Consultation Speculation

Ok I went for my consultation today at Lucy Peters and I have some speculation. First of all they have assigned to me what seemed to be the youngest technician there. She’s in her mid twenty’s while all the other technicians looked like middle age women. My guess is that the young lady assigned to me is assigned to all there male patients because she is extremely attractive. Well anyway I have some speculation about the things I was told at my consultation:

-They said it would take 3 years to complete my back because of the cycle of hair growth. I find this reasonable being that the back is a large area but can anyone shed some light on this?

-They said it would take 8 hours of treatment to “strip” my back of all hairs in the active stage. Now this I find a bit too much for my paticular case, this is where I think they are trying to get me for my money. Now I asked her how many active hairs could she treat in a one hour session and she said it takes about a second to treat one hair. Now that would mean 60 hairs in a minute, 3600 hairs in one hour. I will give her the benefit of the doubt and round that number down to 3000. I am pretty sure that there is nowhere near 3000 active hairs on my back, so why would it take 8 hours to get rid of all the active hairs? I am just basing this on their claim to permanently remove active hairs after treating them once. And on top of that she said she could give me one 8 hour treatment to get it over with (I thought that was ridiculous). Instead I booked 2 one hour sessions, and 3 two hour sessions. Now after this initial 8 hour treatment, they told me I would need an additional 30 hours (at the most) over the next 3 years to permanently remove all hair from my back,but they kept telling me that it might not even be that much being that my back hair is so sparse.

I’ll come back with more details later because I have to go now, If you have any questions about my consultation feel free to ask.

You did say that they gave you the youngest, and prettiest gal in the place.

You asked one question, and she answered another. While you wanted to know something closer to “How many hairs per hour, or per minute can you treat?”, she answered the question “How long does it take to treat a hair from the time the current starts, to the time the current stops.”

Big difference here.

Had she said something like, “I can treat 5 to 10 hairs per minute, depending on the part of the body and the angles of insertion required for those particular follicles.” you would have a getter idea of the fact that where as you think you can get 3000 hairs done, you would be lucky to get more than 300.

I have found that it takes between 6 and 12 hours to get a first clearance on a man’s back. If the man comes in on the schedule I set for him, he is usually done in 9 to 18 months. That is not always possible, and then it is hard to say how long it would take, because there is only so long for hairs to be in a treatable state for permanent removal. If you miss the window of opportunity, they will come back 9 months later, although thinner and weaker.

James W. Walker VII, CPE — Buffalo NY

Moe -

I can help a bit with hair cycles…
It’s important to bear in mind that to get an effective zap, you have to treat the hair in the anagen (growth) stage. So if you could tell what stage a hair was in, you’d ideally wait for it to reach an active anagen state before you bother to zap it.

The length of the growth cycle varies depending on the area of the body. I’m not sure how long it is on the back, but I understand with an average cycle you’d have to wait around 6 weeks for a hair to cycle back round to its anagen state.

And as James says, there’s more to it than ‘zap’ and it’s gone.
First you have to probe the hair. You really want to find a practitioner who takes care with the insertion. A poorly inserted probe will have little or no effect on killing the hair, and if the insertion is too shallow it may even cause skin damage.

The current itself is on for about 1 to 2 seconds. Personally, I prefer less current and longer duration, as I think there is less margin for error.

Then you have to tweeze and discard the hair.

Each hair then is going to take around 10 seconds to treat. And you’ll have periods where the practitioner is making herself comfy, or where you need to adjust your position for her. No one can work flat out on an intensive treatment like electrolysis for that long!!

And I wouldn’t worry at all about the age of the practitioner. Age doesn’t come into it. The skill is in getting the right levels for your treatment, and being consistent with timing, getting the insertion right, and how long your therapist can stay sitting crouched over you before having to stretch her back!! (Oh, and hygene, patient care, etc…)

James then why did she tell me 3 years to completely clear my back? Are they trying to milk all the money they possible can out of me? Or is it because Im still young (21)? You know whats another funny thing? They must really think Im stupid because after her supervisor told me it would take 8 hours to clear my back, the electrologist thats gonna be working on me told me that she could clear my upper back in a one hour session. Now most of the hair thats on my back is on the upper part, so my lower back should take like a half-hour to clear. Whats with all this 8 hour business? I really don’t care because after this 8 hour clearance (which will cost me like a thousand dollars) If it’s done correctly, I feel there won’t be much to do after that, I might have to come in like every 3 or 4 months or so for a touch up. I just hope this electrologist knows what shes doing. My back hair is so sparse compared to most males with the same problem, I just hope I don’t get much more hairy as I get older. Also what side effects can I expect besides redness and swelling (They use thermolysis I believe)? I have sensitive skin so Im hoping my skin can handle it.

Thanks again for the explanation Toni, you’ve been very helpful since I been here.

Moe, a large area like the back takes a long time, because of the number of hairs to treat, the number of hairs dormant, and the effectiveness rate.

For one thing, it would take 9 months before every hair on your back had presented itself for treatment. Secondly, most men don’t start to level off on hair growth until someplace between 25 and 35.

My comment about the age of the practitioner was not to say she is unskilled. I was only saying that a seasoned practitioner understands the difference between the question a client asks, and the answer they really want/need to understand. When someone asks me how long it will take. I know that I have to explain everything from growth phases, to insertions and angles. The old saying is, “The problem with not knowing something, is that you don’t even know what you don’t know.”

If the hair on your back is so sparse that she is saying she can get you first clearance in an hour or two, then you will have an easy time of it indeed. You will have a few one to two hour appointments close together , and then some appointments 3 months apart, and then some shorter appointments 6 months apart, and then one final appointment a year later to get any little last hangers on that were missed due to phases, and the dates of prior treatment. That is how she gets 3 years. Of course, that is very few hours in 3 years.

I would say that you sound like you are in for a clear back by Christmas (and Chaunuka too!)

James W. Walker VII, CPE — Buffalo NY

Hi Moe,
I am a little bit worried that they offered you an 8 hour session :fearful:
For one point over working an area causes heat to build up under the skin and has been known to cause pitting of the skin.
Another point if she was working for eight hours soildly (poor girl ! :frowning: !) she surely would not be as productive in the 8th hour as the first.
Just be careful

One of the hallmarks of Lucy Peters’ program is longer sessions, so their practitioners are trained to do this sort of thing.

For a larger area like a back, they will sometimes have two practitioners work at once, or they will cycle in different practitioners while one takes a break.

I generally don’t recommend a super-long session unless you really want to get rid of all the hair quickly . It’s a long time to by lying on a table, and it’s easy to get bored/uncomfortable. Still, if you want it all gone fast, it’s a good way to bite the bullet and get done.