Some interesting observations Beate to be sure! I too go back and do a little bit more DIY on my face every once in a while, about every 3 months or so. I’ve stated some challenges with this process over the years.
Here are some of my observations:
pain/discomfort: It hurts a LOT more than I remember it hurting! I still tend to use more blend than you do, especially on the face. I still use blend for the most part on my face, and while I dont have as much trouble with holding the probe still as you describe I do still have trouble with insertions on certain parts of the face. Skin reaction has been minimal, but I did do a some blend around the eyebrows that gave me little more reaction than I’m used to. All healed nicely though. This is also a difficult spot to get precision correct.
Precision: I’ve long talked about positioning as an important factor when doing DIY, as important as it is when working on someone else. I’ll describe my setup for anyone who doesnt want to go back to the 3 year old post where I first decribed it:
I’m laying on my back when I treat myself. No leaning over into a mirror which was one of the first things I learned doing DIY such a position will kill your back quickly. I use a 4 inch 10X unlighted magnifying mirror that is stuck onto another small mirror which is suspended by string from the ceiling inches from my face.
2) I use my light from my magnifying loop and light from the side of whichever side of my face I’m working on.
3) I use pillows or whatever I can find to support my arms while working to reduce shake and improve insertion precision.
4 I do it on my bench now,but used to use my bed. My leg drapes over the side and I have the pedal on a chair so I can operate it as per normal. No automatic settings for this girl.
lips/chin and cheeks are very little problem to get right with practise but the further along the jawline you get away from the chin the more difficult insertions become.Underneath the jawline, and on the neck, is most impossible for me.I can do it but it’s highly inefficient. I end up bending a half dozen probes out of useful shape and my insertion accuracy is horrible.For this reason I have had my partner ( nightfrost on hairtell yes he actually reads here!) work on my neck. The only problem is, we get busy with other things, he’s a little unmotivated, and it took him a while to learn how to do an insertion.HE has no interest in becoming an electrologist. So as a result, 3 years later I still have about 1/3 of the hair on my neck and we get to it every few months when I beg him enough.
I’m impressed at Cihan’s revelation she used a webcam, The closest I’ve done to that is looking at a craft microscope, unfortunately there was significant time delay in the image processing which made such a process impractical.
I’m going to disagree with one point you made however that is " Nothing for beginners lacking training" . I think as DIY’ers we learn to do it with greater skill because we work around the challenges. These challenges make our hand to eye skill that much more acute . Doing a face as a DIY project is VERY do-able, you’ve proven it, I have, and in recent years we have had a near flood of other DIY’ers accomplish it as well. IT amazes me how many electrologists we have here who have accomplished it, many dont talk about it!. It is prudent to learn all you can on follicle anatomy, skin healing, the hair growth cycles as you can, but in the end inserting a probe into a follicle and applying current sufficient current to destroy the hair is a very doable task, and even more so with knowledge and advice from the professionals and those who have done it. I’ve been very fortunate to benefit from the advice of the worlds best, right here, on hairtell, in front of the world. A Who’s who in the electrology world. To learn things like : Use as large a probe as you are able t insert into the follicle, to get the most even heat distribution of the thermolysis currents" . I would continue to pass on Michael Bono’s book on the blend method and “Milady’s hair removal guide” by Helen Bickmore as starting points to learn. One thing I wouldnt do at this point however, is discourage someone from learning or attempting it. I think we’ve proven it can and is done with great regularity!
Seana
