what am I getting myself into?

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
#1

Hi all,
I’m new here, and I have been reading all your posts and finding them really helpful.

I am just starting electrolysis (blend) on my chin area. I’m 24, female and am light-skinned with dark hair. My problem began when I started tweezing my chin daily 2-3 years ago and they started coming back darker and courser gradually.

I spent 30 min for my first appt last week. She had it on a low setting, and it the redness went away after 20 minutes. My chin was a bit swollen a few days afterwards, although this was hardly noticable.

I’m spending an hour with my electrologist tomorrow. I’ve been growing out my hair for a week and already have a mini beard. It’s horrible and embarrassing. After reading all your posts, I realize that it’s really important to have a good electrologist. I also feel better that others are experiencing the emotional aspect of hair removal. I’ve been obsessing over my chin hairs for this last week, bleaching, trimming and even counting them! There must be a 100, I lose count. I can hardly get any work done. Tomorrow’s appointment can’t come fast enough.

#2

Hi Angie:

I know it is hard when you have to let your facial hairs grow out. I hate doing it even though no one can really see them unless they get really, really close. But I can feel them with my hand and I hate them. To say my facial hair disgusts me is to put it mildly.

The good news is that if you stick with electrolysis it will get better and better. It may take a few months to a year but it gets better. I used to have a lot of facial hair and now I have hardly any compared to before.

Good luck with your treatments!

Alicia

#3

Thanks Alicia. I just read everyone’s posts and it seems like a lot of people are going for years and years without getting the results they want, even when they stay on top of things. It’s good to know that someone is happy with their progress…

I have an unrelated question that anyone here could probably answer- do you all tip your electrologist? How much? Mine is already $35/30 min, so expensive…

Angie

#4

You can answer your Gratuity/Tipping Question in the links below, and we would like it if you would add your thoughts to the string, as we want to share on this subject so everyone from every side understands what everyone is thinking. Thanks to you, it works for all of us.

http://www.hairtell.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/1258/page//fpart/all/vc/1

http://www.hairtell.com/ubbthreads/showf…=true#Post17756

#5

I’m surprized that you have to let it grow for a week… I’d be mortified! Did you talk to your electrologist about this? Mine said that I could shave up until two days before treatment (if I have an appointment on Wednesday, I can shave on Monday) and she still would have no problem treating the hairs. By wednesday afternoon I am SO ready to get them zapped, but it’s really not THAT bad and I can hide it with makeup fairly well. I just make sure to wear my hair down that day and avoid eye contact. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Talk to your electrologist, she may say something similar.

#6

Two days of growth is plenty for me. In some cases, the client only needed to shave in the morning and by afternoon I could treat hair. Now isn’t that super amazing how fast some people’s hair can grow?

If an electrologist uses QUALITY magnification, meaning they have spent hundreds, if not thousands of dollars so they can actually see the “target”, you would never need a week of growth to treat any size or color of hair.

The next part of the equation is getting that chin hair cleared away ASAP so you don’t have to deal with any kind of temporary hair removal. Once you get that precious first clearance, you stay on a schedule to keep it cleared at all times, until you reach the end of the line, meaning, all treated hairs are gone forever in about 9-12 months.

To make this all happen, I’m a true believer in having a QUALITY professional machine/epilator, meaning, one must shell out somewhere between $2,000 to $3,500 for a good microflash/blend epilator.

Skill and good equipment will bring fabulous results sooner than you ever could have imagined.

Dee

#7

I agree. I’m not sure where you’re seeing someone get treated for years, but that’s probably because they’re treating a lot of areas with lots of hair. On one area like yours, with consistent treatments, you should be done in about a year.

#8

Thanks James, for the tipping info. It doesn’t seem like there is a standard as far as tipping goes. I think I’ll wait and see before I start expressing gratitude.

Ok, I should have been more clear- I was clipping my hair last week and bleaching it almost daily. So it didn’t take me a whole week to grow out this hair. And I had no idea how much would grow! My god, it’s awful. And I’ve been wearing my hair down everyday, avoiding people and going home early from work. I’m sort of afraid to shave. I’m afraid that the vellus hairs I get by accident will grow in darker. I know that’s probably myth, but still.

I went to the electrologist today for an hour and got only about less than halfway cleared. I had no idea how long it would take, how much hair I really had. She had another appointment so she couldn’t do more. How disappointing. I really want to do as much as I can, because I’m moving in less than 2 months and will have to find someone else. It’s so weird now because part of me is hair-free and smooth and the other part is all beard-like. I’m trying to decide now if I want to clip/bleach for another week or just schedule an appt for in a couple days. I don’t wnat to overdo it, but she’d be working in a slightly different area of my chin. Any advice?

Angie

#9

it’s not overdoing it if it’s not treating the same exact spot. and any aftereffects should go away from this past treatment within a few days anyways. go get your first clearance! after that, it will be better <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

#10

Two days growth? A full weeks growth? The answer to this isn’t the skill of the electrologist.

The answer is as individual as the genes that make up each of us and the hormones that stimulate the growth of the hair you want removed.

The coarseness and color of the hair also affect its visiblity. but mostly it is individual growth rate.

#11

You are right LAgirl.

Another reason for being treated for years is Hormonal change. If some one has chin hair and has it removed and then goes through menopause or has a hysterectomy the changing hormonal level will stimulate more hair growth and this can go on for years.

The important thing to remember is that over the years new hairs are being treated not the same old ones over and over.

You see those heavily bearded women, they didn’t get that way overnight and neither did the men.

So if you are being treated during “change” the treatments will last as long as the “change” Or as you said as long as you move onto other body parts.

#12

Also remember if your doing Electrolysis you can add months or years on to your treatment time if you tweeze or wax inbetween appts. I know I did!!

#13

Sigh.

Thanks for all your comments. I did yet another hour on Saturday, thinking that there might be a chance of clearance. There wasn’t. This makes 2.5 hours on my chin area, which has pretty excessive growth, as I learned after I stopped tweezing.

I’m already frustrated with keeping up with all this hair that I never knew I had, and I feel like it’ll never go away. It’s like my chin knows when I’m making an appointment and then decides to grow more hair. I am getting better with knowing how fast it’s growing in and when I can clip it. I have been really good about not tweezing it, even though I want to so bad just to make it temporarily smooth.

There’s some more hair growing in on the area that was worked on, which I think was almost 2 weeks ago. I still think it’s new hair because it seems to be coming back too fast to be anything else. (although who knows with this hair, it seems to be mutant super-hair that will take over my face one day).

I scheduled a 90 minute session for Wednesday, so we’ll see if she even gets to the other side of my chin, which hasn’t been worked on at all yet. Luckily she’s started on the one side which seems to be way worse (in terms of hair density and thickness) than the untouched side.

I think I have the last appt block on Wed, so maybe just maybe I’ll get my first clearance. I’m not sure what we’ll talk about for 90 - 120 minutes but she’ll probably do most of the talking. The more I talk, the more I can feel the probe inside my skin, which is uncomfortable.

Maybe if I don’t get clearance, I’ll buy myself a nice new pair of sharp scissors to clip. That’ll make me feel better. How sad is that.

Angie

#14

Angie… I have found the best thing for trimming are those Revlon cuticle trimmers… they look like itty bitty wire cutters, they are easy to hold at any angle and left or right handed, and the little point lets you trim real close and still see what you are doing… plus you are less likely to find that someone borrowed them to cut paper with and made them dull.

#15

I think I saw that type of scissors at Target, but they weren’t revlon brand. What is an average price to pay for these scissors? The ones I saw were $19.

Thanks!

#16

Hello Angie2,

Something I’ve never seen addressed here is when the client talks and the electrologist is working on the chin. Very few clients have the ability to talk and not move their chin. (Perhaps those frequent ventriloquists we have.) It is very difficult to hit a moving target. I have had it take twice as long to clear an area when the client is talking. The electrologist will begin the insertion and the chin bobs up and down, and the current may come on while the filament is slipping out of the skin. This is not good. The electrologist does not want to be rude, because saying “be quiet” in a nice way can seem like rudeness sometimes.

So, at your next appointment, you might say, “I’m going to keep still this time, and let’s see if we can get this done quicker.” You might try to answer any questions the electrologist asks with a “uh-huh” or “huh-uh”…or even just an “mmmm”.

As an electrologist, I can tell you that we love to learn about you and have conversations, but while working on the chin is not a good time for that.

Best to you!

#17

Yes, for all you electrolysis devotee’s out there, it’s time to close your eyes and meditate when electrolysis is being done on your chin, neck and upper lip. I prefer no talking actually for the facial area, in general. We are striving for perfect insertions everytime and can work a lot faster if we’re not having to stop and go because of movement. A lot of electrologists work with an automatic timer, meaning we don’t use a foot switch to control when the current will fire. When the probe touches the moist skin, it automatically fires. We only have so much time to insert the probe into the follicle until the current is activated, so we need the help of the client to stay still for all to go well. Also, my magnification is so sensitive, that when a client moves too much, it makes me dizzy.

I always tell (warn) new clients at that first consultation that I don’t like to talk back and forth during a treatment because I can go faster and concentrate on my insertions better if there is no converstaion. You really get more for your money if you just let that electrologist loose to do her/his “thing”.

When I get a talker, I kindly tell them to hold that thought and meditate (of course, soft music is playing in the background) until we’re finished because I don’t want to cause a bruise or external bleeding by missing the follicle. Everyone always cooperates greatly and we really do continue that thought after the session!

My lady yesterday started talking just as I was inserting the probe and I actually caused her to bleed, so this post hit home for me today. Be nice to yourself and your electrologist and don’t talk guys!

Dee

#18

Wow, thanks for the input on talking during electrolysis! I really do want to get done, and anything that could stand in the way of that is crazy.

I guess it would help if she stopped asking me open ended questions sometimes. Mostly I just say “mmm hmmm”, or try to answer a few words like a ventriloquist. Obviously, I’m paying a lot and would like it to be over as quickly as possible.

I also feel like my electrolysis lady is lonely. She told me that she is/was clinically depressed and there was a time where she stopped showing up for appointments! During our time together, she seems cheerful and emotionally stable, which is great. And she tells entertaining stories. There is only a month until I move away, but if I stayed I would be worried that she’d skip out on me. It also makes me wonder whether getting rid of hair all day could make someone depressed or bored. What do you think?

#19

You are definately there to get hair removed. I sometimes think people come to see me because my rates are lower then a therapist. In fact today a client said “wow, therapy and hair removal all at once.” I gave up on quiet long ago. I never talked to clients until I learned it kept them quiet. I hope I am still professional not about me my probems, politics or religion. In fact all problems go away when removing hair! I can’t imagine being depressed doing hair removal. It energizes and exhausts me at the same time! Agreat end of a day is exhaustion due to work.

I don’t think her depression is related to job. It could be a systemic situation. I am sorry you have to endure it.

Too many people like this give the rest of us a bad rep.