Is electrolysis likely to work for me?

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
1

I am a Type 1 male, with thick, coarse auburn/brown hair. I wish to have all of the hair permanently removed from the front of my neck. From below my throat, up to my jaw line. Electrolysis is the only way forward for me.

I was recently involved in a car accident and suffered lacerations to the front of my neck. This caused my follicles to become extremely distorted follicles, and as a result the hairs began growing inwards and in multiple directions. I began frequently plucking the many problem hairs and with hindisght now I believe this compounded the problem. At this present time, I am unable to shave the front of my neck due to my condition. I am fortunate, at least, in that I am able to continue to shave my face without any problems.

I understand that, due to the distorted follicles, the ‘blend’ method is likely to be more appropriate than diathermy. ‘Success’, for me, would be no future hair growth whatsoever on my neck.

I have made appointments to see a number of electrologists who specialise in male facial hair removal. In advance of this, I have a few questions which I would like to ask this forum:

  1. How likely is it, based on my hair type, that I will experience full success from electrolysis?
  2. What can be broadly expected as a potential timeframe for success?
  3. How many hours per week of treatment would be optimum?
  4. How is male neck hair generally responsive to electrolysis compared to male facial hair? Better, worse or the same?
  5. Before I may see full success, how likely is it that the hair would become thinner?
  6. Before I may see full success, how likely is it that the hair would begin to grow straighter and the follicles be less distorted?
  7. Before I may see full success, how likely is it that the hairs would begin to grow in the same direction, as they did for me originally?

I look forward to your responses and advice.

Thank you.

2

Okay then MrPipps, thank goodness its really early and I hopefully won’t have any interruptions so I can tackle your very telling questions. Your post is very interesting to me as your questions reflect that inaccurate information is still pervasive, even with so much Schuster study.

QUESTION 1. How likely is it, based on my hair type, that I will experience full success from electrolysis?
RESPONSE 1. Likely? You will definately experience full success if your treatments are administered by a skilled tech.

QUESTION 2. What can be broadly expected as a potential timeframe for success?
RESPONSE 2. If all of your hairs surface for the electrologist to work, and you visit weekly for the first few months, then visit every other week or every third week, enabling the hairs to be removed in its most vulnerable stage (anagen), a reasonable timeframe could be about a year.

QUESTION 3. How many hours per week of treatment would be optimum?
RESPONSE 3. Look at your time and budget. Then, how many visits per week depends on how the tissue has healed. Once a week for a specific area is fine. You can treat other areas while your previously treated area is healing. How long your appointments are would be contingent on how much hair you have at the time of your appointment. If you like, try a 15 minute treatment and see how much can be removed. It is ideal to remove every single growing hair. If that requires a 15 minute treatment or a 3 hour treatment, we don’t know because we don’t see you. In any event, all of the hair that is able to grow is not showing at any given time, therefore, you need a series of treatments.

QUESTION 4. How is male neck hair generally responsive to electrolysis compared to male facial hair? Better, worse or the same?
RESPONSE 4. Regarding the difference between the hairs on the face and the hairs on the neck - there are fewer hairs per sq. cm. on the neck so you will see results faster.

QUESTION 5. Before I may see full success, how likely is it that the hair would become thinner?
RESPONSE 5.You should see success after every treatment but be consitant with treatment and initially, show up once a week, clearing as much as possible. You see the area thin out, meaning fewer hairs. Most electrologists will remove the thicker hairs so what you are left with, are the thinner ones. Then, when thicker hairs grow in, or when the thinner hairs have transitioned into thicker ones, the electrologist treats those. I doubt that your hairs get thinner. You are merely left with thinner hairs, until the electrologist treats them. The follicles are disabled so that you can’t grow hairs anymore. Perhaps in some situations, when a follicle isn’t getting enough treatment, the hair might grow thinner but that is not what I have observed.

QUESTION 6. Before I may see full success, how likely is it that the hair would begin to grow straighter and the follicles be less distorted?
RESPONSE 6. The distorted follicle theory is silly. Ignore it. Distortion should not impact success. You will have hairs grow in all directions and the electrologist might ask you to move your head this way and that way and your tech. might have to bend this way and that way, that’s it.

QUESTION 7. Before I may see full success, how likely is it that the hairs would begin to grow in the same direction, as they did for me originally?
RESPONSE 7. You won’t have any hairs left to grow in the same direction. If you have hairs growing around scar tissue, they will grow the way they are growing now, not straight. The ones that are growing straight could be left alone. Then you will be left with straight hairs.

I suggest that prior to your first appointment, start exfoliating. Visit a licensed skin care professional and get a good product that will exfoliate without irritating. Maybe get a series of facials or microdermabrasion. In that way, those hairs that are ingrown, will work their way to the top quickly and available to the electrologist to remove.

I hope you keep in touch with us here as one of the gratifying aspects of posting is reading progress reports.

All the best,

3

Hello Ms Batz

Thank you so much for your detailed response. I really appreciate the attenion you have given to each of my questions.

Firstly, I was hoping you wouldn’t mind if I asked about your assertion in your opening paragraph about the existence of innaccurate information. Can you tell me what points in my post you would find to be questionable?

Secondly, you mention that the distorted follicle theory is silly. May I ask, in what respect you mean this? When you say ‘distorted follicle theory’, do you mean the school of thought that it is harder to treat distorted follicles effectively with diathermy and that follicle such follicles are less likely to be effectively targeted?

I have been growing a full beard for the last three weeks to allow the electrologists to have a good length of hair to work with, so fortunately I have no ingrowing hairs at present. However, I will still definitely exfoliate before my appointments.

Thank you again for your encouraging comments. You have really made me feel more hopeful towards my impending treatment.

I will definitely be providing regular updates on my progress.

4

I think Ms. Batz did not interpret some of your questions correctly, so I’ll give my opinion, too.

  1. If the only difference between the hairs is location, then the answer is the same. For me, a single neck hair feels exactly the same as a facial hair, so should respond the same. What Ms. Batz says might be true, but it does not address your question, which is about efficacy rather than speed.

  2. Hair can grow back thinner after a treatment. My experience has been that some hair is so thick that a machine can’t deliver enough energy to kill it completely without injuring me, too, and requires another treatment the next time it grows. I believe neck hair is a good candidate for being thick enough to require more than one treatment. Such hairs, on me, have grown back thinner the second time around. If you have fine neck hair, you might not experience this.

  3. That, in my opinion, has a probability of zero. Electrolysis does not have the capability to change the direction of growth in a controlled way. However, it can change the direction of growth in an uncontrolled way. You see, electrolysis burns the stem cell matrix that grows hair and, if some portions of the matrix survive and continue to grow hair (or the practitioner missed and distorted the proximal area), then that hair might work its way upwards in a different direction because of the normal force (a physics term) it receives from the burnt, distorted mass that’s next to it. If the change in direction is severe, it might become ingrown where it wasn’t before! Of course, this change of direction could randomly cause an improvement in what was a previously a chronic ingrown hair. But the tools practitioners use do not allow them to burn portions of the matrix selectively to control direction of growth.

Simple mathematics suggests that a normal person (i.e., rarely gets ingrowns) will experience more ingrowns in thick-haired areas than before their series of treatments began because some of those hairs are getting half-killed and experiencing a change in direction of growth.

Final thought) Have you considered targeting only the offending follicles? Certainly your neck wasn’t entirely lacerated. This might preserve your ability to grow a beard, would certainly be less expensive and take less time, and would guarantee you constant improvement in ingrown rates.

Bryce

5

Considering your hair is coarse, laser may be an option for you as well, granted your hair is dark enough (would have to test). Your skin type is good for high settings on the best alex machine. Some black men have similar problems with their facial hair and laser is a good solution for getting rid of the ingrowns and making it a lot easier to shave. If you’re a good candidate, you would see results even after one treatment when the density will be reduced significantly already. Just something to consider if you want to speed up the process. You can probably get rid of a majority of the hair in short laser treatments, and then finish with electrolysis on remaining sparse hairs.