Should all electrologists use a magnifier?

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
#1

[size:14pt]I have started going to a professional electrologist who seems to be very good. She does thermolysis and her technique is fast and the hairs all slide out easily. The area where we’re working is my face, primarily on my upper lip and my chin area. But I’m a little concerned because after each session there are always a few stray hairs that she has missed. They’re usually either colorless-to-lighter coarse hairs, or very fine darker ones, and a couple of times there have been ones that were long and coarse and I don’t really get why she missed them since she’s otherwise really thorough. She doesn’t use any kind of magnification and I asked her about that and she told me that she’s worked for many years and has never used magnification. She said that if I like, I myself can check right after she works on an area to make sure she has gotten all the hairs, but that doesn’t seem like the best idea to me. When I’m there I’m under a light I’m not accustomed to and the area is also a little bit swollen from the electrolysis and will look different to me than under the lighting conditions at home. My thought is that she might not miss those hairs if the area were magnified. She’s worked for many years and as you get older your eyes are not quite as sharp as they once were and you yourself may not notice the change in your eyesight. However, I’m not sure if I’m being realistic. Maybe it’s normal for a few hairs to be missed each time and I’m overly concerned about it? The reason I’m concerned is because I have about 2 weeks between sessions and I’m worried the missed hairs could become dormant by the next session. I’m going in regularly in order to see results as soon as possible, and I’d like to not have stray hairs that have to cycle around again later on, if that’s possible or realistic.

Is it normal to miss a few hairs each time? And should all electrologists use some kind of magnification to work? I must say that other than the few missed hairs each time, I think she’s excellent. There is literally no plucking going on. The swelling is down a lot after an hour or so, by 24 hours I have just some little red points, and in a week my skin looks really nice, actually better than before since the irritating hairs are gone. I’m following her instructions for after-care and it’s working really well. So other than the problem with the stray hairs, she’s obviously very good. And, she’s a super-nice person to boot.[/size]

#2

Since you should be focused in getting fast clearances, and she should be concerned about removing every hair but is missing hairs…of course she should use a magnifier.

#3

Since you’re going every 2 weeks, you’re fine. Technically, the hair is in the correct phase for at least 5-6 weeks.

#4

Personally, I would never work on anything other than legs without magnification, and I am so spoiled by my zeiss that I don’t even want to work on legs without it.

Hair removal should be done with the best magnification one can obtain, as the lighting and magnification allow better precision and speed when working, and that translates to more comfortable treatments, and more hairs cleared per hour, all while gaining less trauma to the skin.

I can’t imagine a probe based hair remover who has used high end magnification going back to low end, or nothing at all.

#5

Independent on James’ statement that good magnification and lighting (!) is always the preferred approach which makes it easier to obtain good results, people with very sharp eyes and much experience might be able to be good with average visual support - why shouldn’t they?

Well, You probably are realistic - it is not always easy to accept that reductin in visual capapielities. But for experienced people it is possible to compensate for this for quite a long time.

Maybe it’s normal for a few hairs to be missed each time and I’m overly concerned about it?

At least it does not appear uncommon to me. But as long as her work is good otherwise i would not be overly concerned about it with respect to successful treatment.

And should all electrologists use some kind of magnification to work?

As You said: should.
Please keep in mind that magnification is not the only factor. There is also the aspect of lighting. And there are often enough lighting situations where You cannot see (and thus recognize) some of the hairs at all.

I must say that other than the few missed hairs each time, I think she’s excellent. There is literally no plucking going on. The swelling is down a lot after an hour or so, by 24 hours I have just some little red points, and in a week my skin looks really nice,

Seriously: as long as her results are very good i would not mind…

Beate

PS: actually, i belong to those promoting good visual equipment - IMO this is even more important than the latest and greatest high tech epilator. But i am pragmatic and look primarily at the results. As long as they are ok, i would fully leave this aspect to the professionality of the practitioner.

#6

Well, right now I’m going about every two weeks. I’ve had 5 sessions so far, at first I went every week but now there’s already noticeably less hair coming in and there’s only enough for a 45 minute session after about 10 days, so that’s when I call for a new appointment. So right now some of those hairs can be gotten on the next trip which will be at about a 2-week mark, but once I get to the point where I’m only going once a month, it will be a problem when she misses hairs. For some reason most of the missed hairs are on the right side of my face, like this time she missed a light coarse long one on the right side of my chin and ignored quite a number of colorless but long ones on my right cheek, even though I told her I want serious clearance including any longer colorless hairs. I want to end up with only the normal peach fuzz on my face and not any 1/2 inch hairs. So that’s my worry about it. Her solution for me to check it after her work really isn’t a good option- I can’t vouch that what I myself see in that moment will catch all hairs either, what I personally would do would be to use a magnifier.

#7

What you say makes a lot of sense to me and I’m wondering if there’s some way I can discuss with with her without offending her. Her work is otherwise so good and I’d like it to work out. I live in a large city and there are several options for electrologists, but I had thermolysis many years ago at Lucy Peters in New York and it worked VERY well for me, so I knew that I wanted thermolysis. When I called electrologists where I live now, many of them did Galvanic or Blend, and I personally think that thermolysis is faster and very effective, and it also ends up costing less in the long run. So when it got narrowed down to who did thermolysis, the choice became much smaller. It came down to two people in the area who got very high reviews both on your site and on other sites. The other person is about a half hour drive which isn’t tragic but obviously someone local is preferable if possible. So I’m wondering if I should discuss it with her further than I already have. When I asked her, she said I should check the results. I guess that now I’d have to tell her that that doesn’t really work well for me. But is someone who has worked many many years without magnification going to consider changing just because one client brings the subject up with them? And how can I do it politely? She is a really nice person and I’d hate to hurt her feelings in any way.

And on a separate note I’d like to ask: Is it okay to want to have colorless hairs cleared that are longer ones, around 1/2 to 2/3 of an inch?

Thank you

#8

Independent on James’ statement that good magnification and lighting (!) is always the preferred approach which makes it easier to obtain good results, people with very sharp eyes and much experience might be able to be good with average visual support - why shouldn’t they?

Well, You probably are realistic - it is not always easy to accept that reductin in visual capapielities. But for experienced people it is possible to compensate for this for quite a long time.

Maybe it’s normal for a few hairs to be missed each time and I’m overly concerned about it?

At least it does not appear uncommon to me. But as long as her work is good otherwise i would not be overly concerned about it with respect to successful treatment.

And should all electrologists use some kind of magnification to work?

As You said: should.
Please keep in mind that magnification is not the only factor. There is also the aspect of lighting. And there are often enough lighting situations where You cannot see (and thus recognize) some of the hairs at all.

I must say that other than the few missed hairs each time, I think she’s excellent. There is literally no plucking going on. The swelling is down a lot after an hour or so, by 24 hours I have just some little red points, and in a week my skin looks really nice,

Seriously: as long as her results are very good i would not mind…

Beate

PS: actually, i belong to those promoting good visual equipment - IMO this is even more important than the latest and greatest high tech epilator. But i am pragmatic and look primarily at the results. As long as they are ok, i would fully leave this aspect to the professionality of the practitioner.
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Beate, thank you, you’ve said some really good things here and I’m thinking them through, they’re good food for thought. I was thinking what you said, that although her eyesight probably isn’t what it was several years ago, she is extremely skilled and that definitely in part compensates for it. The other side of the coin is that for myself, I want to make sure I get really good clearance of the hair. Her lighting is one of those round bulbs on a big arm that she brings down close and that she can also angle. She does move the angle around and has me move now and then as well, but obviously something is making her miss those stray hairs.

I live in a large city. Before I began I did research into the electrologists here and also read through many forums on Hairtell. When I called around to talk to the local electrologists I found to my surprise that since I want thermolysis, my choices are not that plentiful. Most of the local electrologists told me they do Blend. 30 years ago I had thermolysis when I lived in New York City and it was very good and very permanent. The thermolysis that this present woman does is even better than what I had 30 years ago. By the way, she does thermolysis using a Clareblend machine. But like you said, the machine isn’t the most important thing. I think she has really excellent technique.

There is one other electrologist who is about 1/2 hour away who told me in our initial phone conversation that she does thermolysis (she uses an Apilus machine) and she uses magnification. I hate to be disloyal somehow to the woman I have started going to, but would it be acceptable for me to go try a session with this other electrologist? Or would it be better to bring the subject of magnification up again with the woman I’m going to at present and see if I can’t get her to use it in our sessions? I don’t want to push someone to do something they’re uncomfortable with.