My experience with Vaniqa

Hair Removal Methods Prescription topical (Vaniqa)
#21

Nur,

I really hate traveling. Haven’t hired a psychiatrist yet, as some friends have suggested. Don’t need to because I figured out a while ago that traveling takes a lot of energy and I have none to spare.

Seriously, it would be so easy for the professional electrologists worldwide to bring it up. Apilus and SilhouetTone are international companies. I’m not sure about the other great companies I mentioned above, but they all can ship epilators anywhere. There’s a better way to do permanent hair removal if present electrolysis setups are not pleasing clients for whatever reasons. Frustration is high on my side of the fence when I read posts like yours. Many of us professional electrologists know what works well and can deliver results to depressed or dismayed people like you. James and Dee are not the only ones that know this information. We are not that special in what we do and there should be no need for anyone traveling anywhere to get electrolysis if there was a way to get the word out that modern electrolysis care is within every professionals reach.

#22

I agree very much so with what Dee is saying, specifically :" The process of electrolysis is not to blame but rather the electrologist stuck in the mud is". I can tell just after a month and a half that electrolysis is helping me and I have noticed a HUGE difference between a good electrologist with an awesome machine,who incorporates new modalities like microflash but no tried and true Blend modality, but crappy lighting and magnification equipment, and a great electrologist who does all modalities with a top of the line eplitator, as well as top of the line lighting AND mag equipment. The difference is incredible in every sense of the word.Unfortunately for me the great electrologist is 3 hrs away and the good one only 1 hr, which is still better than a bad electrologist with outdated equipment who only does one or two modalities down the street.

The sad reality is that many of us don’t even have 2 out of 3 of these options anywhere remotely near us and we may be the ones left with only a mediocre electrolgist with mediocre equipment at best. What can we do to change this? Dee- you mentioned that we need to say something as customers but how and to whom? It seems like even the crappy electrologists are still getting enough business that they simply are not motivated to make any changes to their program, and meanwhile the rest of us, as hairy consumers, are suffering and at the mercy of the practicioners.

When I made my intial phone calls to research practitioners and asked if they used surgical loupes, one response I got was " I don’t have time for that". This wraps up my frustration in a nutshell. PLEASE MAKE THE TIME FOR US, YOUR LIVELIHOOD!! I wonder if a plea to practitioners can be brought up at electrology conventions or something along those lines. Maybe we all can sign a petition here on hairtell…who’s game? I will personally take the time to mail something out snailmail to everyone who’s interested if it would help! This to me is tantamount to writing my local politician…if only hair removal were as important to more ppl as it is to us.

Regarding Vaniqa: I still have a half tube that I stopped using b/c I broke out horribly and I think vaniqa was a big part of the culprit since it started a week into using it, but I am not sure. If I didn’t have this reaction AND I got it for $6 a tube,I might be tempted to use it also. I did not mind putting it on at night but I didn’t like the texture and “pilling” of the cream on my face during the day before putting on my make-up. It left little white residue peices on my skin and just made me waste more time in front of the mirror obsessing about not only the hair, but now other stuff drawing attention to my face.

I do agree that you need to stick with what makes you feel most comfortable, as long as you know the facts and have done your research. This forum is so helpful to see what other ppl in similar situations have experienced. I still feel so alone sometimes cuz I don’t see too many hairy ppl in the real world, but I feel hope and connection when I’m reading or writing on this forum.

#23

Have you seen a reputabe endocrinologist who specializes in PCOS? Reading a site like soulcysters.com where PCOS women share their stories and tips. There are ways to get your growth under control, without side effects. Run a search for spiro on this forum to get an idea. Even a birth control pill like Yasmine is sometimes enough to balance the hormones out for some women. Once again, this is something that a specialist can determine.

Also, there are many discussions here on London electrologists if you run a search. Maybe you can sample a couple more and find someone who is good and fast. What I’m not understanding is why you have the need to use Vaniqa if you’re getting all the hair removed by electrolysis at each treatment, which is the most efficient way to get rid of all the hair. Even if you have a lot of hair, you should get to a clearance within a month or two at most, and then come in for treatment every time you see new hair pop up as weak new hairs are most easily killed. Can you expand on your treatments?

#24

Does Hair inhibitors really work? I’ve heard of Kalo and tried several brands. But they dont seem to work as claimed. =( How lucky some pple are to be born hairless

PS: sorry I experience some error in the page and thus I have to use this to talk. I cant post new topic now… for whatever reason

#25

Things like Kalo only give the illusion of slower growth, if they have any effect at all. Vaniqua only slows the growth process, but as soon as you stop using it, one loses all effect.

#26

I am constantly mazed at the people who are telling electrologists what kind of loupe to use or what kind of machine to use or some other advice they really know nothing about. I SAW ONE POST FROM A PERSON WHO WANTED “MEDICAL GRADE MAGNIFICATION”. There is no such thing. There is high magnification,low magnification or something in between. Then there is the eyesight of the electrologist to consider, plus are the glasses CLEAN.

THERE IS DEFINITELY A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OPERATORS. However, micro flash and some other names are designed to SELL the machine and it works. WE HAVE BEEN EDUCATED BY ADVERTISING THAT “NEWER IS BETTER{” BUT THIS IS NOT TRUE. If someone buys a new machine, for whatever reason, they HAVE TO JUSTIFY IT SO THEY REPEAT WHAT THE MANUFACTURERS SAY BUT THIS IS ONLY HYPE. Next week it will be NANO FLASH machine THEN TERA FLASH. However, when the right amout of heat is delivered to the right location during the anagen pase the treatment will be successful. This is no different than the type and number of DIETS availble. If you follow any of them and decrease your intake while increasing your output…you will lose weight. It all boils down to arithmetic. If you can see this you have got it licked but ONLY YOU CAN DO IT. You can not blame anyone else for failure. In electrolysis you can try to blame the machine, or lighting, or technique but you still have to consider how many hairs there are to remove, how large is the area, is the patient cooperating (keeping appointments, on time, clean, following post treatment instructions. etc.)

#27

You are wrong again, Harvey Grove LE CPE. You really don’t need to shout to make your point. You can use all the capital letters you want, but that doesn’t make you the first and last authority on issues such as magnification, lighting or computerization in electrolysis. After greater than 2,500 posts that I have made over five years on this forum about such issues, I do not desire to repeat and engage in detailed exchanges with a retired electrolgist whose manner of approach borders on arrogance. I am constantly amazed by electrologists who boast that they have 27 years under their belt, and then lectures others that there is no way like the old way. I assume that your lecturing is one-sided because you never enlightened yourself about the other side. An open mind is a wonderful treasure to possess, you know.

If I were a betting woman, I would have to bet that you haven’t even come close to touching a computerized epilator, or purchasing medical grade magnification or medical grade lighting. IF THAT IS THE CASE, THEN HOW CAN YOU BE SUCH AN AUTHORITY WITH YOUR SHOUT OUTS THAT BETTER TOOLS ARE ONLY ABOUT HYPE! Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to shout at you, Harvey. We explain and share with consumers what works really, really well in our practices and share this same information with other electrologists who may be curious enough to want the same and upgrade. If they choose not to do anything, their clients will still get permanent hair removal, eventually someday, on most hair structures, if they can see them.

#28

ive done electrolysis and laser. My mum was a beautician so had lots of electrolyis and had laser for years

and I have bad hirsutism. I can say elecyrolysis works. It does- I have removed sideburns thriugh this and hair on upper lip. Its worked and is better. The hair hasnt come back. But like i said I have it bad an i need it done over the whole face and not possible with eletrolysis. PLus I think I was getting too scared mentally with electrolysis. I think if you can take electrolysis get that done. I It honestly works better and faster.

#29

I’m totally not a pro, but from what I have learned is that some conditions will cause you to continue to sprout new hairs out of different follicles, even if you permanently remove the existing ones. I could see how Vaniqa might be a better option there.

#30

Vaniqa just makes you shave a bit less. And you have to apply it often and it’s expensive. It doesn’t actually remove the hair. Electrolysis removes the hair permanently. The body doesn’t develop hair every day after you remove it permanently. So if you remove it permanently with electrolysis, you will need touchups once in a while for any brand new hair that your body develops (IF you have condition that you describe). But otherwise, you’ll be hairfree. So you’ll be putting that money towards a permanent solution.

#31

can i combine vaniqa with the electrolysis then? or is it not a good idea?

#32

It defeats the point. Why slow down the growth when you should be killing that hair with electrolysis? Spend that money on more electrolysis hours instead. The best way to do electrolysis is to start with having long treatments up front to get to a clearance and then come in as soon as new hair pops up to kill it while it’s weak.

#33

ah brill, thanks LAgirl…
i have found someone who i feel i can use now and sheis lovely too, so she’ll make me feel better about the whole process… everyone is so informative and level-headed on here!

#34

Hi all,

It’s been a while since I posted but I was researching vaniqa for a friend and read this thread and am amazed by the timelines posed!

I have had to do my entire chin, underneath, out to the sides, lips and all that, and while it did take a few months or so (I’m thinking about 6 but I can’t remember) to get to where we cleared every time, it certainly didn’t clear up anytime soon after that.

I no go monthly, but this is my 6th year of electrolysis, and I don’t think I had an amazing amount of hair. But, it only slowly tapered, and is still tapering. I went weekly, then eventually every two weeks as growth slowed down, then every 3 and now it’s every 4. But 6 years! I don’t know how anyone gets cleared in one year.

Anyone have insight? When I first got on this board it was when I was starting and I thought it might be a year or two, but I’m still at it. While it’s definitely a lot less for sure, i still get enough to go in for a 45 minute appointment to get them all (used to be 1.5 hours weekly).

Is my electrologist doing it wrong? Can it be done wrong? Was I ripped off?

hmmm.

#35

It took you 6 years to finish electrolysis on your face and you said that you didn’t have much hair? SIX years??? wow.

#36

When a woman begins growing excess facial hair they really don’t know how much hair they are going to grow. If you begin to see hair, and begin to have it removed as soon as you start seeing it - you are fortunate if you are keeping ahead of the growth. If all electrolysis techniques are accurate, then the client who has 6 years of regular treatments is probably having the normal progressive growth that they would have seen without electrolysis - and fortunately at the end of that time - they are not suffering with the unwanted hair.

Full beards don’t grow in overnight. They can take years to fully develop. It would understandable to “think” that maybe treatments are not working if you start electrolysis at the beginning or at the middle of your hair development. There are no tests to tell us how much you will grow and often times WHY a person even grows the hair.

#37

ok but when a hair is destroyed completely it doesn’t come back right? The ones that grow are new hairs, right??

#38

Yes, they are. At least mostly (we are good but not perfect).

Audrey and palisandra, please have a look at a man’s beard. It usually develops during its late puberty, but it is not uncommon that it will become slowly stronger and denser during half of his life. Every woman has the potential to grow a full beard like every man, if there is just enough DHT and her androgen receptors do fully work. This can be impressively learned from trans-men.

This means that hair can develop in the face of a woman’s hair as long as the hormonal situation causing the hair growth persists.

Anyway: what You, palisandra, describe in terms of time and frequency accumulates to a pretty large amount of hours. Did You count them?

As a rule of thumb, a mans beard typically requires 150-200 hours, sometimes less, but sometimes much more. I am at more than 300 hours plus 11 laser treatments over meanwhile 5 1/2 yeas, and i am still not done.

#39

It has been my understanding that each hair is treated multiple times before it actually doesn’t come back. I’m assuming each of my hairs has needed more treatments than average. They were very, very thick, deep, and tough.

As for it growing in, I don’t think that’s it. It was “fully” grown in, growing from the age of about 18 to 30 and stable for years before I started, no new areas. I had been plucking all that time, unknowingly strengthening the roots (or so says my electrolysis books).

She at first could only remove about a quarter-sized amount of hair in an hour, usually in a patch just below the corner of my mouth but not quite the chin. Then, the next week she’d take any hairs that appeared there again if any, and would widen the patch. It was quite a while before we cleared my face, but no, I wouldn’t say I had a lot of hair compared to, say, a man. Not by any means a full beard, and nothing on my cheeks but a few stray hairs. Just mostly under my chin, on my chin, going up the sides of my chin some, a bit of sideburn, and some lip. The under my chin area was very dense, though. Each hair did take a long time to finally slide out, though, and some just couldn’t be treated for long enough to have it slide due to risking skin damage (I think?) so she kills it as much as she can and then takes it (could that “almost plucking” be actually making it worse?).

Anyway, as treatment progressed, I don’t think I’ve seen any new growth, but I know it’s hard to tell. It definitely lessens, and the hairs change in consistency, sort of getting weaker and stranger, nothing like they used to be. They are quite fair now, and can fall out if I play with them too much (so I don’t).

As for the number of hours, no, I have no idea. At first it was weekly, so if that was a year or two, that could be 100 hours (or wait, did I do 1.5 hours at first? I think maybe…). Now it’s once a month, so no more than 12 a year. I guess it’s possible to be under 300 hours still. The once a month rate has been at least for 2 or 3 years now. I don’t grow it fast enough anymore to have closer appointments, but I do still grow a number of hairs that still takes an hour to get (though, granted, I do a lot more lip than I used to, which adds to the time. I elected not to include those hairs at first, since they were lower priority comparatively at the time, so it’s not really fair to say it takes an hour to clear. I think it’s more like 40 minutes).

One of my concerns is that this electrologist does something unskilled or non-standard in my treatment, making this stretch out. I do feel that some of them are plucked, and I always wonder about it. She says she treats them as long as she can and then has to take them, but the books say you’re supposed to treat until it slides out on it’s own, right? I’ve always wondered if that is just strengthening the hair like my own plucking did all those years.

Has any of you ever seen someone go 6 years that had done 10-15 years of plucking before you started? Not a full beard at all, but the areas I did have were very densely packed.

I’m at least glad that all the hairs now are wimpy and fine and I don’t see anything that looks like a new hair, such that I could tell (I remember the way they looked growing in, and they don’t look like that now). So I’m clearly on the downhill side. But god, when is this going to be over? It’ll be 6.5 years in feb (started in august).

#40

To sum it up: You have had significantly less hair than a typical male beard and have taken more hours than typically used for a male beard. Did i get it right?

Do You know what method she uses, galvanic, some kind of blend, slow thermolysis, fast thermolysis? How many hairs per minute (roghly), alternatively treatment time per hair? Did You compare that to the examples and hints on efficient treatment given for example in these forums?

Beate