Husband bought me a very old machine

I have been hoping to get electrolysis for many years. Unfortunately the closest electrologist is about two hours away and it would be difficult to make that trip weekly.

My husband surprised me with a used electrolysis machine a few weeks ago. It’s a Kree Radio-matic. He’s excited about learning to do electrolysis (or at least attemping to) on each other. I found kree needles in the Texas Electrolysis Supply website but I’m not really sure which sizes or lengths I should start out with.

dont. that machine is thermolysis only ( and very old/possibly dangerous) and shouldnt be used for DIY work.

I would advise against using a Kree Radiomatic. Not only does this machine date back to the 1950s, but it is calibrated far too high for safe hair removal. These machines are notorious for causing overtreatment and scarring. Without proper training, you are playing with fire. There are better much safer machines for DIY work.

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I am a electrologist practicing over 30 years in India. I do not recommend “Do it Yourself Electrolysis”. Yo can do electrolysis yourself only on two areas they are your left hand and your left leg, if you are right handed. Other areas like face, chest, stomach, etc., you have to use a mirror to locate the follicle correctly, which is difficult.
We are offering training in scientific electrolysis online. If you are interested you may visit our website www.laseacadames.org/
Sherly Kollannur
Shief Consultany Electrologist
LiLi Scientific Electrolysis

I’m afraid I dont really agree with what ktharu has posted. As someone who has done quite a bit of DIY electrolysis prior to turning professional, I would be the first to say that while not easy, it is very possible to work on a wide variety of areas yourself.

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Hi, I have a question for you. I am using a sterex blend machine for electrolysis hair removal, and when I go to tweeze the hair out (after inserting the needle) the hair just breaks/snaps off. Am I using the wrong needle type, wrong settings or wrong technique? Advice would be appreciated!

The insertion may not be perfect and / or the energy level may be too low.

DIY electrolysis is not easy. I do not recommend it for doing one’s own face. Many that have tried and ended up scarring themselves. Legs, arms, breasts would be okay as long as you can reach the area, but I plead for people not to do their face.

If you can get training, all the better.

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Thank you for your help + advice!

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Elli sorry I didnt get back to this.
As Dee explained, it could be a lot of things, but it means we arent getting enough energy in the right place to disable the follicle and release the hair. This can be for a lot of reason including :
The machine not operating correctly, or not producing current This commonly happens when probeholder wires go bad.If you’ve bought the machine used, have you tested it?
Insertions must be accurate…The energy has to be in the right place to destroy the lower 1/3 of the follicle completely. Use of an insulated probe keeps all the energy release in the same area, but you have to align that part of the probe with the lower 1/3 .
The energy settings may be insufficient to effect the release of the hair, thus the hair breaks when you go to tweeze it.

Finally, we dont know even what modality you are working in. If its blend is lye being created? Is there a lye crust buildup on the probe?
It means quite a bit of troubleshooting, including doing a bubble test to check galvanic, a egg white test to test thermolysis , possibly swapping probeholders, and then fiinally having a good long look at your technique.
And finally, I feel like an old grandma saying this, please dont do thermolysis alone as DIY on your own face. It’s not going to end well for you.

Seana

This is a great topic so far! I’m in the boat where I’m a husband looking to buy a machine for my wife (legs, arms, etc) and myself (beard). I found one locally that’s a Fisker TS-1 (thermolysis) for about $500. It looks really old, but the person listing it has extensive experience with it over the last few years. They are willing to train us on using the machine, and in the meantime we’re practicing with the One Touch.

You mentioned earlier about some older machines having too high of an output that’s not acceptable in today’s range. What are the signs to look out for when getting older machines so we know when to move on for the ranges being out of spec?

Thanks!

Some older machines need to be calibrated to be made ready for use.This isnt as easy as it once was to get older machines serviced if their manufacturers have gone out of business or no longer support them.

If it looks ancient, I wouldn’t bother. Power issues aside, $500 is way too much to be paying for a machine that old and with that little functionality.

The Fischer TS-1 is a basic flash epilator. The intensities are not excessive, however, flash thermolysis does require a great deal of skill.

I’d like to highlight this post, and expand on it to talk about the reasons I recommend that DIY’ers should stick to galvanic and blend. I also want to say that this advice was passed on to me when like many of you , I was learning to do my own first insertions as a DIYer. Many of the professional electrologists here would not share their settings or advice. But the one consistent message from any and all, was start with strait galvanic current first… It’s sage advice then, and just as sage advice now. I owe this advice from people like Dee Fahey, Michael Bono, Beate Ritzert, James Walker, and no such list would be complete without Josepha Reina. as well as Catherine OConnell. All of them top in their field and telling me the same thing. Start with Galvanic until you have the hang of insertions . You will learn How to insert accurately by feel, and until you have mastered this it is not safe for you to add a thermolysis component.
I did a very small amount of galvanic on my chin and arm before getting frustrated and trying my hand at blend. . But you cannot do this with a flash epilator, this requires skill to operate safely that takes several hundred hours of practice before you should even think about trying thermolysis alone on yourself.
Michael Bono’s book , on the Blend Method, echo’s this advice. No one can tell you as a DIY’er how to start with just flash technique because we ALL realize that this has the capacity to cause real scarring in amatuer hands by someone who doesnt know what they are doing.Our advice,both given to me when I started and mine to you, is to start with galvanic first until you learn to insert correctly by feel and by taking depth comparison hairs, then add some low thermolysis as you are learning blend. Follow Michael’s tutelage. When you are ready to try flash you will be several hundred hours of elctrolysis under your belt

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I’m new here and also a newbie when it comes to practicing electrolysis…but I did receive certification a couple of years ago. Interestingly, I became an electrologist because of the great and amazing work done by my electrologist back in the day (when I was in high school over 25 years ago!) for my upper lip and chin area. And, she used the fischer TS1 model! She still owns it today and swears by it. I ran into her, synchronously, right after getting certified. She became a bit of a mentor, invited me to her home to do a ‘clean up’ of my upper lip and chin area (at this point, the last time I’d had an electrolysis treatment was 25 + years ago) and she was using the same machine! Of course, I’ve been trying to get my hands on this model…contacted Texas Supply but haven’t been able to get much response…perhaps due to the pandemic, as I live in Canada…In any case, I had purchased quite an expensive device - Silhouette-tone 7d. It’s supposed to be user friendly, etc. but I’m also old-fashioned…There’s something very appealing about the simplicity of a device. I don’t mind having to be really skilled to use a thermolysis machine. Wish I could get my hands on one…

I agree that $500 is too much to pay for this epilator.

These epilators are workhorses and will perform, but you have to be very careful if you work on yourself. Start low and gradually work it up. The hair will release at some point, providing you do perfect insertions, which is harder than you think.