Hi
I’ve been getting electrolysis done on my face for the past 5 or 6 months and I’ve never had a full clearance yet. Is this normal?
I have seen some improvement but I just want to get cleared for once.
She is using the blend method, I go in almost weekly for hour long treatments, so I’ve had about 18 treatments, she is treating my entire cheek and sides of the face and entire chin area. The hairs aren’t as course as a mans beard but they are black and noticeable with varying thickness.
How many hairs do you have? Can you submit a picture? Blend is an effective modality and if that is what she is comfortable with and leaves your skin healing well, then you are still in good hands. If someone down the street has a computerized top of the line epilator and knows how to perform the faster forms of thermolysis, using the proper probe size, then you most likely indeed would have had several clearings under your belt by now. It’s all about skill and modality used. With the modern epilators available today,and some re-training and education, a great blend electrologist can step it up to make the art of permanent hair removal a most satisfying adventure for herself or her client. It’s a whole new world with a better strategy setup, but many stay stuck in their comfort zone.
Have you asked to do longer treatments or come in more frequently (as long as your skin can tolerate it)? I love clients who allow me the necessary time to get that first clearance done. I, as an electrologist get discouraged when I’m limited to shorter treatments on dense or large areas and it’s taking forever to get to first clearance, so I can only imagine how discouraging it is to you!
Anecdotal story.
I have a 60-something female client who only wants 30 minutes a week. She only wants 30 minutes because she can’t sit still for any longer than that.
She started out with a full face of dark, coarse hair - the kind of hair that shows through skin even immediately after being shaved. She has come almost every week for several years - and we have never accomplished a full clearance. We have, however, made a significant difference in the amount of hair that she had. I started out working on her chin and eventually clearing her chin. Then we began on her cheeks and eventually clearing her cheeks and the few that show up on her chin. We have recently begun working on her throat…30 minutes at a time doesn’t make a dent in that area yet…
The length of the treatment should definitely be in proportion to the amount of hair.
I tried taking pictures but they don’t turn out. I don’t think my camera is that great.
I actually just started doing two hour sessions. I did my first one this weekend. I think I’ll only be able to do that for a few weeks but I’ll see how it goes. I now realize I should have started with two hours instead.
There’s one thing I noticed though. Sometimes my tech is busy and she puts me with someone else and everytime they work on me I swear I can feel them plucking a lot of the hairs. It also hurts way more when they do it and I get hyperpigmentation in the area only when he works on me. That’s not normal right?
I think I’m going to look into thermolysis for other parts of my body. I have fine to medium density black hairs all over my stomach and it seems it would take way too long to get cleared with blend. Maybe I’ll call around and get your guys feedback.
Thanks
You should not feel plucking, if the germ cells are effectivley destroyed the hair should slide out with pretty much no sensation at all.
Combine this with the fact that your getting hyperpigmentation when being treated by these other electrologists and this does not happen with your usual one? Something isn’t right there to say the least.
Go into your electrologists and speak to your usual one and show her what is happening to your skin when it is treated with these other electrologists and certainly make it clear that this does not happen to you when she treats you. You don’t need to go in overly aggressive, but more from the angle of a worried consumer.
Kind regards,
Benji
Thermolysis should be just fine for most of your hair. Blend is only needed for deep curly hairs sometimes on areas like nipples. So definitely ask for thermolysis if it’s an option.
Plucking is not good. Pigmentation is also not good. You should address both with the electrologist. They can adjust the settings to make things right.
Also, have you tried other electrologists? We recommend checking out 2-3 at least before you settle on any one.
Hi Canadian Girl:
I’m also Canadian. Eh!
I would think that with 2 hour sessions you should be able
to get to full clearance reasonably quickly if they were
spaced between one and 2 weeks apart. I did that myself
till eventually we eradicated the hair completely.
That is a wonderful feeling!
From the sounds of it you should stick with the woman
who seems to do the better treatments.
I’ve been getting my stomach worked on with thermolysis.
Not a fun area! I need to apply some emla there before
treatments. I wish I didn’t need work done on that area,
but the sight of any hair there grosses me out.
Patients do not realize how many different causes there are for hair growth besides genetic. Sometimes patients have one of a number of a serious medical problems. We can not diagnose this but the age of the patient, location of the hair on your body, at what age did you first become aware of the problem, do you have any children, do you have irregular periods, are you overweight, do you have eruptions on the face that resemble acne… are only some of the symptoms a doctor would look for (if he/she was competent… because this is so common every doc should know this and ask you the same questions or look for the distribution of the hair on your body not just the face or abdomen). Patients ask us questions that we might be able to answer, however, your symptoms give us a better idea as to what may be happening to your body. We can not give you a precise answer to your questions unless we see what is going on and ask you some more questions.
You state she has come to you for several years and she is now in her 60s. This could mean she started when she was perimenopausal and perhaps has now passed through the “change”. She could have been growing new hairs while you were removing older ones. One thing has nothing to do with the other except the both cause hair to grow plus some treatments “wake up” follicles that were not active and this new young hair is what you are seeing.
I have already spoke to her about the problem with the other electrologist. So I think she’s trying to only work on me now. I scar very easily so I told her I had to be careful.
I’ve never actually sampled electrologists though. Maybe I’ll let her finish up my face and try out some other ones for my stomach.
I already went for one two hour session last week and I see progression even from that one two hour session. I’m kicking myself for not starting with the two hour sessions earlier!
You definitely should try out a couple more electrologists. You really can’t know who’s great if you never have a chance to compare. You don’t need to do it on another area either. You can go for a sample 15 min treatment whenever you want on the same area.
Ok I was wondering something. I was going to call a few other electrologists so I started researching the different methods on the net. I’ve noticed that thermolysis gets a really bad rap. I’m worried if I try out someone doing thermolysis the hair will come back. I have very stubborn hair, is there a chance that it won’t work as well as blend which I’m doing right now?
Thanks
As we have said all over this board, the modalities really ARE created equal from the stand point of ability to effect permanent hair removal. What is never equal is the skill of two electrolysis providers in performing the 3 different modalities. For this I blame the system. If you are apprenticed, your “Master Electrologist” has a favorite modality, and will teach you how to do that one, to the detriment of any learning about the others. If you go to a school, the school usually has an agenda to turn out either a “Blender” or a “Flasher” and they give short shrift to the other methods and dissuade students from using the other methods in practice in class. If you attend a “Flasher” school, they will start you out in Thermolysis even though we all know that is the least effective way to teach someone, as starting with galvanic and working up assures the person actually removes the hairs permanently, without causing scars, or ingrown hairs.
In short, Thermolysis relies more heavily on the skill of the person doing it, and is unforgiving of errors on that person’s part. If the person attempting to do it is either untalented, or lax in their application of the specialty, the kill rate, and condition of the recipient’s skin will suffer. A well skilled thermolysis operator, with good equipment and a modern machine can deliver the most comfortable hair removal experience, coupled with speed and efficacy.
The only reason it is hard to find a good thermolysis operator is that being the hardest of the 3 to master, you may find that there are fewer Masters out there. This brings us back to the HairTell Mantra:
Get as many consultations and sample treatments as you can, from as many practitioners in your area. Take pictures of the before and after, and compare the skin’s reaction, as well as the healing time. Since it will take a year to know the efficacy of the treatments, you can only use these as a basis of your evaluation. Of course, if you have scabs with broken hairs growing out of the scabs, you can cross that person off you list.
Just yesterday, I had a new client getting beard removal tell me, “Had I known this would be as comfortable as it is, I would have never tried LASER first on my beard! I can see why people fall asleep doing this. The LASER hurt during the treatment, and my face burned and itched for days after the treatments.”
There are clients who are very intelligent … and others who aren´t. When more than ten years ago, some of my clients have opted for the laser (despite being very satisfied with Electrolysis) looked for a miracle cure, but their expectations were not met. They returned to me, much more accommodating, saying: There´s nothing like Electrolysis.
Well I finally found out how to get a detailed photo from my camera. That is a picture of what my cheek area currently looks like after about 6 months of weekly electrolysis treatments. The top of my cheek bone hasn’t been touched really so that is what my entire face used to look actually probably worse from laser. Do you think this is good progress? I’m going calling around to a few other places to try and get some sample consults with other electrologists right now. Hmm I’m not even sure how to post a picture on here. Lets see if this even works.
I don’t think that worked. This might.
In my opinion it’s a great job. The evolution of the skin is perfect. What I do not understand is why there is so much distance between the hairs that are being removed in each session.
What do you mean by evolution of the skin? I’m not really sure what your talking about when you say distance between the hairs either.
One thing that confuses me though is that she has never asked me to shave the area before treatment or has even spoke of the hairs being in an active or resting phase. There are patches she hasn’t even touched yet and if she starts treating them as is, isn’t it likely most won’t get killed the first time around?
canadiangirl I’m treating the same area,and in search of an excellent electrologist as well. Looks like your skin is definately healing better than mine, but let me tell you six months is not long enough too see results. How long are your treatments? If you skin can handle it go for longer treatments to get a full clearance.