Hello all. Please see below. Not sure if pictures would help but I can add if needed.
Basic stats:
Female of South Asian descent, 37 yrs old
Problem:
Excessive hair on chin, between chin and neck (where one’s “double-chin” would be), sideburns, a little bit on cheek (also upper and a bit of lower lip but not treating that right now)
Most likely hormonal although I haven’t been tested (I hope to drag myself to the doctor one of these days)
History of hair removal prior to starting electrolysis:
From mid-teens to around 34 yrs: tweezed pretty much daily - every morning for 30-45 minutes.
From 34 yrs to just before starting treatment at 36yrs: mostly shaved with some tweezing here and there. The last time I tweezed was in mid-March of this year (haven’t tweezed the areas that are being treated since. However, I do tweeze the upper lip area since it’s not being treated - around once every one or two weeks).
Treatment:
Started at the tail end of March 2017 so it’s been almost 6 months since.
First clearance of area took around 5.5 hrs. Been going weekly (except for a month’s break in between) for 45min to 1hr at a time.
Total treatment time at this point is 25.5 hrs.
I don’t think I would be able to handle going less frequently yet as the hair that grows in a week’s time is just barely bearable. When I originally started treatment, I wasn’t working so it wasn’t a big deal to sequester myself at home to deal with growing hair out or to deal with the scabs that came after treatment.
Now I’m working, it would be a bit harder for me (mentally) to deal with possibly going without treatment for longer (because that would mean more visible hairs in between)…
The electrologist:
She’s nice but there are some instances where it feels like she’s plucking (I’ll estimate this to be 10%-20% of the time). However, I have not brought this up to her yet…
My questions:
I know every individual person is different and perhaps since I used to tweeze a lot (+ the potential hormonal problem), my case might be worse that someone that’s never tweezed.
I remember reading somewhere that one should start to see results at the 4-6 month mark. In my case, I’m reaching the 6 month mark… since I’m going every week, it’s perhaps hard to gauge if this is working or not. The amount of hair that grows in between treatments doesn’t seem to have perceptibly gone down though (there was one point a few weeks ago when it seemed to be a bit better but then the hair came back with a vengeance).
I’m wondering what to do… should I…?
- stop going for a few weeks to see what the hair growth is really like? I don’t mind shaving in this time period but I dread having to grow the hair out for treatment… means I’ll have to become a hermit for at least a week.
- continue with weekly treatments for at least a month or two and see if the in-between growth lessens? This is easier to do but is potentially more money down the drain if the treatments aren’t effective.
- take a break from the first electrologist and test out another one?
Thanks.