I am an indian male and considering electrolysis for removing hairs from the side burns and cheeks. Please advise which method is better Thermolysis or Blend.
also, what type of probe is good with what method.
thanks in advance.
From my understanding, thermolysis is much faster (1 to 2 seconds per hair), though the initial zap to some hairs may not kill them. So they will grow back a few weeks later and have to get zapped again (one or two more times) before they ultimately die. So thermolysis gets your hairy zone clear faster, but you may have to go for longer to get it fully killed.
Blend is a bit slower per hair, so you clear fewer hairs per session and it will ultimately take longer to get your hairy zone cleared.
In the end it depends on what’s more important to you–getting the area hair-free asap, or spending fewer months involved in this process.
thanks VespaSusie for your response.
Could anyone know what type of probe goes well with which process?
thanks
The main reason that electrolysis takes as long as it does, is because hair grows in cycles. It goes through three stages of growth, when during some, the hair is most vulnerable to treatment, and during others, it’s chances of survival are very high. Also, at any given moment you have hairs that are visible and ready to be treated, those that are not visible today, but will become visible in a few days, and those that are in a resting stage and will not come out for a longer period of time.
I prefer to use thermolysis in most cases because of the speed. It is speculated that blend has a higher kill rate, but I can clear the same area with thermolysis a few times during the time that it would take clearing that area in blend. Hence, one can have a much higher kill rate, while also keeping the area hair free throughout the treatment course. It is an age long debate among electrologists which method is better, so I won’t assert that thermolysis is better, but it is rather my preference in most cases for cost effectiveness. Still, in some cases, I will prefer to use blend.
Insulated probes are more gentle on your epidermis than stainless probes. Also, your comfort can depend on the probe manufacturer. Many recommend Ballet brand gold plated probes. It is true that some don’t recommend insulated probes with the blend modality, but I have done this in the past without any problems and it worked just fine.
The best advice is to find a good competent electrologist to do your work. Then you can just rely on his/her recommendations.
Good luck
The darker the skin the more one should be concerned about hyperpigmentation and keloiding. Blend is recommended on darker skins. I suggest a test patch and wait several weeks to make sure there are no changes in the skin color or texture. If your electrologist does both blend and thermolysis, ask to try both. One may feel better than another. And the skin may react differently.
The probe used makes a big difference.
The reason it is cautioned not to use insulated probes when using blend is many probes insulating material is actually dissolved by the lye produced by the process.
There are insulated probes that are made for use with blend whose coating doesn’t come off with the limited use that a single use probe performs prior to discarding after ONE treatment session.
I would also agree, unless you can clear the entire area in blend each and every time, one will get faster clearance in thermolysis, and therefore faster permanence. If you can get full clearance each and every time in blend, then it may be worth the effort to clear the entire area in blend so that you don’t have to go over the area more than once to compensate for thermolysis’ higher regrowth rate.
I must also point out, that when regrowth does occur, it is not so fast as a few days, or even a short frew weeks. This is why one has to do a before pic, and compare the area a year later to see what your electrolysis has done. Even a person who had ONE electrolysis appointment wouldn’t know what was truely accomplished comparitively speaking until the same day the next year.