Suggestions on my case and DIY info

Hair Removal Methods Do-It-Yourself Electrolysis
#1

Hi everyone,

First of all, I have to mention that this forum is amazing. I have been going around reading stuff here for some weeks and its already helped me cope with my anxiety about facial hair!!

I am 26 and I am from India. I have had a hairy body and face ever since I remember (Have to get PCOS checked, but my periods are regular…so could it be PCOS?). I always tried to make peace with it and I have but my facial hair bothers me. Some random dark long thick hair have popped up below my chin. I pluck only those. On my chin, I have noticed that several hair are becoming longer and somewhat thicker that the original. But i am too afraid to touch them. I am sure I wont be able to cope with growing a beard. I had somewhat thick and noticeably dense, dark upperlip and lower lip hair. I got laser done 6 years ago which kinda helped. The hair is still there just as dense but the thickness has reduced. I never touched those hair or hair anywhere else on my face after that. So I am a hair virgin for 90% of my facial hair.

I dont want to go for laser for my face because it didn’t work all that well for me. I do not have access to any electrologist in my city and dont have the budget either at the time. Hopefully that will change. I know a lot of people here have suggested that clean N easy electrolysis units should be thrown in dustbin and DIY on your own face is risky, by those are the only options I have, so please bear with me.

I purchased Clean N Easy unit, and practiced on my stomach first. When I felt confident, I moved to my upperlip. I had to stop to let my skin heal but I have got rid of considerable hair and now its at a point where I can bleach without it being obvious. But I want to get a complete clearance on uuperlip and the use that an my stomach to see wether this unit is working for me. 3 month should give me a fair idea right?

I have some questions about things I have noticed during DIY

  1. While treating thiner hair on upperlip, cream coloured liquid leakes out. The hair is comes out without resistance after 15 seconds of treatment on a low setting of 2. The hair has white root.

  2. For darker and longer hair (which has been removed by plucking before), I tried at settig 4-5. these was no fluid leakage in that case and the hair comes out easier than plucking but not as easily as above. The hair depth inside is more and it has a black bulb at the end. Just about the black bulb, I can see transparent gel like a tube covering the hair shaft for the length that was inside the skin.

Does the treatment for both the hair sound correct? Should there be that cream coloured liquid leaking in first case and that gel present in second case?

PS: I realized that because the current is present both while inserting the needle in the follicle and removing, there’s more skin damage. My uupelip skin looks normal 3-4 days later but its dry. I read here and on hairfact about inserting first and then touching the metal to start current. I’ll try that on my legs.

#2

I have attached photos to give an idea of my facial hair. Its definitely more than its visible in the photos! I cant bleach because sideburns and hair on side of my face, neck are long and dense. Its becomes very obvious and looks weird. Not to mention some longer chin hair. Before i knew about electrolysis, I was hoping to reduce the density somehow and then bleach the rest. But now I feel I can be totally hairless and there wont be any need to bleach.

Am I being too optimistic ? :frowning:

1 Like
#3

If you had laser on your face previously, my guess with that skin tone would be laser hair stimulaton would occur. Long and course, are very typical in this scenario.

#4

Thanks for replying! :slight_smile:

I had laser on my upper lip which didn’t work all that well for me. Apart from reducing the hair thickness its all the same…maybe more hair has grown. Its hard to guess because laser was done 6 years ago. And I haven’t tried to remove hair again by any method.

But what you see in the photographs for rest of the face is all natural hair growth. I haven’t used any hair removal method. I was always too afraid that it’ll cause the hair to get thicker, there will be in-growth and then it will be impossible to manage. I am still afraid…considering that I have very hairy body.

Around 10 random dark long hair popped up below my chin which I have to pluck…but I am careful not to touch any other hair

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#5

Well whatever the cause of the hair growth you still have it. I dont recommend the fee n easy/ onetouch for anything really, their “probes” are deliberately difficult to work with, are too large for most fine hairs, and the device is notoriously unreliable. I’d rather see you pick up a used blend machine somewhere.

#6

Hi Seana,

Yes I have read several people saying that here, that its better not to use one touch units. But that’s my only option currently. I chose to do my upper lip after practicing one leg and stomach because my upper lip hair was bothering me way too much…it was like my whole life was on hold because of it. So if not electrolysis, I would have waxed my upper lip anyway. I have read here that plucking and waxing damages hair follicle for electrolysi. So I decided to go with diy electrolysis with the available device.

The city I live in does not have electrolysis services. But hopefully that will change…I am working towards relocating.

How many hours do you estimate it will take for first clearance of my face and neck professionally?

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#7

An estimate from me, would be meaningless, as every electrologist works a bit differently and what I would be able to do may not be the same as what they can do.

#8

I understand what you mean. I asked because I was thinking if it would be possible to travel to get it done in case I find an electrologist in another city which is nearby. But I don’t think it’s possible to get complete clearance in one sitting.

Let’s see how things turn up. Meanwhile I’ll research on blend machines for diy ( those might also be rare in India) and continue using clean n easy I guess.

#9

Update on diy:

So I understand now why no one likes one touch/ clean n easy units. It’s not efficient at all…

But I have noticed that with the foot switch modification, there’s close to no scabbing. There’s a link in several posts showing the photos of the modification someone had done, but it’s been taken down now… So I have done my own version of that modification based on the description.

I still need to improve my posture because it gets really tiring and arrange a better setup for my magnifying mirror. I am on it… hopefully I’ll be able to target more hair with this.

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#10

Depending on how you inplemented a “foot switch” the reason for no scabbing might be because theres no current or insufficient current. Galvanic should create a lye froth and a small honey coloured scab is considered the result of a good treatment of the follicle.

#11

Question:

If you can’t see the root of zapped hair ( even after it came out with zero resistance) does it mean that you broke the hair somewhere along the shaft? i.e. the current did not get delivered to the root but to the shaft just above root?

#12

possibly.Likely even. The way the root comes out in one piece with ease is the best measure you have of an effective kill in the follicle. No root sheath=no bueno!

#13

What Seana said is true, but if you are talking about one hair, it could be a hair that was just hanging out longer than it should, after it reached the end of its life. It could be a hair that was zapped a while back and was not lifted out of the follicle? Not every single hair will look like a complete, intact structure when it is lifted out. There are always some oddballs.

#14

Thanks a lot Seana and Dee for your replies!!

I plucked a couple of hair of the same thickness and length to see what’s happening…it looks the same as zapped hair. I think it’s new growth because I had almost cleared the area before. Maybe the hair didn’t take complete hold and hence does have an obvious root. But it’s shaft end is kinda whitish.

I’ll start reading again on hair growth phases and all related stuff that there is… maybe most of my doubts are just confusion in my head. I never liked bio and the names of the phases just add to my inability to understand :grin:!!

I have noticed following things so far,

  1. Thick hair (which has been regularly plucked) has black bulb as a root with gel like tube on the shaft. After zapping you can see both the bulb and gel.

  2. Hair which hasn’t been plucked, and is thinner than above har has white root which is visible after zapping.

  3. The newly growing hair has whitish shaft end but no obvious root.

#15

The current is same. I measured with a multimeter. And the iye froth is also forming. What I meant by no scabbing is it’s really less compared to what I was getting without modification…it formed on the next day…

Reason for this is that with modification, the needle is inserted first and then the current starts. And while removing, the current stops… Earlier the current would start as soon as the needle touches skin.

#16

White bottom of the hair is the telltale sign. I believe you may be seeing telogen hairs. If you look under magnification, do you see almost something that looks like a grain of sand ? That , believe it or not, is all you get left of a root sheath when the hair ages and is getting ready to shed. The hair rises in the follicle and the upper layers are less moist than the deeper tissues, as a result the sheath becomes dry and desicated.This is the final growth phase before the hair sheds .

On the “One Touch” modifications, I have some thoughts on what you are doing. If I understand correctly, you have bypased any “switch” and are inserting the needle hot. This isnt a great idea, as a conducting needle will go through flesh like the follicle wall, much more easily. It’s called " going in hot" and often ends in inacurate insertions ( you dont “feel” the needle puncturing the follicle wall it enters easily) .

On the one touch the metal band around the “probeholder” is the Anode side of the connection, and for good conductivity the meal surface should minimize resistance with salt water. . We do this with a chunk of steel bar that people hold in their hands on professional equipment.The needle itself, is wired to the cathode ( negative) side of the circuit.

The best one touch mods, are those that incorporate a professional grade probeholder and a better contact surface for the anode and a seperate wire for that. Any “switches” would be internal to that circuit. Mostly, they are junk and not worth trying to modify to that extent though, especially since you can frequently get a professional grade machine off kijiji craigslist or ebay, for a few hundred bucks that is way more capable and useable than the one touch ever dreamed of being.

#17

I understand that safety is important. The thing with hot wire used to happen before…you are supposed to hold the pen (which has a metal band) with fingers moistened with salt water. Because of this, as soon as you touch the needle to skin, the current starts. now i have shifted the manual control on current to foot. I start and stop current with my toe moistened with salt water. So now I use the toe only when I know that the needle is properly inserted into the follicle. If you want to know the details, I’ll elaborate. I was just trying to make the post shorter earlier, so I didn’t write much. :slight_smile:

I live in India and I have been searching for used machines here. I have been able to find only one person so far who said 2000 dollars (I converted it from rupees for you) for a used machine called apilus junior. I didn’t even get into any details about it because this is way way out of my budget.

The machines available on ebay or kijiji seem affordable for 100 but those won’t work in India because of different power specifications. I’ll research about this more for sure. Thanks.

#18

From looking at your photos, HairB, I can’t see how you’ll be able to do DIY on the sides of your face, even with a professional machine … I’ve had great success with the One Touch but I only had chin hairs to tackle.

#19

Question :

I tried 2 hair on forehead and 2 below the jaw line today.

For forehead, instead of feeling a zap, o could feel a pulse ( ?? I don’t know how else to describe it) about an inch from the spot where I had inserted the needle.

For hair below jawline this effect was more enhance and I could feel such a big pulse near my lower lip that it twitched.

Is this normal for these areas?

#20

Anyone? This was quiet a scary experience. I haven’t come across anything saying galvanic is dangerous. But it cannot be right to feel the pulse somewhere else. I tried one more hair yesterday near eyebrow, and felt the pulse in the scalp. Am I doing something wrong?