clearance w/o treating every hair

If I am treating an area where I want to get rid of a lot of offending hairs but not ALL the hair in that particular area, so as to not mess with the ones that don’t bother me as much and leave a natural look, how will I or the practitioner know when 1st and subsequent clearances have occurred?

(I apologize if this is just re-wording anything I’ve asked in the past, but I am still confused and want to try and understand better).

If the electrologist is not treating all of the hairs, then you are not working toward a first clearance.

Are the hairs vellus, accelerated vellus or terminal?

If they are terminal, then your electrologist should be clearing all the hair and your first clearance is when you walk out with no terminal hairs in the area.

If they are vellus or accelerated vellus, then you are probably having the hairs thinned and “first clearance” is not part of the vocabulary.

If you have the growth associated with terminal (coarse) hair, then leaving smaller hairs can work against you. If you have coarse hair, it will emerge as a smaller, finer hair and treating it THEN (anagen) is the quickest way of completing your treatments.

I have a mix of terminal dark hairs, brown and blonde vellus, and coarse blonde hairs that seem to be getting thicker. I don’t want to remove all of the hair on my cheeks but just get the dark ones and blonde ones that stick out and don’t hug the skin. Under my chin and on my throat there are alot of all types of hair I want gone but I don’t want to do the entire area.

How can I get treat the offending hairs but still leave the natural looking vellus hairs? Do people have to do every hair on their face to get success there? What are accelerated vellus hairs? I have some blonde vellus hairs that are thin and longer than the rest on the sides of my throat but many of them don’t stick straight out and instead hug the contours of my neck.

I would suggest that you mark/circle/point out the the hairs/areas that bug you the most and ask your electrologist to treat those first :slight_smile:

Just describe the the electrologist what you want treated, just as you have here. We’ve treated the entire spectrum of what anyone could possibly want treated.

I guess I just wonder what the success rate is if I don’t want to clear the whole area since so much is stressed in this forum about the importance of getting first clearance so you can get those anagen hairs best. Will it take a lot longer than a year if I’m not clearing all the hairs?

Even I don’t know what you really want done now.

Only the noticable hairs are cleared. Be consistent with your treatments, and all noticable anagen hairs will get their day of reckoning. Please don’t over think this, alli. Leave the major thinking and planning to your electrologist. I think you are very excited to get going and I also think you will be very happy in the end! It’s good to be curious, but you really must go in with a relaxed mind and body.

Dee

I’m sorry for asking too much and confusing things. Thanks for all of your help, sincerely.

I am a person that appreciates detail, too, so I understand your approach to all this, alli. Don’t hesitate to ask more questions, if need be, once you get going with the process. We’re here for you to offer support as best we can over the internet.

Dee

I agree. You’re really overthinking it now. Let the electrologist do their job, and gradually you will see less and less hair. Once you’ve reached a point where it seems like just enough is left, you can stop the treatments.

Thanks you guys for putting so much effort into this forum, even if we sometimes ask nagging questions (or maybe I should say ME instead of WE)! I appreciate you all so much.

I guess I was under the impression that you had to clear every single hair (including soft vellus) in an area in order to have the best success in the long run. Now I think I understand that as long as you get the hairs that bother you most on a regular schedule, wherever they sprout up, eventually you will get the desired “clearance” of your particular need and choice.

For now I am going to leave some worries behind and I am proud to say that I had my first treatment yesterday and I can honestly say that it was AWESOME! It went far better than I expected. I did it. I sat back and left the thinking and the work to her, and let me say what a relief THAT was!

Thankfully, I exhausted the most insistent and annoying of questions on you guys and saved the person who will have to see me ever week - who has my face in her hands and sharp objects as well! The questions I did ask her, she was happy to answer, though, which was nice. So thanks again for putting up with all you do. I will post more about my 1st treatment on another post in a bit when I have more time for details and praise…

Oh and James…Rita asked about you and wanted to know how you were since she hasn’t seen you in a while. I told her I thought you might be traveling and that you seemed well since you are constantly aswering Q’s on this forum! I got excited b/c she said she uses the same new machine that you do.