Help - Electrolysis in London

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
#1

Hi. I was hoping someone can help me in finding a good electologist in south or central London. I am looking for someone effective on fine hairs. Does anyone have any suggestions? I have read some earlier posts suggesting Sharon at Parkhill but also that she is not very effective on fine hairs and that there is often regrowth. Aside from this, it is quite inconvenient for me to get to her location and it would be difficult to keep regular appointments.

By way of background, I have fine, but noticeable and dark, hair on my face (sides of face, cheeks, chin, under chin – basically where a man’s beard would be). I have brown skin. I also have more than a usual amount of hair in other areas, such as my stomach, chest, and back.

I have been seeing an electrologist for the past 5 years. She cleared the worst of my sideburns and the thicker hair that was on my chin. She also cleared the worst of the hair on my stomach. However, there has been an increasing amount of scarring and I am losing confidence in her. I am also losing confidence because after 5 years, there hasn’t been much difference in the fine hairs which cover my face and which I have always been very insecure about (is it possible to completely remove such hairs?)

We started on my upper lip before Christmas. After about 4 sessions I have been left with scarring and dark spots on my upper lip which has not improved. I am much more self conscious about this scarring than the hair and am now wearing a significant amount of makeup to cover it but the marks still show through. The worst part is that I still have to wax the hair. I’ve also noticed that I can sometimes feel the needle going in, feel a burning singe and sometimes feel the hair being pulled out. She is very experienced and did a great job on my sideburns. She is also reasonably priced. However, I would like to find someone who is quicker, more effective on fine hair and isn’t going to leave me with scarring. Although I would prefer to find someone in central or south London, I would be willing to travel further for the right person. I would be grateful for any suggestions.

I know electrolysis can result in permanent hair removal but the process is getting more and more frustrating!

#2

Treating these fine hairs is more difficult but it can be done.

Sharon did a pretty good job on my fine upper lip hairs but when it came to the rest of my face, there was just too much fine hair and whatever she was doing wasn’t working very well.

Have you been waxing whilst having electrolysis at all? You say “The worst part is that I still have to wax the hair”.
The hyperpigmentation will fade but can take some time.

What modality is this person using? My information could be out of date but there is no one in London I would trust with thermolysis on my face… certainly not on my upper lip. The upper lip is very delicate and requires a lot of care to not compromise the skin.

As I always saying to UK posters… you need to be willing to travel a bit for good treatment. From feedback from other users, I would recommend trying:

Stephanie in Dorking. User Pokka had great results:
http://www.hairtell.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/98635/My_Electrolysis_Journey.html
The first few pages have before photos… it’s fine facial hair.

Then there is Mairi Hawkes in Oban, Scotland (if she still has space in her diary any time soon!). Mairi would be able to do longer sessions to clear off lots of hair, which compensates for the fact you have to travel. You would only need to see her every 3 months or so.

With either of these options, or anyone else recommended that is a bit further away you should be looking to be hair free in 1 to 1.5 years. Since you have already been at it for 5 years, it’s time to re-assess and think about the long term saving of time and money.

#3

Thanks. I only wax my upper lip. I wasn’t waxing it while getting the electrolysis but once I saw the damage that was being done, I went back to waxing. The frustration comes from the fact that I still have the original hairs and now scarring as well! I would like to get electrolysis on my upper lip but I think I would really need to trust whoever was doing it.

I haven’t touched any of the fine hairs on the sides of my face, and yet after all this time I really don’t see much, if any, difference. I used to pluck and wax my chin but have stopped doing that since the electrolysis was successful at getting rid of the thick hairs (there are still noticeable fine ones though).

I’m not sure what modality she is using. I’m afraid I haven’t paid as much attention to the technical stuff as I probably should. The machine is a Sterex one and it is very old. She sometimes comments that her old machine is just as good as any new machine. I think she is good at getting thick long hairs but not so good with fine ones and I’m not comfortable with the marks that are being left behind.

As well as hyperpigmentation, there is some pitting. Does this fade over time as well? It’s been about 4 months since we did anything on my upper lip and I haven’t seen any improvement. Unfortunately, I already have some hyperpigmentation around the sides of my moth (where the smile creases are) so now it feels like that whole area is just a mess and I’m very conscious of it.

It is such a shame that there does not seem to be anyone who is reliable and effective within London. I don’t think travelling to Scotland is really an option for me, even if irregular. Dorking might be though. I have had a look at the thread you posted and the results are great. I think I also have quite sensitive skin and usually get scabbing similar to Pokka’s which can take a couple of weeks to go away so I need someone who is good at handling sensitive skin. Has anyone else had good results from Stephanie?

Stopit, did you manage to find someone to treat your fine hairs properly?

When I get an opportunity in the next day or two, I will take a picture so that you can see what I am dealing with.

#4

I also ended up with some hyperpigmentation in the area of laugh lines. This took 1-2 years to completely fade and last November-ish I started using retin-A which helped improve the appearance of that area a lot. I think mine was due to tea tree oil sensitivity though.

I would recommend you stop waxing because your skin is trying to heal and waxing is just damaging it further.

Sometimes, the spots where you have pigmentation can look pitted but it’s just a shadow effect and disappears as the pigmentation fades. As far as I know, permanent pitted scars don’t appear this soon anyway.

There are some great posts on here about healing skin… do a search of the forums.

I know another user has just started seeing Stephanie. For me, Pokka’s photos speak volumes.

I had my work done by an electrologist on these forums - Josefa. But she’s in Spain and is not taking new clients for the foreseeable future as she has a huge waiting list.