Hello,
I am eager to get rid of facial hair, and I hate pain.
Or rather, some types of pain. For example, waxing is nothing for me, but epilating underarms I find painful. Laser is also in the painful category (that’ alex).
I was advised to try electrolysis, but from what I hear, it’s even more painful than alex. And painkiller creams don’t really help me, I feel no reduction in pain whatsoever, in spite of the numbing effect.
What is the truth about electrolysis? Is it really very painful? What does the pain feel like?
Describing pain is highly subjective from person to person. Some even say that women have more pain tolerances than men during hair removal process. I underwent both laser and electrolysis. Electrolysis felt like individual stings over hours but it was tolerable without any numbing creams for me. Pain from electrolysis will vary a lot depending on areas treated and the amount of energy the electrologist uses. For me, neck and collar bone areas were very painful compared to upper arms and shoulders.
Laser did hurt more than electrolysis but with properly applied numbing cream it was absolutely tolerable even on highest settings. Because I had laser done on more sensitive body areas like the center of the chest and stomach areas,where I did not do electrolysis, it is hard to say that electrolysis would not hurt just as equally. At the end of the day, you have to accept the fact that permanent hair removal is not a painless picnic. But there are different strategies for pain management.
It all depends on who you get your treatment from and how you prepare your own body for treatment.
While my average client watches movies, or falls asleep during my treatments, I have two clients who simply REFUSE to remineralize, rehydrate, and drop the extreme caffeine addiction for the betterment of their treatments.
We have listed on this site the difference dehydration, caffeine and so on make on treatment tolerance, and comfort, and no amount of explanation of how they are bringing a body unprepared for treatment gets them to do anything other than demand compensation on the practitioner’s part.
Sure, there are places where one can just rely on pain medications to make up for this, but for the majority of clients, a well skilled practitioner with a good set up can do tolerable work (dare I say comfortable work) with out so much as a numbing cream.
this is why we say, you must get as many consultations and sample treatments as possible before you choose who will do your work to completion. You will see quite the range of experiences along the way.
Yes, I agree with fenix, anything reembling permanent hair removal/reduction isn’t a painless process. However, it’s a long-term project, and I am trying to find the type of pain I can either manage or live with so I can see the project to completion.
If you know any good electrologists in/around London or Cambridge, please let me know. Actually, if you know any good electrologists in England, please let me know. I am willing to travel to a good specialist, it’s just that I don’t drive and am therefore a bit limited to places reachable by public transportation.
Oh yes, and one more thing.
There are people who recommend lasering and then cleaning up the rest with electrolysis what the laser doesn’t get rid of.
What do you think about this idea?
I think it is an excellent idea, as long as you have coarse, dense,dark hair located in areas the usually respond well to a quality laser, coupled with a skilled laser specialist. The two modalities work well with each other in some? many? circumstances.
…of course, it can in many situations be a perfect waste of money that could have better been spent on good electrolysis. In many cases, the LASER first and Electrolysis last costs more than some high level electrolysis practitioners would have cost to do the entire job from the start.
the problem is, how is the customer to know which case would be better tackled with this LASER then Electrolysis model, and which would be best to just same the money and risk of damage, and just do electrolysis from the start.
If one is working on the body, Laser first may actually be the best policy if you have a forrest of hair. On the face, I don’t think I would ever recommend Laser then Electrolysis, but that’s me.
… not only you.
It is simply a matter of risk. Facial laser treatments sometimes work, but very often do not. And the we are faced with the situation of white hairs witgh deformed follicles and a skin still recovering from the light treatment (it will take months…). A lot harder to do the job with the necessary precision, and sometimes more energy is needed as on the untreated hair (meaning more pain, more risk of skin damage, slower recovery, larger side effects). And often slower and hence more expensive for the clients.
(today i did 3 hours without a break on such hair - frustrating if You do not reach the speed You are used to…)
So it is up to You as a client to decide - no risk no fun 
I join my two colleagues here. And I raise the bet. There is another factor to consider:TIME. The strategy, first laser, then electrolysis will increase at least two years to be hair-free.
Two years does not seem a lot when you have a long life ahead, but sometimes life plays tricks. In the 90’s I had the opportunity to work in a woman who had leukemia. When I met her she was wearing a wig because of chemotherapy. Curiously, one of the first words she said to me was: “All my hair have fallen except those of my beard.” And so it was, her beard could have competed with any man. Electrolysis sessions began when her oncologist gave permission, just after the new year and in July of that year, the frequency of the sessions were of a month. I got a picture of her when she traveled to Vienna in July (which I still keep). In the photo she was beaming. With her own hair on the head and none on her face. The last session lasted only a few minutes just before we parted for the entire month of August. She was the first client that I was pointed in my book for the month of September. The first appointment that she missed. The person who came in her place was her best friend to tell me that “our dear Loli had died”. 38, of which 23 years suffering from excess hair on her face and only two months free of them.