Hi,
Interested in getting electrolysis done on face and arms. I have been reading the forums but I don’t understand the timeline. What is a clearance? Why must one go in for several “clearances?” Once a hair is removed, is it not gone forever? Or is it possible that it comes back?
Also, why must one “not touch” a hair for a certain period of time and how long should the “no touch” period be?
Reading this form is very deceiving depending on where you live !
If you happen to be lucky enough to be a big centre, city, where there may be expert zappers you may get lucky. Or if you are one of the lucky few who can get to go and see josefa or have a marathon session with some of the other pro zappers on this forum. But for the majority of us, you will be one of the people like me who read this forum and then went out and looked for what i read …it has been not so rosy. Ive yet to encounter one zapper who does these so-called clearances etc. Ive spent a lot of money, and seen many hours with zappers just on a small area of sideburn, and there is still no end on sight.
Read the forum, all of your answers are there!!
What is a clearance?
A clearance is the removal, by electrolysis, of all hair present in the area, where some add the caveat of all hair that is visible to someone standing a certain distance away.
Why must one go in for several “clearances?” Once a hair is removed, is it not gone forever? Or is it possible that it comes back?
Once it is removed it is gone. However each of your hairs go through cycles of being dormant and growing. At any one time, not all of your hairs are growing, so while you remove all of the active hairs, there will be more hairs becoming active. Depending on your strategy, you may go and have periodic “clearances” or you may prefer to work for shorter amounts of time over the same period.
Also, why must one “not touch” a hair for a certain period of time and how long should the “no touch” period be?
You can remove hair at the surface, e.g. cutting or shaving. you can make it less obvious by bleaching.
If you tweeze or wax the hair, that will affect the root. you may remove it totally so it will not appear again until it is next in its active phase. This means that the process will take longer.
I meant i have never encountered a zapper yet, who knew of ,or did the “three clearances” I’ve read so much about here on this form!
I think “3 clearances” is only possible with
I think 1 and 3 are the only reasons many people don’t get “3 clearances”. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.
I think I’ve only really seen 2 electrologists on this forum use that method.
To the OP, it’s not necessary that for each appointment you have a clearance. For my face, we started on the chin for a few hours, and each week, went back over the chin and slowly expanded into other areas of the face. Yea, it looks little weirder than it would have in the beginning just because the chin is bare but there’s hair in other places (and as a guy with a bit of a shadow… it looks weird), but that method still works.
I think I’ve only really seen 2 electrologists on this forum use that method.
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I know at least 2 more electrologists are using this strategy when the area allows (Beate Ritzer and Mairi Hawkes). So now we are 4 electrologists.
Myself.
"I think “3 clearances” is only possible with
I think 3 is the only reason many people don’t get “3 clearances”."
Before first clearing. (March 2012)
Before second clearing. (October 2012)
A year later: (October 2013)
Ah, so I CAN shave the area to be treated? For some reason, I thought I had read that an area must not be “touched” for 3 months or so.
You can shave the area. However this WILL affect the number of hairs which can be treated as hairs remain in the follicle for some time after they stop actively growing, and if you shave them then they wont reappear - meaning that you lose the opportunity to treat those hairs.
I think there may be some controversy over treating hairs which are in that inactive phase anyway, and some electrologists do not tend to treat them anyway (this is more a guess on my part from what I’ve read on here than actual knowledge on the subject) 
Wow, amazing! I thought the face was not possible because of facial hair cycles faster or something? So it’s basically just like body hair?
Yes, it is. That you see there in that picture are the results one year after the second clearing. With a third would be only 5% of the total number of hairs in the area?. No “pop” or “pluck” where the hair is pulled out.
