I have been getting blend treatments since the beginning of November. Prior to that i saw another electrologist for about a month and she was doing thermolysis but it seemed that she was doing more plucking than anything else so i switched to another electrologist. With my new electrologist i am much happier but still have some concerns.
She does a two handed blend method - she treats the hair and then with the other hand she feels when the hair is ready for release and then pulls it out. Sometimes she has to use one hand because of the area being treated where she has to pull the skin to insert the probe. In any case, my concern is that although i can really feel the hair being treated when she passes current to it i cannot really feel the hair being pulled, in other words i don’t believe i feel tweezing going on. Having said that my concern is that i do get some ingrown hairs and have mentioned this to her and told her that i should not be getting any ingrowns and that perhaps she should keep thr probe in longer so as to pass more current to the hair.
Now i must say that the number of ingrowns is probably very small compared to the number of hairs treated but i still feel that i should not be getting any.
So the question for you professionals is “do some of your patients get ingrown hairs even though when treating it does not seem like hairs are being plucked?”
Ingrowns can be a result of hairs breaking off on the way out, i.e. technique. What area are you treating? Where are you located? Are there other electrologists in the area you can try to compare things?
There are many reasons you can have ingrown hairs. Sometimes clients with curly hair or on areas that have tight fitting clothing tend to have a few ingrowns from time to time until the hairs have been treated once or twice. Are you shaving in between treatments? Did you have a problem with ingrown hairs before you began electrolysis? It’s also possible that what you are seeing coming in as ingrown hairs, are hairs that have not yet been treated.
I am treating my upper arms, shoulders, and back. I get some ingrown hairs in all areas and i don’t believe it has anything to do with my clothing as prior to treatment i did not get ingrowns. I also don’t shave the areas. They are not curly hairs. I just feel that this is because the ingrown hairs are hairs that are not fully treated. In addition, when the ingrowns are released they are not thin as though it were a new hair growing through the skin, instead they are thick hairs. My electrologist stated that these ingrowns could be because of my clothing rubbing the skin but i just don’t buy that. Why can’t she just admit that it is possible that she is pulling some hairs prior to complete treatment but she says that she treats and waits for the hair to release before pulling it out.
I don’t really feel that hairs being pulled but then again it can be difficult because with a lot of hairs i feel the current being applied which may mask the feeling of the hair being pulled out.
Also, some of the hairs which are fairly thin i won’t feel being pulled out. How do i know this? Because as a test i have pulled out a thin hair and i did not feel it.
My real question is for you electrologists - do some of your patients get ingrowns and do you recognize as being possible because the hair is being pulled out before being fully treated? If so does that happen often?
Once in a while I will see an ingrown hair in an area that I’ve worked. It makes me unhappy that I may have “mis-treated” a hair. Any time that I see something like that I evaluate what I’ve done and what I’m doing.
I don’t know if I’m remembering this correctly: Kay Lasker, an instructor from Philadelphia, indicates that ingrown hairs can show up as long as 11 weeks after tweezing or improper treatment. (Something to keep in mind - if I got the info right.) Kay is one of the few instructors who does not believe in the “easy slide” idea.
Could it be possible that some hairs “break” from the heat of the needle? When you view Dr. Schusters videos you will see the hair move when the current is applied. The hair kind of dances and shrinks a bit in the follicle. I would imagine that a shallow insertion could break that hair, and the remaining portion of the hair (at the very bottom of the follicle) could then become that ingrown hair. The top portion of that hair would then easily slide out.
You mention that once in a while you see an ingrown hair. Well i see ingrown hairs everywhere that i have been treated. I only see a few but compared to how many have been treated. However, it still concerns me and it annoys me that my electrologist does not really pay attention to that. I have mentioned it to her numerous times and it just does not seem as though she is doing something about it. She has more than 20 years experience which i know does not mean anything but it just seems absurd that as professional as she is, in regards to her office and her equipment that she could let something like this happen.
Don’t get me wrong she has treated a lot of hair and i can definitely see a reduction but i would like is to see an area completely free of hair 2 weeks or so after treatment(that is usually how long the ingrowns take to surface, depending on the area).
Another question: if the blend method is used does that mean that hairs in any stage can be treated with effect? Or can only hairs in the anagen stage be treated with effect?
It doesn’t matter what type of electrolysis you use, Anagen Stage Growth Hairs will be the ones that are in the best position for permanent removal. There is some value to treating hairs that are in other phases, but the best results come from treating hairs in anagen phase.
I can’t really comment on your ingrown hair issue. You could have hair that is prone to ingrowns (my facial hair all starts life ingrown no matter what, so permanent removal is my only hope of comfort and aesthetics) or there could be some other issue making this happen. It is just not possible for someone who has not seen you or treated you to explain what is happening or why. We could only throw out a list of possibilities.
My hair is not prone to ingrowns - prior to electrolysis i did not get ingrowns and even when i was doing laser i did not get ingrowns when the hair was coming back. I am thoroughly convinced that it is because of undertreatment.
I would like to mention that blend is being performed on me and from what i have read this is combines thermolysis with galvanic and makes it more effective in terms of regrowth although it is slower. I have read that blend can take 10 seconds on a hair. When i am treated with the blend there are some hairs that have to be treated for about 10 secs but i would say that the majority of the hairs only take about an average of 5 secs to treat - in addition she uses the two handed method so she is feeling for when the hair can be pulled out and that way she does not have to remove the probe, grab the tweezers and then pull the hair out. Also, some hairs it seems like she does a real quick zap and pulls the hair out immediately - i believe those are the real thin hairs.
Does it seem as though she is doing things right?
She says she prefers the blend because there is less regrowth with it.
If the hair slides out without resistance, it was treated properly. However, it can be breaking off on its away out. Do the hairs that you see after they’ve been pulled have dark juicy ends or do they look like they were broken off?
Blend is fine, but a good electrologist gets great results with thermolysis too, which is faster. The technique is what matters most, and treating hair in the first phase. Blend can be necessary on some hairs that are deep anyway, but I think financially it makes more sense to get to a clearance using a faster method, so that you’re not treating hair that’s not in anagen anymore over and over.
Where are you located? How many electrologists have you tried? Why not try a few others and see what kind of results you get with someone else’s technique? It helps to shop around and try at least 3 first to compare anyway. Check out posts here by Chuck. He has had two different people treat him and he was getting ingrowns with one, but not with the other. He was treating the same area btw.
Undertreatment may not be the big problem. The wrong amount of current (high or low) and/or poor insertions (too shallow or outside the follicle walls) can result in ingrowns. Tweezing can be done so well that the client does not feel the tweeze and the hairs don’t break - resulting in regrowth but no ingrown hairs.
I am also curious about this statement you made: “she uses the two handed method so she is feeling for when the hair can be pulled out and that way she does not have to remove the probe, grab the tweezers and then pull the hair out.” An experienced electrologist would not have to “remove the probe, grab the tweezers and then pull the hair out.” So, I wonder about her experience.
If you are unhappy, she is not responding to your voiced concerns, perhaps it’s time to look elsewhere.
When i say she uses the 2 handed method i mean she has the proble in one hand and the tweezers in the other hand, as she treats the hair she is holding the hair with the tweezers and feeling for when the hair releases. Sometimes she uses only hand because she has to spread the skin out to be able to insert the probe, so she treats the hair, removes the probe, and then extracts the hair. She says that when using one hand that when extracting the hair if she does not feel the hair being able to be extracted then she has to treat it again. This only happens occasionally.
I can understand that tweezing can sometimes not be felt because i have pulled hairs out before and not felt them, however, they are fairly thin hairs. Can this also be the case with thicker, longer hairs? I would have thought that those i would feel.
It is somewhat hard for me to find another electrologist as there are not too many in the area.
There are probably 10 electrologists in the RTP area, including the 3 I told you I’ve had complaints about plus the one you are seeing now. Have you consulted with any of the others on the licensing board link I gave you?
I would try to zero in on an electrologist that is skilled and know’s how to use a good brand computerized epilator well. Surgical magnification and quality light source figure in to complete this triangle. I like blend electrolysis a lot, but you would do much better with microflash/picoflash thermolysis with an electrologist that uses autosensor mode and really punches those man hairs with a large probe, special techniques, without overtreating the skin. It’s just that simple AND… it simply works super well. I do not encounter a lot of ingrown hairs this way, but there are some that naturally will occur on these areas. A few is no big deal and are usually close to the surface of the skin so they can be gently lifted and treated.
Follow Choice’s great advice for finding someone who has caught on to another way of treating these areas with efficacy.
I am in Raleigh North Carolina, which is part of the triangle encompassing Raleigh, Chapel Hill, and Durham.
I know there are other electrologists in the area but one of them won’t do large areas and i have heard some bad reviews on another one i have not seen.
I schedule an appointment for a consultation with an electrologist in Greensboro(about an hour away) so she could let me know what she thinks and look at the ingrowns, then i was supposed to have an appointment for an hour with one of her electrologists. The lady who is giving me the consult only does 15 min appointments because she does not have time to do long appointments as she runs 2 offices that also do laser. I had to cancel the appointment but i am going to see if i can reschedule. In any case, the amount they charge per hour is almost 50% more than what i now pay.
Add this post to the many we see here about consumers who are frustratingly trying their best to find a competent, modern electrologist who can handle any area. Keep searching and weighing.