New electrolysis practitioner.

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
#1

Hello everyone I’ve just begun electrolysis with a new practitioner in Sydney whom has 43 years of experience and is also experienced in treating Transsexual mtf facial hair removal.

We started off with blend on the chin area. She first tested to see if each hair would need 1 or two rounds of 8 sec blend. Turns out 1 wasn’t enough so each hair is treated with 2 rounds then is removed by the tweezers. I do feel a popping sensation a lot but she says the hairs are still sliding out without problem and that the lye frothing from the follicle is indication it is working properly. Some hairs where a bit to smnall to tweeze so she said we’ll just let them fall out when they are ready.

So far I’ve had 4hrs done on my chin and it’s about half way cleared. To give it rest she said we’ll do abit of scattering around the upper lip and check areas instead of the chin. She usually prefers at least 7 days of growth to get easy access to the hairs. Also if she tries to tweeze a hair and it is showing strong resistance she will stop and try work on the hair again instead of simply pulling it out like my previous practioner.

Now do you think overall she is doing a good job because the last thing I want is to go through near hundred hours (That’s what she indicated it would take for me as I have a lot of little blond hairs)and not get the removal I’m hoping for.

She also does thermolysis flash and Galvanic but prefers to start with blend and use the other methods when the time is need, I.e when only light thin hairs are left thermolysis. Really resilient hair galvanic.

What are your opinions?

#2

It sounds like she is doing it exactly right from your description.In fact it almost sounds like her method is nearly identical to my own so I better not say anything contrary!

I just started a new project on my friend Sara ( another transgirl) yesterday working on the exact same spot. Lots of big terminal hairs, not the dinky ones I remove from my own face! They come out with just nice big intact sheaths! But the cost of that, even with a second treatment energy, is that sometimes there IS some resistance simply because of the size of the root. I liken it to pulling a golf ball through a garden hose. Too MUCH resistance and you neeed more treatment energy.
I did two hairs on her that I deliberately undertreated. One ws so she could feel the difference between one plucked and one epilated, that “tearing of the root” the other was a practise hair to test if a single cycle was enough. It wasnt!

Treating Transgender facial hair is VERY different from treating a females face. The size of the hair means more ( nearly double) the treatment energy.I generally wont take on this kind of work because the amount of committment and number of hours it takes to do a full face is huge, and a large committment in time for both parties. When I do do others faces its a very limited number at any given time, preferably just one. Treat your committment to electrolysis for what it is, a huge committment of time. follow her advice in regards to frequency.

Seana

#3

It certainly sounds like your practitioner is being thorough, however is there a reason for her not increasing the intensity-tolerance or skin reaction, as having to reinsert for every hair prolongs your treatment. Also ‘feeling’ popping is a bit of a concern, hairs should ‘slide out like butter’.

If you are having concerns about the treatment try a consultation with another electrologist. As you are located in Sydney you have a number of excellent practitioners to choose from.

#4

mairi,
I’d say the most likely reason for not increasing the intensity is to prevent scarring, overtreatment/ and lighten skin reaction.

There is a unique difference between treating male beard hairs ( what a transgender person deals with ) and treating those on a female face. That difference is in the AMOUNT of treatment energy, and the size of the root. It’s really not all that unusual to have to treat twice on such hairs, but it does not necessarily mean inserting twice. In fact the amount of needed treatment energy is so consistent that you can pretty much assume you’ll need to do twice the cycle length and just go with that on each hair. There’s a noticeable difference on removing the hair. If you are using a two handed method ( and have enough outside growth to do so ) testing the hair becomes routine and simple.
The very thickness of the hair, Means that enough treatment energy is required that often if you increase the intensity enough to remove the hair within say a single 8 second cycle, you are increasing the incidence of scabbing or marking exponentially. I say this from experience and testing, on the very same type of hair. Yes it’s more time consuming, but it’s kinder to the face in my experience. Again this is just my personal ( amatuer) experience, but I’ve found it to be so. Transwomen tend to be more dysphoric about potential marking or extended scabbing because their face is so much part of the gender identity, therefore scabs for weeks are extremely undesireable.

Now this doesnt mean you cant ( and shouldnt ) increase intensities. Just not maybe to the extent that such potential for damage would occur, and it’s often the case with blend that if you are removing these huge 80 unit hairs in 8 seconds, you’re leaving behind high incidence of scabbing that causes the transwoman to not be able to been seen publicly for sometimes weeks. Treating over a longer period seems to have as much or more effect in killing the follicle in my limited experience, without leaving that type of inflamation behind. I know for a fact there are one or two of the pro’s here that disagree with me on this, and that’s ok, I honour their experience if it is different.

The other side note on working on such hairs is, most times unless you are massively overtreating them, there is still some resistance. The hair sheaths are HUGE and the entrance to the follicle somewhat smaller. They do come out of the follicle nicely if treated enough, but there is STILL some minr resistance. Increasing treatment energy DOES help with this, but a certain amount of resistance is very normal on this type of hair. The sheaths come out glistening and fat as ten penny nails.You can really tell the difference when testing the hair between one that is just not recieved enough treatment energy, and one that is just so large that it’s offering some resistance. Although slightly longer treatment, I think this electrologist is doing exactly the right thing.

Seana

#5

Hi Seana,

It could be that the skin can’t tolerate a higher intensity, however getting the balance of time and intensity can mean less trauma to the skin than basically applying a current for 16 seconds. You will see this as you gain more experience. I’ve worked extensively with thermolysis, blend and multi-needle galvanic(probes are in follicle for 4 minutes) and the last 3 years with pico-flash.
Also have worked with many TS clients, and we’ll have to agree to disagree about feeling resistance, if I feel any resistance I adjust my settings.
I have never worked along side another electrologists who thought having minor resistance was ok. A few test patches with some other electrologists will be of no harm, as she is investing her time and money.