Our Progress

Hi Everybody! My fiancee Sibylla and I are diving into electrology for a couple of reasons. Siby never had the time/funds before now to get much more than a few sessions of electrolysis in and she’s sick of having to shave every day that she is going to leave the house. I am at a place in my life where I am ready for a career change. (I worked in a small town bookstore that is slowly failing) When we realized how few electrologists there were within reasonable driving distance we were shocked. What if they weren’t trans friendly? What if we just didn’t think they were a good fit? We didn’t have options and I did not like that. So we bought a professional machine and as it turns out I’ve got a knack for this electrolysis thing. Once I’ve got Siby cleared I am going to look into licensing and getting the word out in the community. BUT for now:
I am going to keep track of our progress here. idk if she’ll let me post pics…
Today we went from 5:30pm till 8:00pm doing galvanic for the first half and then dabbled a bit with blend. I think I got the hang of it.

Sibylla is a very lucky girl. Not only will she get her face hairless at very little cost, but she doesnt have to try and do the insertions on herself. That’s a big advantage over what I faced.
It will seem like the hair never ends, but it will. There will always be more hairs that COULD be zapped. I did 100’s of hours while the kids were in school, sometimes upwards of 40 a week.Your aim will get better and your judgement on depth will get better.

There will be times that having enough hair showing for you to zap will play havoc with her dysphoria, especially if she is presenting female every day.

Here’s something I almost never ever show, but I’ll do so now as a little bit of inspiration for Sibylla. The first link is me just over seven years ago, the day my youngest son was born.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/66437553/07-06-19%20021.jpg
And this one was taken last night :
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/66437553/IMG_1436.JPG
There you go, proof posative electrolysis works :slight_smile:

Seana

Thank You for the inspiration pics! I know I’ve not posted much but I have been kind of lurking, reading tips as we’ve gone along.

We have been getting a lot of work done since my last post and my speed is waaaay up. We’ve been working more with therm lately. I wasn’t thrilled with blend, perhaps I had my settings off or my insertions weren’t perfect but she had too much sensation. We also figured out (kind of tearfully) how much difference not drinking caffeine, being hydrated and well rested makes for pain levels. SO very important.
Any who. So far we’ve done 24 hours. The machine has officially paid for itself. And the benefits to Sibylla’s happiness made it worthwhile from the start :slight_smile: I get all in the zen zone and the next thing I know the timer is going off and it’s time to stop. It’s very satisfying work.

You are in a different situation from me. You see, you are working on Sibylla, rather than Sibylla working on herself. I dont think that I used a whole lot of thermolysis on myself ever because I think that kill rate depends largely on an accuracy of insertion that isnt all that feasible with the method that must be followed to work on ones-self.
You’ll have to let me know how doing mostly thermolysis, starting as an amatuer, works out for you and Sibylla in terms of regrowth rates.I’d be very curious to know.

Pain and discomfort levels can be higher with blend.I’ve had to suck it up and just be a big girl and bear it for some areas. The center of the neck around the adams apple is very painful spot I found.
Why are you working with a timer if it’s just you and her? Or is this because you are keeping track? I always worked until I reached my pain tolerance or got tired, or had to attend to my children or other obligations. To be honest, I didnt want to know how many hours it took, I just know that being an amatuer I didnt hold my kill rate up for comparison with that of the professionals. I didnt see it as relevant.I’m not being critical, if it is something that is of importance to you, but I didnt see the comparison as useful. I just put the hours necessary to remove the hair.
I often reused probes on myself over days at a time, as long as I didnt bend them. This saved me some money, but there is a risk of contamination of the follicle by doing this. I have a pill bottle I put all my used probes in from me and my clients. It’s quite a few probes over time. You will probably want a lot of f4 and f5 probes if you can manage them, especially if you are working in thermolysis a lot. Bigger the probe, the more even your heat distribution will be.

EDIT! I wanted to point out something with the photo I posted earlier of the day my son was born specifically this picture:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/66437553/07-06-19%20021.jpg

. At that time, I was still often presenting female on a very regular basis, but hadnt transitioned. At the time this picture was taken though, I was plucking my brows. See the big dark hairs extending almost down to the eyelid? THAT IS THE RESULT OF PLUCKING. I still do it , in fact because I havent started electrolysis there.But if you are one of these peole like me, that plucks your brows for years on end, this is what happens. Not really relavant to your post, but I thought it would be a good demonstration picture for people to see.If you pluck, you will get larger thicker hairs where there were none before.
Seana

I don’t know where id be with this if i was trying to do my own face. You have serious skills and tenacity.

Im not sure about the regrowth with us using therm, since we haven’t honestly been doing this for long. Meeshell’s skill however has improved quite a bit though in that time. I rarely feel the insertion and as long as the hair isn’t curly it comes out without any tug or sensation. Now she is starting to pick up speed as well. We’ve gone from doing <60 hairs per hour to over 130.

As for the timer thing. It is mostly an ergonomic thing. we take a break after an hour and stretch. Im super fidgety as well and giving myself a goal keeps me from jumping off the table every 10 minutes. Meeshell also likes keeping a journal of the times and settings.

Meeshell, any suggestions for DIY magnification/lighting?

Thanks!

If working on others, as much magnification as yyou can get, Lighting is more a matter or practise with direction and types. I have done it mostly with a amgnifying lighted loop, but many prefer medical microscopes.
For DIY,as strong a magnifyig mirror as you can manage ( I think mine is about 10X?) .
Ergonomics, that is how you work is just as if not more important.

I’ve been using a type of magnifying lens that clips onto my glasses. They weren’t very spendy, maybe $15 on amazon. Search for daylight clip-on spectacle magnifier. They are good for starting out so far any way… Unless you’re working on yourself. I doubt these would be of any use if that’s the case. (sorry)

As for lighting we have been using a variety of things. I have a very bright desk lamp that is extremely adjustable that sits on my roll-ee table that we have the machine set up on as well as a shop light that we suspended from the kitchen ceiling, dropped down right over Sibylla and then we retract it back up when we aren’t working on electrolysis. That being said, I’m not thrilled with the lighting set up and we’ve been brainstorming for a better solution. We bought a halogen lamp and oh sweet lordy it’s way way way too hot to work anywhere near. I’ll share more when I figure that one out!

A lot of it really does depend on the ergonomics of how you are working Meeshell.

I got a chance a while ago to try some loops as you describe that were used by a professional electrologist. These were expensive optics, around $5000 if I recall correctly. They included a battery pack operated LED light in them.

One thing I noticed immediately about them, is they had a focal length of about 18 inches or so. If you had your working surface closer than that it was out of focus or not magnified correctly. Now, this pro had a hydraulic bench that was only about a foot and a half off the floor, roughly even with the chair she was sitting in’s seat. Which means she was working at lap level. For her setup, this is IDEAL! It means she isnt lifting and holding her arms in order to work, just looking down and doing the work almost in her lap. For the ergonomics of how she works, she has greatly reduced muscle strain.
Now compare that to how I work. I use a doctors bench, sit on a high stool, and my work is much closer to face level. I’m trying to avoid bending over as much, but I pay for that with strain in the shoulders. If I had to maintain a 18 inch distance from my subject, I would also have to extend my arms a lot more. My ergonomics are not ideal, but my equipment was all picked up low cost, and it was what I could come up with. So for me an optical loop circle lamp, with it’s closer focal length, works much better.

So, every magnification and lighting is unique to the ergonomics of the work area. Those ergonomics mean a BIG DEAL to how long or effectively you an work as an electrologist.The best advice I can give you is the most magnification you can get, with some good strong lighting you are ble to control the direction of. LED and fluorescent seem to work well .

Seana