Hi everyone,
i used to post here regularly the first few months of electrolysis, but then all my questions and issues died down. 
I thought I’d post my progress for the newbies.
I used to wax my lip and chin, but hated how it made my lip look unnaturally bald. Over time, more and more hairs grew in, and I switched to bleaching + tweezing out the thick hairs. Then the bleach worked less and less (I’d have to keep it on for 20 mins instead of the recommended 10). I had a total forest above my lip and had to bleach/tweeze that area every 3 days. It was nuts, so I decided to go for electro.
I started in May 04 for one hour/week. Half hour on lip, half hour on chin. Thermolysis, Apilus machine. The first 3-4 months the area would become swollen and very VERY red. The nights of my treatment I couldn’t go out. I’d spend the evening with a bag of ice on my face. ;-b
But my electrologist said I had the densest amount of upper lip hair she’d ever seen. After each visit, I felt confident about how I looked for about 3 days. Then the regrowth burst in like crazy. I cut it with scissors, but I still found it embarrassing.
Around month 3, I no longer needed scissors between my weekly appointments. The regrowth was under control and from that moment on, I never worried again about someone noticing my hairy lip! What a freedom! My hair was now someone else’s problem (my electrologist’s), one day a week.
Around month 4, I cut my session down to 45 minutes/week. My skin continued to get insanely red after each treatment but it didn’t swell up any more. I had developed hyperpigmentation on the chin, too. But I found a special liquid coverup to hide it.
Around month 6, I cut my session down to 30 minutes/week. Around this time I went on vacation and then got sick, etc, and I didn’t have a treatment for a few weeks. The redness and hyperpigmentation faded dramatically in that time, so I really can tell you that any redness or discoloration you have will eventually fade once the area isn’t being treated regularly. Also, during those few weeks, I never had to use the scissors until just a few days before my appointment when all the new growth got a little noticeable.
Today, I’m in month 8 and I’m still going for 30 mins/week. I could go less often, but I want to stay on top of this. Also, we have gone really slow treating the part of the upper lip that is right in the center. (That is a killer for me.) So I like to get a little bit of that done every week so I can get rid of it sooner. My skin still kind of freaks out after a treatment, but it doesn’t last. Maybe just an hour. It’s just how my skin is.
Considering the way my skin reacted every week to electrolysis, you might wonder if I have scars or damage, but I don’t. Everything eventually calmed down and I am really thrilled now that all those old worries about my appearance are gone. I am now a person who never ONCE wonders “oh, before i leave the house, i better go see if i have to do a bleach/tweeze session.” I also can really say that electrolysis is working for me. I don’t know how much longer I’ll have to go, but I’m in it till the end, and I’m REALLY glad I stuck with it and spent the last 8 months getting to this point instead of heading down the road I was on.
I hope this helps!
good wishes to everyone on this board and like a BILLION thanks to all the many pros here who answered all my questions (and everyone else’s too). You guys will never know how much you’ve changed my life!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
–susie