Hello all,
I had my first electrolysis treatment before yesterday and my second yesterday (to get clearance). This was my first experience with electrolysus so I wasn’t 100% sure what to expect. After treating the follicle, is the hair plucked out? It feels like it’s being plucked out because it hurts! Isn’t it supposed to ‘die’ and easily come off (w/out pain) …kind of like laser? I’m sorry for my ignorance but I just want to be sure that my electrologist is doing the right thing.
Thank you! 
You should not feel any plucking. For some hairs, you might feel some resistance (like a small “pop”) because the root bulb area is kind of big and has trouble fitting through the follicle. But you shouldn’t feel any actual plucking. If you feel plucking, you can either tell the electrologist what you’re feeling, or find a new electrologist (which you implied would not be an option for you in your other thread).
Either way, you need to make sure that plucking doesn’t happen because that’s a lot of money to spend for a mediocre pluck-job that you could have done at home with a pair of tweezers.
One thing though: How often did you feel the plucking? If you don’t notice the successful removals, and only notice the plucks, then you might not get an accurate idea of how well she’s doing. Like, if you feel one pluck every minute that might be okay if she is removing 50 other hairs properly. Does that make sense?
Thanks for your reply!
Hmmm…when I think about it, it felt more like “resistance” which I think is evidenced by the loose hairs post-treatment on my face that’ve been taken out, I noticed they had really big black roots so maybe that’s the discomfort I’m feeling? Sometimes the actual removal/plucking is quite painful (more so than the insertion) which made me worry that she’s actually just plucking the hairs. I should mention it to her next time.
The tie breaker here is the answer to this question; are you feeling the same thing you feel when you pull out an untreated hair at home, or is it something else?
One possibility is that she is treating anagen hairs, and plucking any shedding hairs. If that were the case, she would be treating one or more hairs, and removing two or more hairs at a time. The shedders, which she would know because they are shorter than the growing anagens, would be plucked untreated, while the anagens would be treated, and slid out of the follicle with little to no effort. Electrolysis people who use this technique really should explain what they are doing to their clients, as it would be totally possible for the client to feel none of the removals of treated hairs, but feel ALL of the plucking, and conclude that they are being ripped off, as the believe that all the hairs treated were plucked, when in truth, they just did not notice the removal of the treated hairs.
Thank you for the explanation, James. I’m going to be going in for another round today and I’m going to ask her. It’s not the pain that concerns me, just the procedure and whether it’s being done correctly.
It is always suggesred here to try a few electrologists for short treatments, before deciding who to see regularly. I consider it excellent advice. You need to be able to make comparisons. Do you have other practitioners in your area that you could try?
Unfortunately, no, there are no other practitioners anywhere within a 200 kms radius. There are laser clinics everywhere here but hardly any electroligists…very frustrating!
I went back for a third treatment today and I was especially attentive to this plucking issue - this time, I did not feel any pain associated with pulling the hair out, which was assuring!
This is a very common problem these days. I am pleased to hear that the treatment felt better today.
“One possibility is that she is treating anagen hairs, and plucking any shedding hairs. If that were the case, she would be treating one or more hairs, and removing two or more hairs at a time. The shedders, which she would know because they are shorter than the growing anagens, would be plucked untreated, while the anagens would be treated, and slid out of the follicle with little to no effort. Electrolysis people who use this technique really should explain what they are doing to their clients, as it would be totally possible for the client to feel none of the removals of treated hairs”
To the “real” James (the James who performs work really hard).
I had never heard of this technique. Can you be more explicit? Are you trying to say that someone crosses the bottom of the follicle, treating a hair imaginary? If I have understood correctly, my mouth at this time is more open than that of a humpback whale. :o
No, Josefa, I think the translator messed that one up a bit. Hehe. He just means that for each hair that is treated, the operator may pluck two more that are not anagen (and therefore are not worth trying to treat). This way they can grow back as anagen hairs and be treated later.
I think the confusion stemmed from James’ phrasing that you would treat and remove one or more hairs “at a time”. He didn’t literally mean that he would cross through follicles to treat multiple hairs at once. 
Gosh! my mouth was closed in relief. Better for everyone if I keep it closed. Thank you very much Magical 
My friends say I’m stubborn as a mule. And no doubt they are right. But honestly, I do not understand the insistence of many professionals to work only anagen hairs. Science has demonstrated unequivocally that all the elements needed to make a hair are present in all phases. So I do not understand that in 2010 continued to persist in this old superstition that the electrolysis is effective only in the anagen phase.
Upgrading the machines is useless unless we update our technique and discard old and false beliefs.
For Magical, my English vocabulary is getting rich, it is possible that in the not too distant future the chaos of my expressions are part of the past. I fight hard for it. I reiterate my thanks for your help. 
Regards
Jossy
NOTE: My previous statement was recently confirmed by Mr. Bono with whom I had the great luck to contact thanks to James. Blessed day I discovered this forum!!! 
In the game of 6 degrees of separation, I usually can’t find anyone for whom it takes 6 steps to connect myself.
Josefa: I think most electrologists agree with you that you can treat non-anagen hairs and kill them. But I have heard that it’s more painful, so for most clients they choose not to. My place treats ALL my hairs, even telogen. But they don’t do anything special to the telogen hairs, so they tell me that the follicles probably weren’t killed (maybe just damaged a little).
It is a pity that when someone works well and gets great results (as in your case), old beliefs prevent him from seeing his achievement with sufficient objectivity. If telogen work well done, success is sure. The problem is that your electrologist has not yet discovered. Or he may believe that the regrowth of hairs in the area is due to the previously treated follicles in telogen. Big mistake, it is much more likely that anagen hair regrowth in that it has in telogen. I intend to show as I can.
On the unlikely event that you treat it more painful in telogen, lately I have serious doubts that this is so. In anagen the damage is deep levels and therefore less sensitive to pain. In telogen the damage is more superficial and therefore more sensitive to pain. The target area is the same for both. This means that in anagen takes a little longer to reach that level of pain, but if the professional is effective, it will come. In case you do not arrive, the regrowth is coming about in the anagen follicle and not in the telogen.
James: For me, moving around in this forum is like a blind move in darkness. It’s all very confusing and stumbling at every moment. If you add to the cocktail a few drops of irony (which I love) the chances that I understand something is almost nonexistent. Turn a small flashlight for me so I can know your opinion on this issue. Thanks in advance.
My Dear Josefa
I would dearly love to discuss this with you, but I fear that without an interpreter, say, our mutual bilingual friend whom I did some training with, we might have many misunderstandings. I believe your whole understanding of what we are talking about on the site when we discuss treatment of telogen hairs is a misunderstanding.
Dear James:
Here, we call that, passing the buck. We also use this expression, go out the back door. Of course, I will respect your decision and not insist further. But I need more convincing excuse to understand your position. The language difference has never been an obstacle to moving forward. A greeting
Josefa
PD; On this occasion, my translator (English / Spanish) not failed me, why is that?
On this discussion, we have not dealt with anything that had shades of meaning. To have the conversation that we need to have, to fully answer your question (and to clear up what I think is a misunderstanding) we would need excellent translation from someone who knows the industry well enough to convey the thought process in addition to trying to translate simple language. That’s why I don’t want to have this discussion via google translator. The majority of the conversation could possibly be avoided, if a simple explanation of what I believe to be the misunderstanding is given.
Personally, I have always treated both anagen hairs and telogen hairs, as a matter of course. Where most electrolysis practitioners vary is on if they treat them at all, and if they do, how they go about treating them when they do.
I understand. In any case, thanks for the clarification.