HairTell Member’s Recommendations:
Member Kelsey says:
http://www.hairtell.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=11719&page=0#Post11719
12-04-03
Well, most of you on this board know who James is, if not all of you.
I have had the fortune to be able to do treatment with him. And I will say that he’s as nice and knowledgeable in person as he is in here.
I haven’t had any experiences with anyone else, but after two treatments with James, I can say that I’m very glad I haven’t had experiences with anyone else.
I definitely recommend him if you’re in the Buffalo area or even if you’re not. I drive about an hour and 15 minutes to get there, and I would drive farther if I had to.
7-14-04
I realized tonight that I hadn’t been here in a while, so I thought I would come in and post an update.
I’ve had several sessions with James and things are going great. I am having two areas treated, and on one of them, I have only one visible hair. It is now in it’s non-growing phase, which is unfortunate, because I hope to schedule another appointment next month.
The other area is doing significantly better.
I’ve had only slight redness and a few minor white bumps here and there. Nothing that is a big deal at all! And now that I haven’t had an appointment in a while, my skin is completely normal.
James is great. I definitely recommend him if you want nice skin after the whole process is finished.
Kilimarjaro’s Post:
3-27-04
I have had 6 treatments with James Walker over the past 9 months and I drive almost 3 hrs to get to Buffalo. I never expected to be doing such crazy shit before puberty hit me and continues to hit – especially being male and able to accept a lot of excess hair. I just got more than excess in many places!
Thanks to James for giving me treatments that each last 2 hours or more. The longest one was for 3 hours. The one electrologist I went to see in Cleveland only treated me for a half hour stretch at any one time (because of her bad back according to her… although she treated other people despite that bad back right after I was done?!), and used only blend. She also used an atiquated machine by today’s standards, unlike James’ machine.
Another important thing that I need to thank James for – he ONLY charges for actual treatment time. Any bathroom breaks, rest requests by me (when he puts on some cooling stuff on my treated areas) etc… are not counted. Again, this is the opposite of what my electrologist in Cleveland did. Even after accounting for gas and tolls I pay in addition to James’s fees, I still get a good deal because I only get charged for the actual treatment time.
I have to say this, but it was James who referred me to this Cleveland electrologist initially, so I have learnt to always be suspicious about someone working on you even when that person has a good reputation in the industry – since you are the one being fooled in the end. I would have never realized that this electrologist was bad if I hadn’t gone to see James. On a positive note, this subpar electrologist’s office looked much nicer than James’ office.
Going back to my treatments with James, I waited for 9 months before posting this testimonial since I didn’t want to mislead people if I got bad side effects or regrowth. I am still a bit sceptical about how permanent this will all be, but pleased with results so far and especially pleased with the lack of any scarring. I have done the middle of my unibrow and there is a striking improvement that I can easily tell. The only problem was that on the first treatment, James used the faster thermolysis on my eyebrow area due to the large number of hairs there, and I ended up with some scabbing and swelling that was visible for a few months. However, it is all gone now and since we moved to blend in the eyebrow area, the scabbing/swelling lasts just one day after each treatment.
I should also point out that both termolysis and blend treatments in other areas of my body have resulted in little swelling and/or scarring that is almost completely gone in a day or two. I also make sure that I apply Tea Tree Oil and Aloe Vera Gel for the first few days after each treatment (Tea Tree Oil at night and Aloe Vera after my shower in the morning).
The other areas where I have had treatments include my back of neck and lower back. I know that all areas have improved, but it is harder to get impressed in those cases since the hair is more widely spread compared to my eyebrows and I have a lot of other untreated hair in or near those areas. Additionally, I don’t try to see the back of neck and lower back in the mirror. I would wish that all electrologists used digital cameras and took before and after pics over the long-term. It is a small financial investment with many benefits.
Overall, I am definitely happy with my decision to begin electrolysis. I want to get my beard reduced too, but there is no way I can get to the Buffalo area so regularly and for such a lengthy period of time. I will be very glad when scientists discover something simple and fast to remove body hair that puts all these electrologists out of business forever!
Laser doesn’t seem to be this “thing” as yet from what I have read, especially for my darker skin. The biggest worry about laser for me is the rumors that it can activate smaller/miniature follicles, which electrolysis would leave untreated. That scares me a bit.
Steveo’s post
5-15-04
Well after years of waxing and the uncertainty of laser (which my medical physicain explained to me) I decided to take on my hair problem. On Friday I decided to drive two hours from Toronto to Buffalo to visit our favourite electrologist James Walker. By the way It was such a good drive it only took me an hour and a half. Let me give you some details about me and my excessive hair. I’m 22 years old with olive type skin and hair all over. My back is sporadically covered which conects to my chest and my shoulders and arms also have sporadic hairs. After finally reaching James office which is in the beginning phase of renovations he explained to me the different types of electrology and how it worked. After that we began work on my arms shoulders and shoulder blades. You must understand that on my arms my hair grows in an awkward pattern so it took longer to clear my arms than expected. I finally understand why James explains to people that you can only figure out how long it will take you once you begin your treatment. As for the day we did two 90 minute sessions with a break in between and then lunch where we laughed over our distinct families. After lunch we proceeded to continue with one more 90 minute session. We managed to clear roughly 1700 hairs. Even with that said and the four and a half hours of work I can see that for my initial clearing, my entire back and other areas will take at least 12 hours. But James said the first clearing is always the most dramatic. Another funny things is when we were on our last 90 minutes session a previous client of his who had his entire beard removed dropped in out of the blue and visited us which I must say was great for me. I got to see first hand at what electrology can do for a man with 500 hairs per square inch on his face. He looked like a baby boy at the age of 53. Anyways the electrology itself wasn’t such a big deal, it is slow but works. As well I felt minimum pain sometimes and sometimes felt nothing. I think at the last hour I was just beginning to get restless and thats why I was feeling the electrolysis more. This is my first appointment and will continue once a week till I can get to once a month. I will keep everyone updated considering I owe it to the people here on this board from which convinced me to help myslef. By the way its saturday morning for me and my arms look so good, the two spots on my shoulders are a bit red and bumpy, but nothing compared to the rash I would get from waxing. Its still really early, but I will post again in a couple months time so that I can inform my READERS… have a great weekend !!
Eroca’s Post:
http://www.hairtell.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/20793/site_id/1#import
4-01-05
hey i just wanted to let everyone know that i went to see James Walker yesterday and he worked on me for a few hours and you couldn’t tell i had any work done whatsoever! he’s the best out there, i’m positive. i could only go the one time b/c of the distance and ride situation, but i recommend that if anyone can go to him to do so b/c it’s the best thing ever. i just have this problem now to find someone in the michigan area around rochester or clarkston area that will work on me in more than one spot, which is going to be tough (if anyone knows any recommendations please let me know)
: ( but i need to at least try. Thanks again James!! Good luck to everyone with your unwanted hair problems
You can find this in Omphaloskeptic’s post http://www.hairtell.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Board=1&Number=42287&Searchpage=1&Main=8472&Words=+Omphaloskeptic&topic=0&Search=true#Post42287, with the full conversation, but here are one client’s words describing treatment at Executive Clearance:
Omphaloskeptic writes:
To give a concrete example, hairtell’s very own James Walker did a marathon treatment on me of just shy of 13 hours, basically spread over two days.
That was the first full clearance of my beard - 10,000 hairs removed in under 13 hours. No anesthetic needed. Aside from a few small areas (such as right under the nose), it was pretty much painless. Uncomfortable, mind you… but that has more to do with just sitting around on the treatment table for long periods of time - something that wouldn’t exactly be helped by lidocaine injections.
James does his best to keep you distracted with the DVD player he’s got hooked up to monitors mounted in multiple locations (so you can see regardless of how he’s got you oriented on the table). And taking short breaks every hour or two is pretty important. But speaking as the victim… er, I mean “client”, it was all fairly pleasant. I was on a plane home the next day, and within 24 hours of the last treatment, the swelling had subsided. Not a single scab or mark on my face.
In comparison to how easy it was as the “client”, I figure marathon sessions have be pretty tiring for the electrologist! Which is no doubt one of the big reasons why you don’t see more of them offering that sort of treatment.
…
Well, to be clear, I tried a few electrologists before I started seeing James, and treatment with all of them did hurt. A LOT. Now admittedly, I have a very low pain threshold, but still… even using emla and the like, and even with the sessions being very short, I was less than enthusiastic about the prospect of them doing that to my whole beard. Yowch! I couldn’t imagine sitting through 2 hours of that, much less 13.
My point, I guess, is just that there is an absolutely massive difference between electrologists, even those purportedly with a lot of experience. Not one of the electrologists I tried had less than a decade of experience. If I had based my impression of electrolysis solely on my experience with them, I would’ve been begging for injections.
March 13, 2010 Khiz
Just wanted to add my experience…I DID make the trip to Buffalo and James worked on me. It was truly money well spent, as he is a master at his work. How i wish I could bear the pain a bit more and get my full back cleared. Yes, We were targeting full back clearance in 2 days. The speed of work was astonishing, but i just have sensitive skin which held me back at the very end.
Thanks alot james, and hoping we can get our next schedule soon.
http://www.hairtell.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/71078/Re_RECOMMENDED_ELECTROLOGIST_I.html#Post71078
October 20, 2010
This is the journal for my electrolysis journey. I hope you find it informative and helpful. The first thing I had done was a Full beard removal minus about 1.5 inches of lower neck. The first clearance was roughly 30 hours and 17,000+ hairs removed, moving along at a pace of 550+ hairs and hour. The majority was done with Picoflash. It went like this: Insert/ZAP/tweeze/Insert/ZAP/tweeze. The Zap was very fast which is great.
In January, I will also add in back, upper arms, nape of neck, shoulders and eyebrows.
Observations:
Pain- The single most painful thing I’ve been through! It was an ordeal. But, look at the amount of hairs and their thickness and one will see why. My cheek took 3 hours and was a breeze really. The closer to bone, the more painful. The chin and upper lip were the worst. I had about 3 categories for the hairs. 1- I would call my dessert hairs, didn’t even know they were removed. 2- Ouch! 3- Holy @#$% what was that!!?!! (Sorry James if I cursed)
At the 6 week mark, I truly believe a clearance then would’ve been a cinch in comparison. But, I was back in Baghdad and will have to wait until January.
Plucking- I always see this term in electrolysis posts. But, I remember feeling pain with the tweezing of the zapped hair at least 2/3 of the time. I was pretty religious with holding the mirror and watching, and when a hair would stick, James would re-zap and then get it. I just can’t imagine someone with James’ level of experience plucking 2/3 of the 17,000 hairs.
Skin Reactions- I did get a few white bumps. Tea Tree oil/ aloe vera took care of them in a couple of days. My chin oozed like crazy. I would just wash it gently in the shower every morning. By the time I flew home, the crustiness was no longer happening. As for swelling, it happens when you have so much done. In the pictures it will look like I am just eating James out of house and home the whole time. It’s just the swelling. I have also seen others mention scabbing. I never got a single scab with this. 6 weeks, 9 weeks later? At this point, shaving was way easier. I could shave against the grain without irritation and actually get a smooth shave. I have also found that the full removal gave me a great exfoliation. Maybe since I could actually get to my skin. I’ll be back for next clearing in January. I’ll post all of that as well. J
http://www.hairtell.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/79558/Re_Kickin_Bulbs_Breakin_Chains.html#Post79558
