Hi,
Just a few questions. Im a 26 year old male. I just wanted to ask if a DIY machine really does exist which can offer permanent solution. How much do they cost? Are they suitable for males too? Is it tricky to use them ? Thank u all for your input <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
Yes, pretty much any machine with a probe “can” offer a permanent solution if used correctly. They start from $30 for a One Touch to several thousand for the pro machines. Male hair is killed just like Female hair. How “Tricky” they are is really dependent on your own aptitude in learning the required skills. For me it was easy, for some it is impossible. Tips at http://www.geocities.com/hairfreethere/
So, a product more expensive than 30$ would give me faster results? Or will it just remove my hair more than one hair at a time? Thanks again.
All probe electrolysis is one hair at a time (there are also multi-probe units, but still each probe just treats one at a time).
There are various flavors of electrolysis which demand different treatment times to be effective, ranging from less than a second to over a minute per hair.
The $30 units use the slowest method (Galvanic) and typically you’ll spend 15 seconds to 45 seconds applying current to each hair, depending on the thickness and depth of hair and your own tolerance to pain (dial it down to a reasonable comfort level and in return you give it more time to get effective treatment). However, you are also less likely to do damage to yourself from improper treatment as compared to the faster methods.
The $30 units work, but are not made robustly and will break prematurely. Most people will get frustrated with the time required and the skill needed to be learned of sliding a probe precisely down a follicle and figuring out just how much current and time is required, so the units usually only need to last longer than that frustration period. Pro units can last much longer (as will the home made unit discussed at the link I provided previously), whether using Galvanic or a faster modality. Using a faster modality on a Pro unit requires more education to use them properly or you can do some serious skin damage.
hmm,thanx for the fatcs sir. can one do a treatment oneself on the upper arms? Please if you could tell me a good DIY electrolysis aparatus that i can use which also requires less and uncomplicted knowledge. Cause inserting the probe into the hair follicle sounds rather complicating. Is the probe liek a needle, that it goes deep in the skin, or its liek acupuncture and just stays on the surface?
Thanks again.
The probe does not go deep in the skin and is also not like acupuncture. The probe goes into an existing opening, the pore in your skin that the hair protrudes from. This is how the killing energy is directed to the base of the follicle in order to destroy the root of the hair. Follicles generally range from 1 mm to 4 mm in depth and the probe should not be inserted past the depth of the follicle.
If inserting a probe into a hair follicle is too complicated for you, then there is no DIY apparatus available to you. You must then seek the services of a professional, either electrolysis or laser.
One can do DIY on the upper arms, but only a probe type device will give the desired results.
A side note here. Working on your upper arms is going to get awkward at some point when trying to reach all parts of the arm. For such an area its a good idea to have a buddy to help with the awkward angles.
Jason
I’ve had no trouble treating any part of my arms with the aid of a wall mirror. However you may need to be somewhat flexible and not obese to reach all areas on your own with the proper insertion angle, so your mileage may vary. Trying to treat any area of the back by oneself has not proven feasible.
well, im not obese. Im 5 feet 11 and 160 lbs. Its just that how can one see the so teny tiny pore and insert the probe perfectly into it?
The answer to that question is why one looks for a good professional.
You would need to resort to the same aids that the professionals do, eyewear that magnifies. I was able to get by with some $1.50 reading glasses (1.75 power I think), although you can spend hundreds of dollars on loupes to help in those areas that you can’t get your head close enough to or requires greater magnification at a different focal length. Good lighting is also helpful.
For the upper arms, standing in front of a mirror can bring the distance between the eyes and the treated area to just the right distance for reading glasses. But everyone’s eyes are different and you may need something better.
If your eyes are not good enough (or can not be improved enough via magnification aids) and your hand coordination is not accurate or steady enough to slide a needle down a pore in your skin, then you should not try to DIY.
One could also take our alternate advise and work with a partner and do work on each other. It really is easier to work on someone else than it is to work on oneself.
Gosh, you know, I keep hearing this “find a partner for DIY”. How would one do that and why would you want some inexperienced person to work on you?
My wife refuses to have electrolysis after her initial experience with a pro that was poorly trained. And she’s said “Don’t be asking me to put any needles in you”. So what, do I start knocking on neighbors doors and say, “Hey, you wanna poke me and turn on some electricity while you’re at it?”.
Although I can certainly see that one can more easily position oneself over a work area on another person as compared to oneself, I find this advice of working with a partner very rare to be able to put into practice. If I’m going to have to spend my time and someone else’s time, I might as well just go to a pro. The beauty of DIY, is that I can do it on my own time, at the spur of the moment. With a partner or pro, you’ve got to schedule something ahead of time.
For couples that are both into learning DIY, then they’ve got a great opportunity. For everyone else, I think this advice is a ruse to turn them towards a pro.
Anyone out there actually found a partner?
A Ruse To Turn Them On To A Pro?
Come on now, be serious.
This is only about correctly answering the question of what should one do. First choice, get work done by a competent professional (as opposed to an incompetent person who happens to get paid for their incompetence). Second choice, DIY with a partner, as the work will go faster, and be of better quality than… Third choice, Self work with poor insertions, and at a lower speed.
If you can’t see why that is, then I can’t make it real to you. Do you understand that doing self electrolysis is almost like doing self dental work?
First off, I am always serious.
No, I don’t see that at all. Doing self dental work would be hard because of the fixed location of the eyes and the teeth. If the teeth were on my knee instead of in my mouth, why would it be much harder to do self dental work (for someone that knows what they are doing) than compared to working on someone else.
I’ve removed thousands of hairs with self work. If I were doing poor insertions, I think this could not have been accomplished. Since I know how to do good insertions, I can do them at the same speed as working on someone else. Maybe I have a better talent at working through a mirror than most (or maybe it’s just from practice), but it seems just as easy to me to insert via a reflection as it would working straight, such as on a knee. So if one looks at the time invested, having a partner takes twice as long because you have to take turns doing what usually could be accomplished by one.
From first hand experience, I can’t accept your statements that self electrolysis is of lower quality than working with a partner. Since I know I can do quality work, how can I be assured that a stranger with no experience is going to do an equal or better job?
DIY implies by ones self (isn’t that what the Y stands for?). If I were a beginning car mechanic, it’s one thing to practice on my own car and make some mistakes along the way as I learn and improve. Quite another to go to the neighbors car to learn on and screw it up.
Yes there are areas that it is like self dental work, such as under the chin where the location is fixed to the eyes and thus tricky to do even with a mirror. There are other areas such as the back that are just impossible to reach. For these situations it would be nice to have a clone of myself. However there are many other areas (feet, legs, genital, chest, arms, underarms) that are mostly accessible by the DIYer and having a partner would basically tie up the time of two people to do the same job.
And you never really answered the question of how one finds a partner. I would imagine that some do DIY because they prefer to keep this procedure private; this disappears with a partner and even with a pro. Some do it because of time constraints: they may have an hour free at 9 p.m. after all the daily activities have been put to rest, but no one else (including a pro) might be available at that same time, especially when unscheduled and just discovered as available. Some do it to save money and can’t afford a pro, but can squeeze in an hour here and there and make progress even though progress is slow; but working with a partner can make that process twice as long and twice as problematic to synchronize schedules. Most DIY are starting from scratch and are willing to take the risk of some damage as they learn the skills; maybe not so willing to put others at risk.
So if you were to throw out the main reasons for DIY, I still don’t know how one would begin to find a partner without being really embarrassed and still get quality results (e.g. ask friends, knock on doors, put out ads in the paper?); seems like an intimate request for most. Thus, it would seem the only reasonable alternative would be to go to a pro, thus my insinuation that “working with a partner”, seems like a ruse.
For those that already have a willing and capable partner for those tricky areas, my congratulations.
Even you admit there are places one needs some one else to do. That is the point.
Actually, James, that is not the point.
SpaceMunkee suggested a buddy for some parts of the arm and I said that a mirror can do the trick.
Then khiz says he has trouble seeing tiny pores and your answer is to seek a professional. I suggested magnification and good lighting.
You then come up with several reasons why a partner should be employed, none which affect the original problem of working on one’s arm.
Yet, it’s always ignored as to how one would find a partner. Professionals can be found via many sources due to their advertising, but the proposed alternative of a partner is delicate and difficult, if not impossible. But rather than suggesting how this could actually be accomplished, you sidestep it with dental analogies and the obvious fact that not all places can be done DIY solo. So without an answer, but a suggestion to look for a professional, it (the suggestion of a partner) still seems like an effort to disillusion people from DIY and towards professionals (which you’ve done 4 times in this post already).
My point is that it is possible for some people to successfully perform DIY. Your drive obviously is to cut that list as short as possible as quickly as possible. I try to provide people that are considering DIY with answers that can allow them to consider the possibility. You try to steer them towards professionals. I just want everyone to be aware of their options and not be lead to not move forward at all because a professional slyly convinced them to only follow one path.
How to find a partner.
ASK!
There are many people here with the same problem.
There are folks near and dear to you known as friends and family.
It is no different from any other thing you need help with.
No, there is not a “Match.com” for electrolysis partners, but since 9 out of 10 people in the world want some hair removed from some place, the number of people who would be willing to work together and trade work with each-other would seem to be quite large. Does that make it any easier to ASK? Maybe not, but it is still the only way to get it done.
Hi I am new here and interested in self electrolysis. I would be happy to work with a partner on this if anyone is in the West Virginia or Virginia areas of the USA. I am also shopping for an electrolysis device that I can use which is dependable and not too expensive.
I also have a question, and that is, I am on Hormones for gender dysphoria (estradiol) I am a M2F preop trasnsexual
I know my hormones are supposed to lower the amount of body hair but my physician deos not know how much or when. I do see some slowing of hair growth and lightening of color but not enough. What I have gotten though was body fat relocation and some budding breasts. Actally as I am now a full B cup and still growing quite a lot I would say more than budding.
My question is of course shold I wait longer or persue electrolysis now>
It has been my experience that many hairs on the body (chest) simply get thinner in diameter, but stay long. If you would find that to be a problem, then you should get some work done. If your money is tight, you may want to spend more time on the face work than the body.
Good luck finding an electrolysis partner. Make sure you both read Mike Bono’s The Blend Method: Real World Electrolysis available from Texas Electrolysis supply via phone order.