I have been visiting the forum to get good advice on finding an electrologist after all of the horror stories. I carefully selected an individual I thought was good. However, after several treatments and waiting a period of time, I realize she was tweezing. I have fine to medium (but darker hair on my cheeks and chin). Since her treatment, it is growing in super dark adn thicker at each spot she treated. I am so upset and sick over this. I cannot sleep and I am always crying, I am missing work and do not know what to do. I am looking for anyone who has had fine hair on their face treated successfully, or if you are an electrologist and have completed a job on a paying customer, someone with the same issue (finer hair) that I could see and talk to. It is much worse now and the electrologist had the nerve to say, “wow, they are getting more pigment.” I could just die, I cannot face myself in the mirror, I start to tremble when I do. I want someone to help me with removing the hair and not damaging the skin…I was looking for someone on the east coast or midwest…I will travel at this point, if I have to sell of my possessions to get this problem taken care of, I will. Thank you in advance for your response.
Is there anyone out there that can help regarding my earlier post, please let me know, I am sick about my situation, Jenniecries, have you found anyone yet, you gave me the courage to write and ask for help.
Hi Last Hope…
I hope I can help you a little here until maybe James reads your message, he’ll be able to give you a better answer.
Anyhow, there seems to be a situation where things get worse before they get better, I’ve had this happen to me but I persisted and now things are getting much better in the hair removal situation.
The only way to tell if what your technician is doing is actually tweezing is to compare with an actual tweeze. Pull out one of your hairs and see if it feels worse or the same as what she is doing. If its the same then she’s tweezing and you need to find someone else.
If it’s not tweezing then there could be a couple explanations for that.
Sometimes the hair bulb is thicker than the follicle opening and you may just feel a little resistance when the hair is pulled out but that is usually happening with already thicker coarser hairs, not the fine stuff.
The other situation that would happen in your case is the the hairs are not in anagen growth which is the easiest to kill…the bulbs in that case are harder to get to release, they seem dryer than anagen hairs and definitely tug on the way out. But it’s still not as bad as tweezing.
I have a couple questions about your treatment though.
How long have you been having this done and how far apart are your treatments?
I would suggest that you shave the area a week before your next appointment which basically guarantees that she’ll be working on the anagen hairs because they are faster growing.
Has she ever asked you to do this?
Let me know and I’ll try to help you…and then maybe James can pipe in here too!
Kathy
Dark vellus or accelerated vellus hairs are a real problem both for the client and the electrologist. If the probe is inserted too deep, no effective treatment can occur. This becomes even more of a problem if insulated probes are used. An insulated probe inserted too deep has no effect on the tissue that one desires to treat, while treating tissue that has nothing to do with the hair growth situation.
Size of probes used and depth of insertion are very critical to good treatment of these hairs. It is common that smaller probes are used for treatment of these hairs to accommodate insertion by a practitioner with low magnification. It is better to up the magnification and use the largest probe that will comfortably fit into the follicle. Many people get ineffective treatment because their practitioner can’t actually see the opening of the follicles they are trying to insert in. If they don’t insert to the proper depth all the worse. Even more problematic, these hairs may be thin in comparison to others worked on lower treatment energy settings, but they frequently are very deep beneath the skin, and require MORE energy than one may think. If the electrologist misses the insertion due to poor visual aids, has the setting too low, and or the insertion too shallow or too deep, the hair is very likely to break off leading to a pluck situation, and or thickening of the hairs. In this worst case situation, using the smallest probes will also add more pain to the mix. Here also, I might add that I prefer Ballet Gold Probes for their added client comfort and I don’t like to use an insulated probe on this type of case.
One must also be aware that removing the thick hairs frequently makes thinner hairs more noticeable. In that case, although one is presenting fewer hairs, one perceives oneself to be getting worse.
Assuming you can get good treatment for you case, you will need to be able to see your practitioner on a weekly basis in the beginning just so you can get to full first clearance. After that, you will be able to step down treatment schedule and enjoy your newfound clear smooth skin. The ladies I have worked on like you have had the most dramatic results. I know how you feel, because I have heard them talk about what a difference it makes to them.
Interestingly, James you make a good observation, the technician uses insulated probes. Everyone in the office there uses the insulated, also I have been going once a week for about 2 hours since April, believe me, she never came close to clearing me and now you should see the mess she has made. I am so sick over this. I know the hairs were being plucked, I could feel it. I asked her to adjust the setting and she said, it’s fine. Shaving is not an option, why turn mostly really blond, soft vellus hair into heavy stubble, plus my skin has a severe reaction to shaving, that makes no sense. My humiliation would only magnify. So, I would like to ask again
if there is anyone skilled in treating this type of hair and can demonstrate clientele with similar hair and successfully treated or anyone who has had treatment from someone they can recommend (i.e. finished or nearly finished), please respond or private message me. Please, I am so sick over this. Thank you again.
James, is there a good electrology book which teaches how to properly treat different hair types. What you wrote earlier makes a lot of sence. I suspect that most electrologists will not know it and just do the same procedure in all cicumstances, resulting in unsuccessful treatment.