Helloe,
Im posting here because although I am not Transgendered?Transexaul. I am a male currently having electrolysyis to remove beard. I am using the Flash method and actaully read on a web-site dealing with Transgender electrolysis taht this method is the worse possable method to remove coarse male facial hair and that the kill rate of the actaul hair follicle is only 5-8 perceant and that deep pitted scarring is often an end result of this treatment. I am $600.00 in to my work with a electrologists that only practices this method and have pre-charged my credit card for future appiontments. In my excitement of seeing how quickly she had cleared my face of its heavy beard I went ahead and paid for my future treatments by my chioce so I dont know what my options are too get my money back and see another practioner. Has anyone had Flash treatments and if so what type of results have you seen and experienced with re-growth.Im only 3 weeks into my treatments so Its hard to judge on my own.If there are any practioners or people knowledgable with this technique of electroylsis I would really appreciate feed back. Thanks so much in advance and hope to get some helpful feedback.
Hi:
I have had 70 hours with flash and it is working. I think most practitioners use flash. You could get damage if someone uses too high of a setting or tries to do too much in one area early on. Some people claim better results with blend, but it is much slower than thermolysis(flash) which can remove hundreds of hairs in one hour.
Make sure you put some aftercare lotion on the face to helpp it heal. Don’t shave off scabs if they happen ossasionally.
The thing about someone who is trans is that they are very dedicated to getting totally rid of their beards. To us it is something which we hate with a passion.
I had someone tell me that the vertical lines above her upper lip were electrolysis damage, but more than likely they were wrinkles due to her age.
Alicia
The most important thing no matter what type of electrolysis you use is the skill of the person doing the work! No matter what anyone tells you, 100% permanent hair removal is possible with any type of electrolysis that is real electrolysis (not patch scams, and other fakers)
Thermolysis is the fastest way to get a large area clear. It is so fast that the higher rate of “misses” are overcome by the higher number of “Hits”.
I honestly can’t see a person doing thermolysis who has a 5 to 10% success rate ever passing the CPE exam, or even the Final Exam at a good electrolysis school.
There is one person in particular who wants everyone to believe that thermolysis is just horrible, but he is sadly ill-informed.
As for damage, an unskilled practitioner can mess up your face with any modality. Highly skilled electrologists can kill hairs and leave perfect skin in thermolysis.
I think you are ok, you seem to suggest that your skin looks good from the treatment you have had, you are just worrying about some idea that you will have lots of work and no results. Calm your mind. Stay the course. You will be much better off by the time the summer is over.
check out this site for a look at a person who had full removal in thermolysis for a very hairy monster beard.
Tina Marie’s Face Page
http://www.geocities.com/tm1298/Bonus_Photos.html?1128876631830
Thank-You James and Alicia Darling for your replys and help with my sitaution. It is re-assuring to hear this as I am anxious to clear my face of its heavy beard and hate shaving everyday!!! My treatments are moving along pretty quickly and succesfully,3 hours once a week. And my face is almost clear for the first initial clearing!! I suffer from horrable swelling for days after and look like the elephant man,but after swelling subside’s it is so worth it! By the way my initial research which led me to male beard removal and the information I read about the Flash treatment was found on a site called TransgenderCare.com and it was put together by a Transgendered woman who is now also currently an electroylsis which is why I took her negative feed back to Flash treatment as a informed source. If you would like to visit her site and let me know what you think,that would be good. Im sure you would both know better then I about the accuracy and resourcefulness of her web-site.
I will check out the site, but I can tell you, all modalities of electrology give 100% hair removal when done correctly, on hairs available for treatment.
Having said that, what you use depends on your goals, the skills of your practitioner, and the equipment being used.
The easiest form of electrolysis to become proficient is Galvanic. Next in line is Blend, and lastly, the most difficult to become proficient is Thermolysis. When it comes to pay, electrologists get paid by the hour, and the slowest form of electrolysis is galvanic, followed by blend, followed by the fastest method, thermolysis. If you want to get paid lots of money, work slower. Of course, when clients discontinue treatments because they don’t finish, does it really help you or the profession?
Thermolysis operators who are good at what they do clear their clients in an acceptable time, and the clients move on to new treatment projects due to their satisfaction with the previous work.
To help with swelling, you may wish to take Ibuprophen prior to treatment, and again the appropriate amount of time after treatment (based on when the first pill was taken) Your practitioner can help with swelling by using Catapheresis at the conclusion of treatment every time for a few minutes, and looking into the newer equipment and techniques. It may not be possible to avoid swelling entirely in your beginning stages, but it is possible to limit it with some of the new stuff out there. Last month, I removed close to 20,000 hairs off one guy’s face and though there was considerable swelling, he was looking normal enough to go to work four days later.
James,
Thanks so much for all your help and the link to the pic’s tracking a a male patients progression with electrolysis. Were those results obtained with the Flash method? Do you practice this method personally? I wish you were located in Miamiyou are very well informed and knowledgable practioner.My current electrologists only uses the Flash method and owns her own small business so she does not have or offer other techniques or have other electrolysis equiptment. But she did tellme on my initial consultation that her equiptment is new and current. What is Catapheresis? Usaully at the end of my treatments she applie’s Hydrocortisone cream to the treated area’s but has told me unfortunately unless my Dr would be willing to write a RX for antibiotics or creams to help with swelling and pain and that she can not get these RX creams and medications. I am going to see my Dr. this week and see if he would be able to right a RX for something to help me with swelling and ease the post affects of my treatments. Any suggestions for what I might want to ask him for? Thank for your help!
Hi:
I find that applying something cold such as a bag of frozen corn to the face if there is swelling, as soon after the treatment as possible really helps reduce the swelling.
Cataphoresis is usually done at the end of the treatment when they use a metal roller and plug into the opposite polarity outlet on their machine. My tech applies a lotion first and then rolls the area treated. James can explain the theory behind it.
I think that the more advanced you get in the treatments the less swelling you will get since the hairs will be less dense in any given area.
Use a lotion afterwards such as something with real tea tree oil at night. For the day aloe vera works well. I had a
shop which mixes lotions, mix me up some lotion with vitamins A,E and D, tea tree oil and a touch of lavender to cut the smell of the tea tree oil.
As for the info on the website you mentioned, that is one persons opinion and experience. Blend can be used for persistent and stubborn hairs, but it takes a lot longer per hair. If you insist on blend you won’t get many hairs done per hour. I know one transwoman who needed 14 hours to clear her whole face the first time.
Alicia
You don’t need an Rx, you or your electrologist should be post treating the area with something to clean, sooth and promote healing. Many will use Witch Hazel post treatment, followed by Aloe Vera. Once the post treatment has been applied the electrologist may use a roller on the machine to apply current to the skin called Cataphoresis. This helps the healing post treatment product penetrate the skin deeper and faster, while reducing swelling and helping the skin return to natural color faster as well.
After treatment, an ice wrap, or frozen food bags like peas or corn do well for helping the area settle down from swelling.
James and Alicia,
I am really beginning to wonder how profficient my electrologist’s is. She does treat the area with Hydrocortosine cream afterward but has never used this technique called Catapheresis.Would this be something that a machine used to do flash treatment would be equipped with? She also has told me to apply hot compresses to the face following treatments and nothing cold,and emphasized that. I usaully treat the area with pure aloe gel when I get home and was receantly told by someone in holistic medicine to drink 4-80z.of the aloe gel prior to my appt as well as treat my face with it after. I also take a antihistamine prior to my treatment to reduce swelling. I did a 3 hour treatment on Thursday afternoon and even with these method am still swollen in my cheek and jaw area,and have just been hiding out this week-end.Any feedback would be appreciated.Thanks
Hi:
I have only been to one electrolygist. She is a CPE and uses the roller (cataphoresis).
3 hours is a long treatment. The most I go is 2 hours, but early on in the treatments I have had some major swelling which subsided after a day or two. Cold will reduce the swelling. Apply it asap after treatment. The roller also helps in the cooling.
I have heard that drinking loads of water is good hours before the treatments, but Aloe Vera gel internally ? I know some people take it internally and it can be good for your stomach problems, but don’t know about whether it helps internally for electro.
It definitely helps on the face to cool it,rehydrate it and help it heal.
Alicia
If your electrologist has a thermolysis only machine, she doesn’t have cataphoresis on her machine. Only a machine capable of doing Galvanic and/or Blend would be able to do that. Many electrologist have machines that do many modalities, but they only utilize one of them.
On the other hand, many clients won’t sit still for you do do cataphoresis, and an electrologist can get used to them jumping off the table and running out the door, so they don’t even offer anymore.
Lastly, there is an agrument over the merits of cold vs. hot therepy. Some even tell their clients to alternate cold and hot the first day after treatment.
Hi James and Alicia,
I visited my Doctor today and explained to him that I was doing electrolysis and needed some creams and antibiotics to help me through my treatments and help alleviate some of the swelling and pain. He was more then happy to write me out a RX for EMLA cream,Erythromycin topical solution USP,2% and a Antibiotic called Doxycycline. He said to take the antibiotic afterward to help relieve swelling and each day until swelling goes down and then stop. I have some Tylenol with Codiene so I think I am all set and armed with my arsenal of post treatment pills and salves to get me through my 3 hour Appt.,on Thursday.
Hi:
I would take the pills before the treatment.
For the Emla, you need to put it on reasonably thick and cover the area with plastic wrap for at least an hour beforehand. It does help, especially for the first hour.
Use ice, or frozen vegetables if you have swelling. I do this all the time for swelling and it helps. You should also ask if the machine does cataphoresis, I find it soothing.
I usually use something with real tea tree oil afterwards at night and real Aloe Vera during the day for a few days.
3 hours is tough, as I have a hard enough time with 2 hours some days.
Alicia
I noticed that I did not fully answer one of your questions. Yes, Tina’s work was all done with thermolysis. I do work in all 3 modalities, but most cases are easily dispatched with thermolysis.
Some people misunderstand the progression of the pictures. What Tina and I did was to clear out large areas each visit, and work our way across the face until we got first clearance. Then we would start our retreatments from the starting point, the cheeks, and move into the other areas as time allowed. During the treatment, Tina looked finished most of the time. What the pictures show is what would have grown in had we stopped at any given time. It did not take that long for her face to look clear to the general public, it just took that long for us to stop needing to do any work in particular areas. The cheeks were closed for business first, followed by the upper lip and chin. Then area below the jawline, and finally the neck area, which I must point out would not need treatment the way we had to go at it on most men.
Tina had some work done by others before she came to me, and I was not happy with the state of her skin when we started, (especially her upper lip) but as you see, she is all right now.
Hi James:
The pictures of Tina’s face speak for themselves. It looks like it was quite a big project. Doing it in sectios makes sense, and the pattern of doing it is similar to what I have had done.
I have a couple of questions:
-How many hours did you need in total?
-How long till you got to a point of full clearance in one
session, and how long was that session.
I think for most people in my position the neck is important. Even though it is easier to shave than other parts who wants to have to worry about it having growth and that being visible. Putting makeup on the neck to hide hair and then having to blend it in so it isn’t obvious is not a good thing. I would not feel comfortable with having to shave the neck every day, and having the rest finished.
Last, yes, but least, no.
Alicia
We can’t get hung up on her personal stats when she had an unusually hard case, and could not put lots of time towards working at it. I think the important thing here is that it got done. I can only do what the client allows me to do based on the time the client gives me, and when the client gives it to me. I am usually capable of much more than the client makes available.
Tina could only devote 3 to 6 hours a week in the beginning, and later only 90 minutes to 3 hours a week. That is why we did what we did, the way that we did it.
Now if a person had the time and could stand the boredom of watching movies and chatting with me for a few days to a week, depending on how much hair they had, we could get to first clearance right away.
It was not long before we were clearing the entire face in 3 or less hours each time, and the neck became the primary target. You must also keep in mind that Tina Marie started out with more hair than any normal man is supposed to have, covering more area than normal. Her project is way more extensive than most people’s would be. Even with that, Tina was done with less than 300 hours of work. I can’t remember if it was 250 or 275 right now. It would have been less time if we had been able to be more aggressive about clearances time wise up front and in the middle times.
Once everything was under control, we were able to do all the face and all the neck in 90 minutes or less.
I understand that everything is important, but more people look at your upper lip and cheeks than ever notice your neck and the area under your chin. One can even wear turtle neck shirts in warmer climates.
A more recent client who had a “Tina Sized” hair problem and the time to hit it hard and long for a long while in the early going, before life sent us back to a more normal schedule, finished in about 200 hours.
I am at the point where I would like to see how fast I could clear the so called normal man with only 100 hairs per square inch and only 25 square inches of treatment area. On that guy, I would theoretically get first clearance in 5 hours or less, and we would maintain it with an hour and 45 minutes every 3 weeks for a while, and then it would drop to 75 minutes per clearance, and then we would hit the hour and less point going into the home stretch.
Alicia and James,
Thanks for your feed back. Alicia,should I take the antibiotic before my electrolysis treatment? I think I should,because it says to take 2x a day until swelling subside’s.
James,
Thanks for reply back about TinaMaries facial work and your method of electrolysis used. That is encouraging to me after having read the negative remarks about the flash method at that other web-site. I really hope I see such excellant results with my electrologist’s. I feel like we are moving along pretty good and Thursday she says my face will be completed for the fist clearing and then we will always maintain those areas and begin work on my neck. My electrologists is going away in June for 3 weeks and she has assured me she will see me right before she leave’s,clear me out as best as possable and that the 3 week interval between sessions should not throw me off plan that greatly. What is your opinion on the time lapse? I have looked into other electroylsis in my area but none are on the bus line and I dont have a car. Will three weeks set me back greatly on my work toward a hairless face?
Hi:
Thanks for the info James. That is certainly a lot of hours and I am thankful that I probably won’t need as long.
I think it takes a lot of patience to tackle such a project.
Tina must have wondered at times if it would ever end. It must have been a wonderful feeling for her when you reached a breakthrough point.
Hopefully what you learned will help others down the road.
I am sorry Bscotch, but I have never taken antibiotics for swelling due to electrolysis. I am not even sure that it is a good thing since antibiotics should only be used to eliminate infection. I don’t think the swelling is caused by infection, but by heat and trauma to the skin. That is where I feel a cold-pack really helps, especially right after the treatment. I have never had an infection because of electrolysis and never used antibiotics for swelling.
Keep us posted on your experiences. Good luck.
Alicia
If you got a full clearance before she leaves, you would only just get to the point where what ever available hair is there becomes fully visible by the time she comes back.
Thermolysis gets a bad name because of all the practitioners out there who are unskilled, out of date, and/or working with the wrong treatment paradigm. Great work can be done with thermolysis, but it is not automatic that you will trip over a good electrologist just by throwing a dart at the phone book. In fact, many of the best electrologists are working from their home, with no phone book listing, and only take referrals from current clients. Why? Because if you are good, you can fill all the time you want to work very easily without paying for advertising, and advertising only serves to give you more work than you can, or want to do.
James,
Five hours to first clearance! That sounds pretty amazing. I know so much is dependant on the individual patient and practitioner. My electrologist (whom is very well known) takes 40-50 hours to get you to first clearance. Are they really that much slower than you? I have concerns with mine because I have been completely clear twice, but, three weeks later had a full beard again both times. Might this indicate that the hairs are just getting plucked? I have spoken with a different electrologist locally that is known in the trans community and asked her about her speed rate. She uses blend and gets about 300 hours per hour, which seems lower than the numbers I have seen posted here. I have got to find someone that can keep up with my hair growth and keep me clear!
Lana