Fond du Lac Reporter article on laser

Hair Removal Information Sources News
#1

The October 11 2002 Fond du Lac Reporter has an article on a LightSheer laser purchased by dermatologist James Schuster. Dr. Schuster has been a great contributor for hairfacts, allowing me to reprint several slides he created.

“Hair-raising technology” By Sharon Roznik

http://www.wisinfo.com/thereporter/news/archive/local_6331492.shtml

To give you an idea of costs in a non-urban midwestern area:

</font><blockquote><font size=“1” face=“Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif”>quote:</font><hr /><font size=“2” face=“Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif”> Diode laser treatments are only available through technicians who are affiliated with a physician. Costs range from $300 (for a package of three treatments) for an area like a lip, up to $1,200 for a leg. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size=“2” face=“Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif”>

#2

Thank You again Andrea for posting such great information. The reason electrolysis as a whole has to fight to say that laser is not even worth the money is the fact that some people are having to choose between practitioners whose productivity is as low as the person quoted in this article. A person with the Speed of a Fino Gior, Mike Bono, Lucy Desrochers, Karlyn Kasperek, and many others besides myself can make laser a moot point.

This article is a great example of the things good electrologists rail at about laser promoters.

Those who read the entire article will note that the order of the article, which newspapers will tell you most people read the first paragraph, and fewer and fewer people read each successive paragraph, till very few people actually finish the article. Note what they say in the beginning and what the slide in at the end.

 &lt;/font&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"&gt;quote:&lt;/font&gt;&lt;hr /&gt;&lt;font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"&gt;New technology, brought to Fond du Lac by Nancy Neusen 14 months ago, utilizes a state-of-the-art laser and has propelled methods of permanent hair removal light years ahead.

…

Lynn Rothe, 41, of Fond du Lac, said the procedure was convenient and fit her needs.“Years ago, I tried electrolysis, which was the cutting-edge at the time,” she said. “I had been plucking my hair for years. Then, I heard about the laser, and now the hair is gone, forever. I don’t worry about it anymore.”Rothe said it took seven quick treatments.
…

Diode laser treatments are only available through technicians who are affiliated with a physician. Costs range from $300 (for a package of three treatments) for an area like a lip, up to $1,200 for a leg.The treated area will feel mildly sunburned or razor-burned for several hours. Redness may persist 24 to 48 hours following treatment.

The procedure will most likely never replace electrolysis, Neusen said. At this point, lasers cannot remove red, gray or white hair, so the need will always be there. But most people won’t opt to get electrolysis on an entire leg.

“I charge $60 an hour for electrolysis. That’s about 130 hairs, one at a time,” Neusen said. “Treatments can take two to three years. The laser can do the same in 10 minutes.” </font><hr /></blockquote><font size=“2” face=“Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif”>So in the beginning they toute how laser is “cutting edge” and imply that electrolysis is outdated. They have someone give an OPINION that they are hair free for life after “a few short treatments” and then later burried in the end of the article they give the disclosure that it doesn’t replace electrolysis, and the speed of the electrologist whose work is being replaced by laser.

Now here is a reality check. They are talking about laser removing 130 hairs in 10 minutes and that is supposed to be good. Depending on the client and the angles of insertion and the part of the body being worked on, I could do the same in 10 to 20 minutes. They are talking about 7 treatments of ten minutes after which one still will need electrolysis to “Finish the job” and I am asking who would want to PROLONGED this job by starting with laser! I would have removed 910 hairs in 140 minutes at my slowest pace in thermolysis, and I could have equaled that same number in blend as well.

My treatments also have the added bonus of not needing 6 weeks out of the sun, and doesn’t feel like one has been broiled on a spit for up to 48 hours.

[ December 29, 2002, 06:14 AM: Message edited by: James W. Walker VII, CPE ]

#3

Ummm, I think most laser techs can remove more than 130 hairs in ten minutes. Not a very good comparison IMHO. Practitioner skill is just as important in laser as in electrolysis. In both methods, lack of practitioner skill is probably responsible for most treatment failures.

RJC2001

#4

My point was that they are suggesting that 130 hairs an hour in electrolysis is what can be expected, while I am saying that many electrologists can beat that number. The article says nothing about the limits of how many hairs per hour laser can treat.

You already know that I totally agree that the skill of the practitioner is the key thing be it auto mechanics, or electrolysis.

#5

How many hairs per hour is considered good for an electrologist? And how many electrologists can achieve that would you estimate.

I am considering electrolysis for stubborn and white hairs missed by laser and I would like to know what to expect time wise.

Laser is time limited too. It takes at least an hour, maybe more, to treat a hairy chest or back once, some of that depending on the laser and the pulse width being used.

Also am I correct in assuming electrolysis can be use on tanned skin during the summer? Staying out of the sun a few days before and after treatment is OK, but could electrolysis be used under those conditions?

RJC2001

#6

There is nothing that would get me in more trouble with electrologists worldwide than to make a statement on what a professional’s speed should be. Even the fastest electrologist will have varying speed based on variables that are specific to the individual client. In addition to that, the method of electrolysis utilized has its own time sensitive limits.

Having said that, 130 hairs per hour breaks down to 2 hairs per minute from selection, to insertion to epilation. Unless you are working in straight galvanic, or have really stubborn hairs that require blend treatments that take that long to treat per hair, this number should sound low to most electrologists. If one is having thermolysis done, 6 hairs per minute is easily obtained on most clients, and that would yield 360 hairs per hour assuming one did not have to do any adjustments to treatment energy during the hour, and could just epilate in the same way typing tests eliminate one’s need to make spacing decisions regarding margins.

If your hairs have one easy simple growth direction (called the grain of the hair’s growth) and it is an easy angle to insert, and the hairs are spaced regularly, and in a line, 20 hairs per minute is not impossible.

I have not traveled the world, and I don’t have any studies on what “average electrologists” can deliver, but 6 to 10 hairs per minute in Thermolysis is reasonable. In blend mode, where one can find a working setting that may be effective in 7 seconds of treatment energy, 4 to 6 hairs per minute is reasonable. Most people using straight galvanic use multiple probe machines, and so even they can usually do better than 2 hairs per minute on average, but only in straight galvanic would I find 130 hairs per hour to be an acceptable speed for a client who had a regular growth pattern that required no special insertion angles and reaches.
People who have hairs growing in different directions, and clumped close together, would have to accept the fact that the fastest speeds are not possible. I have had to explain to two clients who are friends (and having a friendly rivalry on who would finish first) that although the one of them had 100 fewer hairs per square inch, the guy with the more plentiful hairs had the faster work rate, because all the hairs were organized as if the follicles were the dot matrix pattern in a Dick Tracy Cartoon. We regularly obtained speeds between 15 and 20 hairs per minute. Meanwhile the guy with the fewer hairs per square inch did not have a constant growth direction, nor regular spacing to the follicles. We were lucky if we could get to 12 hairs per min on him.

You can expect that your work should go quickly, if the hairs are few and spread out. If they are plentiful and close together, it will take longer. You will be able to have electrolysis without incident should you avoid tanning just before, and just after the treatment. Tanning dries out the skin, and we need moisture in order for our treatment to work. Your skin also needs moisture to heal. May I suggest the new “Mist-N-Go-Tan” that sprays on aloe and vitamin E oil? This will give you that all over tan without the dehydration and premature aging of exposure to solar radiation. You can get sun burn in just 7 minutes you know.

I have tried to answer your question, but like I said, it is different having a typists speed measured on a typing test, and having one type up a book for you. It would depend on the book being a Harry Potter, or Edgar Allen Poe. The length would be the same, but the typing time would be different.

#7

Thanks for all the info. You did a geat job of answering all my questions.

RJC2001