What hurts more? A tattoo or electrolysis? I’ve always wanted to get a tattoo and heard it hurts. Anybody have any time of insight? I know different types of electrolysis hurt, but the worst electrolysis pain you’ve experienced compared to tattoo.
Also, can skin with tattoos be worked on by electrolysis? I wouldn’t think it would matter as the pigment in the skin really isn’t effecte, but I don’t know. I’ve always held off of something on my arm because I always had to get lasered or IPL’d.
I can tell you, electrolysis FREAKIN KILLS in some spots. It’s really strange kind of pain, because in some area it’s barely noticeable, but some areas it’s unbearable. I laugh when people whine about waxing…I mean come on. Waxing doesn’t hurt AT ALL compared to electrolysis. I sit in 2 hour sessions twice a week for electrolysis and every time I’m done I wonder how the hell I made it through. Today I had the right side of my neck and where it connects to my shoulder…I really thought I was going to have to throw in the towel. I don’t know how I made it, wow it hurt. That is why I was wondering about electrolysis, it’s pretty constant pain for a while. Laser hurts, but it’s only about 15 minutes then it’s over.
Yes, some areas hurt more than others. The closer you get to the centerline of the body, the more sensitive. A lot of clients prefer microflash thermolysis for this reason. The sensation is over “quick like a bunny” as oppossed to methods with longer timing.
I would suggest that you talk to your electrologist about your discomfort. There are strategies other than pain medication and numbing agents that can offer you relief. The newer generation of epilator’s allow the practitioner to make subtle adustments that make a world of difference. Also, I might add that any practitioner that has a variety of probe sizes is doing you a real service. I like using the biggest probe possible. A smaller probe is a hotter probe and may not creat a pattern of destruction that is big enough to get all the hair germ cells, thus more regrowth. For your area, Chuck, you need a big probe and that could help with the comfort issue as well.
If the electrologsit employs all strategies possible to make the treatment more tolerable and you are still whincing, then you will just have to offer it up to Jesus, Allah or Moses or other higher being. Most people are helped by the littlest changes.
You can have electrolysis with tattoo’s, just don’t want to break the follicle wall. Tattoo clients always report that tattooing is far more painful than electrolysis.
I get both microflash and 2 second thermolysis and microflash is more bearable but it still hurts. It’s a different kind of pain, a faster type of pain. It still hurts pretty bad on the back of the neck and in the spots I described, and due to the fact that microflash seems to get about 15 hairs in a minute compared to about 10 in the 2 second thermolysis…it is a little more constant pain so to speak. I’ve tried tridocaine and even rubbed in on there very liberally but I notice absolutely no difference in pain sensation.
The gal I go to who does microflash, I feel she may work to quick and pluck some of the hairs out. I say this because I get some ingrowns after treatment, and I don’t see alot of bulbs. When I get the 2 second electrolysis I see ALOT of black bulbs and almost always a white bulb. Although I get a more irritated skin from the heat, I don’t see the ingrowns. Additionally, I can only get in to the microflash gal 1 hour a week max. I get into the other one 4 hours a week.
I have no idea what size of probes they use. I know one of them switched to a different probe after the first treatments because I saw a ton of irritation at first, and it seems to be a little better now.
I saw you post in another thread that for full back and shoulder clearance you could be done at about 4K in about a year. I’m going to spend WELL WELL over that, probably six to seven times over that. I’m spending about a grand a month. I only make 36,000 a year, so basically I’m living off of a 24,000 job. I’m barely scraping by. I still don’t have the left side entirely cleared yet because I can only get in about 1 hr a week with that electrolysis. GARRRRR
Microflash is awesome and deadly to hair if the correct levels of intensity are used and the insertions are accurate. You should see intact bulbs and the hair should slide out. Ingrowns are the result of problems with technique. It is not the modality that is the problem.
I’m sorry you have to spend that kind of money. As you can see, not all practitioners are the same. There are many strategies to this business of permanent hair removal and some strategies work faster and better than others. You will still get permanent hair removal,Chuck. That is way too much money to spend for your income. How do you do it?
if you see a white bulb on the end of the hair, that means that hair is not in anagen anymore and was most likely not killed. do you shave a few days before treatments so that you’re only treating hairs in the growing phase when you go?
Ya, I know that is the case. But supposedly some of these hairs can be killed as well right? Yes, I do shave before treatment, and it doesn’t really help with making “black bulbs”. In fact, I almost NEVER see black bulbs in the hairs removed from microflash. I’ve shaved 3 days before treatment, that would mean at least 90% of the hair that would be treated would be in growth stage right? AT LEAST. And I don’t see even close that many black bulbs.
I have to spend this kind of money because I have no choice. I cannot be happy with shoulders, arms, and upper back full of hair. I just can’t. I know you all will try to convince me otherwise but it’s just not going to happen. When I have hair free skin in those areas in between laser treatments it is like a huge weight has been lifted off of me, and just not figuratively speaking. I have much more confidence around people, and I can actually have relations with women I like. I really miss that feeling
Well, you should. I can only assume the hair is being undertreated, especially with your ingrown hair statement. Did you ever submit a picture? Sorry, I can’t remember if you did.
I understand your confidence remark as well. No one could convince or even make me feel ashamed of my hair removal goals many years back. I have never regretted spending the money, and money was very tight for me as well. So do what you got to do, but make sure the “goods” are being delivered.
the electrologist should only be treating the hairs that are obviously longer than others, which should be obvious a few days after you shaved. It sounds like you’re being undertreated with microflash like Dee said or she’s not removing the hairs that are visibly actively growing. Maybe it’s best to stick with the other elecrologist for all your treatments…
what type of electrolysis are you getting, what type of machine is your practitioner using, where are you getting the work done, how much water and electrolytes are you getting per day, how much caffeine are you using per day, are you getting less than 8 hours sleep per night?
To anybody that may find this useful I will share this. That, I have found, without a doubt, the number one thing that makes electrolysis treatments more painful is the use of caffeine. Coffee is my best friend, and my worst enemy. Coffee before a session will almost double the pain. I never touch coffee the day of a treatment. I will also add that coffee affects me more strongly than most normal people. And now I realize that it also magnifies my pain sensation far more than most people.
What I have learned is that a strong topical anesthetic + coffee is worse than no anesthetic and no coffee. That is, the caffeine can completely over-power/counter any numbing that a topical can provide. Also, it effects the way one reacts to pain as well. And that means anybody comparing topicals (ie. LMX-5 vs Tridocaine) should standardize all their variables before making a decision on effectiveness.
Wow - so many questions. I drink one can of soda a day (and plenty of water and I eat right). I get plenty of sleep. She is doing manual blend. Some places do not hurt so bad (doing all of face and some strays on my nipples), but others definitely hurt more (under nose, eyebrows, nipples) than getting tattoos.
I will have to ask the big Hawaiians what tattooing the upper lip feels like to compare. (we have to compare apples to apples now don’t we?)
eyebrows are usually much more tolerable in microflash, but the nipples should not be treated so aggressively that they hurt more than cheeks or chin.
Try drinking one ouce of water for every pound you weigh, and you might be happy to know that deleting soda-pop from the diet usually results in the average woman losing 20 pounds without doing anything esle. Most soda-pop contains caffeine, and the best case situation for sensation during electrolysis is 3 days without caffeine.
Thanks for the tips, but my weight is fine and I do not find 1 diet soda a day to be excessive (I don’t drink or smoke so I have to make due with a very small quantity of soda).
I guess what I was trying to get at was that I found tattooing to be very non painful and the removal of those tattoos to be very painful. Electrology (for me) fit in between the two.
Edit: As for comparing apples to oranges, I would think that most people do not usually get tattoos in the same places you would get electrolysis (of course there are exceptions).
Actually, If you want one soda a day, make it regular. Diet soda is actually far more evil once inside the body. How does embalming fluid sound to you as a “soft drink”? Oh, and watch out for the withdrawal symptoms if you quit drinking it.
My wife works in a lab, many of the rumors about diet soda (wood alcohol, embalming fluid, etc) are greatly overexaggerated or entirely spurious. High fructose corn syrup used in regular sodas has its own problems (plus I cannot handle the taste of regular soda).
I appreciate your concern and if the pain were too much, I would stop my daily soda (it is no where near that much pain). I was just giving my personal opinion of the pain differences.