Uma's laser hair removal fund. PART 2: The clinic went bust!

UPDATE added at bottom of page.

Hi there my name is Uma, if you've found this you almost certainly know me already, and if not I'm happy that this fundraiser has reached that far!

The short version is: I'm trying to raise money to fund laser hair removal.

The longer version is:

I'm part way through my transition, and while I've been on waiting lists for NHS lists for a number of years, the current strategic under funding of trans care in the UK means I'm looking at at least three more years before I can expect NHS support.

I have managed to find a way forward so far, getting a diagnosis and a GP that will prescribe my hrt, but this has exhausted what I had managed to save over the last few years. I am self employed, and couple of years of low earnings have put me in a very vulnerable position in general, and mean I have no chance to accessing any kind of private to trans health care. As context, I have a number of other conditions including severe long term mental health problems.

Presently I am struggling a great deal with my facial and body hair. This has significant effects on my mental health and ability to do the unpaid work that's required to bring in more paid commissions, and simply to live a normal happy life. I've lived with depression my whole life and I have strategies for managing this. However the cumulative effects of my dysphoria and the reflection of my self that manifests in the constant misgendering from strangers have put me in a place I'm having difficulty in getting myself out from.

While no one thing is going to fix the situation I'm in, making steps to remove the facial and body hair that is the focus on my gender dysphoria at present would be a very good start.

Laser hair removal costs are notoriously difficult to calculate as the number of sessions required depend on multiple factors. I've set the fund to £1000 in order to make a start by block buying discounted time at my local SK:N branch and to afford aftercare.

UPDATE: 6th January 2025

I've ben putting on writing this for a while, thinking id maybe be able to get by without having to ask for more help.

So first of all, I was just floored by people's generosity to the original fund. I wrote the page, put it on my instagram, and then turned my phone off for 24 hours because i was so anxious. when I turned it back on the target had been met and it was just the most beautiful thing. I dont respond well to stuff like this, I find it so overwhelming that I dont know what to do, so i shut down for a few more days, but was absolutely overjoyed that people had decided to help me like this.

So I then contacted SK:N in Newcastle where I live, and made an appoint for a test. Everything went really well, the techs were wonderful and as a neurodivergent person I cant emphasises enough how good their level of detailed explanation was. I knew exactly what was going to happen at every step. Came back a few days later, gave them half of my GoFundme (about 570) for the first block of 8 sessions.

I had the first session, and while obv pretty painful I was really happy with the procedure and the results. I did, and still do feel really reassured that this was going to help me. Next appointment was booked for a about a month later, and I just concentrated on the aftercare, looking up community recommendations, and using a bit of the extra gofundme money to buy some good quality moisturiser.

and then, a week before my second appointment was due, I got the email that SK:N had ceased trading, and was applying for bankruptcy.

What then happed was just a world of confusion. information came in dribs and drabs, the website for SK:N redirected to a holding page saying more information was coming, Reddit forums were full of people asking what was going to happen and what to do.

I never had to deal with a company going bust before, and I'd specifically chosen to go with SK:N for my treatment because not only are they recommend by a lot of my trans friends, they've been around for a long time and have branches in a lot of UK cities. Id gone with them because for both reasons i felt secure.

There were zero warning signs that i could see that this was going to happen. according to the links above, staff only found out on the morning that the company shut. There was a lot of confusion about what we had to do if we were owed money, and i spent a few days really stressed following links through government web pages, in order to "register as a creditor". There was a time limit on this, or rather it was stressed that creditors would be addressed in order that they registered, so if I didnt do this quickly, i wouldnt get anything.

i got really really unwell and then when an unrelated work project also fell through the week later (jeopardising my main income for the remainder of the year) I had to take two weeks off for (unpaid, im freelance) sickness leave.

The thing about laser treatment is it works best if you can be regular with it. there was talk online that SK:N would get bought out and the new owners would honour the original contracts (see FAQs), but clock was ticking. trans friends in newcastle said they had had good experience in a small place across town so i quickly made an appointment so i could continue my treatment at 4-5 weeks from the first.

This place is nice, its much smaller and as a result the prices are higher, so with the remainder of my Gofundme and a bit extra scraped from somewhere else I paid for 6 sessions, the last of which is coming up soon.

So for the maths, id originally planned my gofundme around 16 sessions with SK:N, but with their folding after id had 1 with them, and booked 6 more with this local place.

Treatment is going well, im having some reduction in facial hair growth, but in order to finish these treatment, and having to open this fund up to raise an additional 650 for another 6 sessions. this is still less than what id planned for, but i think it will get me somewhere where im more in control of my facial dysphoria.

FAQ:

I did, and had 70 refunded. An oversight, which I will never make again, is that I paid most of my treatment in cash. Id come out to my first appointment, where I was due to pay the remainder of my balance after the deposit. I had the cash at home from other work, and figured that since I have a web-only bank account and paying cash in is complex i would use this to pay instead of paying it into the bank and then paying on my card. I haven't paid for anything larger than a takeaway in cash in about 8 years before this, and I now know never to pay for anything of this size in this way ever again. I want to stress though, that SK:N is a company that has 70 branches, and was 34 years old with slews of recommendations. I have never been in a situation before where a company i have paid for services from has liquidated, and therefor had no idea how little protection there was.

this is another reason i have waited to update my gofundme. I thought this might be the case. I found out today (6th jan 2025) that it is not, and i felt really naive.

as the email says I'm very unlikely to get anything back. The report that is referenced in the letter really spells that out.

thats right, the deficit from the liquidated company's assets against the total debt is 51 million pounds. I am not getting my 500.

I did indeed! SK:N started trading again last autumn, I know this because they sent me an email advertising their services and their new address in Newcastle. This obviously seems good, they have my data so they know that I've paid for 8 treatments and only received 1 right? So I travelled to their new address, spoke toa receptionists and waited around until they could find someone in charge of the laser clinic to speak to me. Again I feel naive, but they refused to even offer a discount let alone to honour the paid for treatments. the staff member explained that their company had bought the name SK:N, the laser equipment, all the data (hence they could send me a marketing email with my name on it). I found out later they'd also reemployed a lot of the staff who had been layed off when the previous iteration of SK:N had folded, which is perhaps the only silver lining.

The place I am going to now, (Beauty Revealed in Jesmond) is the only other place in newcastle that I have been given a recommendation as being trans friendly, and so when i had to quickly find a new place to continue my treatment last year, I went with them. they are much smaller, a single salon rather than a chain, and are therefor more expensive. ive been going for a few months now and I feel safe going there. I dont know if there is anywhere else that might be good that is cheaper, and I cant really deal with that unknown at this time.