Insulation??

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
#1

Hi guys,

Been a while, but now I have a serious question.

My electrologist uses Blend exclusively.
I am being treated in the male genital area and it is going very well into the right way.

Now I noticed that in some places due to the long period of treatment I get tiny scarring at the openings of a follicle.
they look like tiny holes with a very small dark dot.

The treatment is going quite well so I don’t want to quit.
These are surface scars that can be avoided I guess by insulating a probe. The scarring is due to the current working at the top of the follicle, I am sure of that.

So, I want to suggest to her to use insulated probes. However, A) is it possible to use insulated probes with blend??

And B) for my DIY electrolysis on the abdominal area, could I use superglue as insulation? As it is very strong…

#2

Yes, one can use insulated probes for the blend. Dectro/Apilus sells a brand of probes called “IsoGuard” specifically for this purpose. What is special about IsoGuard probes is that they have a coating that is made to stand up to the lye in blend work a little better, and a little longer than a standard insulated probe.

Most do it yourself probe insulation is done bu using clear nail polish. One dips the probe in the clear nail polish, chuck side first, holding the probe by the amount of exposed probe end one want to be active, and then lets it dry (still holding on to the part you want to be exposed). After it dires, one uses nail polish remover to clean the chuck so that the probe can conduct the treatment currents from the probe holder into the probe.

If you used super glue, your problems would be safe application to the probe, controlling how much went on the probe, and how would you clean off any excess. Remember, that you don’t want to add thickness to the probe, nor any jagged edges to the sides, and you need to be able to keep the chuck end capable of conducting currents.

#3

Thanks for the answer James.

How much insulation do you advise me to do?
How much of the thin part should be left?

#4

Since you are doing this yourself, you can tailor the insulation to the actual hairs you are working on. I suggest doing a treatment, so you can pull a hair out with full bulb, and then use this as a gauge to see how much space the lower bulge takes up. You then grip that much of the tip, and you are ready to dip your probe into the insulation material.

The thing about commercial insulated probes is that they are a uniform length, and are often used in places, like an upper lip, where the follicles being worked on may be so shallow, that the practitioner may as well be using a bare probe for the fact that the insulating material doesn’t even enter the skin.

#5

How long will the insulation hold on average?

#6

Usually, you are good for the amount of time you will be using the probe during a single treatment. Commercial insulation, however, sometimes starts to flake off inside the package due to the amount of time it has been since the coating has been applied to the probe.

If one had a re-usable probe, one would be removing the nail polish with polish remover prior to resterilizing in the autoclave, or dry heat sterilizer anyway.

#7

I would not recommend doing this “self-insulation” project.

First of all, you are handling the needle unnecessarily, increasing the chance of using a dirty needle. Second, you are using a product that is not intended to be inserted into the skin (nail polish), plus many people are severely allergic to nail polish.

One additional comment about this is that IF you are having treatments with a Fischer - insulated needles are not compatible with their epilators. The little marks you are seeing are probably temporary healing manifestations. One of my clients had swirley, scar-appearing marks after laser in this area and that is completely gone now.

#8

Officially, we don’t recommend self work either, however, the reality is that people are going to do it anyway.

Obviously, a person who was going to do lots of insulated probe work would do better to just buy insulated probes. free samples are available from all probe sellers. On the other hand, if one wanted to test something out, or not wait for delivery, this would work. What do you think the insulating material used on the manufactured probes is made of anyway? In some cases, the prepackaged probes have nail polish on them as well.

Many manufacturers make claims about the incompatibility of their equipment and some sorts of probes, when other than the case of a machine that uses F shank or K shank, (where the other shank just won’t fit) there is no true incompatibility, just a change in how the current is delivered by the machine. Oh, yeah, that is exactly what insulating the probe is designed to do, change how the current is delivered. One will need to reduce the treatment energy accordingly.

#9

No I can assure you, I have been in treatment for more than 1,5 years and those are surface scars.

And I do not want it any more than it is now.

And I heard that exactly for these cases people designed insulated probes.

#10

In some cases, the prepackaged probes have nail polish on them as well.

Which products do You mean?

BTW: Sterex insulated cannot be used with blend at all - the insulation is damaged immediately.

I am using Ballet insulated probes with some sort of pretty fast pulsed blend and as far as i can judge the insulation is still usable after rather long sessions (more than 2 hours pure epilation time). AFAIK these probes have the second longest conduction tip after the Pro-Tecs variant designed especially for blend.

James’ note on the necessity to check the treatment energy thoroughly cannot be emphasized enough: the current density at such a narrow tip is a lot larger than usual - so in order to avoid mistreatments the currents have to be adjusted from the low end as new after such a switch.

Beate

BTW: i am not sure if it makes sense to use typical isolated probes with their short conduction tips with traditional blend.

#11

What is the name of these Ballet insulated blend probes? As I can only find “ballet insulated probes” …I reckon these are just the traditional ones right? With a short tip?

#12

No, these are just the insulated probes from Ballet.
No dedicated Blend probes. But what i am doing is actually more thermolysis than blend (although the galvanic has a very noticeable effect)

The only probe especially designed with blend in mind is the one from pro-TEC. I did some research in the depths of this forum and found data of the length of the non-insulated ips. Written from memory:

Pro-TEC blend: 3 mm
Ballet insulated: 1.5 mm
and the others a few tenths of a mm

from which one might draw conclusions on the applicability of working techniques.

Beate

#13

What do you mean “galvanic has a very noticeable effect”?

And won’t blend work with a small unisulated tip?

#14

??

#15

With some techniques, galvanic current can cause a visible frothing at the follicle opening. However, I’m not sure if that is what Beate is meaning by her comment. She might be meaning that she is accomplishing the HR goal - and it is a noticeable difference. She will have to clarify that for you.

Galvanic current requires more contact area in the follicle because the chemical reaction occurs in the space that the metal of the needle is touching the follicle. If only the tip of the needle is exposed, then the chemical reaction won’t occur higher up in the follicle. I believe that this is the reason that pro-tec designs the two different insulated needles.

#16

Dear toeman,

Although in the setting i describe thermolysis has the main effect, the amount of lye produced is still significant (in about half a second of treatment). It is easy to check: if the galvanic current is disabled, only the HF pulses remain effective, and th ehair usually will not epilate any more. Again: i only consider this remarkable because the treatment time much shorter as typical for blend.

And won’t blend work with a small unisulated tip?
As Barbara already pointed out, You need a certain surface to allow enough lye to develop. If the surface becomes smaller, two effects occur: higher density of electrical current, more heat, hence faster production of lye. On the other hand less surface where the lye may develop. Probably harder to control locally. I do not dare to predict results, but it might become harmful to the skin pretty quick, as there might develop small reservoirs with pretty much lye.

I tested this on my own legs starting with small galvanic currents and increasing that subsequently. Indeed, on the old thin and dry skin of my lower legs this mode improves healing.

Beate