scabbing

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
#21

O yea, the private electrologist charges $35 for 15 min, $45 for 30 , $55 for 45 min, and $65 for 1 hr. I know technique and experience are the important factors…
I was just a BIT uneasy with last wk’s lady because her daughter did all the talking and she seems like a WONDERFUL businessperson cuz she certainly sold me. When I had asked what kind of electrolysis her mom does, she wasn’t sure. I thought that was kind of weird…especially because she is an electrologist herself (but doesn’t practice anymore, only her mom does). I asked her mom later (who doesnt speak much English)…and her mom said it was a blend.

I still need to ask the 2nd lady what kind she uses, and probes, etc.

#22

Your Friday consultation with an electrologist associated with a dermatology center does sound a little promising. However, you already know, I think, that this doesn’t mean she is more qualified than an elctrologist who has a private office. The only real test is to meet her and get a sample treatment, check out the office, etc. Her prices sound very reasonable.

You are doing what you need to do by interviewing and sampling different electrologists. Eight electrologists, three wrong numbers, leaves you with four or five to check out. Did you leave your name and phone number for the ones with answering machines so they can return your call? Not every electrologist has a receptionist (so as to overhead low) and need the answering machine so as not to interrupt a treatment on a client or miss potential clients on their day off.

Dee

#23

It’s been 6 hours since my very first treatment. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be! I was only there for 15 min…I have no idea how many hairs she removed. I could see a few were gone but it didn’t look too different from before. My electrologist kept stressing how important it is to follow the post-treatment rules and how I should not use any creams on my face…including moisturizer! I’m so used to wearing moisturizer under my makeup.
Hmm…what else. My skin was pretty red after the treatment but she gave me a cold ice pack and witch hazel. After I reapplied my foundation and powder, the redness was completely gone within 15 min post-treatment.

SO FAR, no regrets.

O yea, Dee, I asked about gold probes. She said she has them but barely uses them. She said she sees no difference by using them and keeps emphasizing to me that the most important thing of all about this process is the technician’s skills. (Then she talks about how good she is).

It hasn’t been 12+ hours post-treatment yet…I hope I don’t get any scabbing!!!

:relaxed:

#24

Maybe you found a good one??..!!

Post treatment care is a biggy. Did she give you written instructions or tell you not to apply make-up for at least 24 hours! Having applied foundation and powder right after treatment could cause you some complications (infection of newly treated follicles). I wouldn’t do that. You may be lucky this time and nothing will happen.

Indeed, technician skill is A-1 important, if she prefers stainless steel probes and your skin does well, then no problem. I absolutely swear by ballet gold-plated probes for the blend in regard to reducing surface reddness and irritation, not to mention how easy they glide into the follicle. They cost more than stainless steel, so perhaps that is one reason why some choose to use them. If one is allergic to the nickel coated stainless steel then gold is the obvious choice. There are a lot of superb probe products, and we all have our favorite choices, and gold is mine. However, it is very true that technician skill with adjusting the working point for your skin is way up there in importance no matter what the probe type. Any chance that she might be using an insulated probe as it is the same color as stainless? No need to have a lengthy discussion about insulated probes, I’m just curious.

Please check out the aftercare guidelines on www.hairfacts.com and do a search as well on hairtell.com for more information on proper after care.

Keep us informed and glad you shared your experience,INH.

Dee

#25

:fearful:
<crossing my fingers> :frowning:

#26

Getting conflicting information is frustrating. Having put makeup on afterwards is not going to kill you, so no need to be scared.

Here are two threads here on hairtell that might be of some help for you. There are many, many other threads about aftercare and makeup, but let’s start here:

http://www.hairtell.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=37;t=000020

and

http://www.hairtell.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=37;t=000007

The more you know and understand, the less scared you become. You can do your own search here on hairtell,too, concerning makeup and aftercare if you want more information.

Dee

#27

hmm well it’s almost been 24 hours after my treatment and no irritation at all. Thank God! I was really worried last night after I saw your post about no makeup! I had checked those posts last night Dee, but thanks for all your help. :grin:
Where can I get tea tree oil?

#28

Walmart is the cheapest place I have seen tea tree oil, about $5.00. Wherever you get it, get 100% pure tea tree oil. CVS, if they haven’t sold out, is about 7.99 for a smaller bottle than what walmart offers. Of course, the internet is repleat with the stuff.

Think Aloe Vera 100% for AM care and tea tree oil 100% for night time care following an electrolysis treatment. Keep it simple and pure. Oh, and don’t forget to wash your hands before applying either.

Dee

#29

I know this is kind of off topic here but I want to address somehing “INeedHelp” mentioned at the top of this thread.

You said you were disappointed in the many places that did not answer the phone right away when you were wanting to inquire about their services.
I would like to put that into perspective for you and others like you that are calling around to find a good electrolygist.

Suppose you were a patient being worked on and the phone rang during your treatment six times. Would you like your technician to stop working on you while you are paying by the minute or keep working on you and then call all the people back who leave messages?

I know when I’m working on someone’s electrolysis I do not answer the phone as I feel that would be rude and I do not have a receptionist, I work alone.

Another angle on that is the person that’s sitting ready to answer the phone is not actually working, are they maybe so new that they don’t have any clients yet? I would prefer the tech that is very busy and proficient at their job, and maybe not answering the phone.

Just something to think about when you are calling around to find professionals.

:grin:

#30

Thank you for your input Offbroadway. I realize all this now that I am more familiar with this whole electrology game. I didn’t know what all it entailed…I didn’t realize that many people practice privately, etc. I was thinking it would be more like going to a physician type of thing - someone is always available to answer the phone. But now that I have been going to my electrologist, I wouldn’t want her to answer the phone mid-treatment either. (Even tho her daughter is her assistant so she answers the phone) So now, I understand.

Ciao.

#31

Dee, or any other electrologist out there…I’ve read in several different posts that shaving between treatments is okay. My electrologist, however, says that it’s like taking ‘3 steps forward and 2 steps back’ if i try to shave between treatments. What do you all think?? Any thoughts?

#32

Not only is shaving between treatments okay, it is preferred. I frequently advised my clients to shave or clip between appointments for two reasons:

  1. Shaving is a great temporary method of disguising the unwanted hair until the electrolysis part gains ground. The client is not as tempted to tweeze if the hair is cut above the surface of the skin where others will not see their problem. Good for the client’s appearance in the beginning stages.

  2. Shaving before electrolysis helps the electrologist identify only the growing hairs. It is these growing hairs that we have a high kill rate with because they are attached to the part that feeds the hair, the dermal papilla. The resting hairs, or the hairs that are ready to shed, have the dermal papilla below them and they are difficult to reach. It is the dermal papilla that must be reached with the probe and destroyed to prevent regrowth. We just don’ want to miss our target, if we can help it, and shaving can be very helpful when we shoot to kill.

When you shave, you will notice that some hairs grow out quickly in 1-3 days and others just barely pop out above the surface. Treating the fast growers and ignoring the ‘dud’s’ makes pre-shaving an excellent choice simply because it makes electrolysis less time-consuming, less expensive, and more comfortable with less side effects. This is one of several things you can do to really get your money’s worth. Staying hydrated and just showing up for your appointments is for another subject, another time, but worth a mention.

SHAVING DOES NOT CAUSE HAIR TO GROW FASTER OR TO BECOME THICKER AND DARKER. SHAVING ELIMINATES HAIR ABOVE THE SKIN WITHOUT AFFECTING OR DISTURBING THE ROOT.

I shout this (but not at you INH) because no matter how many times this is said on this forum, people are still reluctant to use this great cosmetic temporary method because they fear it will worsen their unwanted hair problem.

Perhaps your electrologist thought you asked about tweezing or waxing??? Those methods will prolong your electro treatments because they didsturb the hair below the skin’s surface and must be avoided. I sure hope she misunderstood you because the principles of shaving is Electrolysis 101.

Dee

#33

Yes! Shaving IS the perferred in between treatment for unwanted hair for all the reasons given by Dee above.

I can’t imagine any electrologist worth her salt discouraging shaving. I know why clients don’t want to shave. They want totally smooth skin with no stubble, but for the electrologists, any type of plucking methode makes you a revenue annuity, because pluckers remove hairs from the possibility of treatment. This gives us work to do long after we would have otherwise finished. Bleaching and depilatories cause thickining of the hairs and their root systems, making our treatment settings need to go HIGHER, and may stimulate new hair growth. This will give the electrologist more work as well.

Good Luck

[ July 01, 2004, 09:24 PM: Message edited by: James W. Walker VII, CPE ]

#34

How many days before an electro treatment should we stop shaving?

Thanks again guys. :relaxed:

#35

One to three days.

Dee

#36

James,
I never heard that bleaching and depilatories “cause thickining of the hairs and their root systems, making our treatment settings need to go HIGHER, and may stimulate new hair growth”. I also remember seeing another post of yours that says that laser distorts hair follicles. How do these things possibly happen? Is this documented anywhere?

Thanx

#37

I have to leave it to others to chase down and make citations of studies for things like that. I really don’t have the time for chasing those things. In my daily practice, however, I see this all the time. Girls who start waxing clear vellus hairs stimulate them to become black terminal hairs, and people who started with straight black hairs LASER them and end up on my table with “C” or “J” shaped follicles yeilding white or clear hairs after their LASER work. Some of the former LASER clients find themselves dealing with a face full of ingown hairs due to the shapr angle that the hairs now exit the skin, and the electrologist has a harder time inserting on the follicle because the hair is exiting the skin in a downward stroke with the opening beneath the hair, and/or the follicle is very tight on the surface.

I have seen this repeatedly over the last 5 years if not longer. As for scientific studies that show this, I put those to Andrea, as she is the one with the data base of all that is known about hair removal, and what studies were well done unbiased research, and which studies were just commerical endeavors set out to prove a predetermined agenda.

I will say however, for all those teen aged girls out there who are looking at their faces and bellies contemplating waxing or plucking hairs no one sees without magnification, please throw away the 10x’s magnification mirror and just look at yourself in normal light, and in a regular mirror at a conversational distance apart. If you don’t see anything in this evaluation test, you should not do anything! That hair is there for a reason. If you do anything to these vellus hairs, you will only need more potent removal efforts later on something that you did not need at the start.

#38

Hi Mina.

Your questions about bleaching and depilatory use causing hair to thicken and stimulating new hair led me to the bible of electrolysis,
‘Electrolysis,Thermolysis,and the Blend’, by
Arthur Hinkel and Richard Lind. It is THE book that all electrolysis principles are taught to electrology students.

Hinkel states that depilatories do not involve plucking of hair. It’s the chemical shaving of hair at the skin level, or just slightly below the skin, and DOES NOT stimulate hair growth in a treated area or cause it to thicken.

Bleaching is a surface thingy,too - the hair below the skin is not distrubed as it is in tweezing. I don’t like bleaching because it plumps the hair up and makes it difficult to see blond hair against light skin. If hair is harder to see, it’s harder to treat in as much as it slows the electrologist down. The better we can see the hair, the faster we can remove the hair.

The copyright on Hinkel is 1968, so if there has been other research to disprove Hinkel, I’m sadly not aware of it, but am always willing to learn.

Are you an electrologist, too, Mina?

Dee

#39

It is the irritation of the chemical burn that causes products like Nair and Magic Shave to lead to thickening and increased hair growth. Any one who has had weaping of the skin when using these products has seen this in action.

It may not always happen, but it is a very frequent occurance.

I have more than one client who started using these products to remove the clear vellus hairs they imagined were cosmetic problems, only to watch in horror as they turned black and got thicker. Anyone for a face full of thick black formerly vellus hairs?

[ July 07, 2004, 08:45 PM: Message edited by: James W. Walker VII, CPE ]

#40

So it’s Hinkel Vs. Walker :grin:

But James, electrolysis also causes irritation of the skin. Why doesn’t it also stimulate growth?

But anyway, even according to James there MUST be constant irritation to stimulate growth. If there is no irritation, like with everyone who continues to use Nair (or else why do they continue using it?), there will be no stimulated growth. A point for Hinkel?

(Dee, I’m not an electrologist, just trying to be an educated consumer)