I didn’t want to overwhelm people with all of the details, but I guess I guessed wrong ).
I started in summer 2021, averaging a few hours a week, at times 6 hours a week at first. Early on I would still shave because there was a lot of hair, it was very dense on my neck and thick on my upper lip.
I saw one electrologist who did mostly blend on my upper lip, it worked ok but was slow overall, and after my hairs got blonde they had trouble seeing them. Today my electrologists use thermo, I don’t shave unless it’s a special occasion, you can’t see the hair from a distance, just up close under certain lighting.
Also, I had a hair transplant and they said I have large and slippery follicles if that helps.
I made a reddit post with all the details too for other trans women to take from what they can, here is the text
My 200+ hours of electrolysis
I’m about 200 hours into electrolysis on the face and a dozen or so for bottom surgery prep and during that time I’ve eight eight different electrologists in the past 3 years. During that time I learned a lot and I wanted to write it down here in case anyone finds it useful.
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My hair:
I have red hair that in different lights has been called “copper”, “strawberry blonde”, and sometimes can look brown. It does get darker in winter and lighter in summer, grows like a WEED, is mostly straight, and very resilient. I started HRT in my mid 30s, and there was slight hair-loss on my head (hair transplant took care of that easily). My facial hair was slow to come in, and I couldn’t really get a nice even looking facial hair situation until my mid 20s, but it was very dense on my chin, lips, and neck, with my cheeks always being sparse. That facial hair was both dense and thick strands.
One thing I’ve learned from electrologists is that hair like mine is up there with the most difficult to remove, which matches my experience. It is said that laser does nothing to red hair, which I think is partially true and partially false.
Before I started with laser treatments I could shave cleanly, but there would be shadow in my neck and lips and chin.
Also note, I’m a redhead so yes, pain meds to work less on me. Numbing creams that should last houses only last 45 minutes on me. For a two hour session I will put numbing on one side of my face one hour before a session, and apply to the second side when I get there, work on the first side for an hour, then the second side for an hour. Over the counter medications have less of an impact on me as well. People say I have a high pain tolerance, but I don’t really think I have an especially high tolerance for pain, especially sharp pain which really gets me (I do seem to tolerate blunt pain much better).
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Laser hair removal:
Before even HRT I started with laser because I knew hair removal would be a long haul. Even though laser was a long-shot, I decided for me it was worth it to try and get some clearings that didn’t require hours per week in a chair. I don’t know that it killed any hairs, but it did remove all of my shadow except for that on my upper lip, the shadow didn’t return even after a year after having laser treatments (I started electrolysis about 2 years after laser). I didn’t notice any thinning after laser, but this could be a perception issue, so I think it damaged the follicles and permanently weakened them in my case which I think did give a jump start for my electrolysis in further wearing them down.
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The electrologists I’ve seen:
I started with a hospital electrologist who took my insurance, but was way to booked and I didn’t want to take up peoples surgery prep slots, I was able to do a reimbursement deal with insurance so decided to go elsewhere, where I can do more than 1 hour per week.
After that I went to all sorts of places, looking for a good fit. One thing that I see a lot online is people not really doing the work of actually trying lots of places to find a good fit. It’s not unlike finding a good hair stylist (if you have long hair like mine and aren’t about the supercuts experience).
Here is a summary of each person I’ve seen
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A queer person at a hospital, used blend, and was lovely, but I didn’t end up going back for logistic reasons
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A “pro” who spent our first hour giving me a sales pitch about themself, I felt that they were selling too hard and didn’t go back, it just felt too much like an MLM sales pitch
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An elderly person who would only use one hand at a time, dropped tools, and wasn’t quick at all, but was, sometimes, very effective. Scheduling was a breeze and location was great, so I stayed with this one for a long time, but eventually I found some people who were better. Oh, and this one was a talker, this was hard for me!
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A nurse and part time electrologist who only had one setting, maximum intensity, who had no problem inflicting pain. I’ve never had hair removed so effectively since, and I miss this one. She used thermolysis but with a kill rate better than blend, but damn it hurt.
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Another woman like number 3, similar experience but my this time I wasn’t about it and wanted something a little faster. She was very good at fully treating each hair but overall not the most effective per hour.
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At the same practice as 5, but this person is one of my current two, very very good at what they do, fast, personable, efficient.
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The horror story, 1 hour, 10 hairs, much scabbing, no thanks
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The person who replaced 4, so so so friendly and very good at what they do, my other current electrologist, makes me comfortable and is effective.
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I look for a few things in a good electrologist:
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They need to be skilled and efficient with technique and equipment. I’ve had tweezers dropped on my face, electrologists gaze at each hair after pulling them, machines have trouble starting up, and electrologists complain that they can’t see my hair that others can easily find and zap. And while these are lovely people, I’m also there to get a job done that needs done. If the person doesn’t use both of their hands, doesn’t move around the table/chair to find the best angle, can’t quickly go thru the steps of locate->insert->treat->pull->repeat, then they aren’t giving the optimal performance that I need. I did stay with one electrologist who had trouble seeing light hair while I still had dark hairs that they could easily find, but otherwise, I’m all about efficiency now. Specific modality (thermos, blend, galvanic) is not really a primary factor for me after having experienced all of them, it’s how well the person uses them that seems to make the most difference.
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Conversation, or lack thereof. For me, and this is just me, if I’m in pain then talking does not help! Sometimes I like to chat, other times I like 2 hours of silence. Some electrologists love to chat and claim that this helps with pain by distracting people, this it turns out does not work well for me. Also when I hear the same story for the 10th time, or endless complaining about the same subject, I start to question my sanity. So consider that you will be spending a lot of time with this person, and personality fit matters.
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Logistics, scheduling. My current favorite electrologist does everything with a paper calendar and it drives me batty. If they have a good online scheduling system that lets you schedule sessions well in advance for planning, then this is a big plus. This was part of why I stayed for a long time with one electrologist who was otherwise very inefficient, it was just so easy to schedule with them and they were close to where I lived at the time. Punctuality is another big one, are they on time? Also be ware if you are late to a lot of appointments they may drop you, and this is understandable, they are a business too.
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Comfort, style. When an electrologist plays music you like, has a nice dentist chair, turns off the beeping on the machine, and lowers the lights, suddenly the whole experience is much more manageable. All those things aren’t required though, I see another who has a massage table with a Highrise view downtown which is also pretty sweet since we talk about baking for an hour or just stay silent listening to music. One electrologist had a fast acting numbing cream they would use on me, which was great early on when my thick hairs HURT to treat. Some will even sell you numbing creams, which can be another plus as those can be hard to find (good ones). Allong this line, some electrologists will turn down the machine if I start making ouch noises, others will sympathize and keep going, I prefer the latter, so also consider this in your decision. One electrologist I had (who moved on) would crank the machine all the way up, and go until I was about jumping off the table, when she would cut the session short a few times, it was agony and no one has been as effective as her at killing these stubborn hair follicles, I miss her!
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Stages of hair death:
I’ve observed that hair death is not the straightforward dice roll I thought it was. For me, it seems like each follicle has a health bar, which seems to correspond to it’s thickness and color. Each treatment takes a chunk off of it (with chance for a critical hit/miss). And they do heal over time, but not fully. After discussing with some electrologists, it seems to be the case that rapidly hitting the same hair over and over as soon as it re-grows will kill it in fewer treatments. One consequence here is that early on a good strategy is not to “thin” the whole face, but rather to concentrate on specific areas so that the hairs have less time to heal up after each zap.
Another thing I learned is that touch is inaccurate at sensing how much hair I have. There have been times that I felt the same density but it took half as much time to remove all the hair from an area. I think this is because at a certain density of hair, it all just feels like rough skin. I used a USB microscope I got on Amazon for $30 to look at my progress more accurately and it was really cool to watch, this also verified my health bar view of hairs.
Pain changes over time as well, thicker hairs hurt more to treat, so it literally gets easier to tolerate as the process goes on, at least it has for me. Though my pain management routine has also improved considerably.
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Prep and pain management:
THIS IS NOT MEDICAL ADVICE! It is only my own non-medical personal experience.
The first thing is medication, I use over the counter medications like Tylenol and Ibuprofen, and anything left over from surgery, to improve my odds. I don’t just take it all an hour before, I space the dosing out by the pharmacokinetic curves of each medication. This means I space out when I take each pill so that they should all hit peak effectiveness throughout the session. For me, that looks like this.
2hr before, Tylenol
1h 45min before, leftover surgery med
1h 30min before, Tylenol
1h 15min before, Ibuprofen
1h before, Ibuprofen
45min before, Ibuprofen
Tylenol and leftover surgery meds peak at about 2 hours after taking, Ibuprofen peaks about 1 hour after taking, this has worked well for me, but your mileage will vary. Make sure not to go over the daily limits for each medication type, and look those up to be sure you are being safe!
On to topical prep. I use numbing creams, and lots of it, because those meds help but don’t get me all the way to tolerating a session. I use the 10% lidocaine cream NumbSkin which you can order online and NumbSkin’s website, it’s absolute magic. I also have at times managed to get a triple-cream also known as BLT, which has 3 numbing agents in one, this is harder to find, and it helps in other ways. The 10% Lidocane is the most powerful for me, where it numbs it numbs great to the point of almost no feeling, but it doesn’t penetrate that deep, so I won’t feel the needle go in, but the zap deep under the skin I still feel a bit. The BLT cream by contrast is less strong, but deeper penetrating, so the zaps do hurt less with that one, but I end up feeling more sensations like the needle going in and the tugging action.
Here is my prep routine, which is basically the same for face and bottom surgery prep. I do this one hour before the session. If it’s a 2 hour session I will do this again right at the start of the first hour to the area being treated during the second hour (this is because of how short lived the numbing is for me, it may not be necessary for everyone).
Beforehand, I cut out a sheet or two of plastic cling wrap, and get about 8 sections of scotch tape ready to go.
First, wash the area with my facial cleanser (or soap downstairs), to clean the area of oils so the cream works better.
Second, I apply the lidocaine cream (if I apply BLT first the lidocaine slides off my skin, no good) in a layer that works for me, how much to apply depends on you.
Third, I apply BLT (which I keep in the fridge). This stuff I get tends to drop down a lot as it warms, so I apply it to the top half of the area knowing it will drop down, the lidocaine does not do this.
Fourth, I cover the area in the plastic wrap and secure it in place with the scotch tape pieces. If I use BLT I will put a lot of tape at the bottom to keep it from dripping down onto my chest.
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What makes an effective electrologist for me:
This is probably redundant and me ranting, but I felt like doing this anyway.
1 Fast at finding and treating hairs (and doesn’t totally stop to chat for 10min), uses both hands, and doesn’t drop tools
2 Can adjust the machine in session, tweaks things as they go to get good effect, even switch between blend and thermo in a session if needed
3 Moves around the table (preferably dentist chair) to get a good angle, doesn’t force me to lay in awkward positions any time they want to treat my right side
4 Can be quiet or talkative, following my lead on that
5 Easy scheduling and a convenient location
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Horror story:
I have one horror story, an electrologist who was walking distance from my house and had great reviews, so I was excited to try them out! I got there and it was in a basement room in a low-budget business complex, not the best start. I asked her to treat my adams apple area. She tried all kinds of thermolysis, and was the only electrologist I’ve seen who didn’t need me to hold a ground for the machine to work (it had mods that needed and didn’t need it). She was only about to actually remove maybe 10 hairs in total after an hour and left me with nasty scabs that lasted for a few weeks, then left scars that lasted a few months before fading away. It was like she kept zapping a spot forever, not being able to remove the hair, and doing it again over and over. Needless to say I did not go back. Other electrologists were easily about to treat those hairs with machine gun speed and pin-point accuracy without leaving marks.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MtF/comments/12vhpe5/my_200_hours_of_electrolysis/
