I have been having electrolysis done for about 2 years now on my upper body. I have had pretty good success but still have a long ways to go. When I look in the mirror at my body, it does not seem that bad as far as hair thickness and how noticable it is. When I stare down (on my chest and abs for example) and look at the same area with my own eyes, it just seems alot more noticable. Of course it’s a little closer looking down than looking in the mirror.
My question is “What do other people see when they look”? How much detail can they see? I think being able to visualize what other people see will help me to recognize when I have reached a point of completion with my treatments. I think I have accepted the fact that I will never be completely hairless on my entire upper body, and must at some point be happy at a certain level. Thanks.
Your questions are difficult to answer. Your point of completion depends on the look you like.
I have a few questions because I’m curious. Feel free to reply or not reply.
Do you have before pictures by any chance?
What kind of schedule have you been keeping these past two for your electrolysis appointments? Weekly? Bi-monthly? Monthly? How many hours?
What modality is being used? Thermolysis? Galvanic? Blend?
I would think that you should decide to stop when you achieve what you initially started visualizing you wanted to achieve from hair removal for these areas.
You are not alone in the self-scrutinizing business. Many of our clients spend a lot of time looking for hair on their bodies. When looking at ourselves, we see the horizon of our body and seem to focus on any hairs sticking out on that horizon.
Other people probably do not see the detail that you see. Being male, your body might grow new hair throughout your young to middle age - so you decide when you are happy with the results.
One of my clients is 55 years old and probably started his treatments 12 years ago. He takes dilantin for epilepsy, and dilantin causes hair growth. He chose to have me treat his back and buttocks years ago. The buttocks have stayed clear for many years, but his back grows a hair now and then. Within the last few years, he has started having hair on his ears. He comes in every 3 months for either 15 or 30 minutes - depending upon what I find. His occasional joke is that he’s waiting for hair to grow on the palms of his hands.
I do actually for most areas. There has been what I would call a significant reduction. Of course since I can still see hair at the moment, I guess I still have it in my mind that I have to be totally hairless, which may not be realistic. I will try to post the pictures as soon as I can.
“What kind of schedule have you been keeping these past two for your electrolysis appointments? Weekly? Bi-monthly? Monthly? How many hours?”
For about the first year I went two times a week, two hours each. For the second year I slightly scaled back to about 1.5 hours, twice a week. Thus I have been keeping a pretty strict schedule. With the entire upper body being treated, however, there is still much work to be done.
“What modality is being used? Thermolysis? Galvanic? Blend?”
Thermolysis
“I would think that you should decide to stop when you achieve what you initially started visualizing you wanted to achieve from hair removal for these areas.”
With an entire upper body being worked on (including the face) I think I am realizing that I may have to be content with permanent reduction at some point, as opposed to being completely hairless. That is probably not realistic for such a large area.
Is it microflash thermolysis? Flash themolysis? or slower thermolysis, meaning, the probe is in the follicle for several seconds?
For all the time you put in, microflash or picoflash thermolysis would have removed a lot of hair. When the electrologist is in auto sensor mode, not using a footswitch, that’s even more awesome for removing a lot of hair per hour. A good microflash electrolgist can remove 500-800 hairs per hair. Some are even faster. This is the kind of electrolysis that is realistic for large areas.
I wouldnt think its realistic to expect to be totaly hairless. However there might be difference between certain body areas. I have had work done only on my upper lip. Its been almost a year. I can say i am upper lip hair free. But if you look very very closely, youll find there is peach fuzz on my upper lip, and i found out that my electrologist wont touch it, since i have it all over the face. She thinks it wouldnt look natural to have porcelain upper lip, as she put it, and to have peach fuzz on the rest. I completely agree. I do like them though, so i am fine with it, as long as all the black ones are gone.
So even if you`re not completely hair free, electrolysis should give you satisfactory results.
YOU DON’T KNOW HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE MAD AT THEIR ELECTROLOGIST FOR NOT REMOVING THE PEACH FUZZ THAT WOULD LEAVE THEM LOOKING PLASTIC or as your practitioner calls it Porcelain!
It is one of the bains of our existence.
Stand four feet away from a mirror in normal lighting and that is what the average person sees. They probably notice even less, as, unlike you, they really don’t care all that much about what you look like
