I’ve been calling different electrologists in my area for sample sessions and quotes.
The last one I spoke to told me that each hair might need more than one treatment to be gone for good because “sometimes it is attached to another hair”.
Does this make sense? From reading this forum, I understood that each hair is treated once and zap it’s gone!
Does this mean she’s not good? Or is this to be expected?
Thanks.
Hi Jen, I’m an electrologist and find that even really good therapists will sometimes say that the hair needs to have several treatments. I guess it depends on where and when they trained. However if they are treating the hair correctly (shouldn’t feel like it’s being plucked) then it doesn’t really matter what they believe.
btw hello everyone, another newbie here <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Consultations will vary quite a bit. You might hear many contradictory statements from the different electrologists you consult with.
The statement, “sometimes it is attached to another hair” might just mean that a nearby follicle will grow a hair when it is ready, or it could mean that a coarse hair might take a second treatment (but I would not take the statement literally).
The electrologist might have been trying to get the message across that it takes time to get done with treatments.
Besides calling the electrologists in your area, you might consult with each one in person. Explain that you are only wanting a consultation and perhaps the shortest treatment she has available (if she does not provide a sample treatment as part of the consultation.)
i’m not sure where you go the impression that each hair will only be treated once. that is not the case, even with the best electrologists and you will not necessarily go to the best. even the best one is not perfect. hair is killed if the insertion is perfect, the hair is jsut in the right stage of growth etc. also, different modalities have different killing rates. galvanic is the slowest method, but is considered to have a 80-90% killing rate even on the first time. thermolysis is a LOT faster, but is considered to have more like 50% first time killing rate. then, there is also the issue of what phase your hair is in when you start. there are lots of variables. bottom line is you need to make sure electrologist knows what they’re doind and are not plucking the hair. that’s what matters most.
In General, good electrologists DO kill hairs with only one treatment. One will still need multiple treatments in the same area, because it takes 9 months for every hair to show itself at least once.
Because some hairs will not be in the right phase when the treatment appointment takes place, some will have to be removed in the next year, and will then have been treated twice, as will others that were not perfectly treated the first time. These hairs should be a minority of the hairs treated.
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Regrowth Info
Because people are not paying close attention, and/or may not really understand all we would like them to when we do consultations, hair removal professionals often fudge the facts to say something that the client will actually understand and come to the idea that you need multiple treatment appointments and hope to have enough appointments to be able to hammer out a better understanding of the truth later.
A personal trainer would not want to spend time on the phone arguing, or trying to explain how or why elimination of all artificial sweeteners and substituting water for everything one had artificial sweeteners in would melt 20 pounds all by itself. If, however there was some excuse to get the person to try it, that fudge would be worth its weight in gold. Get it? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
What he said!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
One thing to consider through all of this is that even the best electrologist does not have the ability to see through the skin into the lower levels of the dermis where the follicle resides. As an insertion is being made, the electrologist is relying on the feel of the probe and the appearance of the outer skin (Assuming proper magnification and adequate lighting) in order to be able to make the determination as to when the probe is at the bottom of the follicle.
As there is no way to be absolutely certain that a proper insertion has been accomplished, a small percentage of hairs will not be properly treated.
Three essentials to permanent hair removal:
Joanie <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />
…What he said, what she said, and that electrolysis can eliminate hairs even though they are not in the perfect anchored anagen phase.
With electrolysis, PSU can be in very early, non-contact, anagen phase, anagen phase, or early catagen, and still be very successfully knocked out. It’s just a matter of using enough insertion to probe through crust within the membranes, and just enough to know when the bottom of the papilla is reached, which is something a keen person with practice can do. It’s just a matter of getting the needle within the target zones. By using, maybe, two descending-depth hits of power, this helps open up the primordial, or latter stage, inner root sheath cavity, making it all the more easier and giving great clearance on the first pass.
That’s why I love electrolysis, it’s such a melding of technology, strategy, and skill.
Mantaray
Howdy Mantaray,
Interesting post with some definate merits. One of the things that I try to do with multiple-pulse thermolysis, during the initial clearance, is to break through the collagen ball of a telogen hair with the first pulse and then go past it to near full anagen depth with the second pulse. As the residual dermal papilla will be someone near this depth, the chances of getting it are fair to middlin’. Using an insulated blend probe, by Pro-Tec, or an insulated Ballet probe should also give a large enough heat pattern to destroy both this and, hopefully the stem cells in the bulge area that will start the dermal cord in the next hair growth cycle. This should theoretically eliminate the hair from further growth cycles, but this is still a guessing game to a large extent and without the appropriate data I can not claim that this is demonstrably effective. In the catagen phase, the heat pattern should still be large enough to get all of the essential structures within the follicle to prevent regrowth. This is one of the biggest advantages of the newer computerized epilators. I now have the option to set the total treatment power and set the pulse to pulse duration to allow effective probe travel between them.
Still it is a good approach and I will continue the practice until such time as I find a better approach that does give me a better treatment in less time. After all, this is as much an art as it is a science. The science tells me what is possible, but it is my skill, observations and experience that ultimately makes the difference in effectivity and thus, the ultimate value of a treatment series.
Joanie <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />
Some people would call what you described “Kobayashi Yamata technique”
Some people would call what you described “Kobayashi Yamata technique”
Agreed. However, this technique is also gaining some acceptance out here on the West Coast. One of my instructors at school was also one of the major employees of Dectro California. She was very adament about us learning this technique in the application of multiple-pulse microflash thermolysis. I haven’t been with any of my clients here in the Bay Area long enough to see if this really makes a difference, but I do intend to monitor my results with this.
Joanie <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
MicroFlash, PicoFlash, MultiPulse and Kobayashi Yamata technique performed in California <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />
Lions and Tigers and Bears Oh My!
Get any speed going in that mode and you will be even more booked up. I am glad to have found another Unicorn.