Electronic Tweezer Study - Opinions?

Hair Removal Methods Tweezing/Plucking
#1

Hi, I stumbled upon the study attached/below while looking for tweezers to use when I graduate from Electrolysis School. I’m wondering if anyone here has seen it before or has any thoughts? I was looking at Electric tweezer medical data – HairFacts | Hair Removal Information as well as didn’t see it listed, it’s fairly recent (1998). All I can see of note here is the very small sample size and from what I can see, they didn’t actually clear the treatment areas in the trials? It also doesn’t explain how the hairs would actually conduct the electricity…

Any thoughts are appreciated!

Comparison of the efficacy and safety of 3 different depilatory methods (1998).pdf (290.0 KB)
Peter Bjerring; Henrik Egekvist; Thomas Blake (1998). Comparison of the efficacy and safety of three different depilatory methods. , 4(4), 196–199. doi:10.1111/j.1600-0846.1998.tb00110.x

#2

I hardly know where to start! Short version …

The Depilatron/electronic tweezer debacle (1975-1980s) nearly derailed the electrology profession, and “read” like a cheap pulp fiction tale. Do I have any thoughts? Well, I suppose I do.

At the peak of the story, Depilatron had their main California office in Beverly Hills (of course). Like a pandemic, this fraud went world-wide and got established in virtually every country. Eventually, the California State “fraud division” got involved. I worked for the State and did undercover work … Yes, I wore a wire and police officers recorded their “Spiel” at various locations. Before it was over, the electronic tweezers raked-in millions of dollars from unsuspecting estheticians, electrologsts and their clients.

For a few months, after my “James Bond work,” I hid-out because my life was threatened when the people (I recorded) found out who I was and where I lived. I stayed with friends in Studio City. I’ll never forget that chilling “we’re going to kill you phone call!”

Amazingly, this creepy story did have Mafia involvement and the State kept me abreast of what was being discovered … including a Mafia hit, a car pulled out of a New Jersey river, a dead bullet-riddled body, and the trunk of the car filled with Depilatron units!

Bottom line: all these “electronic devices” are complete frauds. All the science has been done. All the court cases are over. The major court case was with Fino Gior … who, by the way, got no support from the electrology profession.

HOWEVER, people forget history. Therefore, history repeats itself over-and-over. The electronic tweezers are not quite dead, just as the multitude of FRAUD “beauty devices” … developed 100-years ago … continue to be re-invented and sold to unsuspecting “suckers.” With each generation, history is forgotten … and, history repeats itself.

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#3

So much history. I forgot about Fino Gior. I remember the discussions about him on hairtell and his contributions to electrology. I wonder how is the family business still. I think his son and daughter are electrologists on Long Island NY.
The new electronic tweezer scam is the at home laser devices. The trick is they do make your hair shed but not permanently so instead of ritual shaving, women just use these devices ritually until they realize it’s not permanent. But at that point the warranty expires and you’re out of luck.

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#4

Indeed, that is the business plan. By the time the consumer realizes the thing doesn’t work, they have lost the paperwork, forgotten who the unit came from, out of warranty … and, the relatively low price is not worth the effort. I used to have a whole cabinet of fraud devices that clients brought in.

The costs of all electronic devices has, amazingly, gone down! These IPL devices probably cost less than $25 to construct. So, even if half of the people succeed in getting a refund, companies are still making a big profit.

Back in 2000-2003 when I was selling my own “Telangitron” device. I bought the device from Clareblend, or Hinkel for $800 and sold it for $1600. The cost of manufacturing the device was $400 … so the companies made a 100% profit. Absolutely all the electrolysis machines made today cost very little to produce … gigantic profit.

It’s like this. My first Macintosh (IIcx) cost $5400: 1-megabite of ram and a 40-megabite hard drive, speed was probably about 16 megahertz (be still my heart!). My computers today are 100 times faster with “a million” times more storage and power … and, the cost is only a fraction of what was being charged for those early computers. ALL ELECTRONICS cost massively LESS to produce today.

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#5

Thanks for the info! I had heard about the history of devices, it seems odd to me that there are still, in 1998, studies being released in favor of these devices.

Another thing I noticed in the study I posted is that they don’t post the settings used for the electrolysis device, which is suspicious. I read another study comparing laser to electrolysis a few weeks ago and they used galvanic only - not blend - and used something like 8 mA of galvanic energy! No wonder it hurt so much worse than laser and was less effective!

#6

You’re RIGHT. Oddly, we seem to trust physicians …and, not electrologists … to do “studies.” And, they are always … well … absurd.

Many years ago (late 1970s), the Rotterdam university hospital did a test comparing blend and thermolysis … The test was conducted by Dr. Peereboom. So, to “make it fair,” she set the thermolysis machine on “2” and the blend machine on “2” (different manufacturers) … and set the (blend) DC on “2” and left the current on for 1-second. Right now, any electrologist reading this just groaned … or fainted!

I was at the university when she gave her lecture on her “research.” Her results were: “there is no difference!” I remember when they gave her a bouquet of flowers after her talk … Dutch tradition … I was thinking the bouquet should have been Hemlock, or Dandelions, or “stink weed.” Nice person … stupid as hell “research.”

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