Considering career as an electrologist - Seeking advice

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
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Hello. I am a trans woman from southern California and I have had electrolysis sessions on my face for around 2 years now. I am considering pursuing a career as an electrologist.

I am writing this post to ask electrologists a few questions:

1. Do you like your profession?

2. What are the pros and cons of being an electrologist?
Some pros I have heard are: good pay, a surplus of clients, and a sense that your work is doing some sort of good.
Some cons I have heard are: physically demanding, equipment is expensive, insurance is difficult (if you choose to work with it), and if you work independently you have to deal with all the problems of running a business.

3. Is the job outlook for electrologists good?
My old electrologist would tell me that he was always booked full, and that he even had to turn clients away because he didn’t have time to see them - I am wondering if this is common for electrologists in general.

4. Besides going to school, how can I figure out if this profession is right for me?
I have only worked a remote job on the computer so this would be a very different direction for me.

I live about 2 hours away from the American Institute of Education (AIE) in Tustin so I would probably try to go there for schooling.

I am at a point where I am considering either becoming an electrologist or getting a masters and pursuing a tech-related career - any input would be greatly appreciated!

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Wow my advice sure has changed over the years. Previously my advice would have been all for it, but honestly I dont know anymore if I would advise it.

One thing I will say, is I have distinct empathy with all transpersons in the US right now. You all are being demonized unfairly and many are outright in hiding. This is one of the reasons I wouldnt advise taking up electrology right now. An electrologist is usuallly visible in the community in order to be successful. I dont know that it’s adviseable to be a visible transperson in any USstate at the moment , even in a progressive one like California. I feel it could be a risk for you.
As a transperson however, you will have undoubtedly noticed the high percentage of people somewhat on the autism spectrum amoung transfolks. It also tends to often be misidentified as ad/hd and often , depression and anxiety. . I’m not saying this is you, but having both worked with and for transpeople the majority of my professional career, I can tell you thatit is true in my case, and also in the case of a good chunk of my clientele as well. Many dont realize it, some are aware, and it can be to varying extent. One of the other fields aside from electrology such people tend to be drawn to? Tech. In Droves. If you do do identify with any of that, I would caution against becoming an electrologist, for a number of reasons. People on the autism spectrum tend to be somewhat socially awkward. When dealing with customers , this can become crippling. It’s worse if you miss cues from your clientele making you seem oblivious to their feedback. If this is an area you are challenged by, you might not want to become an electrologist. It becomes much more problematic if indeed the spectrum is a concern, becaause as electrologists we can get quite busy and almost too popular, causing us to be overworked and stressed as we try to do everything. This honestly, leads to anxiety attacks and depression. I speak from experience on this. For those who dont know, I have 3 children, all on the spectrum as am I.

On the posative note, it’s possible to make a good living doing electrology. Most of us work for ourselves whichis good if you are the type that doesnt do well with bosses over you. This puts us in control of much of our lives. It’s also possible to work from home if you are used to that and set up for it. Learning to market yourself can be a challenge, but those active in the community or in social networking can get word out pretty effectively if your try. There’s always people needing hair removal, laser cant treat some hair, and there are those who know that we can do what others only promise to. Expect though to work hard just to make ends meet. I very rarely excede 6 hours of electrolysis in a given day, but I’m often working, 10 hours or more to accomplish that Be realistic about how much you WANT towork. tasks.Late lients, or justgreetingthe customer, all take time. And asthe business owner, it always falls on you… You always need time for alll the fill in tasks like upkeeping charts, disinfection and sterilizing implements, and a host of other things. Clients also book when the time you have available meets their ability toget to you. Expect to work a lot of saturdays and early evenings to make ends meet.

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Thank you so much for your honest answer.

The situation in the US is really scary and is something I think about everyday. I am starting to wonder if any career will be safe for me in the future here :upside_down_face: How is the situation in Canada?

I don’t have a formal autism diagnosis but I do suspect I could be on the spectrum. I am definitely on the introverted side.

I do crave repetition and routine (possibly due to autism?), and I think electrolysis appeals to me because the work seems to be somewhat repetitive in nature (correct me if I’m wrong).

But you do bring up a good point saying that this profession could have certain difficulties for those on the spectrum. How did you overcome those difficulties yourself?

Working for yourself seems like it has a lot of pros and cons.

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I’m not sure I have overcome these difficulties. Last spring, after building up a strong post-covid clientele, and overcoming a serious injury, I was insanely busy… Literally working 10-12 hours a day, beig a single parent to special needs kids, dealing with one of them having epilepsy causing a dozen or more grand mall seizures a day, and it all began to come apart at the seams. I started ranting while working about things bothering me unable to control it. I missed social cues from my clients just like I said, and many of them left for a competitor who makes it their business to take advantage of not only the trans community but the emplyees who work for them as well. Last week I had one of those employees seriously slander me on professional forums, something I am now having to engage legal counsel for for libel against both that company, and the trans electrologist employee. It’s not the first time I’ve had to employ a counsel against them either .I’ also had severe anxiety attacks and depression as a result, stiill do. It wont fully resolve until I formally retire at this point.
You do develop some coping mechanisms. We put on a brave face in front of customers and force ourselves to look peole in the eye, or not haeve our chin on our chest when talking to people because we are so uncomfortable. .Since work -life balance becomes difficult to maintain this has to be one of the key areas you have to make accomodations. I now force myself to schedule a lunch when days start to fill up so I do not become overstressed and overwhelmed.to the point I completely lose my shit.I made mistakes, like altering my cancellation policies . Clients changing and cancelling apppointments can play very heavily on that need for structure and orderliness that autistic people have . In the end I’ll probably still survive a year or two yet before I retire out of province, but also when things go wrong, we have no body to blame but ourselves, and there is no one coming to rescue you.

I’ve just trained an electrologist who works next to me. Not work For me, not even as a partner. I charged her $0 for taining she obtained from me. The reason was we are stronger together.When I get overworked I can benefit her by referring new clients to her so as not to overwhelm myself. I also fear for her, because she suffers all the same things I do. Autism, adhd, depression, anxiety. It’s like looking at me 18 years ago. I fear she will fall into the same traps I have. I’ve encouragesd countless transpeople to take up electrology over the years. Like my friend and previous moderator of this board, James Walker, I’ve planted my own little apple seed and am watching it grow into a great big tree. I’ve supported the transgender community here in Ottawa and have brought many of them accross the finish line, delivered an end result that they can be proud of . But each of these accomplishments comes at a cost, to my mental health. At some point in life, you reach a point that you cant overcome introvert tendancies and hide it all anymore.In the end a good exit strategy, is an essential coping mechanism as well. . That’s why I wasnt training an employee. I was training someone to take over when I close my business outright in a year or two. One last gift tot he transgender community, one I always said was a primary goal, leaving that community better off after I’m gone than it was before I came.Passing the flame.It makes me sad though, that the person is going to face all the same challenges I have.

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I started part-time while training and slowly built up my clients by word of mouth. Talking to local professionals and asking to shadow helped me understand what daily work was really like.

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Hello, I am an electrolysis student in Australia, and I will be ‘going pro’ before the end of this year (paying clients). In the meantime, I run my shop exactly how I would run it assuming my clients be paying. I currently have about 70 clients on my books.

1. Do you like your profession?
Yes. I came from the IT industry which I could never switch off. Projects lasted months to years, I lost sleep thinking about how to resolve problems for the following day. Bureaucracy stopped me from achieving the amount of customer satisfaction I know I could deliver. My stress levels have dropped about 90% since shifting to electrolysis.

2. What are the pros and cons of being an electrologist?
Pros:
Set your own hours. Work as much or as little as your financial targets are, and your physical capabilities are. Spin more business up or down as your life changes. Clients are usually very thankful for your time and patience especially if they have dysphoria.

Cons:
Small business overheads. You need to consider your time spent on admin, marketing, financials, cleaning/sanitation times, etc and build this into your cost price - it will add up to a significant proportion in some cases.

Can be physically demanding. Recommend seeing a physiotherapist for proactive strength, flexibility exercises.

Clients in SOME cases (my experience is more common with gender diverse folks) have significant emotional baggage/trauma, and may leverage your safe space to offload their emotional issues. You must be careful not to become a counselor/psychologist or hit sensitive points such as religion, politics, etc, during friendly session chats as this generally has a less than 100% favorable outcome.

Only in very specific cases can you ‘work from home’, so often you are tethered to a specific city for a long time, unless you can easily drum up business in another state or area. Relocation costs and client loss could be difficult.

Another con is that at some point you will probably overtreat a client, or they will not like your service, behavior or whatnot. You need to not take things super personally, the loss or negative review, especially of your first unhappy client might hurt a bit.

3. Is the job outlook for electrologists good?
I cant speak for the USA, but here in Australia it appears there is not many electrologists. We could use more risk averse electrologists here.

4. Besides going to school, how can I figure out if this profession is right for me?
See if you can shadow a professional for a day, this is basically the only way to get a realistic picture of what happens. Follow them around not just for treatment, but admin work etc. Not all of electrolysis is insertions and pushing a foot pedal.

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I started by practicing on myself and close friends before investing in school. In Alabama you don’t need to be licensed, so I was able to get hands-on experience early on. I still went through formal training to make sure I knew what I was doing. Reading through threads here helped a ton, and HairTell is honestly where I picked up most practical tips I wouldn’t have learned elsewhere.