Getting really frustrated with electrolysis..help!

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
1

My hair removal journey began in about September 2010. I’d noticed that my peach fuzz on my face, which was virtually unnoticeable before, had suddenly darkened and thickened - a very noticeable change on my fair skin. I’m still not sure to this day exactly what caused the change. My hormones and periods are normal. I’m not overweight. And I don’t think it’s genetic…wouldn’t genetic hair growth come with puberty? I’m in my early 20’s. None of my doctors could give me a straight answer about it. In any case, the cause wasn’t really my priority. I just wanted it gone!

So I did what everyone else does these days…laser. It didn’t help. It may have made it worse (and I wish that I’d gone on these boards first, I hadn’t known how common this is!) and I regret doing it. After not seeing results, I turned to electrolysis. I had a few spread out treatments at first, then began religiously going every 1-2 weeks. I’ve been consistent with it for about 8 and a half months now, I’d say.

The problem is, I’m hardly seeing a change. The hair growth has slowed and thinned just a tiny bit, but it’s all still coming back. I know electrolysis is slow, but after all the hours I’ve put in I’m expecting a bit more at this point. I’m still coming in every 1-2 weeks. So I’m confused. Is it me…am I just one of those rare exceptions to electrolysis? I haven’t tweezed or threaded or anything like that since I began. Should I come in more than once a week and for longer hours? Or could it be I’m just not seeing the right electrologist? In any case, I’m getting really frustrated. The treatments are very painful and really wreak havoc on my face afterwards, swollen and red as can be. And of course, the hair itself has really impacted my self esteem. :frowning: I’m kind of at a loss.

In addition to all those questions, could anyone possibly recommend a good electrologist in the LA area? (Preferably someone who’s actually finished their treatments, or knows someone who has). I’d be willing to drive further than LA too for someone who really knows what they’re doing. Any advice would be very very appreciated!

2

Welcome to HairTell. Can you submit some quality pictures of your peach fuzz? Have you discussed your frustrations with your practitioner? She may be able to educate you more about the process and offer reassurance. There can be several frustrating moments in the electrolysis timeliine to completion.

3

Thank you for the speedy reply dfahey! I will try to let my hair grow as much as I can then take a picture. I’ll speak to my electrologist as well and see if she can offer some reassurance. If not, do you know of any good electrologists in or around the LA area? I trust the people on this website more than I trust Google. Thanks again!

4

Hi RawSugar,

I will write about my experience with peach fuzz in an attempt to explain why it can be frustrating to treat.

I am of south asian descent with fairly light skin and black body hair. I had a full face and neck beard. I hardly have any photos of my teenage years as they were horrible - I had more facial hair than my 3 year younger brother. My mother scared me off all hair removal techniques, which I’m actually grateful for now. When I was 19, an older girl who was living with us for a while introduced me to bleaching. Since my hair was long and dense, but fine, bleaching worked great. But it was a weekly thing and only temporary - I started researching Laser after hearing about it.

When I was 25, I finally had the money to start permanent hair removal and in one of my last researching sessions, I came across HairTell. I quickly discovered Laser was not appropriate for this kind of hair and learnt about electrolysis.

I found a good electrologist in London. She did blend on me. I wasn’t sure if I’d see results, so in the beginning I had her work only on my thick sideburn hairs which I did not bleach. After about 8 months of 15 or 30 min treatments every 1-2 weeks, I could see they were almost done. I had a break of a few months in which I didn’t get much regrowth, so I added my upper lip for treatment. I continued like this, adding other small areas such as my eyebrows, underarms, areolas.

Now these smaller areas went really well. But when I started having her work on my beard area, I’d leave the session feeling like nothing much had been done… even though I’d ask her to concentrate on one small area. I always had the feeling it would be difficult to treat the whole area with her, so I pretty much stopped and had decided I was prepared to travel to someone who could tackle it all it once. America was on my list but it would be difficult to travel there.

Eventually, a Spanish electrologist (Josefa) began discussing and showing her work on here. This was far more do-able. My sister went first, for a 6 hour treatment in May 2011.

Then we both went in September 2012. It took Josefa worked on my beard area for 6 hours (the time I allocated for it). She managed to remove a LOT of hair. I could have done with another 4 hours to ‘complete’ that session I think, but I had underestimated the density. However, this treatment did rid me of the long hairs and significantly reduce the density in the most dense areas. Now, over 4 months later, it looks pretty much as good as it did then - minimal regrowth.

In those 6 hours, Josefa probably removed about 20hairs/min on the face. Even if this is not 100% accurate, that is about 3-4 (maybe even 5) times the speed of my London electrologist. So what took Josefa 6 hours to remove, would have taken her 18-24 hours. If I was going once a week for 1 hour every time, it would take 18-24 weeks to reach the same level of clearance.

On top of that, we need to consider regrowth. Josefa treats so that the hair she has treated is gone for good - it doesn’t come back later. My London electrologist always told me that some hairs would be treated first time, and some hairs would come back later as the follicle hadn’t been completely destroyed. So with her, not only would I need much more time for the same level of clearance, we would also be treating actual regrowth later on down the line.

Now, I am not trying to dishearten you, nor am I saying you need to travel. If I had time and money, I could have done this work with my London electrologist.

The point of my story is just to highlight that it is not a small job. As long as you have faith that your electrologist is permanently removing hairs (as I knew my London electrologist was) then all you need is to invest more time and go more regularly.

Peach fuzz is not an easy job!

5

Thank you so much for the reply! It was very helpful. I’m beginning to think I should maybe try another electrologist, as you did, so I may shop around. I like my current electrologist but I just want to be sure she’s the right fit for me!