Interested in purchasing a secondhand machine (through ebay perhaps) for maybe $400? I have invested too much money in appointments with too many different electrologists, and am fairly certain that I can master the technique on my own. I pay close attention to detail and have all the motivation in the world to learn what I am doing/keep my skin unscathed. Does anyone have any recommendations in terms of which machine to start out with, what is a fair price, ect…? Eventually my primary working areas will be my chin and chest.
Thanks.
You would be best off with pros on those areas, or if you insist on self work, you should get a hair removal partner and trade work on each other. Not even professionals work on their own face, and I would be hard pressed to figure out the contortion one would need to do in order to do a perfect insertion on one’s own chest hair.
$400 limits your field to thermolysis only machines, (which we don’t suggest for newbies) or spending lots of time on Ebay, getting out bid until you finally find something that ends on a Wednesday night at 3am.
You will also want to buy a book or two. If you can only buy one book, get Mike Bono’s Blend Method, and the new second part on treatment positioning and healing. I forget the name of the new companion book (because it all used to be in one book.)
You will want to start working in blend with your partner, and then, when you are both up to it, move on to blend, and then, when you have good insertions, go for thermolysis and when you are getting good work done in that, you will have the choice to use what ever you are most comfortable working with, both as the worker, and as the receiver of the treatments.
Thank you for the detailed response =)
Thermolysis is what I am looking for (I think). The concept of blend sort of makes me uncomfortable. Irrational as my feelings may be, the process seems unsafe. Why don’t you recommend thermolysis for newbies?
Also, why don’t you recommend working on my own face? Excuse my naivety, but the process doesn’t seem much more difficult than my daily application of eyeliner, ect. Is it because most people find it difficult to inflict pain on themselves?
Also, does the price of my machine have any effect on it’s effectiveness/likelihood of leaving scars/pits?
Sorry. I’m sure you know best, but I was really hoping to learn to take care of my own hair. The problem won’t ever go away, so I’d like to manage it as efficiently as possible. It isn’t feasible for me to see an electrologist for the rest of my life, even on a monthly basis. I plan on traveling a lot in the near future, I haven’t a ton of disposable income, and I don’t find the treatment fulfilling if I have to wait for a substantial amount of unsightly hair to grow in before it becomes worthwhile to make an appointment.
Electrolysis is a delicate and precise operation. Technically, it is micro-surgery. Good treatment depends on proper placement of the probe, both in the correct spot, and at the correct angle. Especially in thermolysis, half a centimeter, and 2 degrees of angle are the difference between a good treatment, and cutting/burning the skin, or a high frequency blow-out.
While properly performed work has equally effective results, and no one modality is better, or more effective than any other (don’t let anyone convince you otherwise) it is, however true that some modalities are easier to get good at than others, and some have a shorter learning curve than others. (which is why it is often easier to find good work in one modality as opposed to another. Think of it this way; many people THINK they can drive a stick shift car. Most people would be surprised at the second opinion given by their local transmission mechanic’s inspection of their clutch plate – where all the evidence of their shifting errors are laid bare in scratched metal.)
Since Galvanic is the most forgiving of mistakes, and allows the most time to correct poor insertions, or overcompensate for said poor insertions, it is advised that one start work with this modality. One will make fewer scars and holes in ones body by doing so. Next up, when one has finally reached the point where one can actually remove a hair in galvanic without much trouble, one can start working on their technique in blend. This will expose many of the flaws in the novice’s insertion angles, and positioning inside the follicle. Once one finally scales this mountain, one can then expose how much one was relying on the position specific forgiveness of the lye production filling the follicle, and see just how the need for spot specific accuracy shows how badly your insertions have been.
If you don’t work your way up the ladder this way, especially with you trying to teach yourself, you will have lots of unnecessary problems, and retard your potential to learn to do good work, in the fastest time possible. It is as simple as this: Thermolysis is the LEAST forgiving of your mistakes, and one would wear all their mistakes on their skin. Some for weeks, others for a lifetime.
As for your comparing electrolysis work to applying makeup, does the application of your makeup require you to perform a reverse insertion of a 6 micron thick staff into an 8 micron hole, follow it down the tiny shaft to just the right spot by feel, and stop before you puncture the bottom, and keep the angle so that you don’t puncture the sides and all this with your depth perception and feeling of direction compromised?
Um, the answer is NO!
As for pain, good work doesn’t really hurt. Poor quality work, on the other hand, really hurts. Do yourself a favor here. Get a machine that can do Blend, and then start at galvanic, work up to blend, and then go to thermolysis if you dare. Get a partner to work on each other, you will only insure that you get better work. People who get paid to do this, don’t do this on themselves! Why? They know the gap between work done on oneself can’t compare to work done by someone else. Most pros would rather teach their Aunt Tilly to work on them than work on themselves, even though Aunt Tilly won’t ever do this as a profession. Does that make it any clearer?
I wish DIY’rs on the site would pipe in here. Most people who try what you are talking about, buy all this equipment, try it once, and either sell the stuff, or put it in the closet, or junk drawer, and never look at it again. That’s how bad their self work is when they start out.
Ok, that certainly makes sense. Although…
“As for your comparing electrolysis work to applying makeup, does the application of your makeup require you to perform a reverse insertion of a 6 micron thick staff into an 8 micron hole, follow it down the tiny shaft to just the right spot by feel, and stop before you puncture the bottom, and keep the angle so that you don’t puncture the sides and all this with your depth perception and feeling of direction compromised”
… I could explain the application of my makeup in equally technical/detailed language for emphatic purposes as well =)
Having mentioned that, I will certainly look into galvanic as per your suggestion and tone down my ambitions of single handedly zapping my mustache. Is ebay the right place for me to be looking?
Take it from me, learning how to do electrolysis is quite a challenge! Plan a few hundred hours of practice to just get a good feel for what you are doing.
As far as doing one’s own chest, I used a 3 diopter circle lamp (need shortest working distance possible) held up right under my chin, I could barely see well enough do the hair just below the nipples on myself. I tried using a magnifying makeup mirror to do the chest but it was just too cumbersome, and didn’t magnify enough.
Check the thread “Legitimate machines on eBay”, folks regularly post machines they find on eBay there.
Personally, I wish I was as skilled doing makeup as I am doing electrolysis 