I did 3 days, 45 hours of treatment between two elecs from Tuesday to Thursday. Friday morning my throat was so swollen that I couldn’t speak, and it’s still like that. I wasn’t that worried bc I doubted anything permanently damaging could have happened to my voice, but it’s Sunday and it’s pride and I still can’t really speak. I can make more sounds than before but it hurts to say words.
You can’t speak … and, I have no words! Okay, one word: YIKES!
I never heard of anything like this before. On what area did you do electrolysis? I can’t even imagine how in worst case scenario swelling from treatments on throat can affect you like that. Are you sure it’s not some like a viral infection not related to electrolysis?
15 treatment hours per day for 3 days … probably at the Texas place that specializes in such non-traditional treatment (Electrology 3000?). Mostly trans and beards. I know clients who went there and became “pumpkin heads” from the swelling. Indeed, excessive swelling can collapse the vocal cords. Luckily, the trachea or esophagus didn’t also collapse. Probably here: https://electrology3000.com/
I have never heard of that being a side effect but considering how many hours you did within just a few days I imagine the inflammation is quite high.
Did you reach out to the clinic? Have they ever had a client experience this after this ultra-marathon type electrolysis?
Hope you are doing a bit better now!
On speed and urgency
A recent client, from Kentucky, stated the obvious … but seldom discussed. If a clinician claims their technique is faster, then the overall TTT (total treatment time) should be much less.
For example, one electrologist uses a super-fast thermolysis, say, a tenth of a second … and, another (“slower”) electrologist uses an exposure time of 2-seconds. Claiming “speed,” then the first electrologist should be finished in at least half the time as the “slower” electrologist!
The urgency for clearance is another issue. Indeed, trans clients want clearance “immediately.” For beard work, my average hovers around 100 hours (TTT). Thus, with this Hairtell client … and a 45-hour clearance … she should be about half finished. However, while I always hear “pride in speed,” I never hear how long the actual procedure took? I mean total treatment time. That would be a more interesting subject.
Hey just wanted to follow up and say my voice came back partway through the parade and it’s mostly fine now, if not tired. It didn’t feel like an infection, the voice properties were different, but I sent a clip over to my voice teacher and we both agreed it was likely just an issue of the swelling.
There’s two marathon places I’m aware of, in chicago and in houston. This is the only reasonable method I can access, since doing an upper lip clearing with only topical anesthetic is otherwise intolerable. My face did swell up like a chipmunk for several days after, but the post-care instructions were effective so I’m mostly back to normal with healed skin by now.
I’ve done 30-40h of treatment with a local electrologist. Always working on my upper lip as long as there were hairs, and we’ve cleared it a few times and it’s still not gone. So I went for the 45-hour treatment but they couldn’t finish a whole clearing either, it’s a small strip under my chin that’s left. I don’t know how long this is going to take me, I just know I’m doomed to experience multiple marathons so I might as well do them soon.
Can you clarify, you did about 40 hours with local electrologist just on the upper lip area or other areas of face too? 40 hours over how many months? And how much reduction do you estimate with local electrologist?
I think she mean doing electrolysis with [a] local [anesthetic] and an electrologist?
I estimate I did 30-50 hours with a local electrologist, over 3-6 months. Upper lip was always my priority so we cleared it whenever there was hair, using topical lidocaine for 1-2h at a time. We probably cleared my upper lip 4-5 times and I still get a face full of stubble. It’s hard to know exactly how reduced it is, but I I got fed up with the pain and started exploring the marathon options instead, since there’s no anesthetic options like that in canada. Also just to be clear when I went to chicago, I had local numbing injected into my face, not twilight, but I think they administer twilight for genital clearings.
I am going to talk to my doctor about getting prescription 10% lidocaine or some 7%/7% mixture I saw was available in canada. I’ll eventually need to do more local sessions anyway.
If you feel comfortable with this question … could you tell us how much they charged in Chicago? Per hour and additional costs for the anesthetic. Curious here in Santa Barbara
I’ve been using this for my Electrolysis, but at a milder strength. I apply 3 times (hourly) before my treatment of 2 hours. I think if I had this strength shown in these screenshots, I wouldn’t have to apply 3 times before my treatment.
My next prescription, I’ll be asking for this strength. Also, if you have extended medical - you may be able to get reimbursed for part (or all) of the cost. My old plan paid 100%, my new one is my 80%. Still cheaper than the OTC freezing cream that didn’t work for me, anyway.
I’m in 
