Young and Using Electrolysis

I’m almost 18 but I have had a major frustration with facial hair since middle school. I don’t have anything very serious or our of the ordinary hairiness beyond what a other Latinas have but I do have some random hairs I want to get rid of on the chin and neck which are dark. I had gotten laser before on my sides and chin and upper lip. The sides were not thick when I started messing with them. I began trimming the blonde hairs in 9th grade and then they began to grow and became darker, but not really thicker, so I bleached them for a while until the color which it made the hairs against my skin was noticable. So then I had them threaded twice and waxed about five times. And they did begin to not look so natural. I started laser in that area and my upper lip and chin because … I was obsesses with not having peach fuzz. My sideburn amount of hair is less.But there are still hairs which are not pale colored.but not dark dark. I am about to try elecrolysis tomorrow for the very first time to clean up the weird hairs on my chin which laser seems to have sprouted, so annoying, I would sue except my laser lady seems too sweet.

I have a couple questions:
1)If I only have a couple of hairs to be treated will this electrolysis process take over a year like some describe?
2) should I expect my skin to become irritated from electrolysis, produce acne/scarring?
3)does a new hair grow in the same area treated like laser?, which seems to me like the procedure isn’t really working at all, or does it kill it right there?

It is important to wait 6 months after laser treatment, before commensing electrolysis, to ensure that all the regrowth from the LHR is present. If it has not been 6 months, you may beleive that further regrowth is from electrolysis, when it is really from the LHR.

I agree with the above poster. I had 6 laser treatments done on my abdomen and the result were average but 6 months later all the hair was back and seemed to be worse than before. I’ve been getting electrolysis since March and am really happy with the results.
Yes it will take a long time but after the first few appointments you get ‘clearance’ and everything after that is maintenance so your hair never looks as bad as it did before you started going. I prefer it to laser because you don’t have to wait for hairs to fall out, you simply just dont have as many hairs after an appointment.
As for scarring I have had no problems, my skin irritation has always calmed down. Just make sure you find someone who has lots of experience.
Electrolysis won’t make any new hairs grow. Hormone imbalances might and stimulate other hair follices in the area to grow, but the actual follicle that is being treated with electrolysis will be treated successfully.

Good luck!

Thank you guys :slight_smile:
I had a consultation today and it was scary,it was in a Medical Plaza and the directory on the building seemed very shady, not listing the “business’s name” but the practicioner’s name. I went in and it was a one room office reeking of cigarette smoke. I was horrified, as the practicioner was flipping through her book of appointments?, I noticed her hands shaking wildly. At that point I was going to wet my pants, I was so scared , she had no expressions and didn’t blink. She kept on telling me she was a president of some electrolysis club probably to cancel out her shaky hands. I’m quite sure this woman is past her times of being able to have steady enough hands to perform electrolysis. I feel bad but I think something needs to be done about that. Is there any kind of electrolysis board I can report this to. I really don’t feel like she was mentally or physically suitable to perform such an intricate procedure. I’m scared for anyone she gets her hands on out of dispare only because of her low prices.

Most electrologists are working women who work either under a business name or their own name.

In licensed states, contact the licensing board. In unlicensed states then you are out of luck for reporting inappropriate practices. That said, there probably isn’t anything in your post that would indicate a complaint in order, unless you are in a non-smoking state. Shaky hands and boasting of being president of something might not even warrant an extra inspection in a licensed state…

Consumers MUST educate themselves on what to look for when selecting an electrologist. Good for you for being a savvy consumer!

Check out this from the American Electrology Association:

http://www.electrology.com/consumer/selecting_electrologist.html

Since most people (especially women) don’t like walking into a door marked “Give me your tired, frustrated hairy people desperate to be hair free”, many practitioners use a variety of means to obscure the business identity, while making it possible for clients to still find them. Names like, oh, Executive Clearance, are vague to those who don’t know the business, but an in joke to those who do know what service the business performs.