I had my consultation today.

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
1

Hi everyone. I’m a 17 year old girl from the Hernando County area of Florida. I had my consultation with Peggy Exum of Clinical Electrolysis and Laser just a few hours ago to discuss what I could do about hair on my upper lip.

First and foremost, I didn’t really had a problem with hair before I started messing with it. I noticed it 3 months ago during the summer - when I finally had the time to dwell on trivial things like this. I really do regret it. I have a friend with a really bad problem with upper lip hair, so she caused me to look for it on myself. It was very faint, but since wax promised an eventual “finer, thinner” hair growth, I tried using it. I’ve waxed between 3-5 times since three months ago, and now I’ve caused myself a problem that will take hundreds of dollars to fix.

Anyway, after doing plenty of research on both electrolysis and laser hair removal, I went in eager to pursue electrolysis. It’s the only one that can legally guarantee permanence, it’s by far the most safe, and it’s been in practice for over 100 years. Peggy gave me a free one hour, fifteen minute consultation, and free tests on my upper lip for both laser and electrolysis. She seems really nice, but was sincerely pushing laser on me. She barely mentioned electrolysis. I was also a bit deterred when she tried to assure me of laser’s permanence. She obviously prefers laser because it’s less work for her. At least, that’s the impression I got.

On the left side of my upper lip she tested me with the Candela GentleLASE Plus at 30 Joules. From what I’ve read, this seems a bit excessive. I have very fair skin, and the hair is quite dark. (I’m Italian and a child of the Internet.) But she said she wanted to set it high to ensure no complications would occur if I decide to go with the procedure. Makes sense, I guess. She had me wear goggles, which I must not have secured tightly enough, because I saw the flash of light when she used the laser. With glaucoma in the family, this made me quite nervous. It’s probably psychosomatic, but since that laser hit, my left eye has been bothering me a bit. She tried to tell me that the laser will not harm my eyes in any way. She even said she’d throw in laser done between my eyebrows for free. Seems a bit dodgy to me.

Now, the electrolysis (thermolysis method) went well. I barely felt anything. My eyes watered a bit as she did a few hairs, but it was certainly bearable. Comparatively, the laser hurt A LOT. It was still stinging 2 hours after one laser hit, and she said she would do 18 hits per session for 4-6 sessions. I don’t think I could handle that.

It would be a “no-brainer” to go for the electrolysis. Only, she won’t do more than 15 minutes at a time. At that rate this would be done in 1-2 years, verses laser which is 6 months-1 year. She claims it’s bad for the skin to do it more than that amount of time in a single session. Is this true? It seems to me that laser would be much more harsh on the skin. As an alternative, I was looking at Lana Gray International in Orlando. I haven’t called yet, but maybe they would do longer sessions. The only reason why electrolysis would take longer would be because she would only be doing a few hairs each session. It could be just as fast as laser if she “cleared” my upper lip every time I went. Maybe I’m just expecting too much? She also wouldn’t give me even a “ballpark estimate” of the electrolysis price.

Despite my reservations, I’ll probably end up going back to her. She’s closeby, and since I’ll be doing electrolysis on a weekly basis I’ll need somewhere local. I’ll see if I can work something out with her, I guess. That is, unless, someone here can convince me to go with laser.

The only thing deterring me from electrolysis is that it’s really important to me that I keep the fine, white, vellous hairs that I still have. I don’t want it to look like I’ve had anything done. If I’m completely hairless, it’d be obvious. Laser wouldn’t affect those hairs, so I wouldn’t have to worry about the electrologist overworking an area for their own financial gain.

I know this isn’t a contributive post; I’m just really nervous and confused right now and I’d like some second opinions or reassurance.

I figured I’d post this on the Laser board because I’m hoping you guys can help me change my mind and decide to go with that method.

2

Electrolysis can be selective about which hairs to remove and which hairs to leave alone. I routinely work on an upper lip case 20-30 minutes with no problems, using microflash thermolysis and blend. A lot can be done in that time frame and one gets looking good in about 3-4 treatments if not sooner.

Let me ask this question. What are you going to do if laser permanently affects the dark hairs on your upper lip and you are left with the lighter noticable hairs? She can do electrolysis of course to finish the job, but why pay for for two modalities when one can handle it all? Most electrologists can complete an upper lip case for under $500 over a period of 9-12 months.

She has a laser to pay for and she needs to keep the flow of clients coming. She has a great laser, too. I just think a small area like the upper lip is a job for electrolysis without a doubt. If she is skilled, she can handle it. I don’t have anymore explanantions as to why you go in eagerly pursuing electrolysis and are pressured to do laser for this area.

My vote is for ELECTROLYSIS in this situation. I wouldn’t risk stimulating unoffensive hair follicles to come to life by doing laser on my face. That can happen to some people. It is unpredicatable.

Dee

3

Hi:

I would definitely go for the electrolysis on your upper lip. Try to go for a full clearance on each appointment, and book the appointments for 1/2 an hour or more if needed to get clearance.

As far as leaving just the vellus hairs goes, discuss that with your electrologist and tell them that is what you want done. They may take out some of the very long vellus hairs, but probably not the normal shorter ones. You can’t really see those ones anyways, other than on certain angles in the sunlight.

Alicia

4

You are correct. It doesn’t sound like she is unbiased towards electrolysis. It doesn’t sound like you have a lot of hair, and I would go straight with electrolysis since this is a small area and precision is important. No reason to risk induced growth from laser and you would still need to get electrolysis to get the finer hairs that remain after laser. So, have consultations with several more electrologists and go that route. Choose someone with thermolysis type if you can for this area, but experience is most important. Btw, both methods should take a total of at least 12 months due to hair cycles. What she is telling you doesn’t make sense. Laser can’t kill hairs that are dormant just like electrolysis can’t. That’s why it takes 12 months - i.e. waiting for hair from other phases to surface. The only advantage of laser is that you need to come in less often and treatments are much faster. However, considering the fact that you will have to finish with electrolysis anyway, and that there is a risk of induced growth on women’s faces, I would just go for electrolysis right away (I did this in fact while getting laser on other larger areas with coarse hair).

Btw, you didn’t “create” this problem. You are at an age where you body is developing more hair. In fact, this might continue into your mid-20s. So don’t be surprised if you will need a touchup once or twice a year until then.

5

I would like to offer a contrary opinion.

LHR to the upper lip is normally quite effective, and I have never seen increased hair to the upper lip from a treatment. In fact, what I have often seen is someone who is treating their entire face to include the upper lip and at about 5 treatments they still have quite a bit of hair on their face, but the upper lip hair is practically all gone.

You will have to run the numbers yourself, but if the price of the upper lip is reasonable, it would be cheaper and less of your time, to treat the upper lip with the laser for four to six treatments and finish what is left with electrolysis. And that is assuming that you would need electrolysis. In some cases you would and in some cases you may not.

The caveat to all of this is that the hair on your upper lip is treatable by laser. If not, then you would be better served with just electrolysis.

6

How long does it take for the hair to shed on the upper lip? 2-3 weeks? When one does electrolysis, the hairs are treated and then lifted out of the follicle. The client leaves the office looking noticably different. They are jazzed, psyched, pumped because the hair is instantly gone.

We had this discussion before, sslhr. I will re-state this again. Well over 90% of the upper lip clients I work on, and I work on a lot, have a mixture of hairs ranging from accelerated vellus light, medium and dark hair to very coarse terminal hair which are colorless, gray, red, light and dark. It is a mixed bag and laser cannot “see” many of these hairs. I think it would be more expensive for a client to do both laser and electrolysis in this area. A good microflash/flash, blend electrologist is all one needs. It doesn’t take long to clear most women’s upper lips. It doesn’t take long to bring them to a permanent end, which is 9-12 months.

Do you have an electrolgist on staff to finish the job after you lase a lip or do you refer your clients to an electrologist in your locale(s)? Using both modalities is really not necessary when there is one modality that can do it all handily.

Thanks,

Dee