Very satisfying looking progress today!
This session: 26-Apr-2023, 45 minutes
Total electrolysis time: 150 minutes (2h30m)
Areas tackled this session:
Left underarm
Before photo taken ~1 hour before session, after photo taken 3.5 hours after session.
Total time on left underarm: ~55 minutes
Occluded 5% lidocaine cream with a cut-to-fit plastic, and tried taping some corners down with body tape this time (which worked pretty well! Felt a little tight but kept it very in place.). I did 3 small rubs 3.5 minutes apart into the area beforehand which worked well; I think the sheer quantity of areas last time was probably my problem.
Modality: thermo
Discomfort: Weirdly really painful this time around, the last 15 minutes were pretty tough but I managed. It was almost like I didn’t occlude any lidocaine at all in sensation. I didn’t remember to record it last session but I had taken an anti-histamine allergy med close to when I left home last time, which I think helped me out in more ways than I thought. (A lot of people come to sessions right after working from home, and a lot of my electrologist’s clients got pets right after work from home happened—and I’m allergic to pets.). I didn’t take an anti-histamine this time around and I think the reduction in swelling would have been very welcome.
Post-session discomfort is still growing less and less; I was in little enough discomfort that I did some shopping right after (wouldn’t have wanted to do that before) and by bedtime felt totally normal.
Aftercare: Once or twice a day spritzing with Briotech. If things feel dry later on in the week I’ll spray with Aloe Vera juice instead.
Plans for next session: Finish left underarm, and begin work on lower legs.
We talked this session about the future game plan now that we’re making some full clears in areas and moving on to others;
I could think of a lot of pros to treating areas as a full growth cycle came in: skin gets more time to heal; electrologist gets to get into a better non-interrupted groove while working; much easier to document for photo journals. But I couldn’t really think of any pros other than ‘it always looks smooth’ to treating areas as little bits of hairs grow in (and I guess that really is the main pro to it). My electrologist agreed that, especially if I’m doing a photo journal, since we’re looking to clear many areas that clearing as growth cycles come in is probably best; but ultimately it’ll end up depending on what I’m most comfortable with. I love our cool chill convos :3
I mentioned the comment I received that my underarm hair looked like it’d be great for laser and that stemmed some really cool convos :o I learned that my electrologist actually knows a whole lot about laser hair removal (and is certified in it! I am a litte worried I’m not remembering the real word they said but I think it was certified). They said a potential issue with laser in my underarms is that while my hair is really dense and thick, the roots tend to be blonde or really light. They went to show me a hair to give me an example, but unfortunately my angle at the light meant I couldn’t see any colour and could only see the general “thick hair with big ol’ rectangle at the end” shape outline |D oops.
I learned it’s also a thing that folks with a combination of ‘fine/thin skin and dense/thick hair’ tend to have the most problems with the hair itself causing physical discomfort when it touches the skin. I seem to have that hair/skin combo, and yes, I definitely relate to that. I never understood why so many people online only discussed the discomfort that happened if they shaved, since all of my hair-related discomfort has ever come from not shaving. Maybe that’s why it’s always been such a rare treat to find other people who say things like, “I just find my hair agitates my skin if I let it grow”, if it’s a specific skin/hair combination thing. (My body hair also ties circulation-cutting knots around little portions of my skin in some places if it gets really long. Not fun!!)
We did talk about laser hair removal in regards to pubic hair; I wondered when people tend to come in for touch ups for that with electrolysis and I guess it’s just kind of all over. Some folks come in right after laser, some after 5 years; but most people who see almost 100% true regrowth after laser see it within 6 months, they said. (It also often tends to be related to hormonal changes—notably pregnancy—but being post-hysterectomy, that is simply not an issue for me; and I’ve been told many hysterectomy patients seem to have more stable hormones in general.) Hearing that much regrowth tends to happen so close to ending laser is comforting, because my idea of post-laser anxiety was that someone would be anxious about, “will all my hair suddenly grow back in,” for years after.
They also said it can be disheartening seeing a lot of progress 12-18 months into post-laser electrolysis and then new regrowth can make more hair appear than there was at the very beginning; but because of how my particular timing with getting everything I want to do will probably work (I had arms+underarms, legs, areola, and pubic hair listed on my consultation sheet), the turn around time for when we’d get to that not-insured, (therefore comes later) area could potentially time out really well for me. Quite exciting! Well except that 3 of the over 10 laser places nearby are under active investigation right now, so it is a tread very carefully thing.
Ahhh lots of thoughts. But I never shared my silly story (about areola hair) from last time so I should do that!!!
Silly areola hair story:
I think this was in my Freshman highschool year (3 highschools and 3 middle schools so it’s all kind of a blur tbh). I had no areola hair at the time; and I overheard 2 girls gossiping in the mostly empty locker room that [paraphrasing] “Hair around the nipple is really gross and that [they] didn’t understand why the few people who had it don’t shave it off”. ((The answer is that calling people’s body hair “gross” is rude, and also probably that it’s extremely awkward to remove that hair in any way but plucking)) And I was like, “oh yeah, that would look pretty bad, huh?” And for SOME REASON, even though I had 0 visible hairs in this area, I was still like “hhhhhmmm I sure should shave that area even though I have no hair there” totally makes sense. And now that I’ve read it like 20 places across HairTell that shaving cannot induce growth I’m 90% sure this was just coincidence—but just one or two weeks later I started getting full blown around areola terminal hair growth! And I was so upset!! I was like /blubbering “If I wouldn’t have heard those stupid girls talk about these hairs I would have never shaven when nothing was there and I wouldn’t have awakened the area and grown these hairs” waaaahhh Hahaha poor little me.
It was a big part of why I’ve never messed with my above-the-lip vellus hair though. There’s enough of it that my partner has once or twice complained about being able to see it esp. if I’m outside in the sun, but I’ve always refused to shave it because, “my hormones have changed a lot since the last time I removed any facial hair (birth control and DHEA supplements), what if it turns really dark or thick if I shaved it?” because of my experience with the areola hair oops.
Knowing what I do now, well, I still don’t see a lot of reason to mess with it . . . I think light-coloured above-the-lip hair is cute. And all the other hair I remove is for me, after all, so it’d feel a bit awkward to remove it for someone else. It is a little annoying when I want to spray my skin with aloe or Briotech or anything else and the mist droplets onto the hair though. Like “no this isn’t for you, shoo!” Haha.
Thanks for reading ^^
