TL;DR
- Body hair is the one hair-removal decision where hormones help. Feminising HRT tends to reduce body hair more than facial hair, though for many people the change is modest, so, in our view, it is worth letting hormones act before paying for extensive laser or electrolysis.
- That’s the opposite of the advice for the face, and deliberately so: a beard is reduced only modestly by hormones and keeps growing, while body hair tends to become finer and slower-growing; guidelines put the onset of reduced terminal hair growth at 6–12 months and the maximum effect at more than three years.
- HRT reduces body hair; it doesn’t remove it. Complete removal still needs laser, electrolysis or both, but you may be treating less hair if you wait.
- For what remains: laser is the practical choice for large areas and dark hair; electrolysis is for pale, red or white hair and smaller areas. The colour and skin-tone rules are the same ones that govern facial hair removal.
- This is mostly a transfeminine and non-binary decision. Testosterone increases body hair, which many trans men welcome.
For many people, body hair is the one area where patience can save money.
Why body hair is different from facial hair
If you have read the facial piece, this will sound like a contradiction, and it is a deliberate one. There, the advice was not to wait for hormones, because feminising HRT reduces but does not stop beard growth. Body hair behaves differently. Feminising therapy reduces body hair, and to a lesser extent facial hair: it slows growth and makes individual hairs finer and less conspicuous, and trunk hair tends to respond more than facial hair. Guidelines put the onset of reduced terminal hair growth at 6–12 months and the maximum effect at more than three years, although some changes, such as finer hair shafts, appear within the first months. The response varies a great deal between people, and with factors such as genetics and age at starting treatment. The Endocrine Society describes the reduction as usually mild, and a 2023 systematic review notes that the values reached are not in the typical range for cisgender women. But the direction is consistent enough that body hair is the place where hormones, not a clinic, can do the first and cheapest part of the work.
The trans-specific evidence here is limited: a 2023 systematic review found only four studies reporting body-hair outcomes with feminising therapy, mostly small, with follow-up of 20 weeks to 30 months.
Sequence the treatments, not just the hair
The practical consequence is simple. If you are early in feminising HRT and considering laser or electrolysis for your body, there is a reasonable case, in our view, for giving hormones a year or two first and then treating what is actually left, rather than paying to remove hair that HRT would have thinned anyway. We found no study that has tested this sequencing directly; it follows from the time course above. This isn’t a reason to do nothing: if particular body hair is a source of real distress, treating it now is entirely reasonable. But as a default, sequencing hormones ahead of extensive body removal is the more economical order, and a decision worth making for yourself rather than at the point of sale.
Laser or electrolysis for the body
For the hair that remains, the choice runs on the same logic as the rest of this series, with one practical thumb on the scale. Because body areas are large, laser, which treats a broad area in each pass and is less time-consuming, is far more practical than electrolysis, which works one follicle at a time and is slow and costly across a whole back or chest. So for dark body hair, laser is usually the first practical choice, with electrolysis kept for what laser can’t do: pale, red, grey or white hair, and smaller or stubborn areas. The colour and skin-tone rules are the same as for the face (laser needs pigment, the right wavelength matters on darker skin, and “reduction” rather than “removal” is the honest word), so rather than repeat them here, see Laser vs Electrolysis for Facial Hair Removal, which sets them out in full. Efficacy figures do differ by site, though: in trials with long follow-up, laser results were worst on the face and best in the one trial on leg hair. Like most laser and electrolysis evidence, those figures are not from trans-specific studies.
What hormones won’t do
Three honest caveats keep the sequencing advice from tipping into false reassurance. HRT reduces body hair but does not clear it: guidelines are explicit that complete removal requires electrolysis, laser or both. Laser cannot target a hair that lacks pigment, so pale and white body hairs that remain after hormones will need electrolysis rather than laser. And the response is genuinely variable: planning around a best-case reduction can disappoint, so it is better to let hormones do what they do and then assess what is left than to assume they will do most of it.
A note for trans masculine and non-binary readers
This article assumes the goal is reducing body hair, which in practice is mostly a transfeminine and non-binary aim. For trans men, testosterone increases body and facial hair, and many welcome it, though some do not. Non-binary goals vary widely in both directions; where the aim is reduction, everything above applies, and where hair removal is being done to prepare for genital surgery, that is a different decision covered in the pre-vaginoplasty and pre-phalloplasty pieces.
What to actually do
- Delay the spending, not the decision. If you’re early in HRT, consider giving hormones a year or two and reassessing before paying for extensive removal; you may be treating less hair, at less cost.
- Treat now only where it matters. If specific body hair is causing real distress, there’s no rule that says you must wait; treat it and let hormones handle the rest.
- Match method to hair and area: laser for large areas and dark hair; electrolysis for pale, red, grey or white hair and smaller areas. Laser is cleared for permanent reduction and often needs lifelong maintenance; electrolysis aims to destroy each treated follicle, but it takes many sessions, results depend on the operator, and some retreatment is common with either.
- Mind your skin tone. On darker skin, the device and settings matter for safety; the facial piece covers what to ask.
Related
For the mechanism, the colour and skin-tone detail, and how to read a clinic’s claims, see Laser vs Electrolysis for Facial Hair Removal and What Laser Hair Removal Actually Does to the Follicle. Hair removal to prepare for genital surgery is a different decision with different stakes; see Pre-Vaginoplasty Hair Removal: Laser vs Electrolysis and Pre-Phalloplasty Hair Removal: Donor Sites and the Neo-Urethra.
Competing interests
The author has a commercial interest in skincare and a planned aesthetic hospital, and other declared interests, listed with the date each began in our register of declared interests.
Sources
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- Hembree WC, Cohen-Kettenis PT, Gooren L, Hannema SE, Meyer WJ, Murad MH, et al. Endocrine treatment of gender-dysphoric/gender-incongruent persons: an Endocrine Society clinical practice guideline. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2017;102(11):3869–3903. doi:10.1210/jc.2017-01658. (Table 13: decreased terminal hair growth, onset 6–12 months, maximum more than 3 years; “Complete removal of male sexual hair requires electrolysis or laser treatment or both”; great variability between individuals.) Time course consistent with Coleman E, Radix AE, Bouman WP, Brown GR, de Vries ALC, Deutsch MB, et al. Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People, Version 8. Int J Transgend Health. 2022;23(Suppl 1):S1–S259. doi:10.1080/26895269.2022.2100644, Appendix C, Table 1 (adapted from Hembree).
- Deutsch MB. Overview of feminizing hormone therapy. In: Deutsch MB, ed. Guidelines for the Primary and Gender-Affirming Care of Transgender and Gender Nonbinary People. 2nd ed. San Francisco: UCSF Center of Excellence for Transgender Health (now Gender Affirming Health Program); 17 June 2016. https://transcare.ucsf.edu/guidelines/feminizing-hormone-therapy (“reduction of body hair (and to a lesser extent, facial hair)”; genetics and age at starting therapy as predictors of feminisation.) With Reeves C, Deutsch MB, Wilson Stark J. Hair removal, in the same guidelines (laser treats larger areas and is less time-consuming; electrolysis targets individual hairs and can be time-consuming and costly; laser ineffective on light hair; lifelong maintenance often needed).
- Giltay EJ, Gooren LJG. Effects of sex steroid deprivation/administration on hair growth and skin sebum production in transsexual males and females. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2000;85(8):2913–2921. doi:10.1210/jcem.85.8.6710. (Shaft diameter had reached its maximum decrease by the first follow-up at four months; facial hair kept growing; the authors describe beard growth as relatively resistant compared with abdominal hair, and their Table 1 shows larger relative falls on the abdomen, without a formal between-site test.)
- Krasniqi A, McClurg DP, Gillespie KJ, Rajpara S. Efficacy of lasers and light sources in long-term hair reduction: a systematic review. J Cosmet Laser Ther. 2022;24(1–5):1–8. doi:10.1080/14764172.2022.2075899. (Long-term reduction lowest in the facial trials, highest in the single leg-hair trial.)
- Eden Openly, Laser vs Electrolysis for Facial Hair Removal (https://edenopenly.com/clinical/laser-vs-electrolysis-facial-hair-removal/): for selective photothermolysis, the pigment and skin-tone rules, device choice and paradoxical hypertrichosis, which apply to body hair as well.
