Are you supposed to feel the hair being plucked?

I had my 2nd electrolysis appointment for my underarm today. This time I noticed a few times I felt the hair being pulled after she applied the needle. I read on the boards that you are not supposed to feel the hair being pulled. She told me she had a hard time getting a few ingrown hairs. But I felt the pulling more than a few times. I know I felt the needle though because it is a little painful. Is she doing the treatment right? This place is highly referred but I am scared I got the sweet old woman who doesn’t have as much experience as the others.

[ May 22, 2004, 03:00 PM: Message edited by: somegirl ]

Never ever feel the hair being tweezed. Way pay for what you can do at home? click to electrolysisinformation.com the questions and answers…

With Electrolysis, not all “tugging” implies “tweezing”. See what James thinks before you confront your Electrologist.

You can read elsewhere on this site my long form discussions on this subject, so what I will say here is that tweezing equals what you feel when you gab a hair yourself, and pull it out. When one does electrolysis, especially with the newer machines that try to keep the treatment energy limited to the bulge area, you may have a “root system” that is larger than the shaft above it, and you will feel a tug or a popping sensation when that hair is epilated. It is not unlike the hard core of a zit being forced out of a pore. It is harder and larger than the opening that must streatch to release it.

Your electrologist could increase the treatment energy and eliminate this infrequent occurance, but she is trying to give you the most comfortable treatment, while still giving you good treatment. If one must choose between possible overtreatment, and possible undertreatment, lean towards under, as you can always give a second “zap”, but overtreatment is just a fact after the machine makes that BEEP!

As long as you are not feeling what you feel when you pull it at home, the treatment can still be working properly.

[ May 25, 2004, 09:59 AM: Message edited by: James W. Walker VII, CPE ]

So many variables, what’s a patient to do?

I suspect that certain areas of the body are more prone to resisting release. If the skin is less elastic, it’s less able to stretch to release the hair.

It also depends on the stage of growth the hair is in. My experience has been it’s hard to epilate telogen hairs without them feeling like they’re being plucked. Early anagen hairs, on the other hand, epilate easily under most circumstances.

I don’t understand the ingrown hairs comment. I’ve never known an ingrown to do anything but slide out easily.

It didn’t hurt but I did feel it being pulled.

She made the ingrown hair comment because I was wondering about the pulling sensation. I have 3 big bumps on my underarm from bad ingrown hairs. The bumps are still there so I don’t know if she got the hairs out or not.

I am getting married in October and my gown shows my underarms so I want to get them as pretty looking as possible :smile:

Thanks for all the advice!

My experience with underarms (two of them!) was that a significant number of the hairs were challenging to epilate. Many had curved follicles, and right at the center the hairs went in a variety of directions. So I’m not surprised you felt the occasional tugging.