Still have questions after 6 months!

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
1

Hi all,

I haven’t posted here for a while because I didn’t know what to post. I was reading other posts and waiting for a big improvement and progress to share with others.

I posted about 6 months ago when I started my upper lip treatment under thread “New with some questions”. Here what I had around 6 months ago:

  1. I had very dark and coarse black hair, the result of very long time of plucking the upper lip hair.
  2. I have black shadow on one side of the upper lip.

Here is what happened to me until today:

  1. I have gone under 10.75 hours of electrolysis on the upper lip. Average of 30 minutes weekly. Only few time for 15 minutes.
  2. My electrologist uses Apillus junior.
  3. Every time I go I have almost full clearance, but the problem is that I still have many very coarse and black hair. That doesn’t mean I don’t see an improvement, no I can see progress but still so many black and very coarse hair is still growing especially on the 4th or 5th day after my session.
  4. I still feel resistance when my electrologist pulls the hair. Sometimes she applies the current 3 times on the same hair, and in every time I hear two peeps and still feel some resistance. Some hair never came out smoothly even after 3 times of applying the current.

My questions:

  1. Is that normal? I have read about the hair cycles and how it suddenly grows again after 6-8 weeks and how much hair we have and not know about. But should I see the hair become a little bit finer? Softer? I’m not asking after 6 months for the hair to stop growing totally, I know that might take years but it should become finer, right?
  2. Does my electrologist use not enough current? Every time I’m asking her if she can use a highest current, she said I can’t, I will burn your skin if I use a higher current, especially on the upper lip area.
  3. I started having some white hair growing on my upper lip never having this before. Is that a sign of progress that the black hair is loosing its color, given that the white hair is also coarse not sfot?

Please advise, what should I do? When I will go every two weeks? When I will see a finer softer hair? I forgot to mention that I’m 31 year old female.

Thanks a lot,

2

The black hairs you see a few days after electrolysis sound like hairs that were just starting to grow and had not yet grown up the follicle and above the surface of the skin (and would be unable to be treated of course.) The hairs that were actually treated with electrolysis should have been pulled out and removed. The hairs you see a few days later are not the same hairs treated by your electrologist.

The white hairs might be hair that you just never noticed before, and now stand out now that the black dense hairs are gone; the pros here have mentioned this phenomenon before.

Is she using thermolysis or flash thermolysis? If she is, she probably has the machine set to 2 pulses per treatment (2 beeps) then trying to pull the hair and can’t so tries another treatment of 2 pulses. I read (Gior’s book I think) that 2 treatment cycles is the most you should use on 1 follicle, but in some cases 3 or 4 is ok? (Pros?)

3

She is using Apilus junior, so I assume she is using flash thermolysis.

4

When one presents with very coarse hair, and lots of it, it may take a particular electrologist time to even clear the area. After that, you may have to deal with the initial clearing of hair being ony partially destroyed because the hair structure is so big and the best way to conquer these monster hairs is to break them down gradually for the sake of keeping the skin in good condition.

Ask her to see the hair after she treats it. Do you see the whole hair structure with the bulby part? Ask her to show you several hairs structures. You want to see the bulb and the root sheath. If she can not show you these kinds of hairs, then the hair may be breaking off somewhere under the skin and that’s why you say you see dark hair 4-5 days after treatment.

At this stage, I would assume that hairs treated would slide out easier at this time (6 months into treatments). I’m wondering what size probe she is using. The PROBE needs to MATCH the diameter of the hair being treated!!! A size 2 probe is not going to work as well as a bigger size 6 probe on very coarse hair. I can’t evalate her coice of intensity and timing. I like pulsing and she’s doing that. If you have to enter a follicle 3-4 times, then the levels need to be adjusted. I was taught and I follow this today, that one should not enter the follicle more than three times.

Has she ever used BLEND on your upper lip?

I just know that some challenging cases of upper lip hair take time and special care. You may be in this catagory. I’d ike to hear that there is no tugging at this point in time, that the proper size probe is being used and you are getting full clearance. To be fair, I can’t see you and she may be doing all she can to achieve a good balance to “get” the hair while observing and protecting your skin.

I have a client whom I’ve been seeing since July who had the worst case of upper lip hair ever. I am still seeing her seven months later. The sides are easily cleared and are looking good, but the dreaded middle area still is densely populated with some tough boys that are slowly being affected. There is a lot of hair in the middle part of the lip and one can only tolerate so much at a time, so this area is usually the last to conquer.

Are you communicating your concerns with her? Tell her you feel pulling. How’s the healing process after each treatment?

5

Thanks a lot for your replies.

  1. “Ask her to see the hair after she treats it. Do you see the whole hair structure with the bulby part?”

I remember she showed me the hair structure in the beginning and I think I saw the hair with the bulb. I’m not sure what do you mean by the root sheath? What I saw is a dark hair with thick white part on its top (is that the bulb or the root sheath)?

  1. “I’m wondering what size probe she is using. The PROBE needs to MATCH the diameter of the hair being treated!!! A size 2 probe is not going to work as well as a bigger size 6 probe on very coarse hair”

I don’t know either what probe size she is using. What probe size do you suggest for coarse hair if size 2 or 6 are not for very coarse hair? I’d like to suggest for her next time what is the best probe size to be used.

  1. “I like pulsing and she’s doing that. If you have to enter a follicle 3-4 times, then the levels need to be adjusted”

Do you mean by “levels need to be adjusted” is current setting to be adjusted? Higher current to be used?

  1. “Has she ever used BLEND on your upper lip?”
    No she never used that. She only has Apilus junior, will she still be able to use blend by using Apilus?

  2. “To be fair, I can’t see you and she may be doing all she can to achieve a good balance to “get” the hair while observing and protecting your skin.”

I hope that too 

  1. ” Are you communicating your concerns with her? Tell her you feel pulling.”

Yes I do that. She told me all the time that I have very coarse hair that needs long time to be treated. She says she can’t use higher setting because this will burn my skin. She says also I will still feel pulling because hair is coarse.

7.” How’s the healing process after each treatment?”

Healing is great. Redness goes away after 3-4 hours using witch hazel. Never had pitting before. Still some redness the second day but not very much.

6
  1. I’m not sure what do you mean by the root sheath? What I saw is a dark hair with thick white part on its top (is that the bulb or the root sheath)?

[color:#006600]When a hair is growing, it has like a little “socklike” structure that covers the hair. Think of the hair as the leg and the root sheath as a sock
[/color]

2.I don’t know either what probe size she is using. What probe size do you suggest for coarse hair if size 2 or 6 are not for very coarse hair? I’d like to suggest for her next time what is the best probe size to be used.

[color:#006600] Actually, a size 5 or 6 probe is good for coarse hair. A smaller size 2 is for very fine air. [/color]

3.Do you mean by “levels need to be adjusted” is current setting to be adjusted? Higher current to be used?

[color:#006600]She can do many things to makes the levels of intensity and timing work for your particular case. It’s all a matter of balancing the power (intensity, energy…) and the amount of time the probe is in the follicle. She will know what to do because she can see you.[/color]

  1. “Has she ever used BLEND on your upper lip?”
    No she never used that. She only has Apilus junior, will she still be able to use blend by using Apilus?

[color:#006600] Yes, the Apilus junior is capable of doing a nice pulsing blend (combining a few thermolysis currents/pulses with a continuous galvanic current and it has another kind of blend called OmniBlend where the galvanic current is delivered continuously with a continuous flow of a weak thermolysis current. OmniBlend is more comfortable for the client. So, she’s got the ability to do blend if she is comfortable and confident with these functions on her epilator.[/color]

  1. “To be fair, I can’t see you and she may be doing all she can to achieve a good balance to “get” the hair while observing and protecting your skin.”

I hope that too 

[color:#006600]I would rather hook up with careful, concerned electrologist who is all about protecting your skin rather than a sloppy, get it done and take the money (and take the consequences later) type. I like her for her cautious approach.[/color]

  1. ” Are you communicating your concerns with her? Tell her you feel pulling.”

Yes, I do that. She told me all the time that I have very coarse hair that needs long time to be treated. She says she can’t use higher setting because this will burn my skin. She says also I will still feel pulling because hair is coarse.

[color:#006600] She is correct. You can feel the bigger bottom hairs pop out and you maybe mistaking that for traction. In the beginning, when some hairs are growing and moist and some are about to shed and are dry, you will feel more of this, but as the hair is fully cleared and all the new hairs sprouting forth over the months come to the surface, those bulbs are usually moist and less traction is felt.[/color]

7.” How’s the healing process after each treatment?”

Healing is great. Redness goes away after 3-4 hours using witch hazel. Never had pitting before. Still some redness the second day but not very much.
[color:#006600] Enough said! I reiterate that some cases present with very brutal, sturdy hair and the electrologist needs to protect the skin, by breaking down these hairs gradually. The only thing that could change this up, is maybe using one of the blend modes on her junior to attack the biggest hair structures and definitely choosing a larger probe to get as much surface area as possible at the bottom of the follicle. This would be a good plan. [/color]

Dee

7

Dee, thanks a lot. That is really very helpful. I will suggest using blend and using larger probe size, see what she will say.

What about the white hair growing, is that a sign of progress, or just it happened to grow now during treatment.

Thanks again,

8

Do you think the white hairs were always there, but you didn’t see them because your eyes were focused on the dark hairs only?

White hair has nothing to do with progress. They exist and they are stealthy little b#!!&**! that we eventually get around to seeing.

Yes, see what she thinks about blend and who knows, maybe she is already using a larger probe to match the hair.