New to electrolysis - please help!

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
1

Hi everyone
I’ve just scheduled my first electrolysis appointment for this coming Monday and I’m quite nervous about it. Mainly because I come from a relatively small town and can’t afford to travel, and the options here are very limited I am worried about what to expect. I don’t know anyone personally who has gotten electrolysis here. There is only one CPE listed in our local phonebook, with whom I’ve made an appointment.
I’m not sure which method she uses yet, I know she works from her home, but she sounded very knowledgeable and has been in the business since the 80s.

As for what I have going, I’ve been plucking random hairs on my face for about six years originally strictly for vanity purposes because they were fine, white hairs, but long. (worst mistake of my life) and it’s gotten to the point that now that many but not all of the hairs I’ve plucked have turned dark and thick, and if I don’t pluck every single day, and even if I do I ALWAYS have the feeling of stubble. These areas are the bottom of my chin(worst) a few areas on both sides of my cheeks, and the sides of my upper lip. I’ve forced myself to not pluck for a week in preperation for this, but the stubble feeling and dark hairs popping up I have right now are horrible and I don’t even want to leave the house! The plucking which originally didn’t bother my skin much, eventually also caused horrible damage to my fair,sensitive skin, many ingrown hairs, acne that have all destroyed my self confidence (haven’t had any breakouts since I stopped plucking but I still have scars that are healing)

So I have questions, questions I was too nervous to ask at the time, just making the appointment was a lot for me.
Mainly, will I be able to get rid of the stubble feeling within the first session? She booked me for an hour and said she usually only needs a half but obviously she’d have to see me first. This doesn’t seem like a lot of time? I wasn’t sure if this meant I would get full clearance the first time, should I be expecting this? I know the full process is going to take months, but I don’t want to have to walk around with a face full of rough stubble during the in between time. I plan on going once a week if possible.
Also, because I now have a lot of acne and ingrown hair scarring on my face, will she be able to remove hair from these areas? This is actually my biggest concern because aside from my chin, it’s in the areas that have some of the worst hair.
I’m also really afraid of getting additional damage on my face from this process, but I guess that’s a risk I have to take.
She also said I should notice a big difference in 3-4 months, from what I’ve read it seems most people need longer. Are there any warning signs I should look for on my first visit?

I plan to document my experience in this forum, as I think I am going to need support through this long process and hopefully offer my own after I become a bit more knowledgeable.
Thanks so much to anyone who reads and can offer advice!

2

Electrolysis is a long process that requires a lot of patience. But when you are close to the end result, you’ll be happy you went through it. I have been getting electrolysis done on my face for the past 3 years. It’s a long and tedious process…at times you will get really frustrated and impatient and wonder when it will end…just hang in there and be positive! Goodluck~! :slight_smile:

3

Hi Emily, congratulations, you chose the best option. Electrolysis is the one that’s going to restore self-esteem they’ve lost.
For a while you have the feeling that the way your skin looks worse but I promise it will be very little time.

The first thing you experience is that the skin changes from gray to pink. Next you’ll make your skin will be much softer to the touch because the first electrologist hair that will knock your hairs are thicker (because they are the first to emerge to the surface of the skin). Then must be treated with an intermediate size. Until the end, only the fine hairs (vellus). As these forecasts are met, restoring security in yourself. I agree that in 3 or 4 months, the improvement in your face will be a reality.
Do not press too if your electrologist because as you mention your skin is thin and delicate, care must be maximum. Courage and good luck :wink:

NOTE: maybe my language is not very accurate but I have to use an instant translation.

4

In skilled hands you will notice an immediate reduction in the dark shadow effect. It will be completely gone within 6 weeks. It sounds like your skin has been traumatised by tweezing. This is very common and a competent electrologist will be able to minimize the irritation caused by treatment.
Wishing you a hairfree, carefree life ,starting from now. You have made a good decision.

5

Thank you all :slight_smile:
I’m very embarrassed about going in with the condition of my skin and damage I have done to myself. But it’s comforting to know I’m not the only one.

6

Don’t be embarressed at all. Electrologists are well aware that coming to us is a last resort, when you have tried everything else. What I see on consultation ,is the potential for perfect smooth hair free skin. Electrologists are a very empathetic lot, and clients often ask us if they are the worst case we have ever seen. It is truly a shame that womens magazines don’t show real women with real problems, rather than another 50 ways to apply make up.

7

We electrologists see the worst skin possible. We start off with hyperpigmentation, scarring caused by temporary or do-it-yourself electrolysis, snaking ingrown hairs, bumpy ingrown hairs, infected ingrown hairs. It is true that clients ask if they are the worst case of facial hair you’ve ever seen. Sometimes it is and sometimes it is not. Doesn’t matter. We just get going and go row by row, inch by inch and remove the culprit that is causing such great angst.

Keep focused and keep going forward with electrolysis. If the practitioner is skilled, the worse thing you can do is give up before a year has passed.

Dee

8

I would call her and ask the basics:

  1. Type of electrolysis used
  2. Name of the machine
  3. Years of experience
9

OK, here’s my two cents. I agree with LAgirl on points 1 and 3. However, a 1940’s vintage machine, in the hands of a good electrologist, will work amazingly better than a $5000 Apilus in the hands of a clutz. Electrolysis is a manual process of hair removal. The newer machines are great but should be looked at not as a panacea but seen with trepidation. Just because somebody uses a foot switch should not preclude them from your patronage.

Here are a few absolute truths about electrolysis and hair removal in general. Heat only hair removal such as thermolysis and flash thermolysis will have higher regrowth rates, more possibility for skin damage, is faster, will be permanent, and will cost less in the end. You have to weigh the risk of skin damage with cost and speed. This is 100% the responsibility of the practitioner. Blend and multiple needle galvanic tend to take more time but are a little more forgiving on technique. More truths…Manufacturer’s literature is not to be taken as anything remotely resembling the truth. Expect the process to take longer than you want it to. Electrologist skill is 1000X more important than the type of machine used. An electrologist that buys a $5000 machine will praise it ad nauseam and use it as a marketing tool to recoup that investment. Electrologist skill is not necessarily directly correlated to how much experience they have. Some people are just plain better at it than others. An electrologist is, by definition, working under the pretense of conflict of interest. After we successfully complete the process of hair removal we lose a client and that income. Don’t be afraid to change electrologists if things aren’t progressing as you’d wish.

For face work I would recommend starting off with blend for the first pass as flash thermolysis, in my opinion and the opinions of Hinkle, Bordier, Bono, et. al. show the regrowth and potential skin damage of treating terminal hair growth with flash thermolysis is not worth the risk, especially on the face. Also, Bono (“The Blend Method”) states repeatedly that newer, automated machines are very often a detriment to correct blend technique. Blend is very much a manual process where foot pedals work better than automatic timing. This is especially the case with a first clearance as you will have hairs in all growth phases growing together.

So, in summary, find a good electrologist, not a good machine.

10

Ok, now here is my two cents. No one should be using a 1940’s epilator today. Skill or no skill. No one uses a Smith Corona typewriter with a correcting ribbon to type their research paper, do they? How many of us are watching television on a rabbit eared 1962 model Zenith tv? Cars? what are we driving? Health care field? CAT scan verses an X-ray? The principles of skill being #1 will never be disputed, but equipment will.

If Arthur Hinkle were alive today, he would probably be over 100 years old. His book was released in 1968. Many things have changed in the field of electrolysis since he first opened his school somewhere around 1948. It’s important to tell readers that information because they understand that innovations take place in every field and being stuck in the past is probably does not hold much merit. Bono is not that old, but he would probably not be so one-sided about the newer levels of thermolysis offered by the dedicated companies that offer great computerized epilators. He’ll have to speak for himself as I am only assuming this because I hear is a very smart man.

I have been using the Apilus Platinum for two years now and have worked on many clients from their eyebrows all the way down to their toes, using PicoFlash thermolysis, Multiplex and Synchro ( these are thermolysis modes offered by Dectro, just so you know) with no permanent scarring. In 2009, I logged 643,000 insertions and hundreds of hours. This year so far, from Jan. 1, 2010 to Feb. 2, 2010, I have logged 66,209 insertions. I know the counts because the evil computerized epilator “tells” me this data. I am working six to seven days a week. I’m very busy. I use some form of thermolysis 95% of the time and a blend mode the rest of the time. Tell me please, how destructive thermolysis is again? Would I have all this work if I was permanently damaging skin with thermolysis? Prior to using the Apilus Platiinum, I used a Silhouet Tone VMC using MicroFlash Thermolysis from head to toe, small areas to large areas. I was just as busy then as I am today. I used the VMC from 2003-2007. The VMC is a fantastic computerized epilator, too. Apilus and Silhouet-Tone do not hype. What they say about their epilators is pretty darn true and anyone who has actually used them would know that. They spend a lot of money on research and development and they have blessed this profession with the best tools money can buy.

Consumers demand the best. With all the great brand epilators offered and proper re-training, this profession can revitalize so consumers can expect faster and safe hair removal. Certain companies make better epilators than they did 80 years ago and I am personally thankful.

Galvanic and blend are wonderful modalities. There is no doubt about it, but try working on a client doing one of the thermolysis modes I described above and then tell them you are going use multi-needle galvanic or blend. They will tell you to go back to thermolysis. Thermolysis works, everybody! All three modalities work. No one ever disputes that here, except people that have never used the newer technology found on an Apilus Platinum, Pure, Senior, SX-500, a Silhout-Tone VMC, Clareblend Elegance, and so on. If one depends on their livlihood by doing what they know best, that’s okay! It’s their choice and they will defend it with passion. In the end, the consumer always decides what practitioner they will give their money to based on sensation, equipment, speed, office environment, personality. That is why we always advise the consumer to check out all their local practitioners, so they can see what works best for them. It is not about galvanic multi-needle, blend verses thermolysis. I contend that equipment DOES matter and I think Arthur Hinkle would highly approve of the innovations and progress made by our electrology suppliers today and he would encourage us to move forward. He would probably be running to his computer to revise his book as well.

Truth: People want the hair off fast, safely and with as little sensation as possible. This can be accomplished. Modern electrologists re-train and re-educate themselves. They network with the ones who have move forward so they can learn…

If one can find a skilled electrologist with tools that allow them to move forward with good speed, less sensation and good healing afterwards, then they are spending their money wisely.

I have more to say, but have run out of time.

11

After eleven hours of uninterrupted work, I have one little time to put my two cents. It is absolutely false that the vocational electrologist have a conflict of interest. As you rightly said Dfahey, the better and more quickly remove the hair on our clients, other clients will come soon. Our work is cyclical. Future work for 2010 will depend on the treatments that we completed in 2009. I live in a Mediterranean coastal city, for us the working season begins again on the expiry summer, why? very simple, because when summer arrives clients enjoy the beach without hair on their bodies, often accompanied by her friends and family. As they inevitably discuss how happy they feel with his new hairless skin permanently. That is our real interest.

12

I agree with Dee. When I first happened upon this forum, 8 or 9 months ago,I would have agreed with Galvaniczap, but that was before I began to work with the apilus platinum. It really is superior in every way,and clients skins after treatment, sometimes look like they didn’t have treatment at all.

13

The only one cent I am going to add to this is that although we do advocate upgrading equipment (and that includes the magnification… strange everyone grips about our saying upgrade your machine, but hardly a peep about get better magnification and lighting) we also point out that there is nothing worse than someone with high powered equipment using it incorrectly.

A platinum or SX-500 can shorten the learning curve for a new electrolysis provider, but an old hand dogmatically tapping 3 to 5 times in the follicle using a Platinum is raining Hiroshima on the faces of their clients.

As for thermolysis, I will repeat, many galvanic and blend people will say that it is worse, in the same way that a person who has only driven an automatic transmission car will say that Manual stick transmission cars don’t work, or don’t work as well. The fault lies in the practitioner. It is true that the skills needed for good thermolysis work are different from the skills needed for good galvanic, and good blend. The similarity is that poor performance of any hair removal method will lead to unwanted side effects.

I know very few people who have used a platinum, or SX-500 and got good training on them who don’t love them. In fact, after I did a guest stint at a few practices, the clients demanded the business upgrade to the equipment I was using, or they were going to look elsewhere.

14

From a client perspective, I have had galvanic on an old Gentronics machine, and picoflash/synchro on an Apilus Platinum. I can’t imagine any client preferring the galvanic. It hurts a bit more. It also left much darker and longer lasting red spots (3 weeks to fade instead of 4 days with the Apilus). Nothing bad, but slightly less convenient than the picoflash, and much slower for removing hair.

Do I dislike galvanic? Nope! It did the job, I have no real complaints. But I seriously doubt most clients would ever prefer it to well-performed thermolysis though, and your goal as an electrologist is to give your customer what he/she wants.

I agree that skill is the most important, because a botched thermolysis treatment seems scarier than a botched galvanic treatment. But really, botched ANYTHING shouldn’t be acceptable no matter what the modality, right?

So all other things being equal (including relative skill with their respective machines), most of us will always choose the practitioner with the best/fastest/most comfortable equipment. It is so obvious that I’m shocked there’s really a debate…

15

Whoa Dee…It seems I’ve hit a nerve here. If you read my post I was merely saying, maybe not succinctly enough, that skill is of primary importance and that the machine is secondary. Did I say go out and buy a 1940’s machine and use it…nope.

If you had to have electrolysis done on yourself, would you rather have a person with your expertise using a 1940’s machine or somebody off the street with an Apilus doing the work? Think about it for a while.

I never said computerized epilators weren’t great but merely stated that they can’t make a bad electrologist good. I never said thermolysis doesn’t work but stated facts that have been known and researched since the modality was started in the 1920’s. I’m not saying that every person that uses flash modality will cause skin damage. I’m saying that all things being even, given 1000 sessions with 1000 different electrologists, you will see more skin damage with flash than blend or multiple needle. It all comes down to the skill level of the electrologist. There are simply more things that can go wrong when you treat a hair in 200ms versus 10 seconds. The damage will be done before you even know it. The face would be a bad place for a novice with a flash machine to work on. It seems like everyone is taking this personally. That was not my intent. Just because you can successfully use a flash machine doesn’t mean everyone else can. There are a lot of people out there that should not be using a flash machine. To give someone advice you have to look at the mix of electrologists out there and their expertise, or lack thereof. To tell someone only go to somebody who uses an Apilus or Machine XYZ, because they will do a better job, is plain wrong. It depends on who’s using it.

16

I don’t think anyone ever implied that a novice doing flash thermolysis is a good thing. That’s sort of a straw man argument there. Of course an inexperienced person doing thermolysis is worse than a very experienced person with galvanic. That’s an unfair comparison though. It’s like saying a faulty oven burns food more often than a properly working refrigerator. Yes, the statement is true, but that doesn’t mean we should all bake our meals inside of refrigerators! It just means you use a better oven!

Anytime anyone recommends a certain machine on here, they either state (or assume) that the electrologist is a good one. If the potential client doesn’t know the quality of the electrologist, they are encouraged to have a consultation and find out!

So the four options are: “Good but outdated”, “Bad and outdated”, “Good and state-of-the-art”, “Bad and-state-of-the-art”. Immediately we discard those who are bad (regardless of modality). Thus we are left with good thermolysis or good galvanic, and it’s no contest.

17

It looks as if we’re in agreement. If you read my original post and the reply, there are no points of contention in my statements or yours. Skill comes first then the machine. When anyone says find an electrologist with an Apilus and discard all others you are putting machine first and skill second.

The discussion really isn’t about flash vs galvanic but flash vs blend. There can be compelling arguments made over the merits of both. Since ineptitude is the norm and not the exception, flash has it’s place but is overused.

18

LAgirl has been around here for a long time. She is our top poster. Anyone reading enough of her posts understand that skill matters most. That applies to James and myself as well. New members automatically get it,too, without being told. It’s a “DUH” kind of thing.

There are some electrologists who are still writing articles about physics as it relates to 27 megahertz technology vs. 13.56 megahertz electrolyis epilators to disprove that one model is better than another model. Now we are back to flash thermolysis (as you think of it, galvanic, from the old days) verses galvanic or blend for our poster Emily who is seeking facial hair removal.

You did hit a nerve with me, galvaniczap, because Emily might think that blend or galvanic would be the the best and only way to go to resolve her hair problem when in fact, she could be well served with a skilled electrologist that has retooled and can offer a first full clearance quickly with one of the advanced forms of thermolysis offered on several epilator brands and models. It is not uncommon for modern electrolgists to totally clear chins, necks, sides of faces and maybe more in one long session. Many of us know this already and for those that don’t now and never want to know, they are welcome to continue with whatever they are doing well. Consumers should know what is possible and shop until they find it.

Now back to our subject:

Emily, please come back with more detail. If the only electrologist you can see prefers one modality over another, just know that you will still get permanent hair removal. That is the beautiful thing about electrolysis. There are many paths to “killing a hair” under the big term called ‘Electrolysis’. Keep your mind open to what an electrologist can do with the better tools and modes within modalities.

There are clues that will be present that will alert you if you think you may need to get other consults, as hard as that may be for you living in a small community. Do give the electrologist a chance to do her thing, but don’t discount her if she chooses to do thermolysis only. Let us know of any concerns or questions you have as a newbie and we will all try to help you figure this out as best we can.

Dee