Male facial hair removal - every day life during treatment?

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
#1

Hi. A few things about me before the post.

I’m 21 years old and I go to college. I have an issue with facial hair being that it grows out much too fast. I hate beards and goatees so you can imagine the problems this causes me. The main problem with this is the cost of shaving.

Typical cost per month
One pack of Mach 3 blades per week 10$
Shaving cream per month 5$

Per year this translates to about 540 dollars, and that’s not including the fact that sometimes 4 blade cartridges don’t last a whole week. Not to mention the fact that shaving adds about 25 minutes to my full shower and get ready routine.

I’m tired of it. I’ve looked into hair removal and electrolysis seems to be the way to go, but I’m a very picky shopper so I haven’t even gotten a first treatment, and I’ve been thinking about this for about 6 months now.

A few things - One, how bad will my face look during the first treatment healing? Two, I’ve been shaving for about 4 years with this growth, maybe 3, will this play any negative factor with my treatments? Three, How many treatments roughly would it take to take care of the facial hair on me if I have thick hair from repeated shaving?

I appreciate all the answers given and I hope this is a possible route for me, given the problems I go through just having this growth.

#2

i am not a man but i have a lot of facial hair. it is finer and lighter than a man’s. last night i had an hour of work done on it with flash thermolysis. my electrologist is good, my face looks like absolutely nothing happened to it. it was red right after the treatment but after about an hour or two it looked fine. i know a man’s beard is thicker and coarser and you will probably have longer treatments than an hour at a time, but i just thought i would share my experience bcs i am having work done on the same areas. i basically have hair in the same areas as a man’s beard.

#3

Hello BadTurtle,

Just a basic question, do you really want to hair free face for the rest of your life? Or do you just want to reduce the amount of hair, so that make you easier to shave?

Firstly, I would suggest you wait a few years, until all your hair are growing out before you start your treatment, either electrolysis or Laser.

If you want to remove your facial hair completely, I would like to point out that it would cost a lot, much more than US$540.

I would like to suggest you spend sometime on HairFacts, http://www.hairfacts.com/ Great information about different types of electrolysis is available there.

To remove your facial completely or just to thin it, it can be done with electrolysis, but remember you need to tell your electrologist first. I would also like to recommend you find a good electrologist who performs multi-probe galvanic electrolysis. I know this is against the suggestions by other posters, however the fact is that: only 5-15% hair re-growth rate in multi-probe galvanic; whereas the popular thermolysis (high-frequency -> heat) has 50-80% hair re-growth. However, you will receive a good clearance after each thermolysis treatment.

According to statistics, for M-to-F transgender, the average time required to have a full clear facial hair removal with 200-300 hours with multi-probe galvanic, compared with 500+ hours with thermolysis.

However if you just want to reduce hair, thermolysis might suit your need better.

Hope this helps.

In another thread, when I kindly provided suggestion to use galvanic and posted information in favour of galvanic, and I received lots of attacks back. I’d better add following
Disclaimer: I am not here to discredit thermolysis, but to provide some facts that many electrologists (thermolysis) do not want to discuss directly.

#4

Hi:

Contrary to myth, shaving does not increase the rate or amount of facial hair.It is hormones(DHT) which cause facial hair growth and ironically male pattern baldness.

I agree with you that shaving takes a long time out of your day, and really isn’t that much fun worrying about nicks and cuts.

I think you should consult with an electrolygist and get their opinion on how many hours you would need. For a lot of men, probably 200 hours, but some here feel that it can be cleared with less hours and the right schedule and treatment. Prices, speed and skill vary, so it is best to look around and even get a referral if possible.

You need to have some growth by not shaving for 2-4 days prior depending on your growth rate. Afterwards you could have some red bumps and some swelling which may last a few hours to a day or two. Sometimes you may get red spots too for a week or so. Sometimes you have little or none of these symptoms.

I did laser followed by electrolysis. I hoped laser would have done it all, but no such luck.

Alicia

#5

It is hard to answer your question in general, because the true answer is specific to individual and practitioner.

If you have a really good/great electrologist, you can have a situation where you get lots of treatment up front with long appointments, and get to first clearance fast, and move to just maintanence. In this situation, you will have the possibility of swelling in the upper lip, chin and jawline the first time out, and that swelling can be noticeable from a day or three, and can last up to a week. After that, you can either go for full clearances with frequent appointments, or do portions of your face in shorter treatments scattered as your schedule allows. After the first treatment, you should have no issues with being in public the day after treatment.

If your electrologist is not very skilled, or not using the most advanced equipment and techniques (it is possible to use the most advanced machine in a most midieval way) then you could have spotting and scabbing and swelling each and every time you get treatment.

This is why one needs to get as many consultations and sample treatments as one possibly can.

Just a note, I disagree with Ant’s posted regrowth rates and times to completion. I won’t go into it here, as it has been discussed to death elsewhere. Suffice it to say that if your local electrologist can’t clear a man’s beard in 300 hours or less in thermolysis, either the client is not making himself available, or the electrologist is not doing enough work per session in order to get to first clearance and keep the maintenance on schedule. On the other hand, I don’t know the electrologist who can clear out a man’s beard in Galvanic in 200 hours. With the longer time per hair treatment, it becomes a statistical limit problem even with increased kill rate.

#6

There’s always laser.

But i have yet to hear of anyone who’s gotten permanent hair removal on the face from laser. Most of them have seemed like scams.

So i guess it’s the 200 hours for you. On the bright side, it’ll be oever in 4 years and you’ll be set for life.

-= nav =-