UK Male Needs Help & Advice

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
#1

Hi,

I’m a mid-20’s Caucasian male from the United Kingdom, I have brown hair and average tanned skin.

I have unwanted hair on my shoulders and upper back, as well as other areas, but these two places are what I want to start permanently getting rid of!

I have been plucking these areas with tweezers once a week for the last 10+ years, the hairs that grow back are quite thick and black (my normal arm and leg hair is light/blonde).

When I pluck the hairs, they are not visible for 2 to 3 days, then you can start seeing (and feeling) them appearing (re-growing). A week after plucking the hairs are about 2 to 3 mm in length.

Obviously unwanted body hair is a pain, and I’ve had enough, so after reading this site have decided to try electrolysis, as this seems to be the only actual permanent method of hair removal.

However, before I start I have some questions and require some advice.

  1. What’s the ideal length of a hair, for an electrologist to perform electrolysis on it? I seem to have very fast regrowth (lucky me!). As above, after a few days my hairs can grow 2 to 3 mm, they are obviously in the growth phase so is this a good time to treat them?

  2. Should I try and get as many sessions as possible at the start? Is it true that the more sessions I get at the start (the more aggressive), the quicker the treatment will take to complete.

  3. What would be the best type of treatment, Galvanic, Thermolysis or blend, for my skin type and area I want treated?

  4. Is there anything I can do pre & post treatment to help process?

  5. Can anyone recommend a good electrologist in the UK (particularly London)

  6. From what I can see electrolysis seems to be the only permanent (gone for good) way of getting rid of hair. If I completed treatment and is was performed correctly, would that mean that all hair treated will be killed, and should never grow back/require regular treatment? i.e. full final clearance

Any help & advice will be appreciated

Thanks

#2

You are correct in your assumptions regarding electrolysis. If you are to embark on the electrolysis route, it would be in your best interests to stop plucking immediately. Plucking prevents a hair from being available for treatment for a few months, as well as often times being a catalyst for thicker, as well as more hair. I’m sure this isn’t what you want. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

If you cannot begin electrolysis soon, I would recommend waxing to supplement your plucking regime. While it may not be any healthier for your skin and/or hair follicles, it will keep you from having to pluck every 2-3 days.

As far as practioners in London, check out the posts by our excellent user Toni; she posted information about her electrologists here at the end parts of the winter this January or February.

When you begin electrolysis, you will want the hair to be long enough for the electrologist to be able to see it (hopefully who ever you employ will have up-to-date vision equipment) and be long enough for a pair of forceps to remove the hair to be removed once it has been treated. Before your visits, you can shave about 2-4 days ahead of time so that the electrologist can tell which hairs are in the growth phase. The 2-4 day window will allow for hairs to appear in the growth phase, which is ideal for treatment.

You will do aggressive sessions as close together as possible - hair permitting - in the beginning, and as you progress along the 9-12 month required course, you will go for shorter sessions spaced further apart.

Thermolysis will prove best for someone with a lot of hair (especially us males). Galvanic is a much slower method and blend has a high kill rate but its trade off is that it takes a few seconds per hair, as where thermolysis can treat hairs in fractions of seconds. All are proven methods but are applied according to practioner skill and patient needs. Some practioners prefer thermolysis up front and blend in the latter stages of your treatment when there are fewer hairs.

Electrolysis is permanent. Fact. All of the hairs that are treated within the 9-12 month time frame will be destroyed, along with the follices that produced them. That follicle, to your benefit, will no longer produce hair. One thing electrologists cannot do, however, is to prevent you from growing new hair. For males this is not as common as in the case of females due to various life and hormonal changes. With males however, in your mid twenty’s to early thirty’s you will have seen about all the hair your genetic code has programmed you to grow, just that some hairs can thicken or darken as you age (which explains why you see older males with hair along the ear lobes).

Anything else?