Hi all. I'm about to step in to a full electrolysis schedule and want to keep everyone updated as much as I can. I thought I would start one post that I will add on to continually rather than starting a new one every time. Below you will find my posting from another thread about my first consultation (I just cut and pasted so it would all be together) and then the information of my second consult.

I like both of the women I went to so I listed both of them in the referral section!

Ready? Here we go!!

Original Post Date 1/18/05
Well, I took the step and had my first consultation and a bit of electrolysis today. I really like the lady I went to. She is very personable, very honest, and explained everything to me. Luckily I knew most of it already from reading so much here but it was nice to hear it and see it (she pointed things out on a giant poster). She said her ultimate goal is to do as much as possible at first to get to the first total clearance in the shortest amount of time. That was what I wanted to hear!

We did 40 minutes on me to give it a try. She uses all 3 methods and said she'll experiment and see what works best on me and I honestly am not sure what she used today. She swiped the area with alcohol and then a local anesthetic and she said I could ask for more of that at any time. She started out on a setting of 5 (which she forgot to turn down, said she usually starts at 3) and that was very tolerable for me. I felt a slight sensation when she inserted the probe (she uses disposable probes and gloves when she works)and I could feel the tugging of the hair on a few, it was the most painful part but I don't think it was tweezing?? She said I was feeling that because MANY of the hairs were in the resting stage which is not the optimal stage but it must be done to get to clearance. I could tell some of them she would pull and if they wouldn't release she would insert the probe again which I'm guessing is a good thing. She did quite a bit on my chin (which I would say is already halfway to a clearance or at least it looks that way, she seems to go pretty fast) and she just kind of did some here and there I think to see how my skin is going to react.

Afterwards she put on some witch hazel and explained all the after care. She said no make up for at least 24 hours and gave me the option of purchasing that liquid makeup I've heard about on here. I had a few spots that were a little red and puffy about 10 minutes afterwards but by the time I got home (hour later) that was gone. I can see maybe 5 or 6 TINY red dots in a few spots but otherwise my skin looks great (minus the unshaven hair that is bugging the BLEEP out of me right now

She has A LOT of clients so I'm assuming she must be pretty good, but, it's just my first one so I have nothing to compare it to She works out of her home and the office was very clean and pleasant. She had music on in the background and she is very personable so we talked a lot and it made the time fly by and I think it made things more tolerable.

I go back to her next thursday for another hour and we'll see how that goes. Right now she's the only one I can get in to so I'm giving her a try. Hopefully in the next two weeks I can try out another one in the area and have some sort of comparison.

I did take my before pictures today and am going to keep track as I progress and I'll be sure to share.

If anyone has anything to offer, especially advice, that'd be GREAT!

Good luck everyone,
Savannah

Ok, I didn't go to that same woman today as I was able to get an appointment with another electrologist.

Again, another great lady. She has been an electrolgist for 19 years. She does blend because she personally has a higher kill rate with this and hence less regrowth. She didn't explain electrolysis to me since I already had the basic knowledge from my other consultation, but, she did explain how her machine works. Her machine (I apologize, I cannot remember the name) has a nice cooling tip which takes some of the sting out. She does several hairs at once, stops, removes the hair, and goes again. She stopped to show me how my skin would react (like little mosquito bites for about an hour) just so I would know and wouldn't be concerned. She swabbed the area with alcohol, showed me her disposable probes and made me watch her put it together (and throw it away when she was done) and she uses gloves as well. She uses 100X magnification with halogen lights in which case she gave me goggles (again, watched her clean them) to put on since it's BLINDING! This lady is also VERY fast. In 30 minutes she cleared my cheeks (just a few strays, but more than *I* could see...I thought there were like 3 or 4 on each side but she must have attacked at least 10 on each side!) and one side of my chin COMPLETELY. She stopped every so often to have me look in the mirror and see if I wanted to move to another area. She had me feel the area to see how smooth it was. I really like her. My skin looks awesome. I have one TINY mark on my chin where blood must have been drawn, but otherwise you can't tell I had anything done at all. I felt the sensation of the probe a lot more this time, but, I only felt a "tweeze" ONCE in the entire half our and she did A LOT of hair. She is a talker so it made the time fly by and she would stop every now and then to explain any new sensation at all.
She said she likes to start out with 2 hours a time one or 2 days a week to get to that first clearance as fast as possible.

I am going to go to her since she is half the distance and half the cost and seemed faster to me. She charges $40 an hour and is approx 30 minutes from me. The other woman is about 50-55 minutes and charges $73 an hour.

So, I go back next thursday for my first full session. I am booked for 2 hours and she thinks we may be able to get about half of my face done (apparentally there isn't AS much as *I* thought...go figure ).

Good luck to everyone. I plan on adding pictures online soon to help further see my progress. I hope that my keeping track of my progress will help others take the leap! It can be fixed, you just have to help make it happen!

Savannah

Well almost 24 hours after my consultation with the blend, my skin is looking good! There are no visual signs of anything on my cheeks (YAY! NO HAIR!!!!!! ) and just a few little spots on my chin. It mainly looks like a normal skin break out, just smaller. I think there are 2 spots. I'm not over concerned about it. Also, this time there is no soreness. With the other lady my chin hurt to the slightest bit of pressure and this time it's completely fine!

Lastnight I washed my face with antiseptic soap and applied tea tree oil..really stinks but felt really good. I am going to wait a bit longer before I shave, just to give it a little more time.

Looking forward to my 2 hours next week!!

Savannah

If anyone has an questions or comments you can certainly post, I didn't intend this thread to sound like ONLY mine!

Keep the information coming. We need more people to give us this type of info so people see that there really are people who find good practitioners and get their full job completed and maybe add some more areas to be treated to their list before they are done.

Thanks for the encouragement, James!

Well, today I had my first long session. I went for 2 hours with the women that does blend. It wasn't too bad, but it seems to hurt more now than the first time did. I guess it's probably that I was expecting it to be much more painful than it was at first.

Anyway, she asked me where to start and again I went with the strays on the cheeks (maybe 7 or so on each side, this absolutely hurts THE most) and then we went to my chin and then the left side of my face. I chose to start on the left as it seems to grow slower than the right and when I shave I always get severe bumps, burns, and marks there because it's not really long enough. She said she can see that. We have a GREAT start on it. My chin is TOTALLY cleared (both sides and underneath)and we have a VERY nice start on the left side. You can visually see a difference as well as feel it.

Again, I watched her sterilize everything, I had the BLINDING halogen light on me so I had the goggles on, she wore gloves, and we chatted the whole time. The entire 2 hours went VERY fast. She would stop every so often and let me see in the mirror how well it was coming along, and have me touch it with clean hands to see how smooth my skin was. It's kind of nice because it reinforces to me that it's WORTH it in the end!

At the end of the 2 hours she cleaned it off again and put on some cooling stuff, I think it was witch hazel, and I scheduled another appointment. The way my schedule worked out at work I have 10 days off and I intend to go as much as I can in that length of time. I am going for 2 hours this saturday and 2 hours on monday also. We are going to wait until Monday to sched me another one because she thinks we will have made a HUGE dent by the end of our session monday and I may only need an hour or so after that.

When I left my skin wasn't looking so nice. It looked like I got in a fight with a cheese grater and the cheese grater won (ok, over-exaggeration ) but seriously, it was very red and bumpy, some spots had blood. I left there at 1 pm and I got home around 3:30 pm (just because I had some things to do before I could get back) and I washed my face with some dial soap and I applied tea tree oil to the entire area. My skin is looking fine now. Can't tell I had anything done. Where the hair is gone looks so wonderful. It's really soft (and looks soft too), has a nice rosy color, and just feels so wonderful it's really hard NOT to touch it! I know I'm not suppose to tho

Anyway, that's the update for today. I'll try to update how my skin is in a few days from this intense treatment and also how my next 4 hours worth go. So far I've had 3 hours and 10 minutes of treatment time all together and I'm seeing an improvement, not huge, but it's there. I really see that it's going to be a long road, you just have to be dedicated and really stick with it. If you go in thinking it's a one or two time thing, you are going to be very disappointed. It's definitely going to work tho!

Good luck everyone,
Savannah

24+ hours post first intense treatment(2 hours) my skin is doing well. I had to leave much earlier than normal this morning so I was not able to give it 24 hours before I shaved or applied makeup but despite that it looks good. Even with the reltively small area (in the scheme of things) done, shaving was much faster. My skin tone looks wonderful, I didn't realize I had such nice looking skin under the fur! In the treated areas there are a few red bumps here and there and it feels slighty rough to the touch, basically a normal skin break out in my opinion. I am washing with antibacterial soap and applying tea tree oil 2 to 3 times a day. I have another 2 hour session tomorrow and one on Monday so I'm not giving it a lot of time to heal, but that's ok, I want that first clearance ASAP so I'm willing to deal wth a few minor skin blemishes. To me, personally, that's nothing compared to the moritification of being a female with a beard!

Had my 2nd 2 hour treatment yesterday. That brings treatment time total to 5 hours 10 minutes. So far, so good. My chin is pretty much cleared on both sides (like one or two here and there still remain) and we started working mostly on the left side as that tends to grow slower and causes me lots of problems when I shave (burns, bumps, etc). There's a good size portion of that from under the chin over towards the left clear. Very visual results at this point. This time the skin is tender and red and does have some bumps. Looks similar to a razor burn. This area has never ever been plucked. I used to use depilatories back in the day before they stopped working, but other than that, it's all been razor. I wonder if that's part of the reaction. My chin has been great but I used to tweeze it to death so it's maybe toughened up a bit. Just a thought!

Anyway, I go again tomorrow for 2 hours and I'm thinking I may have her move to the other side to give this one a bit more healing time. It's satisfactory for shaving now (the painful part is cleared, don't have to touch it with a razor) so I am OK with going to another area.

Good luck everyone,
Savannah

The best part is this type of intense work up front will lead to getting to the shorter sessions, spaced farther apart much sooner than just a little at a time every week. The total clearance time and cost will be less this way as well. It is just a lot up front, and tappers off in a short time.

After doing a lot of reading on this board (and I mean A LOT) I realized that I wanted to do as much up front as I could. I actually understood that would end up being cheaper in the long run (no offense to anyone, but some people can't seem to grasp that) so that's why I've been off and running with two to three 2 hour long appointments since starting. The great thing is, the lady I go to had the same goal in mind. I feel like we are part of a team and that's awesome!

Unfortunantely we had bad weather yesterday so I wasn't able to get to my appointment. I am going on thursday for 2 hours tho and then next week probably monday, tuesday, and wednesday for 2 hours at a time (or maybe not, depending on how my skin is doing). My skin is looking pretty good. I've been applying tea tree oil at night and aloe during the day but it seems dry/flaky (which I contribue possibly to the tea tree oil, my skin can be sensitive to some things, also the use of alcohol to sterilize my skin). It's been 4 days since my last treatment so I think I may go back to the mild moisturizer I use. A few hairs are popping up on my chin again which is discouraging but I do know that it is new hair that wasn't visible before! It has been approx 2 weeks since we've really done anything to the chin, so, it makes sense.

Just wanted to give a brief update. I'll post again after thursday.

Good luck everyone,
Savannah

A big thank you sav for updating us. I've been watching for your posts to see how you are doing. You have a great grasp on things and will do well.

If you are using alcohol to clean your skin, that is more likely to be the cause of dry, flakey skin rather than the tea tree oil. Perhaps you could switch to witch hazel which is 14% alcohol or use Cetaphil or Purpose soaps.

Dee