My Electrologist Does Not Tweeze During the Session

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
#1

Hey everyone! I am sort of reaching a crisis of faith with my current electrolygist, and am hoping I could get insight from other people, especially from other professional electeologists if possible.

Background

I am a MTF transgender woman who has been doing weekly electrolysis sessions on my genital area for almost a year now, switching from my previous electrolygist to my current one just over five months ago due to how slow my progress was with my previous electrologist. My old electrolysis would zap and tweeze each hair, but would pnly clear a quarter sized area each session. From reading online, I gather this is the most common and obvious way to do electrolysis. But, given that my old electrologist was never be able to reach a full coverage of the area even in our months together, I switched to my new electrologist who was very alluring given that she claimed to be able to treat my entire genital area in just 30-45 minutes.

Tweezing not necessary?

I am particularly concerned about my electrolygist’s technique. She treats every hair in one session without ever tweezing the hairs, covering the full minimum required parameters for bottom surgery in 30 minutes, then waxes all of the hairs afterwards. I have been coming in every week. The sensation of waxing is VERY painful and can’t be numbed with even prescription grade numbing cream. It’s like having molten lava poured over your genitals and the having a bandaid ripped off right after that.

After a while I communicated that a certain stretch of skin was getting too irritated to wax, and she said that she could skip waxing there and I could just shave off the hairs instead after I got home from the session.

According to her, actually removing the hair follicle during the session isn’t necessary for clearing it, as it will eventually just fall out on its own once it has been treated. I believed this at face value at the time and had been contonuing treatment for months. Add on to this that, the last time I tried epilation (about a year ago), my hairs would usually snap at the surface rather than pull out the hair follicle for whatever reason. I am concerned that waxing is also doing the same thing, as my hair grows out about the same pace after waxing as it would if I had just shaved.

My electrologist claims that tweezing or waxing is necessary to see the progress of electrolysis, but not to actually make progress. She says the role of waxing or tweezing during electrolysis is just to take out a hair follicle that would just eventually fallout on its own anyways, and that because my skin is sensitive, she can use the pinkness around each treated follicle as a map to know where she’s already treated during the session.

My anxieties around Vaginoplasty

Fast forward to now, where I am expected to be just 4 months out from my surgery date. I want full clearance of these hairs, as otherwise I will end up with potential course or vellous hair inside my vaginal canal that cannot be treated permanently afterwards.

I had a hair check done by the a urologist from the plastic surgery team I am getting the surgery with, and she says I looked like my hairs were all thin and may be good enough for the surgery within 3-4 months. But I think she was mistaken, promarily because my hair on all parts of my body is naturally very blonde. I am very anxious that she may have misidentified course blonde hairs as being vellous hairs.

While my remaining hairs are barely visible, the texture I feel when I run my hands in that area is still feeling very rough (5 days grown out after my last session). I am quite anxious that I might not be sufficiently done by the time I get my surgery date (which I fought HARD for, and definitely want to get my the end of this year due to insurance out of pocket maximums resetting, as well as the potential for transphobic legislation in my state). I don’t want to delay the date, but I also don’t want permanent, unremovable course hair inside my vaginal canal.

Thoughts

Is my electrologist’s method as unheard of as it seems to be? Should I continue with her? Advice from other professional electrologists would really be appreciated here.

I haven’t found any discussions about an electrologist not tweezing during the session online, but if this has already been discussed somewhere, please link me!

#2

An electrologist in Spain, Josefa Reina, has already documented the difference in results when the hairs are removed during treatment versus not removed.

In your case, waxing the hairs after treatment is essentially the same as not removing them. This might sound counterintuitive, but there are two important reasons that we remove the hairs as we treat. Firstly, it clearly shows what has been treated and what remains to be treated. Secondly, removing the hair provides immediate feedback to the electrologist and the client as to whether the follicle has been treated properly. If the hair doesn’t slide out easily, we need to try again, change the angle, the exposure time or the energy. If we get it wrong on the first hair and don’t remove it, then we could end up doing a whole treatment with the wrong approach, which leads to zero results. This is unacceptable.

This method is not unheard of, but it is unorthodox for a good reason. I would not be comfortable continuing with an electrologist who did not remove the hairs as she treated them.

I’m not sure how long you’ve been doing electrolysis in this area, but I would be concerned about the quality of treatment, especially with your surgery only a few months away.

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#3

What a hoot !! I remember this experiment by Josefa. All right Thermo…bonus round, this one is for the whole enchilada…fill in the blank…the electrologist who first theorized Ulta-lysis would be more effective was Mr Harvey ____________ . No Cheating! I had to check! Lol. My brain is getting foggier and foggier as I get older!

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#4

I would run from this electrologist FAST.
I see roughly two to three transgender women a month for pre-surgery hair removal and I always remove the hair…for the same reason that Thermo stated…you need to know that the hair is being treated correctly and the hair is sliding out. I am very lucky that I have another electrologist that works in my office and we can work on one person at the same time. The last person we worked on together we saw for a total of 4 hours; one hour was only using my electrologist and we did both areas on her…above the penis and scrotum to anus. All of it was done.
We are also using the three month method. Let the hair grow out for three months, treat, come back after three months and treat again. And usually it takes one more time of growing out and treating.

I hope you can find a competent electrologist. Good Luck.

Debbi

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#5

Continuing the discussion from My Electrologist Does Not Tweeze During the Session:

Oh my gosh! I was reading your post and I felt so upset…run from this electrologist. I do not like to speak against an electrologist but this I have to respond to… I am not sure where she took her training from but this is not the right way to help you in your transition or anyone else for that matter… I have heard of electrologists recommending waxing before treatments, or in your case not removing the hairs as they are treated, in my personal opinion, that is wrong. The reason most electrologists remove hairs as they are treated is to have a clear visual that the hair was treated accurately. Sometimes, we have to treat a hair a few times as our insertion, current or depth may have been off. We need to adjust our technique for a few hairs thus using our tweezers to slide the hair out after treatment is crucial. You should never feel the hairs being tweezed out. The tweezers are there only to slide the hair out and I use them to scrape off dry skin cells over the mouth of follicle if needed. I can only imagine the trauma you have experienced from a session of electrolysis followed by waxing the treated area…this to me is horrible, unacceptable and unorthodox! Contact the AEA (America Electrolysis Association) and ask them to recommend a certified electrologist. You may have to travel a bit of a distance but trust me, for a good electrologist, it’s worth your time! I have treated many MTF and I agree that removing all hairs the surgeons need for your new vagina is crucial. You may want to postpone your surgery a few months (4) and get at least a full clearance with a qualified electrologist that will use the proper technique. I am truly sorry for what you have experienced. Please know that electrolysis is amazing! It works when you are treated by a conscientious electrologist. Many of us seek out training and keep up with new technologies to improve our techniques. Waxing after a session of electrolysis is not one of them! Good luck to you and please, keep us posted on your progress.

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#6

Hey everyone :smiling_face: thanks for the thoughtful responses.

Just as an update on my situation, I just had a session with a different electrologist today, and she did a great job performing the correct method as per everyone’s recommendations here. She confirmed that I still had a decent number of course hairs left to treat.

I booked out two one-hour sessions next week and will be trying to get a full clearance in the area ASAP so that I can be back on track for the surgery. I decided to move my surgery out 4 months from the original date to be safe, since clearance is more important than getting the surgery fast, plus I’m still not sure if the waxing has made it harder to treat with electrolysis in the future. Fingers crossed that the surgery can get done before my insurance out-of-pocket maximum resets and/or my prior authorization expires.

Thanks everyone for the help and insight!

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