Understanding an electrologist skill

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
#1

Hi all,

First I want to ensure i am not trying to sound rude or discrediting towards electrologists and there profession/skill required to complete this job. But i don’t know how else to ask this without sounding rude.

I constantly read here for my research on making sure to find a skilled electrologist. I also see posts like thermolysis requires a practitioner to be very skilled, especially if using micro/pico flash. What i don’t understand is what exactly is so difficult? You insert the probe without puncturing, zap, than remove the hair without plucking. It doesn’t sound like rocket science.

I have seen 6 electrologists in the area and all 6 used thermolysis for a 30 minute session. I didn’t feel the insertion and i didn’t feel the removal of hair. ALL of them used the foot pedal, but i know the PRO’s here use the automated method (which has been said requires more skill) so does that mean i should be looking else where still? How can i determine which one has the most skill?

Again i am not trying to be rude or discrediting to your profession, i just want to understand so i can better select my electrologist.

** Area looking to be treated is MALE - Upper Back and Shoulders.

#2

Wow.

All this post says to me is that you have very little knowledge and understanding of electrolysis.

Educate yourself and you will be able to answer your own question.

If you are too lazy to do so, the simplest way to establish which electrologist is most effective at killing follicles is the following:
Ask the electrologist to completely clear a small area (2" x 2" say) of ALL hairs. Prior to the electrolysis, the hair in that area should not have been tampered with, I would say, for at least 6 months.
3 months after the session you will be able to see how effective the electrologist’s work is. The hair present will be a combination of regrowth from any follicles that were not completely destroyed, and hairs that were not present at the time of clearance to treat them in the first place. In the perfect treatment, you will only observe the latter.

#3

Welcome to HairTell, Karolinza.

Not all of us pro’s use the auto sensor. Footswitch or auto sensor, either way is fine and depends on what we feel comfortable with, for doing the task at hand. We keep saying that there are many paths (strategies) to successful hair removal via electrolysis. We all approach a man’s back or a lady’s upper lip differently and all reach the same goal if we are doing excellent insertions with the right amount of heat for the right amount of time. That is one fascinating thing about electrolysis that we can’t seem to get the consumer to understand very well. We share our strategies with each other, but that doesn’t mean that one is going to work better than the other or we are going to take the same approach.

When you describe inserting and removing a hair from a follicle, it sounds easy, but it is not always that easy in reality. I can almost feel many electrologists in the audience shaking their heads affirmatively right now. They know what I’m talking about!

Doing a test patch is a great idea for those clients that doubt.

#4

stoppit&tidyup:

I seem to have upset you by asking a question. My profession is a software developer, i do not expect someone who doesn’t do this for a living to understand the full idea and complexity of what goes into it as a job, as such how can i fully understand the skill of an electrologist if i don’t perform the job. This is why i asked. Also from what i can take from your reply is that i need to now wait 3 months and assess each area treated and than from that choose who to use as an electrologist.

dfahey:

I read a lot of your posts, you provide a great amount of knowledge here on the forums and i wanted to thank you for given me a conscious and clear response to my question.

“it sounds easy, but it is not always that easy in reality”, i can completely understand that i will never get the difficulty involved unless i take up the profession myself.

So i guess than the best way to choose a electrologist now is to just wait and see how each area looks after 3 months and go from that?

#5

My background is also in engineering. I am not an electrologist. As a client, I researched the process so that I could make informed decisions.

The fact that you don’t even seem to appreciate how complex it is, is what bothers me.

Just because you don’t understand something, it doesn’t mean you automatically assume that it’s simple.

#6

A few years ago, I didn’t even know what the word electrologist meant nor had basic grasp of how they kill hair. The first electrologist I ever went to was a professional plucker with 30 years in the industry. She prided herself of being a director of education or something like that for AEA back in the days.

Like you, I also believed electrology can’t be the rocket science that it’s sometimes made out to be in online forums. Stick a probe 4mm deep and deliver micro-current and “that’s it.” With that mindset, I trusted the very nice lady’s skill for many months. I was enlightened by HairTell and decided to seek better skilled practitioner. . . .

#7

You’re right it’s not rocket science.
It’s a practical skill, and for the properly trained and experience it usually goes smoothly. Inserting a probe, right angle, right depth, choosing correct probes, right modility, correct timing and intensity. A skilled practitioner will be able to correctly assess all of these things for different skin types and tolerance, hair density and thickness, also taking into account client pain threshold. Many clients and praticularly the ones on here have often had bad experiences yielding poor to no results or at worse scarring, if it was really easy such things would not happen.
Clients who have good treatment like yourself rarely come onto forums as there is no need. I’ve been practising for 20 years I only found out about hairtell 3 years ago, I was as well as my colleagues oblivious to it, our clients never mentioned hairtell due to many skilled practitioners in our area.
As for easy skills, I’d say knitting looks easy, wool up and over pull through etc my mum can knit, chat and watch tv while creating beautiful jumpers, socks, baby clothes, if I was to try the same it would be a holey mess. As will all practical skills it needs to be learnt and practised.
By the way 20 years on I’m still learning and getting advice on how to remove hair efficiently.

#8

I don’t appreciate how complex it is? What? I indicated it wasn’t rocket science (which you took to mean simple) and no one other than saying RESEARCH MORE has provided details about how hard it is.

I outlined that i had the procedure done by 6 individuals, which you ignored, and they all performed the same on an a separate area i cannot physically see while they are working. I asked HOW can i determine which is the best if all of them had the SAME feeling. But of course i just need to RESEARCH more.

#9

Your fine Karolinza. You have tried six different electrologists and what it boils down to is, if you don’t feel the hair being tweezed and you see the whole, intact hair from bulb to top of hair, that is a clue that something good is happening. You can ask to see a bunch of hair structures. It is quite cool to observe actually. She can lay them on cotton ball and give you a magnifying glass.

There is a certain amount of trust that goes along with this. As the hair growth cycles click in a little at a time, you will think this is not working, but it is. Your electrologist needs to prepare you for what is to be expected at certain intervals along the way, otherwise, you may become disillusioned . For a man’s back, teaching along the way is very important. For those that don’t do marathon sessions, it will be hard to be patient and wait. It takes many hours and much effort, but it is worth it. We must always be honest with clients about what it takes to be hair free.

Speed is another thing you can use to help you decide who is better for your needs. It is possible to be speedy and to be carefully effective. If someone is speedy , but sloppy with the insertions, then it is better to go to someone who is slower and who carefully does perfect insertions.

I know, so much to think about, but you must know these things to help you make informed decisions. Again, a lot of this is about trust and it is hard to trust another person when the results are not seen until you are far into the project. That is why stoppit’s suggestion about clearing a 2"x2" area is a very good one.

We appreciate you being here. My son is a software engineer, writing code all day and I’m sure his inquiring mind would have asked the same questions.

Thanks for being here.

#10

It’s sounds like you have had good treatment, smooth insertions -easy release of
hair, if you are still unsure and haven’t waxed or tweezed I would do what stoppit advised have a clearing and wait to see the results.

How was your skin reaction? Did all electrologists work at the same pace? These are the points that may help you decide between the 6 practitioners but so far their skills sound good.

#11

Err, I told you exactly how you can determine which one is doing the best ‘job’. The ‘job’ being effectively killing follicles. In fact, the method I outlined is the only way you will be absolutely sure. Not feeling insertions and smooth extractions is not an absolute. So, if you want to know more about WHY that is then yes, you do need to do more research to find out yourself.

Much of the information you need and then some about the actual process and how complex it is, is on these forums already.