My next appointment is a few days out. Three semi coarse hairs recently appeared at the corner of my upper lip, but otherwise all growth has been thin dark hair that grows very slowly. Honestly that type of hair doesn’t bother me and I could live with it. My chin has around 20 coarse dark hairs total right now, vs in patches like before. They are very fast growing and need to be trimmed a couple times per day.
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It’s been two days since my 12th hour/24th session of electrolysis. I’m having a lot of pustules and scabbing, although I realized I used my regular anti-aging facial cleanser vs the typical post-treatment tea tree cleanser I’ve had some good results with which probably contributed.
If next month is similar or better than this past months growth I will feel like I’m finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. 
My photo of chin growth from March was around 2/3rds more than I had this month.
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Next appointment is tomorrow. Not too many hairs at all, there are two annoying thick ones on my upper lip—one on each side, plus a few thick ones in my chin, then the thin and medium ones are scattered about. Im booked for 30 minutes but wondering how she’ll fill the time since growth seems to finally be slowing. I’m coming up on 18 months in September.
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If you get through the full time, you might consider treating another area. Maybe a few brow hairs that are far outside your eyebrow shape. Some people do hairs that get ingrown, or hairs around the nipples. Be sure to use good pain management when trying a new area.
Andrea, my provider suggested this however I have decided once I am done with my face I will be done with electrolysis (until I get my menopause chin hairs 
). There are other areas on my body for sure could benefit from electrolysis but they don’t bother me so much as the facial hair did. It would be good to get a few eyebrow hairs zapped here and there though. Since starting electrolysis I have spent so little time tweezing I let my brows grow to their natural shape (remember overtweezed brows of the 90s and 00s? That was me!) and they are pretty low maintenance.
Almost a week and a half ago was my 25th/30 min session putting me at 12.5 hours of electrolysis. She finished early and I had tweezed a few brow hairs prior so there wasn’t anything to clean up there with the extra time. My face redness cleared up within hours and pustules were minimal—two or three on my chin. We booked another half hour six weeks out (we had done two months of five weeks apart prior) and she believes soon we should reduce to 15 minute appointments. I decided I should start slipping my provider some extra money since I am coming less often because of her good work. 
Anyone reading and thinking about starting (I read every treatment diary on here prior to starting and during the early months) I am telling you electrolysis works! It works slowly but it works!
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Sounds as if time to drop to 15 minute sessions is coming soon! Yay!
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Next session is a week out. (18months/13 hours). Hair is still growing in but I can sense now it’s lessening. Other than a few thicker ones they are all thin and slow growing. There are a few dark ones but it’s tolerable. I actually have not trimmed them a few times because makeup seems to make them invisible unless you are up close with a magnifying mirror, and no one is. One big positive of our spaced out sessions is my PIH seems to have lightened a lot since last session. I have used the silicone scar strips a few times to help raise some dents- I’ve been impressed with how well they work on helping skin texture!
I haven’t updated in a while, had my last session five weeks ago with one week left until my next. Didn’t use the full 30 minutes during my last, my provider is asking about moving to additional areas which I understand from a business standpoint, but I just want my face done—I couldn’t imagine doing another two years of electrolysis. I have very few hairs left, maybe four medium thickness dark hairs total and ten total thin dark chin hairs, and the darker peach fuzz keeps coming back on my upper lip but it’s patchy. I am enjoying the couple weeks of my PIH being very light now that I’m on a 6 week schedule, it would be great to move to 8 week so I could look even better. 
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Had another session yesterday putting me at 13.5 hours. I had one coarse chin hair pop up which was treated, and yesterday has a lot of the fine dark hairs near my nose done which was rough. I’m very scabbed over today and kinda feeling down in the dumps because despite all the progress that’s been made it feels like it will never be finished. At the rate we’ve been going I’ll finish two years soon and start a third. I am happy with the reduction but I’ve always envisioned there was an end and it doesn’t appear that way.
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So it sounds like you have progressed well, even though you only had 13.5 hours of electrolysis in a span of 2 years. There are 17,520 hours in two years and you have made good progress with 13.5 hours of care.
The end comes, but may I underscore an important fact: You or your electrologist cannot STOP your hormonal body from stimulating NEW hair over your woman timeline, if you are one of those hormonally vulnerable women. You just have to stay on top of this, treat as new hair appears and accept that as an unpleasant first world problem. The good news is, as you treat hairs, you reduce the amount of hairs populating the area and may eventually run out of hair. You are born with a fixed amount of hair follicles. Your body cannot create more hair follicles.
Had another 30 minute session mid December, with a lot of growth. I left not clear which was upsetting. I am just now getting some more growth since that appointment and I have a few weeks before I go back. My next appointment following that will put me at two years of treatment and not looking to be completed any time soon as I go into year three. I remember my provider telling me last spring she thought I’d be at 15 minute appointments by now and here I am wondering if I should be going more often, or at what point do I just take a break or give up?
I would want to see a full clearance every single time, otherwise, not doing so can prolong the process.
Jendv ,
I want to talk about something possibly related to your electrolysis treatment, and that is your hormonal health. I’m afraid I missed something over the nearly 2 years of posts from you, due to being just a tad too busy with my own business and clients, but the key I think is way back in the original post . I think Dee has alluded to this at times as well.
When you started this journey, you alluded to quite a bit of damage and skin reaction and I think we answered those questions as best we could but there is something we missed. Why would it be that you have these course dark hairs growing in two half dollar sized patches on each side of your chin, as well as hair spreading out from these areas onto lip and other areas? While this can occur from plucking ( which was evident in your first post) it’s a bit of a chicken and egg scenario, which came first, the course hairs, or the plucking? Usually plucking is reactionary to the growth of course hairs. Something caused those course hairs in the first place to become course growth phase hairs. That something, can sometimes be genetiic predisposition, but in the majority of cases where I see that particular description ( two course patches on either side of the chin and expanding hair around the face) it’s indicative of an excess amount of Androgen ( primarily di-hydra-testosterone) and the most common cause for that, can often be poly cystic ovarian syndrome. This can be linked to type 2 diabetes, and is sometimes controlled through antiandrogenic drugs, or birth control drugs.
The way that PCOS ( which by the way is an extremely common affliction affecting many electrolysis clients) is diagnosed, is generally though a blood test to determine if excess androgens are present in the blood stream followed up by a ultrasound of the ovaries if an excess is found.Be warned, not all doctors can or will diagnose PCOS, since the endocrine system can be complicated to adjust, and they recieve limited training in medical school. So some are reluctant to diagnose PCOS even if it’s present.
If you are doing electrolysis, it’s highly likely that you ARE in fact making progress against the hair , but new hairs are being stimulated constantly from follicles that never bore hairs previously. As stated by Dee you do not grow "new " hair follicles, but with androgens in the bloodstream follicles that never grew hair before, may begin to do so. I liken it to trying to empty a swimming pool with a teacup, while across the pool some joker is sitting there with a garden hose running.
So where do you go from here? Well to start with, dont stop doing electrolysis nor let yourself get disheartened. Second, DO seek medical assistance with this problem, have your family doctor do some bloodwork and follow up with an endocrinologist if required.
Hopefully, this is helpful.
Seana
I’ve had my hormone levels checked quite a few times over the past 11 years and everything always comes back in the normal range which has been frustrating, but they have seen small cysts on ultrasounds but my issues have been so minimal that I’ve never been diagnosed.
I had a session the last week of January and one Mid March, both 30 minutes and both used only 20ish minutes of time. My provider was going to give it one more session of under 30 minutes and then recommend that I cut down to 15 minute sessions. If that isn’t progress I don’t know what is. As far as electrolysis luck has it, I had my last session days before everything shut down because of the Coronavirus. My next appointment was scheduled for the last week of April but that had been cancelled due to the shut down. I don’t know when things will open back up and when I’ll be able to have my next Appointment . I also have been laid off from my job so will somehow have to squirrel some money away for when I can get to go back. I wanted to be done so badly, but not like this. I hope this doesn’t set my treatment back too much. I have maybe six dark hairs that have grown and I’m worried we will miss treating those ones. 
I just had my first treatment in six months yesterday. I’m fully cleared and it feels amazing! I was worried my skin might react harshly to treatment after going without for so long, but today it’s just a bit red. To think, six months went by and I only had a few hairs to treat is pretty awesome.
I am going to enjoy not clipping those annoying couple chin hairs every day!
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Hey dude, just wanted to say with the PCOS - i also had my bloodwork done and my hormones were on the high end of the scale but not outside of the normal range, and i had cysts present on the ultrasound. To diagnose PCOS you need at least 2/3 of the following:
- Hormones outside of the normal range
- Cysts found on the ovaries with the ultra sound
- Physical symptoms such as obesity, excess hair growth, acne etc
The GP said he couldn’t diagnose it on the basis that my hormones weren’t out of the normal range, despite the ultrasound results strongly indicating PCOS. I got a second opinion with an endo and he said i absolutely do have PCOS, and he explained the hormones being within the normal range like this;
The ‘normal’ range is just that - a range. If the range runs from 1-4 for example(depending on what test / units of measurements etc), then you could score a 2 and be right in the middle of the “normal” range. However if YOUR normal level is 1, then a score of 2 is twice the amount of testosterone for your body and can wreak havoc without alerting red flags on a blood test.
I would get a second opinion from an endocrinologist because if you do have PCOS and it is untreated then follicles will continue to activate until you run out of follicles and you’ll forever be playing catch up with electrolysis. Iluv2rap is right, doctors are often reluctant or not confident in diagnosing PCOS, unfortunately like many conditions specific to women it is under researched and under diagnosed - if there’s cysts on the ultrasound that leaves room for doubt to me.
Also thank you for all the time and effort you’ve clearly put into this thread, it’s really helpful reading back on it 
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How many days after a electrolysis treatment can you apply face moisturizer to that area?
JENDV523 please keep are posted. Im about to start my electrolysis journey (or so I’m hoping for) and I really find your post helpful. Have a lovely Christmas 
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It’s been quite a while! I have had two more treatments since my last post, one in November and one this morning, both 30 minutes. I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for three years, although in 2020 I believe I only had 4 sessions/2 hours total of treatment. I have really slacked in my treatment logging time but I have to be around 16+ hours of treatment at this point. I have had a few stubby thick hairs grow in but the rest have been pretty thin and lighter. The thicker ones grow quicker than the others so I clip those, then use derma planing over most of my face to remove peach fuzz and the thinner darker hairs, which grow slower. I wanted to share a pic I snapped in my car mirror before my appointment; in comparison with my stubble pics from 2019 it’s a big improvement.
As far as moisturizer after treatment, I’m feeling pretty rusty with my post electrolysis skincare. I usually do nothing other than wipe with witch hazel if I’m concerned about bacteria. I wash my face with a tea tree natural face wash from Trader Joe’s that night, and use Cetaphil light moisturizer. I try not to touch my face at all to keep bacteria off the area. If there are pustules the next day I just give them a dab of witch hazel and continue on with my regular skincare routine, but don’t use any harsher treatments until the area has healed.
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Wow! I’m still waiting to start my treatment. (Sadly in Northern Ireland we are still in lockdown 
) Your picture from last post gives me hope. Thank you so much for posting it. 
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