Dont lose hope! Hair removal is a long process you gotta just keep being patient.
Caith721, your skin looks great and the work your electrologist is doing is wonderful. You have started with a lot of hair and you are getting there. Plus you have the added bonus of your skin healing nicely from the lack of shaving all the time.
polspring, I am sure the work you are having done will get finished as well, once you can get restarted. Since you have to take a break from treatment, make sure you toss the tweezers and just clip or shave the area until you get back to your electrologist. Or try to squeeze an appointment for an hour or two at least once over summer to maintain what has already been done.
When I return for maintenance Wednesday morning, I’m certain Margaret will eliminate everything that has regrown. This is only the second time I’ve ever skipped a week of maintenance. The first was when I had the flu and completely missed a weekly appointment. The good news is, my lips and skin really benefited from two weeks of recovery time. I doubt it will require more than 30 to 45 minutes to clean everything up, then she can continue clearing my chin. There’s really not a lot remaining to treat there, but it will probably require this week and next to get it fully cleared. After that’s clear, I’ll switch to appointments every other week and each will strictly be for maintaining my lips and chin.
polspring, don’t ever lose hope. I said I had doubts because they were definitely just that, only doubts. LD27’s advice regarding clipping is very good. I use a small one-inch wide set of Wahl (brand name) clippers intended for grooming men’s beards. They’re very small and work very well to keep the hair growth short without shaving, plucking, or waxing.
Here’s a picture from Tuesday afternoon, showing why I had some nagging doubts, and really needed to understand if my expectations were unrealistic. Thanks again to Dee for helping me understand.
It looks great. Yes there are some hairs there, but go back and look at your first post and see how far you have come. There is great improvement! And it looks like Margaret will be able to get those hairs out pretty fast compared to the initial clearance.
Congrats on how far you have come. Soon you will be able to take even more time off between treatments.
Well, Margaret spent two hours cleaning everything (and I really mean EVERYTHING) off that upper lip, this morning. I’d have guessed there were 100 hairs, but those were just the ones I could see in the mirror or a photograph. Apparently looking at it through loupes there were probably more than twice that number to be treated. When done, I had the normal erythema (redness) and slight swelling, so I iced it down for 30 minutes and took two aspirin when I returned home. I’ve been at work since 11:30 and there’s very little redness or swelling remaining, at all. It’s not even tender to the touch.
This is what I like about maintenance, the follicles aren’t so difficult to treat, don’t require as much energy, and aren’t so dense as to create any major skin reactions. I have to think an extra week of recovery/stabilization time greatly improved my skin’s response today. When maintenance was being performed every week it required less time, but my skin remained too sensitive, was easily irritated, and didn’t recover as well.
What don’t I like about maintenance? Honestly, it’s time I’d rather spend advancing the clearance on the rest of my chin, but that’s next week’s appointment.
Hi Caith, I have carefully considered your last photo posted and perhaps you’re interested in knowing that I’ve just seen ONE HAIR seems to be true regrowth. The rest of the hairs you see in the picture are the result of false regrowth. Margaret has not treated these hairs until today so I can read your last post.
The rate of removal of Margaret is very, very high.
Thank you VERY MUCH, Josefa. Currently, it’s been more than seven hours since my appointment this morning, and my upper lip is 100% clear and likely to remain clear for two more weeks. As Dee mentioned, I’m just achieving the half-way point of the nine months minimum treatment time.
Margaret will be very happy to read your opinion of her work. She’s extremely diligent in completely clearing an area and then maintaining that clearance.
Here’s a picture taken Friday morning, two days after Margaret performed two hours of maintenance on my upper lip. It recovered very quickly and I experienced only minimal swelling and redness for less than an hour after treatment.
Thanks to you both. Anyone who ever thinks flash thermolysis is too damaging or agressive a hair removal treatment should learn how wrong they are. If my ridiculously pale, tender and sensitive skin can tolerate it (not even PicoFlash at that!) other people should not have any serious concerns.
Here’s a summary to update anyone interested in what’s been happening with my treatment over the last two weeks. I recently ordered a package of twelve Laurier insulated bulbous probes (IBP) from Prestige Electrolysis Supply in Wisconsin. My electrologist Margaret graciously agreed to evaluate these probes during my most recent two-hour appointment at 8:00 am Thursday morning. She performed two hours of maintenance on my upper lip using the Laurier IBP and I returned home to ice down the area in order to reduce the immediate redness and minor swelling I always experience. Then I returned to work at my office before 11 am. By this time, my lip was only pink (not red) and the minor swelling was almost completely gone. Later that afternoon, it appeared as if nothing had been done there, quite a change from my normal results.
After sleeping overnight and washing the next morning, I applied witch hazel and saw no after-effects remaining at all. I took the picture below, e-mailing it to Margaret for her benefit and posting it here in the Laurier probe discussion thread. I scheduled a follow-up hour with Margaret Friday afternoon to clear my lower lip and the front of my chin. When she saw the results in person, she was surprised how clear my lip appeared, certainly not as if two hours of electrolysis had been performed there, thirty hours earlier. (This picture was taken Friday morning, approximately 22 hours after electrolysis.)
Margaret is very, very efficient. Note that almost no regrowth in the center of the lower lip, that’s just where Margaret worked at first because the hairs are thicker there, and it made to appear before the ones you see now on the sides.
Margaret removed those few hairs beneath my lower lip and in the fold of my chin Friday afternoon. I did not post another picture, but my lower lip and chin responded just as well as did my upper lip. On Saturday morning, there was no indication any electrolysis had been performed. It was remarkable precisely because it appeared entirely unremarkable.
I’ve had two more weeks of treatment using the Laurier IBP, and both sessions were very good experiences. There has been considerably less regrowth. Some of this can be attributed to having had almost six months of continuous weekly treatments, but a significant portion I would credit to the Laurier IBP. These last two weeks, I have not had to apply any ice following treatment, because the redness and swelling have been absolutely minimal.
I won’t have another appointment with Margaret until three weeks from now (I’m going on vacation next week) so it will be interesting to see how things appear. I haven’t used a razor on the front of my face in a few months now, and it’s been really nice, avoiding that irritation. Both Margaret and I have been extremely pleased with my results since switching to the Laurier probe, for two reasons:
a) less redness and swelling following treatment
b) less/lighter regrowth after a week’s time
Well, some people probably can have the upper lip cleared of all bothersome hairs (as remember, generally areas aren’t left completely bald) in an hour. Other people, like my sister, need much longer. She had two hours straight treatment on her upper lip and she probably still needed another 30mins-1hr to get rid of some more hairs.
Since hair on the arm is terminal, would it require just a single hair require multiple treatments or just one treatment to be gone forever? I am sorry if I am becoming to irritant, but I just need enough info to determine my next step.
Currently, it’s been more than seven hours since my appointment this morning, and my upper lip is 100% clear and likely to remain clear for two more weeks. As Dee mentioned, I’m just achieving the half-way point of the nine months minimum treatment time.
happy to read your opinion of her work. She’s extremely diligent in completely clearing an area and then maintaining that clearance.
