I’m currently going to a CPE, but was thinking of trying someone else to see if there’s any difference. Is there a difference in a CPE, LE, or RE? All the other electrologists in my area seem to be just an LE or RE.
I wanted to test out someone else because of the harsh reaction my skin has had so far. My chin swells so much it looks like I have a huge goiter or something and it takes up to 3 days to subside. But due to my history I am wondering if this is unavoidable? I tweezed and shaved for 10 years. I have ALOT of hair! Will I have a longer recovery time after each visit because the hairs are so messed up?
The other reason I wanted to try someone else is because sometimes I can feel my current electrologist plucking the hairs, and I know you are not supposed to feel this. I don’t know if she’s doing this on purpose. I don’t feel it all the time and a lot of my hair is gone. But I’ve had about 14 hours worth of treatment and we’re not even done with under my chin yet. Is this normal?
Sorry for all the rambling but I greatly appreciate any answers. Thanks so much for this site!
I am not a CPE and I think my career is going just fine. My state of Ohio requires 750 hours of training and we must pass a state board in order to practice electrolysis. We need continuing education every two years to keep an active license. If I lived i an unlicensed state, I would pursue a CPE. So, just because someone is a has CPE behind her/his name doesn’t mean that they have updated, re-trained or can do better insertions than a non-CPE. We see vast differences in electrologists with all different kinds of initials behind their name.
Tweezing cases are more of a challenge for us and skin reactions can be rough. I don’t have the advantage of seeing her equipment or how she uses her equipment. I cannot see your hair problem. What is she doing? blend? thermolysis? galvanic? You can do a lot in 14 hours if one has a great epilator that allows the electrologist to go faster. If your electrologist is skilled, but hampers her skill with out-dated tools, then you will see change, but oh will it be slow. It is possible to get full clearances and keep your chin and neck cleared until there is no hair left to clear, but if your practitioner hasn’t discovered better practices, then you will be frustrated with the skin reaction and slow pace. You will get permanent hair removal, too.
I keep telling people all the time that what matters is that the person doing the work has taken the time to learn as much as possible, and has practiced well enough to do well, and then has obtained the best equipment they can to do the job. One will sometimes find that someone working on the weekends on friends and relatives in a spare bedroom, or basement does better work than the person with the marble floored office and full page yellow pages ad.
Personally, I am considering non-renewal of my own CPE. The knowledge has not fallen from my brain, and I can always continue to upgrade my education without extra letters after my name.
There is no substitute for simply getting sample treatments from everyone you can get them from and in that way comparing the actual work head to head. No gold star on the forehead (or 5 stars as they may be) will assure you that one person is the better practitioner for you without doing some leg work of your own.
As for the alleged plucking issue, unless you feel the same feeling you do when you pull a hair out on your own, you would probably be experiencing a “club hair” that has a fat hard ball on the end, or a growing hair that has a sheath that is hard to pull though the hair shaft. Sure, one could avoid that feeling by increasing the treatment energy, but in many cases, the amount of energy (when well placed) that will kill the hair, is not traveling high enough to open a large enough hole in the surface skin to pull the sheath through. In this case, you really would not want one to open up that large a space anyway, if you can avoid it.
It is lamentable that you feel that your electrologist is forcing the evacuation of the hair. When the adherence of the root of the hair is very marked, the best thing is not to insist on this follicle. To leave it a few days and to return to treat this hair. The more it has advanced in the hair cycle, fewer area of adherence will exist in the root of the hair. And less it will suffer your skin.
On the other hand, I am not CPE, but in almost 30 years I have never committed the sacrilege of forcing the exit of the hair(some kind of probable little if the fingers are in use).