The question I would have is “What do you consider completely cleared.” Electrolysis clients have a knack for going from, “I would just be happy to be able to take my shirt off without people commenting on the hair they see” to “Are we ever going to get done! There are these lanugo hairs that I can see if the sun is shining just right, and I turn the right way.”
Yes, I have cleared full backs in 18 - 24 months.
Before I started hair removal (with LHR), I made a “template”. What I mean is, I had a piece of cardboard with a 1 inch square hole in it. I placed it on several points in the areas I wanted hair removed and counted the hairs. I wrote them down so I could document the average amount of hair per square inch. Visually, I didn’t start noticing any reduction until after the third, and especially fourth treatment. Mind you, this is with LHR which is capable of covering a large area quickly and targeting hairs growing hairs which haven’t sprouted through the surface, which is an important factor to remember with electrolysis.
An electrologist can only zap hairs which are visible. So, this is why you see hairs coming through a couple of weeks after a treatment or clearance. This is why it is so very important to be consistently return for treatments in a short period of time. Ya gotstah get them hairs when they are growing.
Also, patience is of utmost importance. Neither LASER nor electrolysis is not going to get rid of hair over a several month period. It is a long, gradual journey. I look back and am amazed how long ago it was when I started. Of course, this is compounded by the fact there were some long periods of time when nothing was done and I’ve added new areas from when I started. On the plus side of that, there are some areas which are “done” and I haven’t had any kind of treatment in 2-3 years.
How long? I think my idea of the time it is going to take is sadly mistaken… I have been plucking 6 months…shaving forever.
I’m specifically talking about the issue with induced hair growth on men’s shoulders and upper arms that arises after poor laser/IPL treaments. I wanted to know if you had ever worked on someone with this issue on these areas and if so we’re able to kill all of the offending hair?
Yes, I have.
It doesn’t take any longer than any other job from start to finish.
What is important is getting first clearance as soon as possible, and then doing reclearances on schedule, and being sure that they are also full clearances.
Clients tend to “move the goal posts” on us when we are working. They start out wanting “The most noticeable hairs removed” and then when that looks possible, they want any hairs visible from 4 feet away removed, and as that happens, some tend to get a little obsessive and want every last filiment of hair counted against us as a hair we missed during treatments.
The number of hairs that need to be removed to bring a person from “Nice Angora Sweater” to “Nothing noticeable to the average person” is a simple test of endurance and faithfulness of schedule. This is true even of LASER induced growth.
I have to agree with James. At first, I wanted “the most noticeable hairs” removed. The subtle change over a period of time of those hairs being removed causes one to see the hairs which weren’t noticeable before. Over a period of time, one starts to notice even the finest hairs because there are not coarse ones, no thin dark ones, and no thin medium colored ones. As I said, it is a gradual and subtle evolution and we DO forget how things were in the beginning stages.