I recently posted a question about difference between blend, flash and galvanic, and i talked about my intention to give Boston electrolysis (run by Kimberly Wiliams ) a try. I talked about Boston E. before and some members on this forum seemed to know little bit something about Kimberly, but no one had experienced her actual work.
So , last week i called asking for appointment on saturday the 22nd of September, thinking shes probably booked for this saturday, which is the 15th. She tells me its actually okay for me to come on the 15th for a consultation, and possible treatment, but she left that up to me to decide following the consult. I get the usual talk, about rest of electrologist in Phoenix being only certified and not fully skilled, and how shes the only one who can do it better than anyone. Honestly, that kinda freaked me out a bit, but i decided not to judge and go anyways. So this morning, after my husband got the saturday off so he can drive me over 30 MILES, (i live in Phoenix, and this is Scottsdale i m going to), i come there on time, with my husband and my little girl because i had no one to leave her with. First thing i see when i open the door (after the smell hit me in the head ), is this small room, with no real front desk, no computer, messy as heck, and i instantly wanna cry and go crawl back to my dear Sofia at Maria de Nicolas place. All of a sudden, galvanic is only thing i wanna do, even if it takes forever. So out comes i think, a man, whos actually Kimberly which i didnt know about and i dont care honestly( i have two TG friends). I was just little stunned because Kimberly on her website looks different, and i expected someone looking like her to work on me, and look upon me in my most sensible and humiliating moment. So Kimberly comes, and straight of the top says that she messed up all her times and appointments and tells me to go and have lunch and come back in one hour, and theres another girl on her table, at my scheduled time.
So i am thinking, hey what lunch? We live on a budget, so i can afford electrolysis on one income. If we do lunch in a restaurant, money for one hour treatment is gone.
I just wanted to add that Scottsdale is prestigous part of Phoenix, and my expectations were pretty high. Marias place is top notch, clean, smelling great, with great, great staff that makes you feel right at home. When i left home this morning i expected to see something high class, state of art, clean and modern. Instead, it was horrible. We still wont know how her work is, but place is a mess, and client handling is terrible. To let a future client drive over 30 miles to come to your place and return him after a scheduled appointment is just plan horrible.
Hi Sanny:
You said:
“So out comes i think, a man, whos actually Kimberly which i didnt know about and i don`t care honestly( i have two TG friends). I was just little stunned because Kimberly on her website looks different, and i expected someone looking like her to work on me, and look upon me in my most sensible and humiliating moment.”
I realize you weren’t happy with your experience, but this statement came off as insensitive to people who are TS in spite of your disclaimer about having two TG friends.
Alicia
Ugh. I was so hoping that this worked out for you and you could have at least had a consultation and a sample treatment.
For all of you that have skilled practitioners with hygenic offices, please tell them how much you appreciate them. I mean, is it asking too much for a practitioner to at least put some effort forward to have a clean office that smells good? What is it they say about “first impressions”?
Thanks for the report. If you have any will left inside your soul after this, please keep searching. You can be our consumer representive from the Phoenix area! If it were cheap and possible, I’m sure that any of the electrologists that posts here, including myself, would love to suck you through the computer screen and show you what could be possible in this business of hair removal. I want to shrink and crawl away when I hear about messy, smelly offices especially because that is something that has nothing to do with skill and can be easily corrected.
Thanks,
Dee
First of, i have to respond to Alicia. I understand it might sound insensitive what i said about Kimberly actually being a man. And yes i do have transgendered friends. One of them was our family friend while he was still married to his wife and living with her and their two kids. Now, few years later, hes living as a full woman, and honestly hes looking better than me. Its just my opinion that i should have, as a possible client, and a consumer, known that Kimberly is actually a man, because honestly she looked like a man and she was dressed as a man. The reason a am saying this has nothing to do with the fact that she might be transgendered, because i fully support that, but its because i dont feel comfortable around men in general, and i dont have a job because of that. I am 33 and i have never ever worked because of that issue. I have female dentist, female doctor, and after seeing Kimberlys web site and the spruced up picture of her, i believed shes a woman. I didnt have to drive all the way over there, to stand in front of a man with my lightly grown moustashe and chin hair, and feel the way i did. That takes care of that. Please dont insinuate that i have something agains transgendered people when i don`t. I am suportive and extremely happy that they have option of being on the outside what they feel on the inside.
Dee, you are absolutely right. This is bad example of how things can go wrong, and have nothing to do with skill. Kimberly might be the best electrologist in state of Arizona. or the worst. I will never know.All it takes is investing few thousand dollars in sprucing up your office and having front desk to look proffesional. Get some air freshner, and pay attention to your dressing code while at work. My husband instantly freaked away once we left the office, and he yelled that hed never let me do any work in conditions weve seen.
When i go to Marias, my electrologist Sofia wears nurses uniform. She always put fresh gloves, fresh sheet on the table, offers you a pillow, asks about what kind of music you want to listen to, if youre cold enough or comfy enough. One little thing that i like the best about Sofia are these ocasional stops while shes doing the treatment. Every once in a while she will stop, smile and say “HI”, like you just walked in, even thought youre already 15-20 minutes on the table. So yes, i will keep looking. But not to change my current electrologist. Ill stay where i am. I will check out others so i can report it on here, for future reference. I know that i couldn`t find anything about electrology here in phoenix, when i started to look for it, so maybe someone in future can find some recomendations here on the forum.
I just want to say thanks to James who recomended Maria De Nicola to me. Thank you once again.
You are welcome, and thank you for returning the favor by being our “Phoenix Area Correspondent.”
I now find myself in the strange position, once again, of being an apologist for The Hair Remover Known As Kimberly Williams.
When you say her office smelled, you did not specify what it smelled like. Surely there are some odors that simply are unacceptable, but others are just part of life.
My clients expect me to live at my office for their convenience, and when I have out of town guests, we both actually do live at my office while we work. This means that the guest apartment in the rear may have lunch on the stove while we work, and a local client may arrive while the sent of a meal may still be wafting from the rear apartment, into the shared hallway. This will also frequently happen when no out of town client is around, as I am often booked solid from 10am to 10pm and I don’t plug into the wall for energy.
The fact of life is also that there is a scent created by the work we do, and the smell of Thermolysis, Galvanic, and Blend work do tend to build up in a space if one doesn’t have some really good air quality equipment.
Now if the scent you picked up was anything other than those, I can not defend her at all and will just say, “I am sorry that happened to you.”
Hello James 
I fully understand what you mean. I havent specified the smell. But it wasnt cooking, i am sure of it. My husband said it reminded him of a dog kennel where we once went to adopt a puppy.I, personally couldnt put my finger on it. I was too mad about the way she handled me as a potentional client. I wouldnt mind smell of a good lunch while having electrolysis done. I am originally from Croatia, which is 20 minutes away from Italy, and we Croatians are very family oriented. We make big deal about preparing lunch daily and we prefer living with bunch of other people, so family like atmosphere doesnt freak me out. Itd be quite relaxing to smell good cooking on a stove while being terorized by a needle and electric current.
This was different, and combined with a mess in general, not a good place to be. At least for me.
But in entire honesty, if she was to treat me differently, id probably pay for that half hour treatment, and today wed know if smell is actually worth getting over. But i am not going back there. If someone else goes, i`d like them to report back on her actual skills.
have you considered other electrologists in general? I have a hard time believing that Phoenix and Scottsdale only has 2 to choose from.
I called three more places few weeks ago. It was unbelievable.
First place i called told me that they offer galvanic only at 55 dollars per hour, but she sounded very cold. After she answered the phone, and i asked for the price she said : 55 perone hour !
Then she hung up, without even waiting for me to respond and asking more questions. I imidiately scratched off that place from my book.
Second place i called did both laser and electrolosys. Girls answered the phone, and after me asking how much is it per hour she said she had no clue and put me on hold. 11 minutes later (unbelievable) she comes back and said that she still doesn`t know the hourly charge for electrolysis, because no one really asks. I find that hard to believe being on a budget myself.
Third place said that they currently don`t accept new clients. How weird.
I dont know of anymore places. i cant find any, neither online nor in my phone book. Someone posted here earlier today, responding to my post, but that post disappeared.
http://www.hairtell.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/postlist/Board/49/page/1
did you call all of the ones listed at the link above?
Google search for “phoenix electrolysis” turned up a lot of links such as : http://www.switchboard.com/Electrolysis+Treatments/Phoenix/AZ/1691-/yellowpages.htm
Also, I hope you looked at every link in the “how to find an electrologist” sticky post on this forum.
OMG ! I wish i had that first link before i ever went to see Kimberly williams.
James said little bit something about her being paranoid and we all joked about it, but i had no clue that there is actually documented history which is pure written evidence of her insanity.
Poor Andrea. That must have been horrible experience to go thru.
Thanks for the information though. It seems that there is someone located less than 5 minutes drive away from my house, but i have to call first and see what they`re offering.
Ok, I guess I can’t apologize any further for Kim Williams. The picture is clear. Oh, well, I guess it is still up to me to find out what her actual treatment skill may be 
Thanks Again for trying to take one for the team.
Maybe you could pay her visit when you go “out west” in the short future for sure, since you are James W. Walker VII, CPE from Buffalo NY and Traveling the US… Got to keep true to the title, you know. 
Sanny, I don’t know what happened to the post from Arlene yesterday, but maybe she will come back and offer you some good practitoner choices. Until then, stay on the hunt.
Take care.
Dee
Thank you, Dee!
Hi Sanny:
You said:
“First of, i have to respond to Alicia. I understand it might sound insensitive what i said about Kimberly actually being a man. And yes i do have transgendered friends. One of them was our family friend while he was still married to his wife and living with her and their two kids. Now, few years later, hes living as a full woman, and honestly hes looking better than me. Its just my opinion that i should have, as a possible client, and a consumer, known that Kimberly is actually a man, because honestly she looked like a man and she was dressed as a man. The reason a am saying this has nothing to do with the fact that she might be transgendered, because i fully support that, but its because i dont feel comfortable around men in general, and i dont have a job because of that. I am 33 and i have never ever worked because of that issue. I have female dentist, female doctor, and after seeing Kimberlys web site and the spruced up picture of her, i believed shes a woman. I didnt have to drive all the way over there, to stand in front of a man with my lightly grown moustashe and chin hair, and feel the way i did. That takes care of that. Please dont insinuate that i have something agains transgendered people when i don`t. I am suportive and extremely happy that they have option of being on the outside what they feel on the inside.”
When does a transsexual woman have the right to be called a woman
in terms of your definitions?
What if she has had SRS surgery and all of her documents list her as female based on doctors examination of her anatomy?
Why do you still refer to your friend who is living full time for several years as “he”? Does she mind you calling her “he”?
Alicia
It seemed to me that what she was saying was that Kimberly presents herself as a woman on her site, and yet was not presenting as a woman in her office.
Now I was not there, but I will say that if you want to be called she, it helps if you are not showing up in a lumberjack’s outfit complete with suspenders.
Hi James:
I would like Sanny to answer those questions I posed honestly.
Unfortunately there are those in society who think in terms of “once a man, always a man”, no matter what lengths we go through to change.
There are also some people who refuse to call us by our proper gender.
Considering Kimberly has a female name, and I am assuming she presents as a woman, even if she does not always look as good as her online photo, why would anyone call her a “man” or “he”.
If she has had surgery and is legally female, why should anyone call her other than “she” or a “woman”?
From the viewpoint of someone who is a transsexual, such terms are extremely insulting when directed at us. I am speaking from personal experience here, since I have been hurt by such references and don’t like to see them directed at others like me.
Alicia
Okay. Let me explain something to you. One of the strongest traits for a women is her self esteem, and how secure she is on the inside. That will project on the outside as well, and she will make a very strong impression on anybody she meets, regardless of her being pretty or ugly like a hog. From your post, after reading it few times, i can tell that you had a surgery, and you are, legally, a woman, but youre insecure and incomplete, and that is something only you can deal with. You are the only one who took my post as personal insult, even though we all know that many transgendered people frequent this forum. Yes, i really have nothing against transgenderd people. I applaud them for being brave enough to go thru it. Yes, i still refer to my friend as a he, because for us and him (her), its a funny situation, and everything that happen in his life to make him do what he did, is funny to that extent that we all laugh together. But i will not talk about his private life on here. Lets just say that i knew him as Christopher for 8 years, and last two i have to call him Chrissy, and when i call him Christopher, he really dont mind. He understands that is difficult thing to get used to after so many years. My husband changed his name 11 years ago when we first came to USA, but i can`t get used to it, and still call him the way i know him. Does that mean i have something against him too?
Kimberly presents herself as a woman. As you can tell from the picture she has posted, she looks decent and well groomed. I specifically asked if shes gonna do the treatment, and she said yes. By the color of her voice, i could tell shes transgendered, and i dint care. When i saw Kimberly in the office i felt like someone hit me with a hammer. Out came a man. My husband is 62, but Kimberly is way taller that that. Close to 300 pounds, with a blonde wig or either very dirty blonde hair, and male clothing (shirt over the pants). I didnt notice the chest though. So what would you feel at that moment? If you already go thru all the pain of the surgery, and i know how difficult it is and how painful it is, then you groom yourself as a woman, dress as a woman, and more that everything else, be a LADY. Its not only about giving yourself a girly name. We go thru lots of pain to make ourselves pretty for our men. It comes with a teritory.
I cant help if you took this personally. It wasnt directed towards you or anyone else, but towards Kimberly not being honest and not living the part.
Hi Sanny:
I merely wanted to point out to you that “misgendering” someone who has changed gender is not polite. It doesn’t show them the basic respect and dignity you would freely give to strangers you pass on the street.
As far as your friend goes, she is a “she” and even if you make occasional mistakes with using her old name and gender pronouns,
I would think you would want to use the correct ones by which she identifies by now, just out of respect for her as a friend.
I think if you really try, and truly care about her as a friend you will remind yourself to call her “Chrissy” and “she”.
As far as anyones gender presentation goes, a lot of women don’t
present as femininely as the public expects a trans woman to present. Then on the other hand if we present too femininely we get heavily criticized for that too for either being an over the top imitation of femininity, or by feminists for upholding the gender binary system.
As far as facial hair goes, the majority of the clients getting electrolysis are women. Unfortunately for some of them society equates facial hair on women with masculinity, and they are made to feel ashamed of that. In all honesty is that fair to them, when it is something they can’t help? Maybe if women would be honest with each other about the number of them getting electrolysis they may begin to realise that they are one of many other women in the same boat and should not feel ashamed.
Alicia