First off, thank you to everyone here. A few months ago, I was reminded how nice permanent hair removal would be. I'd always dismissed it because of the possibility of scarring, but this time I decided to look into it a bit more. The information here was, of course, wonderful, and I'm able to go through with this now confident I'll get what I want from this.

My current plan is to do my throat,nose hair (the outside kind), and unibrow. Of course, once I get clearance on those spots, I'll probably want more done

Based on a recommendation from a certain top poster, I went to see Rhonda Elmer in Monroe, Wisconsin. I live in Madison, so she's just over an hour drive away, but if I can get quick, effective treatment, it's more than worth the drive. While she was treating me, she was talking about how long her sessions usually are, and she mentioned sometimes she works on an electrologist from Buffalo, NY who always wants 4 hour sessions Apparently his post on this forum brings in a lot of referrals, too

The treatment itself hurt much less than I expected. The thermolysis hurt considerably less than plucking, which surprised me. However, overall the treatment was fairly uncomfortable, simply by nature of having a strangers hands all over my throat, and being unable to talk while she was working. However, I'm pleased with the results; my only disappointment is I'm not sure how soon I'll be able to get enough time off work for a 1.5-2 hour session.

Here's a picture, after the first half hour of treatment. Note the pimple and ingrown hair. They are what drove me to this.
Neck

Now that's a quality picture!

This looks very good, Zhentar. Yes, try to give her enough time to get the whole neck cleared asap. Let it heal and then get in for any new hairs that show themselves from that day on and you will see gradual permanence over the next several months. I'm thinking that an every three to four week schedule would be good for a while after that first full clearance, however, Rhonda, is the boss on that one.
Thanks for the picture and I will say again, this looks good.

Dee

Looks like you don't have that much hair on your neck, at least compared to other posters here. I would recommend to try to do longer sessions so you can get a full clearance before you leave her office. This will make your treatments finish faster, plus save you some driving and gas money.

p.s. I wouldn't do this for a unibrow or nose, but in case others are wondering, there is enough hair and it's coarse enough to be treated quickly and effectively with laser on your neck. it may not make sense for you since you're already doing the drive for electrolysis.

Thanks. The full size original is even better

I would like to second the motion on getting fully clear on that neck. If you give Mrs. Elmer enough time, she will have that all cleared out in one day, and you can get on with a good 3 weeks where you don't have a problem with it, and it will take less time for her to re-clear it the next time.

Let's see, good work done quickly, and comfortably. Sounds like a winner! I may also take this time out to point out that Mrs. Elmer is a perfect example of someone who has an older machine (although it be computerized) who does very comfortable work and does nicely without more than a circle lamp. (I just can't help imagining where she would go with at least a vision upgrade, if not a machine upgrade.

This sounds familiar. My neck is a labyrinth of ingrown hair. Until a few months ago I also dismissed the obvious option - part because of cost and part because of possible scarring. To make matters worse I tried tweezing for several years... which made things a lot worse (double duh! )

Well, I finally motivated myself and did a bit of research and found this site - probably the No. 1 resource out there. I still was pretty nervous going to the first few appointments kinda not knowing what to expect... well several weeks later, a number of hours lying still and hundreds of hair gone, I would say between this site in general and the help of the top posters (and maybe a little luck) I seem to be in good hand. And I am still amazed that you feel not much, except for the "tapping" of the short wave pulse.

Looking at your photo I would guess we are making progress at a similar pace. (Thank you for posting the photo - I felt like I was making progress, but when you are new to this it is hard to gauge - so it is nice to see another example.)... Except unfortunately, that amount of hair makes up only a small corner on my neck. So it will take me a little longer.

On the bright side, the area that we treated 7-8 weeks ago so far is staying pretty clear - a few fine hair and just now there are a few dark dots showing up, maybe 1 for every 30-50 hair treated before.

It's always good to hear I'm not the only one.

When I asked my dermatologists about ingrown hairs, they both offered the same advice: stop shaving. Thanks a lot, that really helps . Everyone around here is much more helpful

Oh, I got that from my doctors as well, all those years ago.

Big help. They offered to write my employers letters stating that I was under doctor's orders not to shave, but somehow, that never saved my job when they decided that I was in violation of their (adjuticated criminal) appearance standards (but how often do corporations violate the letter of the law and get away with it) and so I just figured I had better either get a job that did not have such a ridgid appearance standard, and/or get all my hair removed.

Oh, yeah, one doctor was helpful enough to offer to help remove my ingrowns, and write me Rx's for skin sloughing agents, and antibiotics for just $75 per doctor's visit, and the cost of the drugs for the rest of my life... I chose electrolysis instead.

Well, I'm a bit slow on updating. I had a 2 hour appointment with Rhonda a week ago. Luckily, it was just enough to get clearance on not only my neck, but my brow and nose as well.

Total to first clearance: 2.5 hours, $145.

Brow before: http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h153/Zhentar/electro/browBefore.jpg

Brow after: http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h153/Zhentar/electro/browAfter.jpg

I had to pluck a few hairs to even up the brow, but much better. Much much better.

Neck after 2.0:
http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h153/Zhentar/electro/neckAfter.jpg

It doesn't really show in the picture, but I could tell that the circle lamp is holding her back here; there were definitely some hairs she missed in the redness. Fortunately, since there's so much less hair now I'll be able to go longer without shaving before our next appointment, and make sure the hairs are long enough to see easily.

Okay, thanks for the great pictures. Keep on a schedule to punch away at any new, fragile hair that comes to the surface.

What kind of aftercare are using, on your neck especially, immediately after treatment?