I am simply amazed at how much hair there is on my face! I know that after a full clearance, any new hair that becomes visible is not the same treated hair but new hair. However, I did not think it was possible to have this much hair on a female face. After I get fully cleared, I see new hair growth within days. Usually I see the first hairs begin to emerge within 2 days. By day 4 I have plenty of hair starting to peek through and those that made a first appearance at day 2 are starting to get longer that I would like. Keep in mind I am only treating my lip and chin including the underside of my chin. I have also been hitting it hard since I began in early July. I was going multiple times a week for 1-2 hours. (I have now imposed a once a week rule).
I think the hair has thinned a little bit but to me the difference is barely noticible. I still can’t believe how much is just barely under the skin at any given time just waiting to rear its ugly head!!! Is this normal???
(by the way, I have ditched all the products except for witch hazel, aloe gel and tea tree oil. I am also sticking with blend by the lady I trust to do blend but not flash. so far so good)
I have exactly the same issue and have been wanting an answer as well. I have been going for about 3 months now and it seems like every time i go my electrolygist does a full clearance and it just seems to be ongoing without much difference. If anyone has an answer for this, it would be a great help!
That thread does a great job to explain the grid of hair effect but it doesn’t quite translate into what results you see at what point in treatment factoring in how many times you achieve clearance in say a month. By the way, I took pictures at the beginning and at the three month mark based on reading your advice time and again. I am at the 3.5 month mark now and I’ve been getting cleared weekly (at least). Still, so much hair?
Don’t get me wrong I don’t want to only appear on this board whn I’m complaining. I truly believe electrolysis works and I actually think I finally have noticed a small reduction. I am ecstatic about that!!! I can finally see that glimmer and it is really exciting. I can’t wait until I can go for more than 4 days without a whole lot of new growth on my chin and lip and I’d like to know at what point I can expect that. Does that make sense?
Caligirl, wasn’t part of the problem that you weren’t getting proper treatments before? You should see things improve after 4-6 months or so, but the treatments have to be well performed and effective.
Also, I’m not sure I understand the “how many clearances you achieve per month” comment. You should be getting a full clearance and then coming in to get all new hair that shows up. So technically, you should be cleared each time after your first clearance. Is that not the case?
I guess the problem is that I have never seen you. On the one hand, I have had female clients who have hormonally driven hair growth, who at the outset could get a full clearance on a monday, and yet have enough hair to require a second, shorter clearance by wednesday or thursday. Of course, in 6 weeks time, we were down to weekly appointments, and then bi-weekly appointments, followed by once a month.
On the other hand, there are some people for whom any hair you remove, only serves to focus their attention on a new set of hairs, that they had previously not noticed, as they were too busy focusing on the thicker ones that were previously removed.
In any case, I hope you are NOT talking about hair that looks like the picture below:
I think I was getting proper BLEND treatments with my electrologist. However I went to 2 other ladies. One did a very painful blend treatment and had 2 dogs running around so I never went back. The other lady scabbed my mouth area really badly with thermolysis. My regular gal treated me (not effectively) with her Apilus Sr. II. I don’t think she is confident with that machine. I trust her with blend though.
There was a time when I didn’t feel I was getting full clearances so I stepped it up. It has been a struggle for me trying to find a balance beween full clearances each time and over treatment. But overall I am getting fully cleared almost every single time. I think I can definitely see reduction in my upper lip hair on the corners of my mouth and also some parts of my chin. I’m just so amazed at all the continuous hair growth. Is some female chin and lip hair so dense that it’s normal to see continous growth after 3.5 months of at least weekly treatements getting full clearance just about every time?
James, if my facial hair looked like your photo I would be the happiest person alive!
You would be surprised at how many people come to our offices and are aghast at “ALL THAT HAIR!”
To answer your question, it is possible to have a situation like you have discribed, especially when treating in blend, but you should be turning the corner soon. I would be shocked and amazed if you needed weekly appointments past the six month mark.
Keep in mind that much of what we say here on completion times is Thermolysis/Diathermy based. The times needed for Blend are higher, and the times for Galvanic are still higher than that.
All that said, you are wise to take the best treatment you can get, in the modality that the best available practitioner delivers with the best outcome. It really is true in this industry, the answer to the question, “What modality should I get treatment in?” is “What ever the person working on you does best!”
James is right. Blend is much slower than thermolysis. So it will take a bit longer to get to each clearance. You shouldn’t rush it to get a clearance by sacrificing your skin. Get as much as possible removed in a time frame that is not too much for your skin. Then come in again when that area is completely healed to get the rest. You’ll finally reach a point when you get cleared each time that way. And I agree, it will be about the 6-month mark where you’ll feel a large progress has been made. Right now, you’re still going through hair cycles.
I skimmed through these posts…maybe I missed the background, since I don’t get here often…
I have some questions for Caligirl…you mentioned that you are getting full clearance - what I would like to know is what methods of hair removal you were using before? Were you tweezing or shaving? If you were tweezing, how often did you tweeze and how many minutes did you spend tweezing each time? The answer to these questions helps me to get a better picture of how much hair you began with. THAT information helps me provide information that might help you understand what is going on.
When an area has been cleared - and there was no recent tweezing, then it should be much longer than 2 to 4 days before hairs show up. Those hairs that show up in 2 days - what do they look like? Are they hairs with a soft tapered point, or are they showing up like stubble?
I was a habitual tweezer, waxer and bleacher for as long as I can remember. When I was a child my mom took me to see an electrologist. I have a very vague recollection of being in what I thought was a doctor’s office and crying my eyes out because what the “doctor” was doing to me hurt so badly. The electrologist told my mom she couldn’t treat me. When I was in grade school or middle school my mom started waxing my upper lip since I had so much hair there and she didn’t want me to be teased. I don’t recall when I began tweezing my lip and beginning to tweeze my chin but it has been at least 15 years. I didn’t want to wait for my lip hair to get long (and visible) enough to wax so I began to tweeze.
I don’t recall how often I would tweeze in the beginning but for the last several years I was tweezing my lip, chin and brows for at least one hour every morning. Ugh, now that I remember that I shudder to think what a slave I was to my facial hair. I would wax my entire face about every 3-4 weeks for the finer, dark hair that is all over my face. The waxing never made my facial hair (excluding my lip) any stronger. The hair on my cheeks, sideburns and forehead is still fine. Only the hair on my chin, lip and under my chin got strong. I also have some on my neck that got wirey.
Hair that has been tampered with for so long gets used to it and becomes a lot more resistant, so it is harder to kill the first time around and often needs a few passes. So keep that in mind.
Okay - that answers part of my question…but please tell me this - when the new hair shows up two to four days after a treatment, is it coming in with a soft tapered end, or is it coming in like a stubble? Even accelerated vellus hair, when improperly treated, will come in as stubble.
If you started out with several treatments a week 3 months ago, and are now down to once a week for less time and getting clearance, then you can expect that in three more months, your treatment time will be cut in half again (you’ll have a shorter appointment every week, or the same length every 2 weeks).
THAT is the way that treatments progress. Patience is a virtue that will get you to your goal.
Hmmm, the hair that is growing in is not that stubbly but it does feel somewhat thick and a little stubbly. That brings me to another question. My electrologist keeps saying they are baby hairs unlike the ones I started with. It is true, they don’t look anything like the big gross ones I began with but shouldnt they all look the same? I thought the current regrowth is still all from the hairs I toughened with years and years of tweezing. Why does it seem these hairs are not as bad as the first ones?
I have to say that I really now think it is absolutely certain that I have less hair on my lip. I can finally see it starting to work!!! Even my chin is better. I still do have a lot of regrowth and very quickly but I have to say I am certain I now have less hair than I did a month ago and longer. YAY!!!
I am still fuming mad at the lady that scabbed my mouth last month. I now have hyperpigmentation all around my upper and lower lip. I had just worked so hard for so long (about 9 months) to get rid of it and it had substantially faded. Then with one crappy treatment it’s all back. At least that will fade and the hair will be gone FOREVER!!!
Some of the hairs are not killed the first time around, but they get finer and finer with each treatment. That’s what is meant by the statement that hairs that have been tampered with for a long time take longer to kill. Meaning what you may be seeing are old hairs becoming finer.
But don’t they take a long time to grow back? I’m thinking of James’ grid example. If she treats a hair but it doesn’t totally die the first time around, I still won’t see that same hair grow back for a very long time right? Or does it grow back right away? Assuming you pluck a hair, how long before you see the same hair resurface? Is it any different if you zap it with electrolysis but it doesn’t die? When would I see it again?
Oh, I see. I didn’t know the facial hair cycle is so short. It makes sense now. These new hairs are absolutely finer than what I started with but thick compared to the smallest hairs on my face that I never tweezed. I have been able to tell that the hairs have gotten finer for quite some time and I have to say I was baffled as to why. Now I get it. The great part is that now not only can I tell they are finer but also less dense which means that many of them have been killed. That makes me SOOOOO happy!!!
