Perspective/Feedback Needed- Thanks!

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
#1

Hello,

I have been having weekly one hour electrolysis appointments now for the past 4 months. I have skipped two of the 17 weeks. The hour is electrolysis only- prepping my skin, setting up appointments, etc. is not part of the hour.

I am a female and I’m having electrolysis done on my upper lip. I have very long vellus hair that is somewhat bristly. I have heard that this could take 12-18 months and I am okay with the time commitment. That being said I am concerned because my electrologist told me she removes about 50 hairs per hour (she uses blend). At any point in time over the past four months it looks like maybe 5% of the hair has been removed at the absolute most.

I am not interested in total clearance, just thinning. If I can’t see the hair standing two feet away from a normal mirror then I’m not concerned about removing it. My electrologist knows this.

Is my experience normal so far? Again, I am commited to putting in the time, but only if it’s time well-spent and we’re making progress which means being finished in a year or so (I’m basing this on the 12-18 months timeline I’ve read about).

Any feedback/perspective would be great! Thanks!

#2

In past four months how many HOURS of electrolysis have you had?

#3

I’ve had 15 hours of electrolysis in the past four months. I should have also added in my post that I am not waxing, plucking, etc.

Thanks!

#4

Sounds very slow to me, but we are all different. I rarely do weekly sessions. Goal is to get a first clearance asap and then see the client once every 4-6 weeks for another clearance. Usually, one is finished after 8 -12 clearings have been achieved, over a period of 9-14 months.

At the rate you are going, you will still get permanent hair removal, eventually.

#5

How many hours does it take to achieve 8-12 clearings over 9-14 months, especially without weekly sessions? Assuming removing 50 hairs per hour is standard, it seems like you would be seeing the same client every day? Should I be going more frequently than once a week?

Thanks!

#6

This is extremely slow. If after 4 months and weekly 1-hour appointments you only cleared 5% of the lip, you’re not getting anywhere. This also makes me question the hair kill rate of this practitioner.

You should be checking out other electrologists in your area. Get sample or short treatments from a few others. Don’t look at the price per hour, and don’t seek out blend practitioners, especially for your case

#7

I’m not going to knock another practitioners work, but in my opinion that is too many hours in 3-4 month period. To put it into perspective, I regularly get first clearance in 1/3 the time your practioner has worked on you.9-12 months is sufficient to clear an upper lip permanently . I just completed a VERY DENSE upper lip with tons of blonde vellus hair in 10 months spending 15 minutes a week on this client ( every 2-3 weeks in the later months) . Now as Dee mentioned, not all practioners work the same, and I’m of the opinion that yb is correct that blend might not be the most efficient way to get this done.

#8

Hours to complete a job depends on how much hair you have and how much you want removed. My hourly rate for hairs removed is between 500 and 900 and that depends on whether an area is challenging or not so challenging. I use picoflash thermolysis, so that is why it is unfair to compare what I do to what your blend practitioner uses. My strategy is very different from another practitioner, but we both deliver a good end result.

The first goal for my clients is to get the hair off asap to give them relief and hope for a better day ahead. I want them walking out of my office cleared of bothersome facial hair. Most times I can do that, but sometimes we need to break it down into a couple sessions if there is a lot of hair and time won’t permit.

#9

Thank you all for your feedback. I greatly appreciate it.

Iluv2zap, what type of electrolysis did you use on your client with the upper lip hair?

Dfahey, I’ve asked my electologist about using something other than blend or upping the intensity of the blend but she won’t do it because she is worried about scaring. Does picoflash cause scaring?

Question For Anyone: When you’re removing upper lip hair, do you do an insertion in one follicle then move to another follicle next to it and so on or do you jump around? My electrologist jumps around and I am wondering if that might be contributing to the slowness. For example, she will remove a single hair from the left corner of my lip, brush the hair, look at all the hair on my lip to decide where to go next, remove a single hair located a quarter inch away from the first hair, brush the hair, look at all the hair to decide where to go next, remove a single hair that’s another quarter inch away, and repeat throughout the session. Is it normal to jump around like this instead of removing hairs that are next to each other? And is it normal to brush the hair after every insertion and then look at the hair to decide where to go next? I realize of course that you have to look at the hair to decide where to go next, but it seems like that can be done during the 20 seconds or so that the needle is sitting in the follicle? Is that possible? She spends more time brushing my hair and looking for the next follicle to target than making insertions. Is this normal procedure, or am I off base in wondering if this might not be the most effective approach?

Thank you!

#10

That is not a typical or effective approach. 20 seconds is a long time even for Blend, and it sounds like her speed is very, very slow. Typically hair is removed with a tweezer and not “brushed” away. Personally I would find somebody new right away. As others have commented, you should probably already be done with clearing by now.

#11

To answer the rest of your question, ANY modality of electrolysis can cause “scarring” if insertions are bad or too much power is used. Blend isn’t really any less likely to do this so that is not a valid reason not to use thermolysis. UNDER treating each hair can in some cases be even worse than over treating, as when you don’t use enough power and have to treat the same hair again…and again…and again, you can build up scar tissue that can manifest as “pebbling” or uneven skin texture.

#12

Hi WeRNotAfraid,

Thanks for your response. I had no idea that undertreating a follicle can sometimes be worse than overtreating.

My electologist uses tweezers to remove the hair from the follicle. She brushes the hair after using tweezers. Sorry for not mentioning that. Since we’re on the topic of tweezers, I do not know if she is plucking or using the tweezers correctly to slide the hair out of the follicle. She does such a good job of numbing the area, that it is hard for me to tell. Since I can’t tell the difference, I have to assume she is using the tweezers correctly and not plucking.

#13

Hi Anna,
I’m very curious as to what method your electrologist uses to numb the area so successfully that you cant tell if she is plucking or not. My experience is that numbing with a topical anesthetic just takes the edge off the discomfort, but plucking would very quickly be felt. I think you can probably take from that, that she probably IS getting good releases of the hair or you would notice.

Seana

#14

Hi Seana,

I’m not sure what she uses to numb the area but I can try to find out. I do agree that she is probably not plucking. I only brought it up since I know plucking is a concern with electrolysis, and I wanted to mention that I do not think that is a factor for why so little progress has been made.

Thanks!