laser/tweezing before electrolysis

When I was 17-18 I did laser treatments to my face which induced a lot of hair growth. Well, after a few years of dealing with it via plucking/epilating/depilatory creams, I’ve finally taken the first step and consulted with a electrologist.

My mom is being very adamant that I get a few laser treatments before electrolysis because she thinks I can get a good amount of hair reduction, and then continue with electrolysis. She argues that Since I’m much older now (24 now vs 17-18 when I did the laser treatments), my hormones are more in control and the laser should have a beneficial effect this time. (I actually have found a journal article stating that laser-induced hair is responsive to laser treatment)
On the other hand, I am very against ever touching my face with a laser again. It does not make any sense to me to do laser when it got me into this mess in the first place. However, I try to be open-minded about everything so I decided to post our debate and see what others have to say.

Another question I have is about tweezing before electrolysis. I thought I read somewhere before that if you tweeze, you should stop for couple weeks before electrolysis. Am I remembering correctly? Last time was before my consultation a week ago. I actually have my next appointment in a couple days and was wondering if I should postpone it. I forgot to ask her about it. She was not concerned about it though but she did tell me that I should not pluck anymore

Your plucking will not deter the practitioners work on the hairs that actually ARE visible, but your tweezing WILL make hairs unavailable for treatment. That is why you are told to avoid plucking once you start work. The problem is that pluckers will notice what looks like a sudden acceleration of hair growingafter the first 6 weeks, as the normal amount of hair actually gets re-established due to the lack of plucking during that time. Our statement in the industry is, “Pluck only the hairs you want to keep.”

You should be able to all your work in electrolysis, and if your practitioner is good and fast enough, you should bet to first clearance in the same amount of time as it would take for you to have a LASER treatment, and have all the shedding take place. That is to say, a person like me can clear an area in the same 3 or so weeks, if given the chance, and the client does not have to walk around with scorched hairs waiting to fall out. They just look like they did not grow any hair until the next phase/cycle of hairs starts to come above the skin’s surface.

Laser only works on coarse dense growth. Most women don’t have that type of growth on their face. Your mom is wrong unless you have patches with this type of hair. It has nothing to do with hormones. It has to do with the type of hair laser can affect. Finer hair doesn’t have enough pigment for laser.