Hello, all - I was a lurker here for quite some time, and I learned tons from reading the posts from everyone here.
After sifting through all the information, I decided that I was going to go to Electrology 2000 in Texas to get my facial electro done.
My reasons were as follows:
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I am allergic to pain. I tried a few different electrologists in Chicago, but even with emla and other numbing attempts, it just hurt TOO much for me to deal with. Getting numbed with injections seemed like the only alternative. It is so bad for me that I was only able to do 30 minute sessions - any longer and I just couldn’t sit still. Because of this, I’d only had a total of 3 hours work done to date to no noticeable affect.
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Convenience. I didn’t want to always be either growing my hair out or recovering from a session. E2K would allow me to avoid a lot of that because they’d go clear in one go.
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Results. I’ve personally seen a few people that have had their work done by E2K, and I liked the results.
Anyway - here’s my experience:
They say that the “average” person usually needs ~30 hours for their first clearing. I’ve got what I thought of as a light beard (according to their site, it is less than the average) so I booked 3 days - approximately 18-20 hours. On the phone, I spoke with Bren, who was very patient and friendly.
I flew down to TX on the 27th of November, and stayed the night at that Homestead Suites place nearish to their offices. The place wasn’t bad, though the next time I go I’ll definitely ask them for a 2nd floor room - the people having long (and loud) conversations in the parking lot woke me up a couple of times.
On the 28th, I went in for my appointment - arrived a little early to fill out some simple paperwork - and got a consultation. The person who worked on me that day was Sabrina, who was extremely nice, very patient with my questions, and just all around fantastic.
Now, the injections hurt quite a bit - there’s no getting around that. I asked Bren to go in through the skin rather than in my mouth because I’ve recently had some dental work, and I was tired of shots in my gums. She did - and it hurt - but the numbing worked like a charm, and made the whole process bearable. (Bren kept apologizing for hurting me, but heck - 10 seconds of pain vs. hours and hours… I’ll take her injections any time! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />)
Sabrina got to work on me after a really good (and free) consult where she explained exactly what gets done, how it works, etc. She said that not only did I have a pretty small beard, coverage-wise, but that I was also not very dense - good news! She estimated that it might take as little as 12 hours to get me clear, and I was thrilled to hear that.
Well, Sabrina worked on me for about 7 hours that first day - no pain, except that my back got stiff from the chair - and got my entire face clear, leaving only my neck, under my jawbone, and a couple of spots under my chin.
That night, my face was, indeed, swollen - though I was told that it was nowhere near as bad as it gets, because more hair = more swelling. They gave me some zinc oxide to put on the areas, told me to ice it, and I went back to the hotel. At no point did I have any more pain that evening other than a very slight dull ache that was completely ignorable. I think I took 2 Tylenol while I was there, but might not have.
The next day, Sabrina’s sister Tish worked on me - she walked in, said “Oh, wow, we’ll be done in no time!” and she was right: 1 hour later, she was done.
8 hours! I was ecstatic - that was less than half of the time I’d expected it to take. I’d originally expected that I would be flying home today but I was able to re-arrange my flight and leave Tuesday afternoon.
Not only was the treatment fantastic (my swelling is mostly gone by now, and the redness is almost completely gone, and I think it looks great!), but the people of E2K are great too. All too often it feels like people who provide services like these are thinking of their clients as revenue streams, but not once did I feel that way with these folks - nothing fake about 'em, they’re just great.
I’m kicking myself because I took so long to go and do this - I was worried about the price, worried that “clear cutting” would really mess up my skin, worried about travelling down to Texas to do this - but it all worked out really, really great.
So, that’s my 2 cents - I just wanted to gush about the work they did, and also to again thank everyone here for all the information and chatter that I’ve lurkingly syphoned up <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Kate