Ketsele’s Progress Photojournal

[Ketsele]

This session: 26-July-2023, 90 minutes
Total electrolysis time: 1,070 minutes (17h50m)

Areas tackled this session:
Right lower leg (lower half of knee, then some area to the outer-side of the knee both below and a little bit above it.)

Before photos taken just before electrolysis, after photos taken ~2 hours after electrolysis.
There was one more before (technically during) photo that my electrologist had me take with their phone (partner was taking a breather) bc we weren’t sure if it had been in the photo, but they didn’t get it to me yet haha.
ETA received and added the 2 photos that my electrologist took midway through the session, since my partner who normally takes my photos was out for a breather, and we realized we didn’t have a before of some of the removed hair.

Total time on right lower leg: ~270 minutes

Modality, thermo

Took anti-histamine ~30 minutes prior to session, and occluded lidocaine to lower knee ~75 minutes before session.

Discomfort: Uncomfy, but not the worst; after about 45 minutes on the knee there was a pain spike (I hadn’t occluded lidocaine to the FULL knee, just the lower half, since last time we did a knee my electrologist said they’d prefer to only work on half a knee in one session since it swells so much), so we moved instead to an area to the side of the knee. The upper and lower side of knee were pretty inconsistent in how much it hurt (or how much I was paying attention, we really chatted up a storm this session).
Surprisingly, the after-session week with a very-zapped-knee wasn’t that bad! The evening after my session my knee kind of felt like “delicate tight paper” and I didn’t feel like I could pull it up to my chest bc that would bend it too much (which I often do when sitting in chairs and looking at the TV), but it settled down by bedtime and felt normal by the next day. There were never any big sensations of it being itchy, and if there was a discomfort it was in the lower part of the leg we tackled a few weeks ago (probably normal healing stuff).

Aftercare/skin care adventures: My electrologist really wants to work on my left and right leg both next session, and/but my legs are prone to hyperpigmentation they said, and so they had me look up “dry brushing” online (after giving a basic summary of what it is, of course) and do that, then hop in the shower, and then put jojoba oil on the lower left leg afterwards. Luckily I literally have a dropper bottle of pure jojoba oil in my bathroom cabinet so works for me! I kind of had some questions about if I should do it for the right leg, too; or how often I was supposed to do it . . . but I didn’t get any follow up oops so I just kinda did what felt right!
So I used a microfiber cloth to dry brush the left leg, and the microfiber to also brush (but more gently) the right leg. Any spots we JUST did, I used my hand instead of the microfiber until a few days had passed). I didn’t ALWAYS? do the shower & jajoba oil afterwards–because I found that the dry brushing was also just really helpful for relieving the poopy-tingly feeling that my legs & lower spine get at the very beginning of my follicular phase (which I just so happened to be at after my appointment) so it was just really relieving to do anyway. I probably did the “rinse off and then jajoba oil” step about 2 or 3 times in the week, and the brushing itself 4 or 5 times in the week.
After a week of care in that fashion, I definitely feel like my left leg is looking really good! It seems like my right leg is also looking better than it usually would just one week after a session. Overall, it seems promising–and I just like having a “mechanical & meticulous” way to take care of my skin, too. Because I was doing “so much effort” to brush my legs and oil them I just kind of looked up dry brushing for the whole body, and used some of my body shae butters on the rest of me that wasn’t the lower legs . . . the rest of me def feels softer than with just the oil haha but I have no idea how long I have to avoid putting coconut/soybean oil on treated skin so I’m not gonna play with what’s not broken.

Plans for next session: Both left and right knees & maybe some leg clean up. Also hour-before-my-next-session me has put lidocaine on my toes hoping we can get those, because me wearing toe socks every day makes getting the toes something we can’t do very often and they should only take a few minutes ?

[Ketsele]

This session: 2-August-2023, 90 minutes
Total electrolysis time: 1,160 minutes (19h20m)

Areas tackled this session:
Right lower leg (behind the knee, toes)
Left lower leg (knee, toes)

Before photos taken just before electrolysis, after photos taken ~4 hours after electrolysis.

Total time on right lower leg: ~312 minutes
*Time on right lower leg THIS session: 42 minutes

Total time on left lower leg: 487 minutes
Time on left lower leg THIS session: 46 minutes

Modality, thermo

Took anti-histamine ~60 minutes prior to session. I wasn’t sure what areas we were doing so occluded lidocaine to knees, behind knees, & toes ~75 minutes before session. Unfortunately this means there wasn’t really any single area with as much lidocaine as I would have liked, since I’m lightly sensitive to the stuff . . .

Discomfort: My left knee was fine, but everything else was pretty much The Worst. Last time we did my toes my body responded as IF it was really painful even though I wasn’t really able to interpret the sensations; this time I WAS able to actually interpret the sensations and it was really bad luckily toes only take like maybe 3 minutes tops for both feet. The back of my right leg was really sensitive, too.
I’ve felt pretty acutely aware recently that my viewpoint on the pain is “my brain pretty much erases it once I’m not on the table anymore; and I would be really embarrassed if future me had to deal with a problem forever just because past me couldn’t deal with some temp stuff”. I wonder why, maybe cause 90 minute sessions have more pain peaks to deal with?
It was weird having one side of one knee and the opposite side of the other knee done, since that meant there was ONE way I could cross my legs when sitting that was perfectly fine, and another way that was very uncomfortable haha. Other than the standard “first night everything was a little tender”, everything felt like it went back to normal quickly; pretty much no discomfort or itchiness during the week, though the spots done around my knees feel tender again a week later all of a sudden.

Aftercare/skin care adventures: Almost nothing this week. Dry brushed once or twice, did jajoba oil on the legs once, probably Zensa once ?? Pretty much just left it alone. I feel kind of bad about it tbh, but I guess my legs are mostly getting a break next session.

Plans for next session: Clearing out both underarms and both areolae again; then any leftover time doing work on top of the lower left leg.

[Ketsele]

This session: 9-August-2023, 90 minutes
Total electrolysis time: 1,250 minutes (20h50m)

Areas tackled this session:
Both underarms (4th clearing of both right and left underarm)
Both areola
Left lower leg (shin area)

Before photos taken just before electrolysis, after photos taken ~17 hours after electrolysis.

Total time on right underarm: ~174 minutes
Time on right underarm this session: 25 minutes

Total time on left underarm: ~161 minutes
Time on left underarm this session: 28 minutes

Total time for eeach areola: ~9 minutes max
Time on each areola this session: ~1.5 minutes

Total time on left lower leg: 517 minutes
Time on left lower leg THIS session: 30 minutes

Modality, thermo

Took anti-histamine ~60 minutes prior to session, and occluded lidocaine to both underarms ~70 minutes prior to session

Discomfort: The underarms were mostly okay; the zaps felt a little more intense than I’d normally expect for them, but my skin was well numbed and so there was no “climb” of pain over time from the skin reacting. Vs the lower left leg was a very confusing “I don’t remember this hurting so much? What have I been doing the past 10+ weeks??” and it DID have a pain climb since I didn’t occlude any lidocaine to the leg. (And the areolae basically didn’t feel like anything, I just felt some heat of the zaps and that was it).
The oddly painful legs affected me a lot and we discussed maybe doing some shorter sessions, or limiting the amount of time we spend in an area in an unbroken time block? I’m also very close to a 2-week break (electrologist going out of town) and so while most of me wonders if my body just needs a bit of a break, I’d rather just wait it out til my already scheduled break. No co-pay full insurance coverage til the new year is a hard argument to pass up!
I think the biggest discomfort was that after the session, I was still mentally really tired. Until this week, hopping off the table was always the same moment where I’d mentally “hop” off of thinking about the session or any pain it contained. Always very chipper after a session is over and putting it in the past right away. But this week it wasn’t like that; I was still mentally disturbed by the pain experienced during the session until over an hour after it, and I was too tired to even think about having another session until literally the morning OF my next session. Convenient timing I guess? Very strange. Partner took me to get ice cream after the session though so that was very nice.

Aftercare/skin care adventures: I felt like my skin (aesthetically, anyway) healed a little bit worse than usual this week? Underarms were a little more visibly speckle-y (usually I can only see it in the photos, but not in real life) and the way my left shin scabbed a bit reminded me of what happens with my inner legs (but not as extreme). But my skin wasn’t more uncomfortable than normal after the session, no itchiness.

Plans for next session: Clearing out more of the back of the left lower leg, and a TBD (or I can’t remember) part of the right leg. We’ll put lidocaine on the back left leg and then at the beginning of the appointment we’ll put lidocaine on the section we decide to do after.

[Ketsele]

This session: 16-August-2023, 80 minutes
Total electrolysis time: 1,330 minutes (22h10m)

Areas tackled this session:
Lower left leg (back of calf)
Lower right leg (back of calf

Before photos taken just before electrolysis, after photos taken ~17 hours after electrolysis. A lot of them looked pretty blurry to me unfortunately, so hopefully I picked out the correct ones.

Total time on left lower leg: ~557 minutes
Time on left lower leg THIS session: 40 minutes

Total time on right lower leg: ~352 minutes
Time on right lower leg THIS session: 40 minutes

Modality, thermo

Occluded lidocaine to back of left calf ~60 minutes prior to session, and had lidocaine rubbed on back of right calf at beginning of session (so it would set for about 40 minutes).

Discomfort: This session was a little shorter and a lot better than last session. I had my partner help occlude the lidocaine to the back of my left leg because it’s very difficult to do that spot myself and I think they did a significantly better job than I ever do, because aside from a few rogue center-of-back-of-knee hairs it was pretty much completely numb. The right leg my electrologist did later because I’ve been a bit too sensitive to lidocaine in the past to want to do 2 calves at once, but obviously “just rub some into the skin with a glove and that’s it” doesn’t work as well as my technique at home haha. Lugging a 4,500 feet box of plastic wrap somewhere and timing numerous applications mid-session is kinda hard though Anyway, so the right leg was more sensitive but it wasn’t that bad. I was able to hop “off of table out of mind” normally again.
The front of my legs from a week or two ago decided to be a li’l itchy this week but nothing too bad.

Aftercare/skin care adventures: Nothing unless a leg spot felt weirdly uncomfy (not just slightly itchy), which only happened once this week. Because my electrologist seems to like gels more than sprays, I picked up a gel version of my Briotech stuff to try out on areas that get sensitive.

Plans for next session: At this point we have a lot of clear done (areolae are waiting for a while, underarms are waiting for a while, lower legs have a lot done), so next session we’re going to move onto a new spot–the thigh rather than the lower leg! The plan is to alternate between 1 week upper leg 1 week lower leg, to continue clearing the lower legs but give the leg sections breaks in-between to heal, and also to keep generally within the same growth rate profile in the new area. (Technically I would have preferred to do arms next, because my upper legs aren’t usually visible to me and my arms are, but it’s just not as practical).
Something interesting about the thigh is that I’ve had a perceivable increase in my terminal hair growth pattern since my surgery ~200 days ago. (As a consequence of my surgery, my Mirena IUD was removed). Any thigh terminal hair used to cut off fairly close to the groin; now, there’s a line of little occasional wisps of terminal hair at the very center of the inner thigh that actually travels all the way down half the length of my upper leg. It’s not a lot of hair, but it’s interesting and reminds me of when I’ve seen a new pattern of facial hair grow in on my younger male friends. I wonder how long it’ll take to see (and then kill, haha) all the new growth expression that will occur.

[Ketsele]

This session: 23-August-2023, 90 minutes
Total electrolysis time: 1,420 minutes (23h40m)

Areas tackled this session:
Upper left leg (top of leg, in a spread from about halfway up to edge of boxer bottoms)

Before photo taken just before electrolysis, after photo taken ~3.5 hours after electrolysis.

Total time on left upper leg: ~90 minutes

Modality, thermo

No lidocaine or anti-histamine.

Discomfort: A new area this time! The upper leg was way more comfortable than the lower leg; there’s a lot more fat, and I could feel the fat kind of mitigating the discomfort of the zaps/heat. I always wondered why the pokemon ability Thick Fat affects both ice AND fire type moves; guess I know why now, haha. There wasn’t a big difference between being ~10 inches away from the hipbone and ~6 inches away from the hipbone, which was kind of the range of how low/high on the thigh we were.
It was a little more problematic during the week, though; being so high up on my leg, I can subconsciously scratch if it becomes itchy. And one of the skirts I was wearing around the house this week, would occasionally rub against my thigh in just a way to make the treated area itchy. But I have skin writing, and so any time I itch with any force with anything other than the side of my hand or arm (or other soft part of my body), the skin will become very hot and welted and super itchy. Meh. I gave it a spritz whenever that happened to cool the area back down, but I couldn’t actually feel the coolness of just a spray at all. It didn’t seem to cause any problems (just annoyances a few times this week) and the skin looks like it’s overall healing perfectly fine, but I was going to use the Zensa or the briotech gel that I got if it did feel like it was causing problems.

Aftercare/skin care adventures: (Detailed above, oops.)

Plans for next session: Right upper leg. The plan was to then do the lower legs and kind of circle between the upper and lower legs, but it looks like my 2 week break is coming up soon, so it’ll probably be right upper leg, then underarms & areolas, then break.

[Ketsele]

This session: 30-August-2023, 90 minutes
Total electrolysis time: 1,510 minutes (25h10m)

Areas tackled this session:
Upper right leg (top of leg, in a spread from about halfway up to edge of boxer bottoms)

Before photo taken just before electrolysis, after photo taken ~4 hours after electrolysis.

If I would have seen this photo when it was taken, I would have vetoed it for Big Giant Phone Shadow and had a retake done. Oh well.

Total time on right upper leg: ~90 minutes

Modality, thermo

Anti-histamine taken ~1 hour before session.

Session & any discomfort: Similar to the left upper leg, the right upper leg wasn’t too uncomfy. There was one big difference though–I had actually taken an anti-histamine this time, and that heavily impacted how much and how long my skin swelled up for! With my left upper leg last week I had not taken my anti-histamine, and the quickness and length of my natural histamine reaction meant that we had to keep skipping around frequently to not risk overtreatment; by the end of the 90 minute appointment, it was difficult to find areas that could be happily treated which were still within our before-photo range. My right upper-leg with my anti-histamine, however, was much slower to welt up and much quicker to go back down–so my electrologist was able to stay in a single area for notably longer, which resulted in a less “patchy” treatment coverage.
My electrologist also treated a few cherry angiomas that were apparently on my thigh at the same time. It was cool seeing how the same probe tool can be used for them, but instead of going into a follicle it’s just used to apply several rapid li’l surface zaps until the cherry visually fades away.
My natural histamine reaction isn’t really ‘uncomfortable’ per se when it’s not skin writing related, so something I noticed this week is that because the longer we’re in a single area the more uncomfortable the treatment becomes, the thigh treatment with anti-histamine is actually more painful than the treatment without the anti-histamine! I don’t think that’s the most important thing there though, I definitely still plan on taking it–it’s more cohesive to my electrologist’s workflow to not have the skin welt up so fast, and I can’t control if other clients coming in before me bring in their cat or dog hair with them on their clothes (sometimes they even bring the whole animal into the workspace?), so it’s still a lot better to take the anti-histamine.

After session discomfort/aftercare adventures/healing progress: My skin seems to be healing well and there wasn’t a lot of discomfort this week. My left thigh was still a little itchy for 1 or 2 days after my session, but by ~4 days after all itchiness had subsided and the treated section is now mostly invisible in the poor quality indoor light most of my apartment suffers. The top of my right thigh has felt fine this whole week, only got itchy once for a few minutes 5 days after my appointment. It is still a little tender if directly patted or pressure is otherwise applied to it, which I’ve noticed whenever I have to remind me partner “affectionate thigh pats are very sweet but not the best right now” XD and when I used my hair trimmer 6 days after the session. The left thigh is no longer tender though.

Plans for next session: Underarms and areolae, whatever legs fit into the session, and then a 2 week break!

I passed my 24 hours cumulative treatment milestone this session :3 and so I’m working on a big compilation of electrolysis thus far to post in my journal! I want to get all the dates and organize the data in a way that it can be easily compared to other types of hair removal and can be easily referenced in one fell swoop, so it’ll probably take a bit for me to finish.

[Ketsele]

This session: 6-September-2023, 90 minutes
Total electrolysis time: 1,600 minutes (26h40m)

Areas tackled this session:
Left underarm
Right underarm
Both areolae
Lower left leg

Before photos taken a few hours before electrolysis, after photos taken ~4 hours after electrolysis.

Total time on right underarm: ~199 minutes
Time on right underarm THIS session: 25 minutes

Total time on left underarm: ~174 minutes
Time on left underarm THIS session: 13 minutes

Total time for areolae: ~11 minutes max
Time on each areola THIS session: ~1.5 minutes right, 0.5 minutes left

Total time on left lower leg: 567 minutes
Time on left lower leg THIS session: 50 minutes

Modality, thermo

Anti-histamine taken ~1 hour before session, occluded lidocaine to underarms using cut-to-fit plastic (thick) ~1 hour before session.

Session & any discomfort: I was surprised how much more hair there was in my right underarm this time around! Being left eye dominant, I’d only really been able to see the underarm that took a whole 12 minutes less to clear this session during the week, haha. There wasn’t a lot of discomfort for clearing the underarms, even though I noted that thick cut plastic for occlusion doesn’t seem to work nearly as well as a regular plastic wrap for occlusion, haha. Areolae weren’t bad either.
Then we did some general clearing of what’s grown back on my left shin. It was kind of funny–my electrologist noted that there was some hair which was still just barely below the skin, so I could easily take care of that with some dry brushing, but they were going to try to ignore those hairs while treating because pulling them to the surface of the skin wouldn’t be very time efficient. It turns out getting those hairs was too tempting for them though XD. Leg work right after another body part always surprises me, though; it’s always been more painful than whatever we were just working on. I’m at 9 and a half hours on my left lower leg alone, and whenever I swap to legs from something else I’m like, “how did I do this?” heh.

After session discomfort/aftercare adventures/healing progress: Having an extra 2 weeks to heal after this session before doing anything else was pretty different. Funnily enough, most of my focus these few weeks have been on my healing right thigh, and not on the underarms and areolae and left calf! Aside from getting a single pink bump in my left underarm for the first time after a session everything with underarms seemed to heal super fast; fast for aerolae, too. I think the spots on my left calf where the hair was pulled from under the skin right before being treated might? have made darker more pinpoint scabs than usual, but those were far from my attention and went away within 2 weeks.
I noticed these past few weeks that if I accidentally bump part of my body against furniture a little too hard, it’ll probably be my right thigh. There were a few times where I accidentally bumped into the bathroom counter edge and then the spot of my thigh that’d gotten treated became insanely itchy–because I guess the combination of bump+healing means it causes a skin writing reaction, in the shape of what I bumped! I’m able to use the briotech gel whenever this happens to make the sensation go away, but it’s kind of crazy how much my skin hates any impact on the thighs even 4 weeks after treatment, apparently. Well, before I started getting bruises from running into things (oops) the skin was healing pretty well; the left thigh has been free from bump bruising and has turned pretty much invisible at the treatment area, at this point.

Plans for next session: Now that my break is over, it’s time to start electrolysis again! not sure where on the legs we’ll start back up, but it’ll be some sort of legs.

I unfortunately didn’t work on more of my cumulative treatment post (I got through left underarms, decided I wanted to change the formatting a bit, and didn’t get to it after that) but I DID get an update to my insurance coverage! Before I had just body coverage; now I have pubic hair coverage, too! I don’t expect it to be thrown into the rotation super soon, but updates are exciting!

((edited to add in photos!))

[fenix]

Great progress report, good luck!

[Ketsele]

This session: 27-September-2023, 90 minutes
Total electrolysis time: 1,690 minutes (28h10m)

Areas tackled this session:
Left lower leg (front shin)
Right lower leg (front shin)

Before photos taken right before electrolysis, after photos taken the night after electrolysis.

Total time on left lower leg: 617 minutes
Time on left lower leg THIS session: 50 minutes

Total time on right lower leg: 392 minutes
Time on right lower leg THIS session: 40 minutes

Modality, thermo

Anti-histamine taken ~1 hour before session, took acetaminophen 1-2 hours before session for unrelated headache.

Session & any discomfort: It’s so surprising how quickly out of habit one can fall; I had 2 weeks where I had no sessions (so a 3 week break) and while it felt very strange having no weekly appointment on my first week off, it felt pretty normal by the second week. When my session was going to be in 5 days, I had the thought that “my next session is so soon!” and I immediately shot it down with, “normally I would have just had a session 2 days ago–chill!” haha. And this was after 22 weeks straight of one session every 7 days! I’m definitely glad that I usually have sessions once a week; it’s nice to have a bookmark for where my week is, and the time between is comfy.
It’s not like we lost any progress, but I definitely feel (er, felt) more like a cactus than usual. … more of a calf-ctus. Haha. That works so much better in speech than writing . . .
Discomfort was pretty standard for legs, more painful higher on the shin and less painful lower on the shin. I had us swap shins about halfway through since my leg was feeling pretty done after 50 minutes of work, and because we started the opposite shin at the top (my electrologist had gotten close to the ankle before we swapped) it was kind of funny that “oh yeah, this spot we’re starting on now for the opposite leg is more painful than the spot we were just on”. Was still nice to swap legs though. Oh also there was fantastic Swedish chocolate to peruse this time!
I wasn’t sure if the acetaminophen for my headache would be relevant at all (I avoided taking ibuprofen, because I didn’t want to impact the body reaction any more than my anti-histamine already did). It wasn’t, I couldn’t tell any difference because of it.

After session discomfort/aftercare adventures/healing progress: Not much of note this time! My recovery felt pretty fast–I would have been able to go light grocery shopping or out to eat after my session (which I didn’t usually feel up for before my break). My legs felt notably not very chaffy on my bedding the first night and generally felt great this week.
There were still some hairs which were still under the skin that my electrologist had to take care of while treating, so I think I should try to dry-rub more frequently during the week. I did discover that the weird pink bump in my underarm was an ingrown hair–something I see almost never! I’d assumed the leg hairs that were under the skin surface was just because now we’re starting to get a new “batch” of hair in the same growth cycle–but maybe it’s also the weather? It’s been wetter and colder. Not sure.

Plans for next session: More leg stuff probably! We stopped close to my ankle on my left leg last time, so maybe I’ll do a ring of lidocaine around my ankles so that we can clear that area.

[Ketsele]

This session: 4-October-2023, 75 minutes
Total electrolysis time: 1,765 minutes (29h25m)

Areas tackled this session:
Left lower leg (inner side of the leg, lower than the knee)
Right lower leg (inner side of the leg, closer to the knee)

Before photos taken right before electrolysis, after photos taken 3 and a half hours after electrolysis.

Total time on left lower leg: 657 minutes (10h57m)
Time on left lower leg THIS session: 40 minutes

Total time on right lower leg: 427 minutes (7h7m)
Time on right lower leg THIS session: 35 minutes

Modality, thermo

Anti-histamine taken ~1 hour before session, took ibuprofen ~1 hour before session to help with a Sleep Gone Wrong whracked back/shoulders/neck.

Session & any discomfort: This session was really difficult because, as above mentioned . . . I woke up the morning of my appointment with such stiff shoulders, neck, and my entire upper back that the whole day, moving was like shuffling around under an extremely heavy stiff blanket '|D The prices I pay for being extremely relaxed when I fell asleep, and that sleep being quick for once?? I have no idea, but this seems to only happen on rare nights when I fall asleep real seamlessly…
Anyway, so I had already been in pain all day. The electrolysis ITSELF didn’t necessarily feel more painful than usual leg stuff, but my threshold started in a significantly different place than usual. We swapped from my left leg to my right leg 40 minutes in. It was supposed to be a 90 minute session, but I couldn’t get my neck in a position that wasn’t kinda stiff afterwards and I ended up breaking into a cold sweat and shivering with 20 minutes left; I wanted to see if swapping to a less sensitive leg area could work, but my electrologist ended up calling it 15 minutes early after some experimenting didn’t work. They recommended me a salve that they use about twice a week when their shoulders and neck gets tight (which I picked up right after the session).

After session discomfort/aftercare adventures/healing progress: I was definitely pre-occupied with the fact that my slept-wrong body didn’t feel mostly normal until 4 and a half days later . . . even a full week later, some looking down positions still pull my neck a little wrong unfortunately. But I did notice that my inner lower legs have continued their pattern of being super red and scabby afterwards compared to any other part of my body; so I’ve been making sure to use jojoba oil on my legs after showers and use some of the Zensa cream. I’ve also been doing a lot of dry brushing this week to try and have less still-just-under-the-skin hairs.
I also did some leg focused workouts using Ringfit to get some extra circulation and bloodflow to my legs this week! It took 2 consecutive days of working out for my legs to feel properly “work out sore”, which was odd for me? I haven’t really worked out a lot since right before my surgery, and even then it only took 1 day of a highly focused workout to have “proper feeling soreness” for everything but the core. But hey I mean more exercise is great!

Plans for next session: Back of calves. Originally we’d planned to do underarms, areolae, AND back of calves, but looking down at my laptop today pulled my neck wrong, unfortunately; so I should probably not be putting my arms up for an extended time right now

[Ketsele]

This session: 11-October-2023, 90 minutes
Total electrolysis time: 1,855 minutes (30h55m)

Areas tackled this session:
Left lower leg, calf (back of leg and behind knee)
Right lower leg, calf (back of leg and behind knee)

Before photos taken right before electrolysis, after photos taken 2 nights after electrolysis. I only got a before picture of my right leg this time around.

Total time on left lower leg: 696 minutes (11h36m)
Time on left lower leg THIS session: 39 minutes

Total time on right lower leg: 478 minutes (7h58m)
Time on right lower leg THIS session: 51 minutes

Modality, thermo

Anti-histamine taken ~20 minutes before session, occluded lidocaine to both calves ~50 minutes before session with plastic wrap.

Session & any discomfort: I think this is the first session that we spent longer on my right leg than my left leg! Maybe one day it’ll catch up in cumulative time On both legs we removed hair all the way from the very crease of behind the knee, to right before the ring around the ankle (to save ankle for lidocaine time). Even though there was less treatment time this appointment on the left than the right, it seemed like there was less hair on the left so it evened out well.
The last time we did my calves and my partner had helped put lidocaine on, it was like super magical and there was almost no discomfort aside from the very top; but this time around the lidocaine didn’t feel like it did too much. Still, lying down on my stomach is always a lot more relaxing than the half sit up that the electrology table is set to for doing the front shin of my legs. So aside from the very crease the knee I think it was generally all less uncomfortable than doing the shins.

After session discomfort/aftercare adventures/healing progress: The calves were very out of sight out of mind this week. I think the only time I mentally interacted with them after my appointment was when my partner and I were trying to decide on where to use massge oil. (We ended up not using the oil on my legs. It probably would have been fine but I didn’t feel like any negative surprises!)
I do keep thinking about how having to juggle sensitive areas with lidocaine is extremely annoying. It would be great if we could just kind of, do whatever the heck area has hair on it regardless of if it’s lidocained or not. I’m thinking ahead of time to discomfort for pubic hair removal, too. So I’ve been meaning to ask my electrologist if they have any experience with clients using a strong oral painkiller such as Ultracet (tramadol hydrochloride and acetaminophen) or Tuzistra XR (codeine), since I’ve seen those both discussed on these forums for oral painkillers that seem to work. Given that my insurance is covering my electrology, and I still have oxycodone show up on all my papers from when I had my surgery, I don’t feel like it would be that difficult to request a prescription like that?

Plans for next session: Underarms, areolae, and ankles.

[Ketsele]

This session: 18-October-2023, 90 minutes
Total electrolysis time: 1,945 minutes (32h25m)

Areas tackled this session:
Right underarm
Left underarm
Both areolae
Left lower leg (ankle)

Before photos taken right before electrolysis, after photos taken 1 night after electrolysis.

Total time on right underarm: ~229 minutes
Time on right underarm THIS session: ~30 minutes, each time for this session is a rough estimate as my electrologist got a new analouge clock for the office. I’ll probably bring in my tablet from this point on to continue getting more exact times.

Total time on left underarm: ~204 minutes
Time on left underarm THIS session: ~30 minutes

Total time for areolae: ~13 minutes max
Time on each areola THIS session: ~1 minute max each?

Total time on left lower leg: 726 minutes (12h06m)
Time on left lower leg THIS session: 30 minutes

Modality, thermo

Anti-histamine taken 60 minutes before session, occluded lidocaine to ankle ~60 minutes before session with plastic wrap.

Session & any discomfort: This was a weirdly painful session. I’d been exhausted and feeling funky all day so it wasn’t a surprise, but still unfortunate–and my electrologist noticed and asked about my odd amount of pain within the first 5 minutes of the appointment. Oops .w. Aside from the right underarm and both areolae (chest had been swollen the last few days, so I knew those were going to be bleh), each area desensitized pretty OK after the firs few minutes, though.

After session discomfort/aftercare adventures/healing progress: It looks like my ankles are just as scabby of a spot on me as my inner calves–which makes sense, they’re about as extremity as you can get–but they feel totally fine. Underarms were tender for 2 or 3 days after my session, after which they returned to being happy! I had my first super deep looking whitehead show up near my right areola about a week and a half after my session (and what looked like a cherry angioma at first too, but it seems to be fading so it must not have been that). I already knew from reading around that any white bumps that happen in post-electrolysis areas are strictly off-limits to mess around with, and I found out why–just briefly trying to investigate it and touch it to know what it felt like was enough to make the skin welt up all red a full inch or so diameter around the bump, haha. Well the nails probably didn’t help.

Plans for next session: Doing the other (right) ankle, and clean up work on legs.

I ended up skipping a week, because my spouse was extendedly around someone who was a possible exposure risk while dealing with a sudden emergency, and there wasn’t going to be enough time to verify if any illnesses might happen before my appointment. I didn’t want to risk my electrologist or their patients getting anything that was still totally silent. Luckily neither my spouse nor I have shown signs of illness and so it’ll be exciting to go back :3

[Ketsele]

This session: 1-November-2023, 90 minutes
Total electrolysis time: 2,035 minutes (33h55m)

Areas tackled this session:
Right lower leg (ankle, toes, back of calf going from the ankle up to near the back of knee)
Left lower leg (toes)

Before photos taken right before electrolysis. No after photos this week (forgot).

Total time on right lower leg: 566 minutes (9h26m)
Total time on right lower leg THIS session: 88 minutes

Total time on left lower leg: 728 minutes (12h08m)
Time on left lower leg THIS session: 2 minutes

Modality, thermo

Anti-histamine taken 10 minutes before session, occluded lidocaine to ankle ~60 minutes before session with plastic wrap.

Session & any discomfort: A much less painful session than last week, plus I had a lot more energy and so could have fun chatting with my electrologist (which in turn helped distract from the discomfort even more)! We started and ended the session with toes–which perhaps jumpstarted everything else to be more tolerable, too? Ankle lidocaine worked great. Normally the backs of my legs would be pretty uncomfortable but as we got closer to my knee back by the end of the session, I almost didn’t notice.
I found that for toes, it helps to kind of brace both my arms in front of myself and clasp my hands together. That way I have a place to force my body’s tension response into. I think it might be similar to how one would brace the recoil of a gun 2 handed?

After session discomfort/aftercare adventures/healing progress: I think we might be establishing a tradition of going to 5 Guys Burgers after my sessions and I’m not one to complain about that (trying all the different menu items, instead of only going there once in a blue moon so only getting what I know I like, has been sooo fun!) The extra protein in my system right away is helpful too for overnight healing, I’m sure.
There was no discomfort this week, my leg just feels pretty great! But speaking of overnight healing, I was otherworldedly exhausted on the morning after my appointment, haha.

Plans for next session: I realized I have no idea, oops. But it will probably be more leg stuff.

[Ketsele]

This session: 8-November-2023, 90 minutes
Total electrolysis time: 2,125 minutes (35h25m)

Areas tackled this session:
Right lower leg (upper front cleanup)
Left lower leg (outer side of leg near knee)

(click me to expand!) Before photos taken right before electrolysis. After photos taken 1 day after electrolysis.

Total time on right lower leg: 586 minutes (9h46m)
Total time on right lower leg THIS session: 20 minutes

Total time on left lower leg: 798 minutes (13h18m)
Time on left lower leg THIS session: 70 minutes

Modality, thermo

Anti-histamine taken 30 minutes before session.

Session & any discomfort: More painful than legs last session; I didn’t have a lot of thoughts about it, but I was annoyed at the relative randomness that the amount of pain leg electrolysis has had the past several sessions. Perhaps starting at toes last session actually made as big of an impact as I thought? And/or maybe I had previously noticed a pain pattern and the recent appointment skip threw it off? We swapped to the right leg in the last 20 minutes because the skin on my left leg was arguing too much.

After session discomfort/aftercare adventures/healing progress: More tingly in the evening after and the day after the session than normal for legs; it was strange noticing the zapped parts of my legs, say, rubbing against the side of the bed while I was making it in the morning. I think it’s just because we treated so close to the knee.
While I can still visibly tell where on the left leg we treated (a week later), the spots we did on the right leg I can’t visibly tell. Thought that was interesting.

Plans for next session: Probably more with the right lower leg near the knee, because there was still a good amount of hair to work on there!
Then there’ll be another 1 week gap between sessions.

[Ketsele]

This session: 15-November-2023, 90 minutes
Total electrolysis time: 2,215 minutes (36h55m)

Areas tackled this session:
Right lower leg (right upper/outer side of knee)
Left lower leg (left upper/outer side of knee, a bit above the knee, and a bit on the underside of the knee)

(Click me!) Before photos taken right before electrolysis. I forgot after photos, unfortunately.

photos will go here in post

Total time on right lower leg: 644 minutes (10h44m)
Total time on right lower leg THIS session: 58 minutes

Total time on left lower leg: 830 minutes (13h50m)
Time on left lower leg THIS session: 32 minutes

Modality, thermo

Anti-histamine taken 30 minutes before session.

Session & any discomfort: This session was weird in that I stopped being able to remember much about it 3 days after the session; I was going over it in the head before falling asleep to prepare for my journal, but other than knowing that in the last few minutes we did right behind my left knee and the sudden high pain sensation kind of put me into shock, I struggled to remember how I felt during the session or much about it. Thank goodness for photos and them having what time they were taken as part of the default file name. Pain levels were probably average?

After session discomfort/aftercare adventures/healing progress: To make an ignorance is bliss joke, at least it also meant I didn’t have much discomfort during the week(s) while everything was healing, hahaha. Oh but I DID experiment with the food that I ate before the session: normally, after a session I have a craving for red meat (makes sense) and before the session I eat something quick but still calorie dense. This time, I ate a bunch of chicken wings before the session–so a lot of protein and the animal fat that is on the wings, too. And I wasn’t actually that hungry after the session! Like I was just a little bit, but it was a more normal “I haven’t eaten in 2.5 hours” hungry.

Plans for next session: Both underarm and both aerolae.

[anon70936330]

This is so great, especially your time table! Thanks for sharing

[Ketsele]

Absolutely :D! I’m glad to share.

Before I started my treatment I felt it was really difficult to compare the time differences between permanent hair removal (electrolysis) and permanent hair reduction (laser), because the quantity of time between the treatments themselves are so different. I was only seeing/thinking about the calendar time required to get to the end product, and those seemed fairly similar with extra caveats for laser. That’s a big part of why I wanted to do my journal.
But now, it’s like “ah yes, in the last 7 months I’ve had about 24 cumulative hours of leg zapping over the course of many weekly sessions.” vs if I was doing laser, in the same time I would have had about . . . 3? relatively short sessions? haha

I really enjoy having an established relationship with my provider because I see them so frequently :3 But now I can appreciate so much more that if someone has dense hair with a lot of pigment AND a tight schedule, laser isn’t a bad suggestion just because hair can eventually start growing back after years and years of benefit.

[Ketsele]

This session: 29-November-2023, 90 minutes
Total electrolysis time: 2,305 minutes (38h25m)

Areas tackled this session:
Right underarm (7th clear)
Left underarm (7th clear)
Both areolae (7th clear)
Left upper leg (multi-directional hair growth above the knee)

(Click me!) Before photos taken right before electrolysis. After photos taken X hours after session.

Total time on right underarm: ~247 minutes (4h7m)
Time on right underarm THIS session: ~18 minutes

Total time on left underarm: ~223 minutes (3h55m)
Time on left underarm THIS session: ~19 minutes

Total time for areolae: ~14 minutes max*
Time on each areola THIS session: ~half a minute each?

Total time on left upper leg: 51 minutes
Total time on right upper leg THIS session: 51 minutes

Modality, thermo

Anti-histamine taken 30 minutes before session.

Session & any discomfort: My pain tolerance was higher today, so it was a relatively comfortable session. Not a lot to say about the process. The leg was suddenly distinctly more uncomfortable than the lidocained underarms or the areolae, but I adjusted to it easily after a minute or two. But it was exciting starting on a leg spot that is now officially a new area! We’ve been somewhat close to the upper leg before, but it was always just adjacent and not actually above the knee. This time we got into the proper crop circle upper leg stuff!

After session discomfort/aftercare adventures/healing progress: I had weirdly present on-and-off twangs of discomfort throughout the week? Whether it was the front of my right shin randomly deciding to hurt a tiny bit, my underarms being a bit tender for more days than I expected, or the upper leg being perfectly content until it was pang-y about half a week in, it seemed like there was always something going on. The skin gets drier during the Winter which is probably why; so I’m going to do my best to massage oils back into my skin immediately after taking my showers for a bit to help out.

Plans for next session: Behind the right knee, and probably other leg stuff!

[rushhour]

This is excellent journaling Ketsele, thank you so much for sharing your journey with us. It’s deeply appreciated and highly insightful.

[Thermo]

The progress on the underarms is fantastic and exactly what I’d expect to see. It looks like you’re clearing them once every six weeks, which is a good approach. I’ll eagerly await the pictures in April next year at the 12 month mark. This should help prove to anyone with doubts how great electrolysis can be.