Hi! I booked in a week ago for my first electrolysis session, which will be next week. I think I was told that i need to grow the hair to 5mm…does this sound correct? I’m getting a bit frustrated as the hair is on my chin (it’s now about 2-3mm long), and I’m thinking I’d like to start my first session sooner.
5mm sounds a little excessive.
Your hair will need to be long enough for your practitioner to do two things:
1/ see the angle of growth of the hair
2/ grasp the hair with tweezers to pull it out
Actually, I’ve found that letting the hair grow too long is actually counter productive. Some of the hairs will be leaving their growth state and beginning their change state.
If you go with just a day’s hair growth, then you can be fairly sure that the longest hairs will be the ones in the anogen (growth) state. And of all your anogen hairs, they’ll be the ones that are growing fastest.
If your hair is really fine and fair, your therapist might have asked for the extra length so that she can see them properly (to make the insertion more accurate).
I think it’s certainly worth a phone call just to double check! If she insists, you can always ask her if you can snip the hairs down a bit with scisors (but be careful - it’s tricky to do this in a mirror!!)
I tell clients to give me a days growth. Remember that as the hair is treated it shrinks so to be able to grab that hair after it has been treated can be tricky. Also remember that as treatments progress the less shaving or clipping you will be doing. Your electrologist will imform you of this. We dont want to be searching out hairs we want to be able to see, treat, and remove. Good Luck.
The woman at Lucy Peters told me to shave my back a week before my treatment, so I shaved it yesterday…Does this sound accurate?
My technician, who is also an electrologist, said that the hair needs to be about 1 mm long. That would probably be about 1 day’s growth.
RJC2001
My technician, who is also an electrologist, said that the hair needs to be about 1 mm long. That would probably be about 1 day’s growth.
RJC2001
Thanks for the advice!
In my case the hair is neither fine nor light, so it has been a frustrating week trying to grow them long enough. Lots of bleaching going on at my house! I tried calling the electrologist today, but just missed her after she left. I guess I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt - maybe I misunderstood the 5mm - but I’m sure I queried her about it, cause I was surprised.
I ended up calling another salon close to where I live. Thanks to this forum & the web page, I was able to ask better questions. 
I had my first session there tonight, and have decided to continue my sessions there instead.
Good Luck to you Boo. And remember when in doubt Ask Questions!!
If the hair is in an area where you can conceal it before treatment, might as well give them as much as you can to work with. It helps them see the direction of the follicle.
It’s a good idea to shave an area like the back a week or so before, so they can treat actively growing hairs. These are easier to kill. Treatment on resting hairs will be less effective.
For an area like face, give them at least 24 hours’ growth, but you might be doing yourself a favor by letting it grow 1-3 days. They can work faster if the hairs are easier to see. You just have to decide if you want others to know your hairs are easier to see…
[ September 25, 2002, 08:10 PM: Message edited by: Andrea ]