My sister's electrolysis diary

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
#1

I would like to start this post with a thank you to Andrea for this wonderful forum and to the professionals who donate so much of their time to helping consumers.

When I joined HairTell, I was looking for information regarding Laser on the female face. It quickly became apparent that it would be far preferable to tackle my hair issue with electrolysis. The members here were supportive in helping me find a good electrologist, who I have had a great journey with. My electrolysis thread is here:
My electrolysis diary

As some of you may have read, my sister started electrolysis with my electrologist last year (there are some posts towards the end of my thread). She used a 9 hour package in the time period from March-July. It went well but it also became apparent that to really make headway with this electrologist, she would be spending a lot of time and money. Her travel alone would be a 3hr round trip and cost almost £10. Being a student on a tight budget and not being able to afford spending a good proportion of every Saturday on this once her Uni term started again, I began seriously considering alternatives. It also became apparent that the area she was mainly having done - the eyebrows - was requiring a lot of maintenance after approximate clearance was achieved, which was stopping her moving on to other areas. Without pictures, it is hard to imagine the level of hair she has. I’m sure any electrologist has seen worse but I generally can’t help but roll my eyes sometimes; “it can’t be as bad as my sister”; for someone who apparently doesn’t have hormonal problem anyway.

We were in need of someone who could do all the work (a good bulk of it) in a day, to save both time and money, and with a high “kill rate” so we wouldn’t need to keep spending time=money on treating the same follicles again later.

Enter, Josefa (depilacionelectr)

After seeing her work and knowledge, I could not help but contact her. It actually took us a while to get around to organising the trip and I probably ate her brain in the process. She was always patient with me and my numerous questions. It really put me at ease that she would always been on the same page in regards to how to tackle the work. Tickets to Spain were very cheap as they were bought on sale. Since we were so eager to start work, we booked one day of about 6 hours to get her started. Planning a second trip towards the end of summer. Unfortunately I was unable to go in the end as my passport was away, which I was really sad about because I am so eager to meet Josefa in person. Which by the way, I just got back today! Sigh!

Josefa took great care of my sister and to put me at ease, emailed a photo of the progress on one side after 80 minutes of treatment. I could not have been happier. There is clearly a lot more than 6 hours that needs to be done on her face but my sister said 6 hours in one day was more than enough as she became pretty exhausted and started feeling more pain. It’s been a great experience to test the skin reaction (I’m sure Josefa will comment on this) and make a visible difference on her hairiest parts. The pictures I will be putting up are showing the areas in the worst possible light. I’m sure Josefa can also attest the fact that from a normal distance, to the naked eye, it’s looking tremendously improved. I couldn’t see any upper lip hairs until I looked very closely. During my sister’s breaks, Josefa treated my mother - some coarse hairs around the face and the brown upper lip hairs. I think Josefa treated most of the normal distance visible upper lip hairs and my mother had no sign of treatment when I saw her 48hours later either.

Ok, enough with the jibber jabbar and onwards to the good stuff!

Photo from Josefa prior to treatment:

Photo from Josefa after 80 minutes of work:

This was a normal view of her cheek before. All the excessive hairiness has gone. Once it’s all healed, I will take another photo from this angle.

#2

Now some of the more gruesome stuff; the healing process. I am displaying these pictures so that I can show in a few weeks how the skin has healed. The scars were already there. A few spots have come up in the last day or two which may be as a result of the fact that my sister is now finding the sideburn area very itchy!

Before treatment (some time ago)

4 days after treatment:

Upper lip 4 days after treatment:

Before:

4 days after treatment:

#3

How are the SAME areas after one year, two years and three years? Are you as happy with the results today as you were after the work was done? Is there a difference in the results of electrolysis vs laser? Is the skin of each area equally devoid of hair? Did lasered areas regrow compared to electrolysis areas? Which areas were best… laser or electrolysis?

Did your sister ever go to a doctor to find out if she had a hormone problem? It is highly possible she did not reach the full complement of hair growth at the time she had the work done. If she had thirty hairs per square inch in an area but was still growing in more hairs to make about fourty hairs per square inch some of her hairs were never treated. However, if the treated areas remained FREE of hair, would you say she was as happy today as she seemed to be earlier?

#4

Laser and electrolysis are not interchangeable. Laser only works on coarse dense growth. Nothing “regrows” when it’s done properly. Nothing has regrown on my bikini or legs or underarm for 5+ years now.

#5

Josefa does great work. I’m sure your sister is feeling much better. The pictures are fabulous. People like your sister are truly the ones that need high tech, speedy electrolysis care and Jossie can do it. I just shake my head to think that the travel effort and extra expense is needed to accomplish this, but at least your sister’s has a great option to get the hair off asap with a highly skilled electrologist like Jossie.
Thanks for starting your sister’s diary.

#6

fantastic, great you were able to get to spain to see josefa, i would love to get treatment from her, even though i’m an electrologist i need an electrologist to do the outside of my lower legs as not flexiable enough to reach this myself, (how i miss my ex colleagues in Sydney). anyway looking forward to your updates.

#7

Hi Stoppit, so excited to see your post and pictures. Josefa is a marvel. I am sorry that you were not able to take advantage of her skill but your sister’s results look amazing…what I would hope for myself. Maybe one day I will take a trip to Spain myself. I am sure she is delighted. I am in awe of the minimal skin reaction from Josefa’s work.

Thank you and your sister for kindly sharing her adventure.

issy

#8

Thank you for the replies.

Dee and Mairi - I’m really glad you understand. I’ve been on HairTell for a while and I was preparing myself for the possible ‘you could have done this closer to home’. It’s not that my electrologist isn’t good (I still highly recommend her) but as you say Dee, it’s the requirement for high-tech speedy electrolysis.
On my own face I have all the peach fuzz on my beard area, some it quite long that needs doing and again, I’m reluctant to spend the time and money with my electrologist for this. I’d rather wait, visit Jossie for a day and get it over with. With the knowledge that her ‘kill rate’ is excellent as well.

One thing I forgot to mention is the swelling. Her cheeks/jawline looked bloated but it’s going down. Otherwise, the scabbing is not really that noticeable. And the spots… well her own acne is much worse at the moment due to exam stress anyway. But I know, in a few years, she will be hair free and stress free and I bet she will have great looking skin.

I’m sure Josefa will add more info when she is free. Like how much time was spent on each area. How many hairs were removed per hour. I’m sure my sister could have easily spent another full day with Josefa for the rest of the bleached hairs on the face and neck. We will get to them eventually. But the main hurdle has been overcome.

#9

Very inspiring Stopit…I always find your posts informative. I am thinking of asking Josefa for treatments myself. I have pm’d you! I’ll be following your threads with interest.

#10

I wouldn’t mind flying to Malaga once every 2 months for clearances and a beach vacation :slight_smile:

#11

I second that.

Hook that Apilus up to a solar panel and get treated right on the beach!

#12

Hmmm, An Apilus hooked up to a solar panel on the beach… Did you spy on me in Hawaii? :grin:

#13

A delayed update.

These pictures are 11 days post treatment. I think there is some “PIH” (not sure though). It doesn’t look like it will stay around for long though. We also feel that we will get rid of the remaining side burn hair up to what goes behind the ear. It’s quite fluffy and sticks out. I think my face would look too angular and square if I went up that high but for my sister, it seems it will make her face look slimmer and really suits her.

#14

Indeed, your sister has a perfect bone structure. Her oval is perfect and therefore the height of the sideburns would fit perfectly into the universal canon, ie, the top level of the tragus. For my taste, I would have removed any excess hair above the eyebrows, to leave her little face cleared.

Yes, her skin will not be any trace of acne, or Electrolysis. I was able to examine everything from very close and acne lesions are reversible. The second clearance in these cases makes the difference, Smurf has already had occasion to check on her arms and fingers. Your sister also able to see, and next time, ALL will be easier.

Thanks for the update.

#15

Hello! Thank you for commenting Josefa. I know this is a tough time for you. You are always in my thoughts.

We preferred to err on the side of caution in regards to the sideburns for the first time, as we know this is not reversible. It’s now much easier (especially since the swelling is gone) to have a clear idea of how it would look if all this hair is removed. And you are completely right about the forehead above the eyebrows. When I took these photos, my sister, my mother and I were discussing that hopefully next time you can work on this area. We will leave it in your capable hands.

#16

Hi all,

Well, my sister came home from uni yesterday for the day. Things are looking pretty good. The PIH hasn’t faded much yet but I had to be within inches of her sideburns to see it. The areas are still clear, on Wednesday it will be 6 weeks since treatment.

I will take photos soon but I doubt they will be much different to the last lot.

I can’t wait until the next trip as it will allow us to tackle the areas that were hardly touched last time and that will make a further difference to the way she looks.

#17

Sounds promising Stopit…keep up with the updates, its your posts that have pushed me to contact Josefa. All I need to do now is get some good close up pictures of my hairy situation (easier said than done), and email them to her. When is her next treatment?

#18

Now I have a little more time, I would say something about this case. The sideburns in the sister Stoppit not have hair stimulation as suggested by Lefty. Since this area had developed all visible hairs and follicles on the area was completely wiped out. I would venture to predict the time necessary to re-clean the same area (only sideburns). 30 minutes for each sideburn. There will be some false regrowth, totally predictable.

PD: Stoppit, I bet you a chocolate with churros if I’m wrong. Just kidding. :wink:

#19

I had to look up ‘churro’! mmmmm.

Well, I think I owe you a chocolate churro.

Here are the the photos of the areas after almost 8 weeks (will be 8 in 2 days).

Right side of face without flash:


As you can see, there has been some growth in the sideburn area, but a fraction of the amount that was cleared.

We asked Josefa to test patch my sister’s arm so she could see what the pain was like (she will need EMLA for the real thing) and to see the skin reaction. As you can see, the pigmentation is still there, although it is fading. But the hairs, not so much! I think this is representative of why electrolysis is worthwhile from the get go, if you are going to have to turn to electrolysis anyway. My sister had 3 sessions of laser to reduce the hairs, which it did (more reduction in thickness than in density). But she will now need electrolysis, and I doubt it would have been much extra work for Josefa to have gone for electrolysis from the start.

It is unbelievably reassuring to know that the work can be done within a certain time frame and certain cost, the only thing we need to do is find a slot in Josefa’s schedule.

Now I just wish she would stop picking her spots and use the Rosehip oil as instructed!

#20

Mmmmmm, churro’s are to die for, especially chocolate ones. Thanks to Josefa and Stopit I’m hankering after one! lol

Well what can I say, the difference already in amazing…I’m definately getting on that plane to visit Josefa, if I can find a slot in her schedule. The pictures look positive and you sound positive for her Stopit, how does she feel its going?