Im considering having electrolysis on my bikini line. Does anyone have an experience of this, or any tips?
Have you ever had the area waxed? If you have you know that it is a sensitive area.
Bikini hairs are deep rooted and coarse. Be sure to drink LOTS of water the day before and the day of your appointment. Depending on the size of your body and whether you work indoors or outside, I would consume 4-6 32 ounce glasses. In hot, humid weather you will need more water. Being well hydrated will help the hairs to slide out and the discomfort will be less.
Some clients have the bikini worked on with a topical numbing cream, while others just use an ice pack. The numbing cream will take the edge off, however it will not eliminate all sensation associated with the treatment. Tylenol will help too. The machine setting can be adjusted slightly to make it more comfortable, but the hairs still have to slide out of the follicle otherwise your treatment will not be effective.
The total length of time is dependent on how dense the hairs are and how large of an area it covers. Keeping the hairs trimmed or shaved a few days prior to treatment helps with the clearing.
I hope that these suggestions help you. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
also, what color is your skin and hair? if it’s very light skin and dark coarse hair, you can significantly reduce the number of electrolysis treatments needed by going the laser route first (with proper laser and research) as it’s one of the areas that responds best to laser. I’ve had great results there if you want to read my story. I’m getting electrolysis on some other areas, and finishing up a few hairs after laser with electrolysis on bikini and underarms where laser worked great for 95% of the hair.
I know that people are having success with laser in the axilla and groin areas, but is anyone else worrying about what that intense light is doing to their lymph nodes and immune system in general?
I think it would be wonderful to count on laser being a safe and effective way to treat all areas - these especially, because they are labor intensive for us. Since I am NOT a scientist or physician, I do not express my views to clients, since I don’t bring it up for them.
I am going to try to upload a picture recently taken of one of my clients. This is about half-way through the process. She had treatment about 2 weeks prior and this is her right abdomen and groin area, and she shaved the area I didn’t get cleared previously.
Okay, I tried to upload the picture - and was unsuccessful. Will put it somewhere you can view.
I totally agree with your thought process, Barbara. I am so excited about how well my facial electrolysis went, that I am beginning underarms next week. I am happy for all people who have great results from laser on underarms (I know it’s a lot) and are satisfied. However, for me personally, I can’t risk it. I’m not saying laser does anything to sweat glands, lymph nodes, etc. or not, but I won’t risk worrying & obsessing over a potential risk from laser ever again. I just went through too much with my face. Also, I will never give another dime to the LHR industry on principal alone. Besides, my electrologist has helped me so much that I’m happy to give her more business. I do wonder if they will ever find any harmful effects from laser or not on those areas you mentioned. Hmmmmmm. . .
I LOVE Laser for all the wrong reasons!!!
All of my current clients that have been treated with laser has noticed increased hair growth. Increased hair growth means more work for me.
Get educated about laser before using. I myself tried laser about 4+ years ago and I now have more hair than I started with.
Electrolysis is truly the only way. Permanent results and cost effective.
For the bikini area pick a good Electrologist, wear a old pair of underwear, baggy pants, or skirt,schedule your appts. latter in the day, drink lot’s of H2O, and you should have a wonderful lasting result!!
I have seen great results on the bikini line for those that have had laser, however, the reason I am seeing these great results has to do with them needing electrolysis to finish the job. I’m talking about scattered hair that is lighter. I have observed one lady that was not happy with her results, but that was probably due to the fact that she did not complete the series of treatments.
If you get electrolysis, specifically microflash thermolysis, expect to invest about six hours either all at once or spread out over five or six weeks just to get the area cleared of hair. Blend electrolysis works great, too and the timefactor to clear my be a little longer.
Thereafter, you will need to go for treatment as new hair comes to the surface. From start to finish, a bikini line generally takes about 15 treatments, spread out over 9-12 months. It’s good to start this area in the fall and work at over the winter so all is healed by next summer. Be aggressive and keep to a good time schedule to catch growing hairs. This area is prone to scabbing and hyperpigmentation marks, but all heals nicely in due course. Laser requires about the same amount of time with 4-6 treatments space out over 9-12 months,too. It’s all about those darn hair growth cycles ya know whether you choose laser or electrolysis.
Oh, and Barbara, thank goodness you are on this hair forum since you speculated about the unknown “risks” to the lymph nodes/immune system. You can speculate here without the moderator cutting your head off. We truly have free speech rights here,unless the language gets unkind. Many people wonder about if laser can cause problems later on???. It’s a natural question ask, but I have yet to see any published data pointing to laser causing other problems. Anything you see a www.pubmed.com says something like,‘we believe that using “X” laser to be safe and effective’. As with many things that are unknown, time will only tell.
Dee
Speculate away. Trust me, if you combed the web site archives, you would find spirited arguments about everything including Lymphatic System.
I even had an argument with one LASER booster who tried to say that thermolysis is just as much radiation as LASER, I tried to explain that although one could technically call radio waves a form of radiation, the distance on the scale between an electrolysis vibration wave, and a LASER spot is farther than the distance between a LASER spot and a Microwave Oven.
If you had a good life science class, you did an experiment in school where you tried to germinate seeds. One was given the best purified water, another distilled water, another municipal tap water, and the last was given water that was microwaved and allowed to cool.
The results are the pure and distilled water fed seeds thrive quickly and robustly, the tap water seeds germinate late, and grow slow and weakly, compared to the pure and distilled, and no matter how long you continue the experiment, the seeds given the microwaved water never even sprout! I guess it changes the useful composition of the stuff somehow, in a way we don’t quite understand just yet.
nanci, increased hair growth from laser is only on certain parts of the body, mainly woman’s face and men’s upper arms/shoulders area. Bikini and underarms with light skin and coarse hair get great results. It’s true that we don’t know the possibly negative effects of laser (past 10 years at least), but 10 yrs of studies haven’t brought anything up. There is no harmful radiation associated with laser frequency used for hair removal. Laser eye surgery for example also doesn’t have that. I do have to add that with electrolysis, there could be negative effects on the skin even with a skilled electrologist. Like a few people on the forum pointed out, sometimes there are some effects on the skin, like pigmentation etc. I do have a little bit of that myself on the upper lip area etc. I think the main goal of everyone here is to remove the hair, and most people are willing to deal with some of the consequences if that means the hair is gone. I know I am. In the end, it’s up to the customer to decide what they prefer. I know I am very happy I went with laser for those 2 areas (underarms and bikini). I AM getting electrolysis on other areas, so I know it would have taken A LOT more time and money to go that route from the beginning on these areas instead. It was worth it in terms of time and money in this case. I wouldn’t recommend it for all areas, but for this specifically if you’re a good candidate, it’s been a miracle.
My intention was to get to your first question, then I became a “drive-by” poster - post and run!
Clients who have electrology treatments on the bikini area love the results! What you can expect: If you are consistent with your appointments, you should expect the hair to reduce by half every 2 months or so. First you will clear the area. One person may take 6 hours to clear, but another may only take 30 minutes to clear. THAT all depends upon the amount of hair there is.
Your first goal is to clear all the hair. About 10 days after having first area cleared, you will see soft tapered hairs growing in. They are not hairs previously treated, but hairs that fell out (or were waxed) in the far past. At the first treatment, you might look closely and see that there are 2 or 3 hairs growing so close together that they appear to be coming from the same hair follicle. They are not, and has treatment progresses, you will begin to see single hairs without neighboring hairs. If you can continue clearing every 2 to 4 weeks, then you will begin to see large spots of no growth. Keep going, and the space between hairs increases and the number of hairs decrease.
JinxyPinxy,
Your bikini line electrolysis will go great. It’s a quick area to treat because all the follicals are clear, easy to insert, and are oriented in a uniform direction. Not like the kneecap or foot area where follicals can go everywhere. The bikini line issue is that the hairs can be shallow. Shallow hairs, closer to the skins surface can hurt a little more when treated. But take four 800mg Extra Strength Tylenols an hour before, and spray the area with Lanacaine and you’ll do fine.
Mantaray
I’m able to post this on vacation sitting in a rented car on a suburban Florida street waiting for my friend thanks to all the unsecured wireless home networks across the nation.
Don’t you just love that?
I was the laughing stalk of Hawaii sitting on a rock at the beach posting on here via the pirate connection to the unsecured network.
I wish I had a picture of it for posterity. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />
Hope that it’s okay to do this.
The picture of the bikini line I mentioned can be found at the bottom of this page: http://electrologyworks.com/18601.html
Best Wishes!
you were also successful at uploading it. the link is right next to your name and the post’s title. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Really? I see no evidence of pictures through my computer. In fact, whenever it looks like there are pictures with other posts, they don’t seem to work.
Thanks for letting me know.
yep, it says “attachment next to your name” and it’s a clickable link.
Please tell me. Did the picture turn out? Can you see the bare skin? The scattered hairs around the edges?
Yup, sure can Barbara. Picture looks great. So, you can’t view what you posted?
Dee
Just the text of my message. My name at the left side appears:
Barbara_CPE
Contributor
Reged: 10/19/05
Posts: 55
Well, okay. Hmmmmmmmmm… <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />
Someone smarter than me will have to tell you why you can’t see the pictures you posted. Anyone?