Argh! I made an extra appointment after my appointment last week because there were still a lot of hairs left. I don’t like to have any obvious hairs on my face. That’s why I used to thread and pluck. But the electrologist left a bunch of obvious hairs on my upper lip and cheeks. When I asked her about it she said there wasn’t time and she had to get the most obvious hairs first. But she spent a bunch of time on my jawline, which isn’t as obvious as the top of my cheeks. I want to get done in a year if possible. I don’t want to have to keep going for electrolysis for the rest of my life. I think she’s just trying to squeeze more money out of me. If I don’t get hairs killed during this cycle, how long will it take for them to cycle back? I’m already $450 and 3 months into this.
For what you are talking about doing, you would be best served with doing many hours up front, so that you can do fewer shorter treatments later, as time goes by.
When I start out clearing a man’s beard, we may do 10, 20, 30 or more hours to get to first clearance in a day or three, or we may break up all the work over a six week time frame. After that, the duration and frequency of the treatments can start to decline. Soon we are reclearing everything in half the time, and eventually, the whole face and neck is done in one hour.
If you want to be finished in one year, you should really look into getting the most time up front as you can afford, and your practitioner is willing to give you.
It is not always possible to find someone who is willing or able to give you 2 hours or more in one day, so you may be put into a position of looking to get more appointments, spaced closer together, if you can’t get longer appointments spaced further apart.
One thing I can tell you though, you either pay a small amount per appointment, but have many more appointments, or, you pay for longer appointments up front in order to pay less later, and finish with fewer total appointments, and fewer total treatment hours.
So if I went for an hour each week, would I notice results faster than the 6 months that my electrologist said it would take going every 3 weeks? And then the disadvantage with that is that I have no proof yet that her treatments even work.
It pissed me off that she pointed out these hairs on my cheeks at the beginning, and then she didn’t remove them even though that area is the MOST obvious part of my cheeks to have hair on.
Yes, going for an hour every week would do you better than going for an hour every 3 weeks, until you are clearing the entire area in one hour, then you can start going less frequently.
Do yourself a favor, get a digital camera and take pictures of yourself before each treatment, and after each treatment, and keep them in a file on your computer. It is the only way you will be able to see just how good you progress is coming. (OK, the amount of treatment area covered, and the time actually needed will also tell you that too, but you need the visual.)
It wouldn’t only take 6 months now matter what because it will take 9-12 months to go through all the hairs in all the cycles. Now that time frame is from the first time you get a clearance, which is all hair removed in one treatment so that you leave the treatment with no visible hair. After that, it should happen each time you leave.
It sounds like your treatments are too short and spaced too far apart right now. If you really want to be done fast, you need to schedule long appts - however long it takes to clear the area you want hairfree completely. And then come in AS SOON AS you see new hair pop up so you can kill it while it’s weak and in anagen and so that you constantly have hairfree skin.
Thanks for everyone’s advice. I’m hoping that I’ll get full clearance if I go in one more time.
Has anyone treated a non-PCOS woman’s whole face before who would tell me how long it usually takes and costs, and how your clients spaced their appointments?
Personally, it can take me anywhere from 3-6 hours to do a full, FIRST, clearance on a PCOS’er. Some take less time??
Be prepared for the cost to cross the $1,000 line. It is really impossible to say where that will end because everyone presents with a different hair thumbprint. I do the faster forms of thermolysis - not blend usually, so my numbers may look different than the electrologist down the street who is a blender. Clients are finished in about 12-18 months if they follow the schedule I advise. These cases can be very challenging, something I thrive on, but the rewards are huge for both client and electrologist.
Dee
Candela – your question is really too general. We can’t see how many hairs you have. Timing depends on that. “How long” is the easy part - if treatments are good - 12 months give or take after your first clearance if you stick to schedule and go in to get cleared every time as soon as you see new hairs pop up.
For costs, it depends on how many hairs you have and how many your electrologists removes per minute.
Hi:
I’m not sure how long your session was, but if you can get a longer one
in order to achieve a full clearance during the session it would
pay off in the long run as James suggested.
As for them not removing cheek hairs that you wanted removed,
perhaps you should let them know at the start of the session
that you “really” want them removed,
and then they will know that those are important to you.
If you have to, then check your face afterwards with a pocket mirror
to make sure they got rid of what you wanted.
Good luck!
Alicia
Then why do they say that you will notice a difference after 6 months? If new growth cycles are growing in for a year it doesn’t seem like there would be a difference in the amount of hair till they’re all finished.
You will notice PROGRESS after six months maybe even a little less time? YOU WILL NOT BE FINISHED THOUGH. It takes a least 9 months for every offensive hair to present itself just one time. Many hairs will have been permanently affected in the first six months, so the amount of hair coming forth in the last six or so months of treatments and follows that there will be progressively less hair .
Dee
When we say, “it takes about a year for all of the hair to emerge” we are referring to active follicles that have terminal hairs.
Not all follicles are producing hair at this time, or this year, or this decade.
This is why, for example, a female client has treatment in her 20’s, lives terminal hair free for a couple of decades and then begins treatment once again in her 40’s or 50’s.
The previously treated area will not have the dense growth it had decades prior, but nevertheless, those wispy fine hairs that were barely visable or not even there decades ago, have become coarser.
Generally, this is one of the reasons why those with a metabolic disorder require more treatment time than those with normal hormonal levels.
This observation illustrates that all follicles are not going to necessarily produce hair within a year.
The thing is, that once you begin treatment, you begin to see less growth in the treatment area and some will see it immediately while others may not see a major impact for months.
Does this help?
I read an article online by an electrologist saying that after 3-4 months the coarse hairs should be gone and after that they grow back finer. If that is true I would be very happy as I would only have maybe one more month to go before it would be very easy to hide the growing hairs.
I think my hormonal levels should be normal…I think the coarse hairs on my chin and upper lip are from tweezing. I’m worried though because I wonder if some of my hair growth was caused by using Retin-A. I’ll probably never go off that, and it’s wonderful for my skin, but I hope it can’t awaken new follicles.
Also, does everybody have the same number of growth cycles per year on the face, and how many are there/how long do they last?
You might do well to check out this thread for some background info:
http://www.hairtell.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/8979/all/Regrowth_charts.html
At the 3 to 4 month point, it is easier for the electrolysis provider to treat hairs before you notice them, should you be on that kind of aggressive schedule, but one would still have coarse hairs growing, if one discontinued treatments entirely.
Retin-A should not cause you as much trouble as plucking did, and yet, I would be happy if you looked into natural ways to end your need for that product. Your Liver will thank you.
Hopefully that will happen soon because I’m still getting hairs that are coarse and black from the moment they pop out of the skin.
Don’t despair if you see coarse, black hairs popping through beyond 3-4 months.Remember that everyone presents with their own hair thumbprint and we can only speak in generalities or speak to what we as an individual electrologist can do. Electrologists have many different approaches to removing hair. Equipment and modality choices can prolong a treatment plan or shorten a treatment plan. Some electrologists are better at this than others, but most can permanently remove hair.
You have got stay very focused and very patient. If you throw your hands and quit before a 9-18 months, then you will lose this battle to rid yourself of the toughest enemy on earth - hair.
Dee