images/laser_9.jpg" width="180" style="float: left; margin: 0.8pc;"></a>
-I had my ninth laser session the other week (out of the ten-session package that I prepaid for), almost a year after [my first](/2017/Nov/laser-1/). (They schedule them out four to six weeks, and I rescheduled a couple of them.) I'm ... pretty underwhelmed by the results so far? My facial hair is nontrivially _thinner_ than it was before (and maybe slightly blonder [by attrition](https://www.urbana.ie/blog/can-laser-hair-removal-work-light-hair/))—it's hard to be sure of the magnitude because apparently I'm still the kind of _idiot_ who doesn't bother to take detailed "Before" photos _even after [explicitly noting this](/2017/Nov/laser-1/#anchor-before)_—but there's still a lot of it noticeably _there_. "Marking my face as male", I want to put it, but maybe that would be a misleading phrasing, because it's not as if people don't reliably, involuntarily infer my sex from my facial structure even at my cleanest-shaven. (And I should remember that things are only going to get worse—despite my beautiful-beautiful ponytail in the back, Trent says my hairline in the front is already a [Norwood 3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton%E2%80%93Norwood_scale), and it takes all of my strength as an aspiring rationalist just to believe him.)
+I had my ninth laser session the other week (out of the ten-session package that I prepaid for), almost a year after [my first](/2017/Nov/laser-1/). (They schedule them out four to six weeks, and I rescheduled a couple of them.) I'm ... pretty underwhelmed by the results so far? My facial hair is nontrivially _thinner_ than it was before (and maybe slightly blonder [by attrition](https://www.urbana.ie/blog/can-laser-hair-removal-work-light-hair/))—it's hard to be sure of the magnitude because apparently I'm still the kind of _idiot_ who doesn't bother to take detailed "Before" photos _even after [explicitly noting this](/2017/Nov/laser-1/#anchor-before)_—but there's still a lot of it noticeably _there_. "Marking my face as male", I want to put it, but maybe that would be a misleading phrasing, because it's not as if people don't reliably, involuntarily infer my sex from my facial structure even at my cleanest-shaven. (And I should remember that things are only going to get worse—despite my beautiful–beautiful ponytail in the back, Trent says my hairline in the front is already a [Norwood 3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamilton%E2%80%93Norwood_scale), and it takes all of my strength as an aspiring rationalist just to believe him.)
I'm not sure how typical my results are and why—the [marketing literature](https://www.laseraway.com/articles/hair-removal/effective-laser-hair-removal-really/) from the clinic/parlor/salon promises permanent reduction by "up to 90 percent after 6–8 treatments", but _up to_ isn't exactly a probability distribution. Maybe I just have resilient hair; maybe I'm grimacing or grunting too much during the treatment, priming the merciful nurse–technician to hold back on the zapping more than she (invariably _she_) is supposed to; who knows?
projects / Ultimately_Untrue_Thought.git / blobdiff