Hair growth cycles question

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
#1

Hi everyone,

I am looking to have electrolysis done on my eyebrows. I am looking mainly to get reduction but if clearing is possible I would be much happier.

I have a time frame between Feb and end of June. What can I expect If I had treatments twice (or three times) a month during the time frame stated above ?

Someone very nice told me that if I went during these months and then stopped getting treatments I will notice only a reduction on the area every feb-June each year. Is this right ? I don’t understand the hair growth cycle.

I remember I had IPL treatments on my underarms 4 times during November-Feb (3 years ago)then stopped due to many reasons, but the most important thing is that some places are still hair free even though I didn’t treat every hair cycle through out the year.

Can anyone shed light on this ?

#2

If you will be much happier with a clearing, then do this!! That time frame is more than enough to clear all the troublesome hairs.

Just know that when you stop, the regrowth will begin to emerge and then instead of looking clear, it will just look like a reduction. The problem with this is that you have no idea how the hairs will come through. What if it is more reduced in some areas than others?

Another problem is if you only go for a reduction in the first place (rather than clearance)… then when the next growth cycles starts to emerge, it will fill in the initial reduction and may look like you have had nothing done, or very little.

I imagine that every Feb-June, the area will look a bit clearer than the rest of the year if you only have treatment during this time. Electrologists?

#3

In my experience even one clearance will achieve some sort of permanent, year round, reduction (percentage depending on the skill of the electrologist.) And four months will almost certainly achieve 1 clearance. (You could even get 2 clearances if you didn’t touch the area for 3-4 months before you went in.)

Like stoppit, another thing I noticed is that some areas can get more of a reduction than others even though they are treated same time, same everything. Really interesting!

#4

One of my favorite stories is the client who came to me for the “Burt from Sesame Street” Unibrow separation. We started the job in the spring, and worked on a good schedule through summer.

When Fall came, he hit the jackpot with a job offer doubling his pay in exchange for moving to another state, and off he went. Before he left, I explained that he should find someone to keep up the work we had started, otherwise it would LOOK like we had done nothing after a while, but that would be because the hairs we worked on were out of phase.

Well, I did not hear from him for a year, and when I did, I got a giggly call from this guy, saying that he now had proof that I had told him the truth, as during the year, he had watched as his two eyebrows closed in to be a Unibrow again during the fall and stayed that way during the winter, but as spring sprung, his eyebrows opened up like a curtain slowly over a period of weeks, and he spent late spring until summer with two eyebrows, which closed again like a curtain during the fall, and were set as a full one brow all winter again.

He wanted to know the schedule he would have to see me to eliminate the closed curtain, and we did just that.

1 year post laser, has this happened to you?
#5

I’m glad lil.D has asked about this, its something I’ve often wondered about. I don’t seem to be able to get my head round the explanations of hair cycles I have read.

I had some electrolysis on my chest and stomach from January to May last year (going every 3/4 weeks with clearance each time) but had to stop for financial reasons. I’m now able to start again and am actually going back to the electrologist tomorrow to continue treatment. Does this mean that when May comes around there’ll actually be more hair coming through as it wasn’t treated at the same time last year? Is this because each particular hair only shows up once a year?

Excuse my ignorance about this, like I say I’ve tried to do my own research on hair cycles but just seem to get more confused!

#6

Does this rule apply only for eyebrows or else ? As I said three years ago I had 4 sessions IPL in a matter of 4 months (November till February)and some areas still hair free since then.

#7

Yeah I’m confused about that as well, I did IPL on my stomach about 3 years ago had 4 sessions in total, I used to have dark coarse hair on the trail down from my belly button. I did 1 session with an alexandrite after that and haven’t touched it since and that was almost 3 years and I’m totally smooth on that spot there, I just have fine hairs around it, but I’ve never had it all come back?

#8

I guess there is no scientific evidence regarding this. Maybe people who had growth afterwards (hair same as before ) received bad treatments ?

As I am evident that I had 4 IPL sessions, each month from November to February and some areas after 3 years are still hairless !

#9

I have not seen this, but it is also true that I am not very orthodox in my practice. In my experience, if 85% are treated in the first clearance, whatever the time of the session, January, May or September, the results are practically the same, 85%. And the reduction will clear the remaining months of the year … for each of the years as you live.

#10

Hi Josefa, I suppose I am talking about electrologists that take this time just to clear. Or clear and then treat their ever persistent regrowth because they only treat anagen well or they need to treat the same follicle more than once.

One treatment from you, I know would do the job.

Perhaps you can suggest what would have happened with my sister. You know she had treatment in the eyebrow area in London from May-end of August. Most of the sessions were spent just to clear the hairs for the first time. Towards the end there was some maintenance to keep cleared areas, clear. When she saw you the following May, you mentioned that there was more regrowth than you would have liked to see. Now, if she did not come to you, and had left the area alone, would she have found the area look a bit clearer in the months July/August that corresponded to when she had her first work in London?

#11

I don’t mean this in a rude way it’s a genuine question. I realize there are basically 3 types of electrolysis and all basically do the same thing, inserting a needle in the follicle and either electrocuting the root or using a chemical process to kill it. Everyone keeps saying that Josefa is unique and different and can get permanent reduction in lesser treatments etc. I’m just curious what one could possibly do different to make her treatments so much better than anyone else’s. The only variables I can really think of would be depth of insertion, power level of device, mode used (thermolysis, blend, etc), type of device used, and amount of time the needle is inside the follicle.

#12

To my knowledge, things Josefa does:
Kills the hairs she treats first time. If there are any she doesn’t the percentage is negligible.
Treats telogen hairs. All the electrologist’s I have met in real life (so others in the UK) claim only anagen can be killed. So if they treat any telogen hairs, the client can expect them to come back later. This was a problem for someone like me, who does not removal facial hair and most of it is in telogen.
Prefers the area has complete growth - so has been untouched for 3+ months so she can treat as many hairs as possible in the first session.

The latter two make a big difference in achieving permanent hair removal faster.

Hummm… all the variables you list; correctly inserting the follicle for the type and stage it is and selecting the right treatment energy… I don’t think it’s that easy. It is an art. I’m hoping to become an electrologist and I can’t imagine ever being as good as her or any of the electrologist’s on HairTell.

Unique? We know Josefa and Michael have posted about the same outcomes of their work. Different, possibly. Who is to say there are not other electrologist’s doing the same - we just don’t know of them.

Do I think it’s typical? No.

Anyway, once your tummy area is cleared. I would love to know what happens after 3 months and whether the growth you have then is 30%/40%/50% of the original amount. I hope you took pics? :o
It’s sure to give you an insight into how effective your electrologist’s work is.

#13

I hope lil.D doesn’t mind me saying but my comments/questions are in light of the fact that I know where he is thinking of getting treated in the UK.

He (?) wants to know what will be the outcome of treating only for 4-5 months and then stopping completely.

I think there are too many unknowns - will he manage to get 1 clearance in the beginning and another after 3 months, before he has to stop? Will he be like my sister and take a few 1 hr sessions to reach first clearance? If a lot of the hair is in telogen, will most of it come back to need treatment again later (outside of his window)? Etc. etc.

#14

How do they only treat anagen hairs versus treating telogen as well? Are they able to tell by looking at the hair which is which? I only ask because from my first treatment a few days ago my electrologist removed 100% of the hairs from the area there’s nothing left.

#15

Those who work in a mode to try to treat only anagen hairs look at the difference between length of growth. Since hairs outside the anagen phase are only being pushed out by shedding of the skin, they don’t move up as fast as a growing hair. This is why some practitioners ask a client to shave 3 to 5 days prior to an appointment, so they can see which hairs are which.

Personally, I just remove them all. It tends to make my clients happier. They really love going home totally smooth.

#16

Since I regularly bleached my facial hair, my electrologist could tell which hairs were growing and treated those. That was a problem for me, because in my beard area most of the long hairs I wanted removed were in telogen.

#17

That makes sense. Again I don’t mean any disrespect by this at all. The girl I went to has been doing this for 31 years she said and she removed every single hair in the area treated on me. So assuming she actually does a proper treatment and it’s effective, I guess I’m just wondering what Josefa can possibly do that’s different to make her method so much better. As James also just said he removes every hair regardless of stage as well to have the client go home looking smooth.

#18

Well then for both we can assume after 3 months we will only see 30% of the original amount of hairs. 3rd clearance after another 3 months and you should be 100% hair free.

Actually why don’t you ask your lady what she expects? Does she expect all her treated hairs will have been killed for good or does she expect some might come back again but finer?

#19

I’m not sure Stoppit. Your sister’s age is a factor to consider. New fine hairs may be developing in her eyebrows. However, if I’m totally honest, I was able to see a real regrowth in a small test patch on sideburns of Smurf. I have understood that the work was done by the same person who worked on your sister.
The problem of working in “only anagen” is that not even professional is able to determine their own degree of elimination. How it to be determined by a client?

#20

I sincerely hope and wish that many other colleagues (luckier than me for buying Michael’s book before I did), have implemented protocols that he recommended to the middle of the 90’s. I wish my Spanish colleagues had followed the same recommendations when I published my study of effectiveness of the late 90’s.

Before (October 2011)

After 4 months from first clearance (February 2012)