When working on myself and others, I’ve always started off conservative with intensities. Recently I’ve been trying to get my epilation time down though and that meant being a little bit more liberal with intensities.
For multiplex, the standard presets for “very course” hair set the intensities of galvanic somewhere in the vicinity of 0.64 MA . .For thermolysis it sets up 5 pulses of 0.70 seconds of , I believe 9% intensity. I’d have to unpack my machine to double check these but I believe it’s about right. I’ve yet to find those settings anywhere even close to effective. At that I have to use 2 full cycles, even on my current hairs which are relatively thinner regrowth . It’s rare I have a thicker hair to epilate on myself anymore.
So I’ve played with the intensities somewhat. Last week I did about a dozen hairs using 0.30 second pulses, and 35% intensity thermolysis, and dropped the treatment time from 11 seconds to 3. I still had to use two cycles, but the total was 6 seconds not 22. The hairs epilated beutifully but I was rewarded by a definite difference in sensation into the next day, almost like a pin was in my skin. And by a dozen or so neat scabs the next day. It was enough to tell me that 35% , was apparently too much.
Now the person I was working on this week, is a different case. She’s had almost no clearance prior, and no laser. Instead of the multitude of thinner hairs I had to deal with on myself, hers is almost completely large thick terminal hairs.And mostly, very DEEP. I had previously upped the galvanic to 0.70 MA on her and left the rest of the cycle alone. Her hairs have some of the thickest roots I’ve seen to date, and oddly bits of the sheath maintain the same reddish hue the hair has. The combination of really deep roots (easily 1/4 inch deep) and wide roots has meant more treatment energy. I had previously increased galvanic to 0.70 MA for the duration of the 1 second cycle, and at that I was still needing 2 - 2 1/2 or 3 cycles per hair. Way too much time.
This last time I treated her I increased galvanic to 0.80 MA and thermolysis from 9% to 20% in the hopes of bringing down treatment time.I also switched to omniblend ( constant non-pulsed blend for you non-apilus readers) . It was only partially successful, I could get away with 2 cycles but I was still getting slightly more resistance than I usually like to have. This stayed that way until I switched to a treat and wait strategy, I was treating little groups of five hairs before I took them out, the extra time gave the galvanic produced lye more time to do it’s work, which gave me easier withdrawls with little to no tugging. She hasnt gotten back to me on whether this has had major effect on skin reaction from the higher intensities. I dont think on her it is going to be horribly practical to get under 20 seconds per hair epilation time.I will try some larger probes to see if that has much effect either way but wont be treating her again until after christmas.
As for the 3 day course, I’m honestly not thinking that in the 18 or so hours they have available I’m going to see much more than a quicky chairside instruction. The general concensus of all I’ve spoken to, is that a course with a certificate is all that is required to practise legally. There doesnt seem to be any regulation on course length, content or number of practise hours, that part is relatively irrelavant. Ministry of health does have a document on infection control guidelines. Now this is not true province wide. Toronto area has just introduced something called the “bodysafe program” aimed at electrologists and tattoo parlours and other PSS’s . Information on bodysafe is found here:
There’s licensing involved ( relatively expensive too $320 for the first year) but thankfully all of this only applies to the Greater Toronto Area.The inspection guidelines closely mimick what is already in place by the ontario ministry of health. From what I’ve read it seems mostly aimed at ensuring they are adequately inspected. I’ve yet to find ANYWHERE that states that even a certificate is required to perform electrolysis( and it may not be) but seems to be the general concensus of everyone I’ve ever spoken to in electrology. The closest information I’ve been able to find in the past was that on COPE website:
http://www.electrolysis.ca/e_training.asp
Ottawa too has looked into health programs like Toronto’s Bodysafe program. They are now aiming to inspect all electrolysis premesis withing 2013. The issue is a) they have no licensing and arent aware of any premises unless a complaint is lodged b) there are no laws in place to institute fines and c) they dont seem to have enough resources to actually perform the insepctions. For the moment, the only option they have to correct deficiencies, is to make an attempt to educate the operator on effective practices based on Ontario Ministry of health GUIDLINES ( note I didnt say regulations) found here:
http://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/publichealth/oph_standards/docs/pssp_2008.pdf
Anyway that’s pretty much what we have, a whole lot of nothing, a vague notion by practitioners that a certificate is required( which actually seems good to have if there were guidelines in place for covered topics like infection control, number of hours etc) , no governing body, and zero on enforcement or regulations.So effectively I can call myself an electrologist now and start taking paying clients if I REALLY wanted to. But without even a attempt at formal instruction, to get the things I probably missed in self learning, it just isnt the wisest of notions.
Seana
