How can you tell a good electrolysist from bad?

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
#1

Not too long ago I moved into a city (from the boonies) and after a surge of growth on my chin/throat, I figured I’d start perusing professional electrolysis.

There are two within walking distance and I’ve been to both of them recently, but it’s hard for me to tell if either of them is any good and if so, why (and conversely, if not, why not).

The one I like more (and have been to 4 times now) uses thermolysis. The first couple sessions were, I think, too low in power (I could feel it, but it didn’t hurt). The last session I did had the most growth and she used a higher power. No scabbing or anything, but I could feel it. The hairs don’t feel like they are being plucked out by the root, so I think she’s getting them. However, they have a spa-like atmosphere which always worries me (it’s comfy, but I like a clinic atmosphere… not like the atmosphere makes a lick of difference).

The other I went to used blend, and she had a more demure environment. But, I couldn’t stand her. Long story short, I booked a 20-minute appointment and got a crazy 20 minute lecture followed by 8 minutes of electrolysis. I like that uses blend but I really don’t want to go back there.

So, I guess my question is, what are indications that thermolysis is being properly done? I know it is less “forgiving” than blend so I guess that is my concern, that the woman just took a quick crash course in her machine.

Also, once and for all: can I shave between treatments, or not? I’ve been adamantly told I must not, but I still can’t wrap my head around the idea that shaving the hair off at skin-level a couple times a week will do much of anything to the follicles.

#2

Hi Zoe,

Having had an up close and personal look at the hairs on your chin/under chin a couple years ago I can tell you a couple things:

That about 98% of those hair are blonde and extremely hard to make out your follicle without VERY good optics and lighting. You could address this area with blend, but a good electrologist using thermolysis can make shorter work of it.

THat you have a spattering of very fine and slow growing darker hairs sprinkled throughout. When I saw you these hairs were just barely within anogen growth as if they had been newlystimulated vellus hairs. These will require expertise and good optics as well.I dont know if they still are, but the few I addressed were very shallow.

Locally, I can wholeheartedly recommend you see Veronica at time 4 you electrolysis http://www.timeforyouelectrolysis.com/
She’s located in hintonburg area , is a CPE, and her room is quite comfortable I’ve been in it.

Thermolysis or blend wont make that big of a difference if it’s a very good practitioner. Veronica is very good.

You’re welcome to come by and have whatever off for free sometime if you want though.

I dont care usually about folks shaving or not, but as some of the hairs under your chin seemed to be slow growing, giving a few more days growth than the standard 4 might be helpful.

Seana

#3

Hi Zoe,

The most important things to look at when choosing electrologist are that it is clean, the hair is not plucking and your post-treatment reaction is normal - redness, mild swelling, maybe the odd tiny scab. Of course, you need to also feel at ease and be able to trust your practitioner. I would suggest you try a few more electrologists even if it meant a bit of travel.
With regards to the shaving question: shaving doesn’t stimulate hair growth. It does, however, cause the missing of a microcycle of hair growth in treatment. I have made a video that illusrates just how this happens here

I do allow my clients to shave in between treatments as long as they are clear and happy with the fact that this may prolong the treatment in time until we have the chance to treat all active follicles.

I hope this helps.

1 Like
#4

Seana!! <3 how are you doing?

I have a lot more dark ones now. They all seemed to spring up enthusiastically this Spring. I got divorced last year so I am less mobile than I was (my ex has the car) so I’m trying to get as locally as possible. Veronica isn’t too far I don’t think, I used to go to her years ago when she was based (and I lived) in the south end.

I will say that I feel I only ever got real results when I saw you, mind you Veronica had probably chipped away at a lot of what else was there, and I didn’t have so much at that time. So perhaps I ought to brave the bus and we can catch up and attack some hairs! You still in the same place?

#5

Thanks Geri! I try not to shave, but it’s so hard to resist when I can feel all those prickles on my face (plus it doesn’t do much romance with the new beau.) I am glad to hear it doesn’t actually stimulate growth and will probably keep shaving at least until the thickness / quantity dies down a bit and isn’t so obvious to the merest touch.

The girl I like does fit the parameters you mentioned. I have another couple of pre paid treatments left with her so I will see where I’m at afterwards. Proof is in the pudding I suppose.

When that’s done, it will have been about six sessions over eight or nine weeks. Would that be enough to notice improvement and gauge her ability?

#6

I’m still in the same spot, and my bedroom now sports an esthetics bench in addition to the medical one. Makes getting close to the work a bit easier. I still dont have a microscope, but I have a feeling James might correct that soon :slight_smile:

Come grab a coffee, mind mischief doesnt jump on you and get some hair gone.I suspected the little baby dark hairs I was seeing mixed in between were going to become more prominant.

I still cant run an Airconditioner though the circuits cant support one, so do before it gets unbearably hot.

Seana

#7

Zoe, six sessions over 8 - 9 weeks may be all that’s needed for some minor cases of upper lip hair, but from what I am reading above your case is a bit more than that. How long to really notice if it’s working would depend on a few things, like what strategy is your electrologist using - is she clearing all dark hairs at every sitting? What method of hair removal did you use before - with both, laser and waxing/tweezing, you tend to see cycles coming through for up to a year. After tweezing/waxing between 4 and 12 weeks is the toughest period when you get a lot of growth and looks like it is getting worse, before it gets better.
On the other hand, if you were shaving previously and you have long sessions, you should be feeling growth “slowing down”. But again, it is difficult to judge yet.
What I have noticed with some of my clients moving from other electrologists they were not happy with, and would clearly be a sign to move on, is ingrown hairs appearing where they were treated previously. This indicates incorrect insertions.

#8

Thanks for the input! Yeah, definitely different from upper lip. These guys are dark, coarse and deep. Thankfully, they are scattered - there are lots of them, but they don’t have the density or spread of a man’s beard.

“is she clearing all dark hairs at every sitting?” - She is, the coarse ones anyway (I don’t give a flip about the fine brown ones which I can’t feel, and which bleach well) - but it’s really only at the last sitting that she could get to a lot of them. Prior to that, my sessions were closer to 20 minutes because I wasn’t giving them enough time to grow, and I had been plucking before that (fooling myself that it was “just a couple” on occasion - and it was, until it was a couple every day!).

“What method of hair removal did you use before” - It has been a couple years since I did either laser or electrolysis. I have been tweezing over the last few months before starting electrolysis. In the middle years, I did nothing (other than bleach and trim my long peach fuzz). I am definitely in the stage where I have SO MUCH MORE since I’ve stopped plucking, so I suppose I should probably be measuring my progress starting at my last appt where she did a huge clearance.

No ingrown hairs yet so that is a good sign! I really have no complaints or concerns about her, but it’s one of those things where you don’t want to find out they are ineffective $1000 later.

#9

Zoe! Please, please, dont tweeze those hairs. Dont play with them or bother them either.Get em off the right way or they will only come bother you again.

Seana

#10

Oh I know, I stopped a while ago, a bit before starting the electrolysis a couple months ago.

#11

It’s been I guess about 6 weeks since I posted the above and I have been seeing the same lady twice a week since then. Shortly after I started the thread, it got easier to not bear the regrowth between treatments. I took that as an indication of success and continued on, mainly because she’s so close and fair priced.

I’m now at the point where, as of next week, I’ll be going once a week as there hasn’t been too much regrowth each time. Yay! The big, coarse dark hairs are now few and far between, taking up about 25% of my 20-minute sessions. The rest now she spends on finer brown hairs, or coarse blond (grey?) ones, or the long fine ones that I can’t feel but might be visible (like along the edge of my jaw).

I don’t think I’m that close to done yet, I expect a few more months of going 2-4 times a month and then just going as needed.

#12

If they care about their technique and about their patients/clients.

If they’re the type to do a vanishing act when you experience side-effects, then that’s a huge red flag.

Personally, I think good electrologists are very hard to come by which is why laser hair removal is more popular.

#13

Side effects.

Nearly all “side effects” are the natural result of electrolysis (think “burn to the skin”), and the normal healing process. What I have found astoundingly different, are the various patient’s reactions to these appearances.

I just finished up the second clearance on a guy (all kinds of work). Included in his wish list was removal of the (dense) beard on the lower neck. At the first clearance, he wanted the neck cleared (reasonable request). Still, had he been a “local” I would have followed a different strategy. However, because he came from another State, I did the clearance in two days: half each day.

Everything went fine the first day. The next day I cleared the second half and, again, it looked perfect. The next morning, the area had blisters! I had already warned the client and I knew exactly why this might happen in this particular area. The client was completely satisfied and didn’t think anything about it and, as predicted, the next day the area was completely normal.

Another client, Michael from Los Angeles (another big case), has been completely finished for a few years … but his treatments were an ongoing nightmare. He had absolutely nothing to complain about, but after each-and-every treatment I would get at least 10 - 20 phone calls. Often he would repeat the same “fears,” listen to my explanation, and then 10-minutes later call me again on the same issue.

I also cleared off Michael’s brother David … and David never had any “issues” at all: not one question and not one phone call ever.

I suppose the point is that people react differently to identical situations? Here’s another example …

I don’t “relate to” the term “road rage,” because I have never felt this! If a driver makes and error, or even a deliberate “something” … I’m only concerned if I hear metal-to-metal. Other drivers (like my Dutch friend) seems to be furious about everything all the time … his “finger” is out the window so much I don’t know how he can drive.

Same situations … different reactions!

#14

it sounds like you found a winner Zoe.

#15

Is it appropriate for an electrologist to “fire” a client?

If you don’t want to work with a client, do you just ignore them and hope they’ll go away? Or, is it ethical to tell the client why you don’t want to work with him/her and then discontinue the treatments?

On this issue, I agree with (my new hero) “The Donald!” (Actually, in my opinion, avoidance is more insulting than being straight with the client.)

Here’s an example of a client I fired (real story):

Mary is a super nice person and I like her a lot. She has been tweezing her chin hairs for 20 years. I gave her a very thorough consultation, but also admonished her to keep with the program and don’t start “bitching at me” at every appointment (I used those exact words). I told her that the program was going to take 18 months. Okay fine!

After only one appointment (and no tweezing) she thought I had created “all the new hairs!” She said, “Now, does electrolysis make new hairs grow? I never had this much!”

At each subsequent treatment (I think we went three months) she would say, “When is all this going to stop?” Additionally, if I couldn’t see her immediately (I mean the instant she called me), she would tweeze and give me a lot of “grief” about it …

At our last appointment she was particularly agitated and said, “Now, just exactly WHEN is all this going to stop already?”

I said, “Today! It ‘all’ stopped today!” I fired her!

We parted on very friendly terms. I referred her to another electrologist (Karen, who charges $45 for a minimum treatment … I charge $20). I explained, “I can’t take it any more … I’m too old and grumpy … case closed!”

Too harsh? I don’t care … I am not in this profession to SUFFER and have sleepless nights when people are being unreasonable.

#16

Shucks … I wanted this to be a new thread, sorry!

#17

What you’re essentially saying is that there are no side effects. That’s just spin.

Electrolysis is the best permanent hair removal. There’s no question about that - but it’s not perfect and it’s success depends a lot more on the practitioner. Sure there are bad clients but I’m not sticking a needle into my own face and hitting the current.

#18

A good electrologist is someone who listens to you. The first electrologist I went to was terrible and did my upper lip anytime from 30 to 55 minutes. It would take at least 4 days to fully heal, and the last time I went to her, I ended up with hyperpigmentation.

She didn’t listen when I said it hurt and also did not believe me when I said it hurt.

#19

Upper lip treatments always hurt. Almost unavoidably, at least without numbing by a dentist). We must deal with it and sometimes cannot proceed other than “working along the limit of pain tolerance” (which i find extremely exhausting if i need to).

4 days of visible reaction is not nice, but “normal”, at least if the hairs are strong (beard, when the hairs are fine, it should be !) - but it is just what Michael Bono mentionend above:

Side effects.

Nearly all “side effects” are the natural result of electrolysis (think “burn to the skin”), and the normal healing process. What I have found astoundingly different, are the various patient’s reactions to these appearances.

#20

Working off your excellent remarks Beate …

A few years ago I panicked (sleepless nights) because of a skin reaction a client had from my work.

My point today: Take 100% responsibility for everything in a treatment … “own it,” and above all, never blame the client.

Amazingly, this particular client blamed herself! She had all sorts of excuses for me. For example, she said, “Oh maybe it was all the laser treatments that did this? It’s my fault because I didn’t tell you.”

I said, "No, it’s still my fault because I didn’t ASK you about laser … besides I don’t see how that could have effected what happened. No, I did this to you!

We used my old stand-by “Super Serum” and, thank Goodness the skin healed perfectly. She was totally unconcerned and continued on with treatments. And that’s my next point:

I have heard all the excuses that some electrologists use when the treatment didn’t go perfectly: Did you go in the sun? Did you sweat? Did you wash your face? Did you forget to wash your face? Did you forget to put on your cream? Did you watch Fox News? Are you voting for Hillary Clinton? Blah blah blah …

Blaming the patient is not acceptable … unless they really did something to damage their skin. When you take full responsibility and give them remedies, the patient relaxes and feels secure! Patients mostly want to know that you can manage the problem and take care of them.

They are NOT blaming you; they want you to help them!

Above all, never ignore an injured patient. They will become irate, and rightly so! Nearly all medical malpractice suits result from a physician having “attitude” with a patient and not taking full and genuine responsibility for a mishap.