When I was getting a consult I heard an electrologist tell her client that electrolysis increases the amount of hair just like tweezing does because electrolysis sometimes leaves you red and irritated and then the blood feeds hair growth. Is this true? Have others noticed a worsening of their situation after receiving electrolysis treatments?
I noticed that at my last appointment I had less hair than at my very first, and my electrologist remarked on it too, saying that she had done her job well. However, by my appointment today I had a bunch of coarse hairs on my chin, I think as much or more than at my first appointment. She showed me a chart which seemed to say that it’s typical for people’s hair growth to actually peak a few months into electrolysis. I so wish I’d never tweezed! I don’t know why women’s magazines don’t explain about how it induces hair growth.
My goodness! That’s why I like hairtell. I hear so many unproven things said about electrolysis. I would never say this to a client because I’m pretty sure it is bunk. Proper electrolysis is a forward moving process. The visible hair is treated. THe next group of hairs sprouts through the skin. Those hairs are treated. The next group comes forth. Those hairs are treated and so on and so forth. Pretty soon, you run out of hairs to treat. I have not observed a worsening of the hair situation, it only gets better and better as you attack new hair (and some inevitable regrowth) throughout a period of 9-18 months. The first six months are the hardest. Just have faith and push forward. A well-trained, modernly equipped electrologist will “kill the hair”. We are modern gladiators. We know how to disable hair follicles.
If the electrologist has given a good treatment, the blood supply to the follicle has been terminated. The nourishing blood just flows on by.
If the electrologist is tweezing or undertreating, who knows? Could be possible? That’s why this site is so helpful, because consumers can educate themselves as to what to look for in a treatment.
God, that made me realize that the whole time I was tweezing I was also exercizing 4-5 days a week, so I must have supplied a bunch of blood to the mostly fine hairs I plucked. Now my electrologist says I’m a 4 or a 5 on a scale of the worst she’s ever seen. Argh!
Candela, her electrologist probably will have explained that the Electrolysis has a dynamic effect on the follicles that are around those who have been treated. Accelerate the cycle does not mean that your hair is thicker now. It means that, thanks to the extra blood, his hair on the skin surface faster.
What you’re seeing now is completely different hair in the next phase of growth, so you can’t really judge that anyway.
But to answer your specific question is that electrolysis can only cause what you’re decribing if all that’s being done is tweezing instead of proper electrolysis. I’m not sure if you’re understanding how electrolysis works, but it doesn’t pluck. The needle is inserted to deliver heat to the follicle which disables it. Then the hair slides out without resistance on its own once that happens. There is no plucking involved if it’s done properly.
I guess how I interpreted what she said was that electrolysis causes irritation and increased blood flow and that causes new hair follicles to be active, making you have more hair than you started with. Then the only difference between electrolysis and tweezing would be that electrolysis kills the hairs you treat, but they would both encourage new hair to grow or for new hairs to become coarser.
No, this is not true. Tweezing can cause this to happen because the hair is plucked from an active follicle which is still active and trying to repair itself after the fact (btw, induced growth issues is not something that always happens on everyone or on every area. only sometimes and on some people and on certain areas). When electrolysis is performed, there is no irritation of the type you’re describing and no increased blood flow anywhere since the follicle is disabled with heat and isn’t trying to repair itself, i.e. it can’t and that’s the point of electrolysis in the first place.
Tweezing has no power to turn anything at all. Only makes the cycle is interrupted and starts again. Electrolysis does not have the power to stimulate hair (at the solution to be bald involuntary). All they get is time to reduce the emerging hairs that were not present at the start of treatment.
I would just forget the idea that was planted in your mind about electrolysis causing irritation to the area, thus more blood flow, thus awakening more hair folicles to actively grow. I know this has been suggested over the years, but it’s never been proven as a fact. She probably heard that information from somewhere? and may believe it is true. My personal observations remain that this is not true.
All you need to do is go to your practitioner on a regular basis after you get a first, full clearance. Treating new hair or some inevitable regrowth as the hair cycles emerge over a period of 9-18 months will bring you successful permanent hair removal if it is being performed correctly by a well trained electrologist.
Don’t fret over getting exercise and increasing blood flow. That has nothing to do with electrolysis unless you sweat profusely after a session and the sweating interfers with healing. That’s minor stuff, too. Ideally, you would want to wait at least 24 hours to exercise after a treatment to give the skin a chance to start the healing process from underneath.
While I have no scientific information to back this up, I have fellow electrologists (that I believe will agree) and personal observation that indicates repeated tweezing (or improperly performed electrolysis treatments resulting in tweezing) does result in larger diameter hairs over time.
A few tweezings do not result in this, but repeated tweezing seems to, indeed, cause a coarsening of hair.
Barbara, I have no scientific data to support the thesis that the tweezer change the size and depth of the follicle.
How do we know that transformation is due to the repeated use of tweezers, not the natural evolution of our hair?.
The law of probabilities in this case is best. More likely that the follicle changes from natural causes that induced by the tweezer.With or without a tweezer, the follicle is characterized by constant changes throughout life.
