Electrolysis treatment diary - South Australia

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
#1

Hello all…

I am having my first electrolysis session on Thursday. I went in to see the electrologist and because she was in the middle of a session with her client, I wasn’t able to see the machine she uses. However, another member on this board has been to her and said she uses the blend method. I would rather thermolysis for the vellus hair I want treated, but I will see how it goes at this initial appointment (10 minutes). If all goes well I would probably want to be doing 20 minute appointments, twice a week.

The session prices are fairly steep. 5 minutes is $50, 10 mins $60, 15 mins is $80 and 20 minutes is $100. I guess once I see the quality of work done, I can assess whether I want to pay so much. Prices are AUD. I think she only went up to 20 minutes because the areas are small and she probably doesn’t want to cause too much irritation by having long sessions on the same areas? Initially I am treating chin and a narrow strip of hair down my chest.

Next week I will hopefully be able to find the other electrolysis clinic nearby and find out their prices and what machine they use.

#2

hay well good luck! the prices do sound expensive, but i guess they vary, one place qouted me $2.50 a min no matter how long i went for, and the place i go to now is $80 an hour. But anyways let us know how it goes :slight_smile:

#3

Wow. So expensive…

#4

She’s very expensive! I’d look around. Will she do longer appointments if you desire to do more than 20 minutes? I work on smaller areas for more than 20 minutes and it’s not of great consequence.

#5

I know! The problem is that searching electrolysis in Google comes up with around 7 results. One is way too far away, two places didn’t actually offer electrolysis, another place I haven’t yet quite found, and the last place which I know exists is still around 40 minutes drive away and on top of that, is in the complete opposite direction of where I ever go.

But that might be my last resort place. When I was there back in 2006, I think the prices quoted were $35 for 10 minutes and one dollar per minute thereafter.

The last last place on my list is in a much more affluent area than the expensive place, so I’m assuming it will be even more expensive - but Gobi said she is going to try there at some point in the future so I was going to wait to hear back from her. :slight_smile:

The 20 minute appointment thing… I’ve heard other places say they like to do 15 minute appointments, so I wasn’t surprised. There is no licensing of electrolysis and most beauty therapists are only trained to do it in a course of like a semester, maybe even less, as part of their full BT degree, and don’t usually go on to work in the area. Also, the booking diary of this lady (she is the only one who works there) looked pretty full, which might be why she prefers shorter time frames.

-oh and continuing on with this topic, I think it seems like everyone in Adelaide simply uses on methord of electrolysis and owns ancient machines, so I’m pretty stuck in that regard.

#6

i know how you feel Emilily, it was so hard finding someone on the gold coast in australia, and the person i DID find is literally an hour drive so 2 hours (there and back) it suxs :frowning: but what can ya do aye

#7

Pretty much :frowning:

Well, I went to my first appointment today. She IS really fast (well I guess, I don’t have anyone else to compare to, haha!)… I wore an arm band which was damp. She would go into a follicle, put the pedal down and go, but it was pretty muhc streamlined - like she’d do it as soon as the needle was in and go to the next, except for a couple of darker hairs. Post treatment was red. I only wanted three hairs on my upper lip done but she did about 6, it looked pretty bad but the swelling went down within the hour. I also went to work after the hour and none of the kids commented on my face being red at all, which is a good sign - kids will not shy at saying anything, haha.

I had a ten minute appointment, next time I’ll go for 20 minutes. I also want to find the other electrolysis place down that way, but I’m happy to be getting treatments at the same time, since for me the only bad thing is to wait… money is not really an issue since I’m a student… I’ve been living under the poverty line since I moved out of home three years ago, but have still managed to save and also travel overseas… I guess I just have really good spending habits :stuck_out_tongue: So, for me, my aim is to be hairfree (or close as possible) by the time I complete my teaching degree halfway through next year :slight_smile:

She told me she’d done about a tenth of the hair in the area in the 10 minutes. This was the hair under my chin. I also aim to ask her to start on the hair on my chest since I want to be able to wear bathers in summer.

All I have now is a bit of crusting formed around the areas, and a few white heads forming. She put some heavily scented cream stuff on me after finishing, I have no idea what it was, but I put witchhazel on the area around half an hour after the appointment and again just then, around 5 hours after the appointment. I’ll treat the area with tea tree oil tonight and reassess in the morning.

She was pretty nice about timing - when her timer went off she still treated about 20 or so more hairs, and after that when we were talking she realised she hadn’t done any of the upper lip hairs and went back and quickly did those as well, so very nice.

The other thing was, she commented when I first came in that I didn’t have much hair, and I got the impression that she didn’t think I’d need much, but after that ten minute session she commented that while the hair lies flat its quite long and there’s a lot of it. I might ask her next time how long she thinks I’ll need to be getting electrolysis.

But… the pain was not too bad (though she commented that I was really good with it). It felt like… hot needles being poked into the skin :wink: hahaha

#8

I would bring my own witchhazel to the appt next time. The stuff she put on doesn’t sound great.

Upper lip gets pretty irritated. That’s normal. But the redness and everything else should subside within an hour or so.

#9

I think you’re right. Most of the time I’d just assume that someone who is a professional at their job would know best, but even the areas that weren’t treated around the area of treatment have come up with a few whiteheads. My skin is prone to them but some products will easily make it worse. I’ll use witchhazel straight off next time.

This morning the area seems fine. Only a very slight pinkness on the end of my chin, but I was looking at myself in a magnified mirror. There’s only a light bit of crusting and some whiteheads that have formed at the treatment site. I applied tea tree oil last night and I’ll put on some more witchhazel soon, but to me (being extra hopeful) the area looks really good and I feel like I can even see the different in the hair now :slight_smile:

#10

Well, the area is still a bit of a mess. My skin is flaking, there are spots everywhere and it feels rough to the touch. May not have found a great place. I’m having a 20 min appointment there tomorrow and then afterwards I’m going to find somewhere else to get electrolysis… if there is anywhere!

#11

I would share your side effects with them so they can adjust the settings.

Also, don’t retreat any areas that haven’t fully healed.

#12

I agree. Just so you know emilily, this kind of skin reaction doesn’t have to happen. Talk to her.

#13

Funny thing is, when Gobi went to see her she did advise the electrologist about the after effects of the treatment but the electrologist didn’t want to change her settings. She also told me before the session that I’d likely have small scabs. It could just be that she’s unwilling to change?

Update: my electrologist told me she did around 600 hairs in twenty minutes. Thats pretty good isn’t it?

#14

woah 600 hairs in 20 min thats fast thats 30 hairs a min!

#15

I knew she was fast :slight_smile: I just wasn’t sure how she would compare to other practitioners. I guess if she’s really fast then paying more for a shorter session is ok since it will be almost like paying the same price in the end?? Can any of the electrolygists on this forum tell me how fast they are or how fast on average someone doing blend is?

#16

Good speed with good treatment results would save you time and money. As for the information on what constitutes fast work, you should check out this thread:
http://www.hairtell.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/68676.html (Look for the long post by me numbered 68676 that has a link to yet another post string in it)

Additionally, it must be said that based on what you have told us, your practitioner is NOT doing anything that can be fairly compared to what I will call, Orthodox Blend Treatments. As such, those treatments must be compared against thermolysis treatments, and the speed you report is still fast for thermolysis. The speed your practitioner is reporting exceeds the statistical speed limits of orthodox blend. It is like the scene in the movie My Cousin Vinny, when Danny DeVito’s character asks the guy on the witness stand if the laws of physics stop at his stove, thus allowing him to cook hominy grits in 5 minutes, when it takes the rest of the entire grit eating world 15 to 20 minutes to cook them. :grin:

#17

Thanks for that James! I read the post you were talking about. She told me that because my hairs are so light etc that she was able to remove them faster than terminal hairs. The one terminal hair she has done on my chin she was in the follicle for much longer than she’s ever been in there before.

When you say that being in the follicle for less than seven seconds means that the treatment is thermolysis rather than blend, will the treatments I’m getting still be destroying the follicle? Argh now I’m worried. Though I’m guessing her approximation may be off slightly? Off to read the thread you linked to in your post! Thanks. I hope I didn’t waste $160…

#18

You are fine. It is perfectly possible to get permanent hair removal doing what I think she is doing. There are 3 basic modalities in electrolysis, and a beavy of treatment modifications withen those three. Many ways to bare a cat, eh? :wink:

#19

Awesome. I think I’m going to stay with her now, because thermolysis is the modality that I wanted to use in the first place, as my hair is light and fine - it seemed like the best choice for the fastest results, and I’m definitely getting fast results here. Thanks :slight_smile: I’ll try to upload a picture of the area some time.

#20

Well, I went for my next appointment this morning. Very painful - I didn’t realise how much worse it is when you are on your period. I had a ten minute visit instead.

She told me I have a little pigmentation on the skin - slight darkening. I wasn’t aware since I can’t really see the area. I don’t mind, since I don’t think anyone else could usually see it either.

I haven’t had any scabbing in this area. Sometimes I get surface pimples (little white heads) but my skin isn’t great at the best of times. I think the healing is quite fast and I’ve started using ice to ice the area for at least twenty minutes after a session. That really does wonders!

One product I’ve found which is awesome: T N Dickinsons (who make the witch hazel I use) also make witch hazel/aloe vera soaked wipes which come in a tub (50 sheets per tub!!) they don’t have a problem drying out. I keep them in the glovebox in my car so it’s easy to find them, and way easier to use on the go compared to the witch hazel in a bottle. For anyone living in Aus/SA, you can find them in Priceline. I haven’t found them anywhere else. They were pretty cheap too. :smiley: