Don't Know Who to Believe

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
#1

Hi everyone,

I have been getting electrolysis done every week since August and I am not seeing the results I feel I should be at this time. I am also sick of all the different information that I hear. I have been to FOUR different practitioners:

a) The practitioner I have been to for the majority of my sessions. Each week we spend at least 40 minutes on the dark hairs of my face. I have almost had 30 treatments. She has said that it can take up to TEN treatments for the hair to never come back. I can feel the hairs being removed but I kept convincing myself that I was overreacting since she has been working at the same establishment for almost 20 years and I figured if she was doing it wrong she would have been fired by now. I mentioned last session that I could feel the hair being removed and she became very upset but the reality is I can pluck my hair for free. She is the only one who seems to change the settings for different areas of the face.

b) I only went to this practitioner once. She didn’t wear gloves and treated hairs randomly and didn’t seem to get much done.

c) This practitioner kept stopping to talk/ blow her nose. She also didn’t seem to get much done and refused to work on me two weeks in a row so that my skin can “heal”.

d) This one said how she didn’t want to waste my money so she wanted to talk first. She seemed a bit perturbed when I told her (after talking for 10 minutes) that I wanted to start the session. She said she thought it was weird that I am doing electrolysis and that I am not going for laser (although she then said that you might find one qualified laser practitioner in fifty). She put gloves on and then took them off… I felt more of a searing pain and she made me hold a silver probe and my face was visibly red even days after my treatment.

Am I just finding the wrong practitioners or is it possible that electrolysis just doesn’t work on me? I am sick of spending time and money for null results!

eternalsunshine

#2

You are having extremely bad luck. I suggeat that you give your location and allow members here, to help you find a reliable practitioner. Electrolysis works for absolutely everybody, but skilled technique is vital.

#3

I agree, and second the motion.

#4

I’ll be the one to go out on a limb here, and suggest to stop micro managing your appointments. I see it often on hairtell although my stance on it is usually neutral. I think perhaps you have unrealistic expectations that simply can’t be met, 4 out of 4 practitioners doing shoddy work seems like a little to high of a rate to me. No mal-intentions here and I hope you do find something that works for you!

Also, perhaps a description or pictures of what you’re having done can help the professionals out more.

#5

I have also been going since last august but I was going every 2.5 to 3 weeks for treatment the hairs on both area’s are taking around 5-6 weeks to come in before needing to book a session at present the chin hairs come in and 1 week later the around the nipples so I need to wait for the chest hairs before booking in because I made the mistake last time and going in too early and really don’t have the time to travel up just for the new nipple ones. The chin hairs are also coming in a lot paler I havent’ had black ones at all in the last 2 sessions which is a great relief I maybe fooling myself but I think things seem to be working. If you are noticing zero different in the time they come back the thickness or color like the professionals above are saying I think you are having back look with the people doing the work there is somewhere on here to help find electrolysis in your area if you look through the forum also if your in the UK like myself we have an official electrolysis website easily googled which will should you only qualified and registered ones in your area that have to prove there competence annually to stay registered.

#6

  1. Five months of treatments (on the face) is not enough elapsed time to see results.

  2. If the electrologists said, “it takes 10 treatments to remove ONE hair?” Then, that wrong. You were not clear on this.

  3. Not clear about “feeling the hair being removed.” Do you mean a real pluck? If so, not good. Sometimes a patient mistakes the feeling of the current for a “pluck.”

  4. Wearing gloves is not universally mandated, but an appropriate practice. All the interruptions? You shouldn’t have to pay for that.

  5. Your “point “d” I don’t understand. The electrologist said that it’s “weird to do electrolysis?"

Q. Have you ever had a complete clearance of the facial hair? (Let’s start there.)

Q How severe is your case and what have you been doing: tweezing, shaving?

Note to Helen: not being invidious here, but if you would put in a few “periods” here and there (to offset your sentences), your writing would be SO much easier to understand.

#7

Hi everyone,

I am in Guelph but go to Mississauga often, in Ontario Canada. Michael, I apologize for being unclear, a)-d) were the 4 different practitioners I have seen.

  1. Five months of treatments (on the face) is not enough elapsed time to see results.

This is in contrast to what I have read/been told on other posts here. e.g.http://www.hairtell.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/112674/Shouldn_t_appointment_length_b.html#Post112674

  1. If the electrologists said, “it takes 10 treatments to remove ONE hair?” Then, that wrong. You were not clear on this.

Yes, she said that one single hair might need to be treated 10 times before it will not come back.

  1. Not clear about “feeling the hair being removed.” Do you mean a real pluck? If so, not good. Sometimes a patient mistakes the feeling of the current for a “pluck.”

It is definitely not the current, it is after the current. It doesn’t hurt as plucking sometimes does. However, when I saw practitioner d) I was not able to tell when the hair was being removed.

  1. Wearing gloves is not universally mandated, but an appropriate practice. All the interruptions? You shouldn’t have to pay for that.

I can’t help but feel that having somebody’s oils from their fingers on my face is problematic.

  1. Yes, practitioner d) said that it was weird that I opted for electrolysis and not laser.

Q1. Have you ever had a complete clearance of the facial hair? (Let’s start there.)

Practitioner a) is able to clear all dark hairs in a session. We have not started to work on light hairs. Therefore, I guess I have never had a full clearance.

Q2 How severe is your case and what have you been doing: tweezing, shaving?

My situation is quite severe, especially on my neck and chin. I am light skinned with dark hair so even if I clip the hair, the hair is visible under the skin. I will try to post a picture as soon as I can. I have had laser in the past, during this time I shaved, and I now have reason to believe that I had laser stimulated hair growth. I then plucked for a couple of years. I have not plucked since my first electrolysis appointment (almost 7 months ago).

#8

Hi eternalsunshine :slight_smile: I have been having treatments on my upper lip (amongst other areas of the face including chin and sides).

I began at the end of August, 2013. My treatment time is documented but the dates are not. I started out with 15 - 30 min appointments weekly but the last 4 months have been 45 minute appointments fortnightly.

I stopped shaving my upper lip a couple of months into treatment (before that I would stop a few days before to let the hairs grow out).

I am seeing results. I still get new hairs growing through between each appointment though. I still get darker hairs on my chin. There’s fewer than there was before. Each appointment and clearance is better than the last! It’s a long road and it’s really important to have a skilled eletrologist. Sometimes it can be hard to know what to expect, though.

Keep in mind that I was plucking/tweezing before - but that my hair situation is not “severe”. I never had a shadow on my upper lip when I shaved, and only rarely had a stubbly feeling. I used to shave every second day (I think? I haven’t done it in so long I can’t remember!)

My point is - especially depending on what you have been doing since starting treatments, depending on the frequency, length and clearance you achieve in each treatment, and the amount of hair you have actively growing at any one time, there are plenty of variables to work with.

I hope you find an excellent electrologist who achieves results. At the same time, it may feel like slow progress but in actual fact be quite acceptable. Hopefully someone can suggest an electrologist in Ontario. Maybe start a new thread or post in the locations thread and ask. The location you posted here is now quite buried and the name of this thread is not going to tell people that you need recommendations for an eletrologist in a particular area!

#9

Just an update, I have been seeing a new electrologist for a month now (once a week). I am now starting to fear that all the time, pain, and money was for nothing with my previous long-term practitioner since my current electrologist (and I believe she is being truthful) finds it hard to believe that all of my hairs have been properly treated even once (which I believe they should have been as I was going weekly for 6 months). In addition, she is never makes me wait and she charges for the time that she is working. She is also very professional, doesn’t answer her phone during sessions and took the time to explain the process in more detail. I just wanted to say that I have regained my hope in this process.

#10

Yay! We have a winner! Now keep believing.

Seana

#11

Eternal,

From what hear about your new Electrologist, you will be fine.

Give her lots of hugs (one from me, too) as she exemplifies what is great about our profession. People are desperate for this kind of service. Beyond the most important aspects that you mentioned, they also want to walk in an office that safe and CLEAN.