Personal Cost Estimate -- Help?

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
#1

Hello,

I’m a male considering some professional electrolysis treatment on certain areas of the body am I would like to have a general estimate of the overall price required to achieve the results I’m looking for. I’m actually not near any electrologists at the moment because I’m in college in a fairly small town, so I’m hoping that – while an in-person consultation would obviously be better – someone here might be able to give me a rough estimate.

First my goals: I would like to be hair free on the neck (front and back), the torso, the arms down to the elbows, with pubic area refined and thigh hair refined such that it “fades” into the knee area. I would also like hair free hands and feet, as well as refined eyebrows which would include removing some soft (though dark) hair from the sides of my forehead and my upper cheekbone. I would also consider beard removal, but am as of yet undecided about that. (At any rate I can’t grow a full beard – only some frontal growth and sideburns.)

Now I would describe myself as, for a man, “lightly moderately hairy”. I do not grow a full beard, and while I have hair on my hands and my feet it is not particularly thick or “bushy”. I have what many call a tiger strip going down my chest and belly, which leads down into a somewhat (though not extremely) ambitious pubic area that encompasses my inner thighs and, to a lesser degree, my rear as well. The tiger stripe itself is “lightly moderate” by many standards – from a short distance I don’t really seem hairy at all, while upclose the hair seems only lightly moderate.

My belly hair is not incredibly thick but is unruly – in fact, I feel that if it were thicker it would know better what to do with itself so to speak, for as it stands it is not “solid” enough for the various strains of hair to fully flow together into the common fractal pattern around the belly button and instead their is a general “shooting out” of light to medium strands and stray hairs. I also have moderate hair growth around my nipples.

Now the most challenging thing in terms of electrolysis could be the fact that, while I don’t have intense hair growth anywhere, I do seem to have light to moderate black hair growth everywhere. In fact, I would say that the only areas of my body that do not have black hair growth to a lighter or thicker degree are the undersides of my arms and certain portions of my neck, hands, face and feet. Aside from my rear area, which again has moderate hair, the remainder of my back is simply faintly hairy – but again this is virtually all black hair. So, based on these unfortunately non-visual indications, might someone be able to offer me a general estimate of the cost for achieving the sort of hair removal I elaborated on above? Any other advice?

Thanks! :slight_smile:

#2

It is almost impossible to make an estimate on the cost on the base of the informations You gave us. As electrologists treat each hair individually, any cost estimate is based on an estimate on the total number of hairs to be removed, an estimate on the achieveable rate, which depends on the actual growth pattern, the epilation method and the skills of the electrologist, and the fee of the practitioner, usually something like epilation time per hour.

Anyway: my feeling from the info You gave is that in Your case electrolysis might actually be less costy than laser treatments, simply because the areas to be treated are large and there seem to be relatively few hairs per unit of area. What You consider “the most challenging thing in terms of electrolysis” is actually not challenging at all; it leads to my feeling of a posssible cost advantage of electrolysis over laser. Anyway, it depends on the details.

Please let me suggest that You supply pictures, and maybe someone can do better time estimates.

Beate

#3

Hi:

I will estimate 50,000-100,00 dollars.

Truthfully nobody can really estimate that unless they actually saw you. It would be easier to estimate how much one area might take in terms of the number of hours and multiply that by the hourly fee. Just as an example, they estimate the average man’s beard takes 200 hours of work.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you are still young and the effects of hormones are still going to work on you for a number of years. That means you will probably find that being moderately hairy now, might mean you will be even more hairy as you grow older and more hair follicles become stimulated.

You would be best to concentrate on one area that is really bothersome and see what it takes in terms of time and cost before you consider such an ambitious undertaking as you’ve described.

Alicia

#4

I have to agree that it is not possible to even ball park this one. Some of my clients can do full beard removal off the face and neck for $5,000 from start to finish. Others need much more than that.

While the number of hairs per square centimeter is less on the body than on the face, it takes more time per hair to treat, as one needs to move around to do each hair. The two balance out so that while there is more space on your back, it may be possible to clear the back for less than the cost of clearing the face, due to the density of the hair counts.

You need to find a few reliable practitioners and do sample treatments and get some ball park estimates based on that. I think you should get one area under control before you move on to the next area. It would be impracticable to try to do a full first clearance on your entire body before moving an area into maintenance phase.

#5

Thanks for the replies. In light of the numerous claims that nothing really concrete could be given in terms of even a ballpark figure without visual reference, I’ve put together a fairly extensive photo gallery of my body while staying within the realm of modesty. It can be found here: http://www.majhost.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=235158

For some explanation: photos 2499 and 2500 are showing my chest from two separate angles; photo 2501 is showing some inner thigh hair – but I did in fact trim that a few days ago as an experiment of sorts; photos 2513 through 2525 are of my rear and lower back; 2527 is actually a mystery to me; 2528 through 2535 are photos of my back; 2540 through 2544 are (obviously) the back of my neck; 2545 and 2546 are photos of my upper back and shoulders with a downward view of the rest of the back; and lastly 2550 and 2552 are, clearly, my feet. Each of the images should be of quite a good resolution, so do zoom in to see what I’m talking about in terms of hair thickness and distribution.

Now lighting does, as any photographer will tell you, drastically alter the perceivable details of a given photograph, but comparing the various photos should give a pretty good idea of the density and “spread” of my body hair. The only areas I don’t feel I was really accurately able to photograph were my upper arm and shoulder areas as well as my hands, but you should get a fairly complete idea of the affair…

#6

Although you will be able to clear noticeable areas with a few hundred dollars, you appear to need to be able to invest a few thousand to start, and $20,000 as a minimum for full completion on your body. It may end up totaling more than that depending on who you do your work with. Obviously, some practitioners would give you discounts based on prepayments, so that could temper the total costs involved. Depending on what state you are in, you may even be able to work out a deal with a recent student, or graduate and get the sale of the century.

#7

You can estimate this yourself by:

  1. Counting the number of hairs in a small area. Then estimating how many areas of that size you have to treat to figure out the number of hairs visible at any time.

  2. Multiply the number of hairs by 3 since you can only see about 30% of all the hair you actually have at any given point due to hair cycles.

  3. Estimate that an average electrologist removes 5-10 hairs per minute. Divide the number of hairs you got in #2 by 5 to be conservative.

That’s how many minutes (figure out number of hours) you’ll need to pay for. You’ll have to go in for treatments for about 12-18 months on any one area, about once every 3-4 weeks.

You should also make sure to do long treatments up front to clear the area, so that you’re only killing the new hairs that popped up every 3-4 weeks and constantly remain pretty hairless.

#8

If possible, you may want to consider going the DIY route for some body areas. Mainly if you have someone willing to learn and work on you with a professional quality machine.
I am having a pro do face and a few other areas including back and upper arms/shoulders. I have a pro machine and will work on my own legs/feet/lower arms and eventually torso.
Just a thought since you want so much done. J

#9

Here’s another question: if I wanted to maintain some portion of my chest hair and possibly just refine the hair of the front of my lower frontal torso so that I had a “gentler” tiger stripe (which would include removing the hair around my nipples, likely), while still removing all hair from the upper arms, shoulders, neck, hands, feet, as well as refining on the one hand my pubic and thigh hair and on the other my eyebrows and the faint hair here and there on my face, what might a rough estimate be? (I have moderately thick eyebrows, which “spread” above and below a bit, and have a just a bit of hair growth between the eyebrows; I also have slight hair growth on my temple areas.)

Consult the photo gallery again for reference, of course.

#10

Would someone be so kind as to answer my second questions? Thanks!

#11

Once again, hair is removed one by one. You have to estimate this yourself assuming an electrologist can remove 5-10 hairs per minute. Each person has different hair density. You may have 20 hairs in a square inch and someone else may have 100 hairs in a square inch. So your cost estimates for the same area would be completely different.

If you want just a reduction in density and to make the hair finer on any one area with coarse hair, you should treat that area with laser first.

#12

Most of your hairs are not great candidates for the laser, except the underarms (can be seen in the photo number 2500).

I can give you an estimate based on my personal capacity, but as you said Lagirl, this will depend on the experience of your electrologist, the machinery used, your sensitivity to pain and sensitivity of your skin (which incidentally is very beautiful).

What we see in the picture 2500, chest, areolas and line the stomach to above the navel, a maximum of 3 hours for the first clearance, 60 minutes for the second if done at 4 months from the first, and 15 minutes for the final clearance at 4 months of the second clearance.

Each foot and toes (2550 and 2552), it would take about 75 minutes each. In this area we can not go very fast because there are many eddies, is very sensitive to pain, and skin is very vulnerable.

The area below the navel (pictures 2502, 03, 05, 06), it may take about 3 hours on the first clearance.

All these estimates are appropriate if the treatment starts with the hair you see in the pictures, ie, the area should not be shaved because many hairs are in the resting phase, except in the line below the navel and the center of your chest. If shaving and wait a few days, your electrologist may not address many of these hairs because they will continue to flush with the skin.

#13

I do hope that Alicia’s first statement is done in kidding!

Regarding your second question…you can plan on spending several thousand dollars when treating all the areas you mentioned. That money will be spent over time - and you are ultimately in charge of how often and in a direct way, how much you spend in any given time. How many thousand? Not 50 or 100…possibly 10…

#14

Hi Barb:

I was kidding somewhat in that such a question is impossible to answer. They would have to visit an electrologist and get their opinion in person.

A number of years ago I asked an electrologist over the phone for an estimate for facial hair removal and they estimated
$32,000 without actually seeing me.

If someone needed the average estimated hours to permanently clear a beard of 200 hours, then that might cost $20,000 if the hourly rate was $100 per hour.

Including my face, plus my chest and stomach I’m at 310 hours
in total but almost done as far as needing any more work.
We are just clearing any of the finer regrowths on the chest
and stomach.

Alicia

#15

Once upon a time, a client contacted me to set up an appointment. Said he would be flying in from China, and wanted to do a full first clearance with me on full face and neck. Stated that he figured we could get it done in a few hours, and he would move on with his business in other parts of the country.

I spent much energy cautioning that I did not think this wise, and that without seeing him in person, I could not hazard a guess at how much it would take to do the first clearance, but that most people needed 10 hours or more, some much more, for a full face and neck job. I was only able to convince the client to budget one full day in between his full schedule of business across the US.

As I picked up my client from the airport, I realized that he may have had a better idea of the situation than I had. When we finally got to doing the work, I was able to do more than the full face and neck in about 4 hours or less. As an asian, he had sparse hair scattered about, and posed no challenge at all. There was not even any noticeable swelling, and the redness passed in a matter of hours. We spent the rest of the day sight seeing.

Even the best guesstimate of what may be has little chance of being very useful without personal knowledge of both the client and the practitioner. Even looking at these pictures, I could only tentatively guess that it could cost between $10,000 and $20,000, however it might be much less, and depending on the variables, it might be much more.

If you were working with me, I would start on the face, get it to first clearance, and then move on to the next body part, and while maintaining the face, keep advancing on the rest, as the time to re-clear the face reduces. While the face might be essentially done in about a year’s time, there might be sections we have not brought under control in that same time, so that as time went by, we might be finished on the face, but still working on the lower extremities.

What you are asking is for something that only the person actually doing the work could even try to make a rough estimate on, and even then, only after working on you.

#16

It has been over 4 yrs now and I have spent probably $25,000.00 and I am only 75% finished. I have gone to E-3000 for a few treatments and I found they did nothing more than my electrolysis in my hometown. I have tried everything and it depends on the individual.

#17

Hi:

I guess Dorothy was right.

There really is no place like home.

Seriously though the only advantages to using E-3000 would be:
1- They are used to dealing with trans people and would be sympathetic.
For someone who isn’t full time yet, they might be afraid to see a local electrolgist for
fear of outing themselves. On the flip side I started out seeing my electrologist prior to
transition and then when I told her she was very understanding.

2-They use anaesthetic which might some people may feel they need.

3- They specialize in marathon sessions and full clearances.

I also found the best solution for me was finding someone close to home where I could go to regularly like clockwork.

How many hours have you had done so far, and what area(s) have you had worked on if you
don’t mind answering?

Alicia