Yaaaoo! How many electrologists have you seen at this clinic? Can you request the original electrologist only for your treatments?

Same for mine, it discourages bumping the time above one hour in minute increments, so I always select either 1 or 2 hour sessions. The 2-hour is a little better as it eliminates one setup & cleanup cycle and I get 5 minutes or more additional time at actual hair removal...

I know people who charge $45 to $55 for 15 minutes or less. Be Happy

RE Dee. I have seen 5 electrologists so far. I request my original electrologist, however see can only work Saturdays. So, when I go twice a week, I can't have her. In addition, a couple of times she was sick.

RE tex. I have thought of going for 2hrs, however, I didn't like the way my skin reacted after 1.5hr treatment.Also, I don't think that I need 2hr treatments at the moment. I don't have many hair and they are all very fine.

RE James. My problem is not with the price, but with their 'logic'. The price per minute becomes progressively lower up to 1hr(15min-AU$40, 20min-AU$45, 30min-AU$55, 45min-AU$65 and 1hr-AU$75) and then goes up again. So, if I wanted to have 1hr and 15min treatment I would have to pay $75 + $40. That has no logic at all! Apart from that, you are absolutely right. In comparison to other clinics my clinic is very cheap. Actually it is the cheapest. I pay AU$75 per hour, and most of the other clinics charge AU$110 per hour. So, I am happy with my 1 hour treatments.

15th treatment. Yesterday I had 1-hr on the face. My original electrologist was sick (again!). Anyway, the one who performed the treatment suggested to me to go every fortnight, because the hair that I have are very fine, but I am going next Saturday.

It sounds like it may make sense for you to go for 1-hour treatments and just more often, so your skin can recover.

Do you recommned shaving, in order to ensure that the treated hair are in the active growing phase?

Shaving is a selection aid. A day or two after one shaves, the electrolysis practitioner can easily see which hairs are growing and which hairs are shedding and can treat growing hairs only. Shedding hairs may be plucked for visual purposes, left alone, or treated if the hair remover runs out of growing hairs in the area.

On the pricing, the logic used in the industry is that a 15 minute appointment is never 15 minutes long. There is the time greeting the client, the time setting up the appointment, the prep time, the treatment time, the post treatment time, and the client chit chat time (I have clients who simply won't leave until the next person in line arrives to demand their spot, and if they both know each other, they start talking to each other!) In the end, the truth is that it is almost impossible to book four 15 minute appointments, back to back, and finish them in one hour.

You may want to discuss their willingness to give you a deal on pre-paid treatments, that would be charged to you at the hourly rate, no matter how the minutes ended up being used. Many practices are willing to do this, as the pre-payment gives some security for the time paid for.

The other side of you can't book four 15 minute appointments and get them all done in an hour is the point of how many of those appointments will be no-shows, and how many of them will show up late.

As a good friend of mine said: "We are in the business of selling our time, and our time, once taken off the shelf, cannot be put back on the shelf to store for future use, or resold to anyone else."

Electrologists vary on their policies so it's a good idea for clients to discuss scheduling and pricing policies thoroughly so that there are no surprises.

When my clients pay for 15 minutes, they have had 15 minutes of electrolysis, but I have blocked 30 minutes to allow for pre-treatment, post-treatment, re-scheduling, the occasional late arrival, etc. This has been the way I've done it since day 1, when I worked for someone else, and I just never felt the need to change it once I went solo.

Same goes for me. I don't charge from the time I greet to the time they pay. The timer on my epilator only activates when I am inserting the probe and that's the actual time they pay for. At $70 per hour I think that covers the setup, cleanup, re-scheduling, chi-chat time just fine.

It is very interesting to see the differences in determining what a treatment time actually covers. I have had both methods and I certainly expect that clients will prefer having all the allotted minutes dedicated to actual treatment. We understand that time is all that many of us have to sell, so electrology is not unique in this regard. It is perfectly reasonable to include the "overhead time" explicitly for the client (as long as I don't feel that a previous client is using my paid time!).

I had one electrolygist who actually stopped his clock whenever he felt obliged to stop treatment (e.g. taking an urgent phone call or even when changing a probe or switching sides of the table). I just have to remember that it is really the "successfully treated hairs per dollar" that is most important and this number can be calculated only after seeing a provider for several sessions. I have switched from $55/hour with him to $65/hour in which I get less treatment time since my setup, chat, scheduling, and payment is included in my minutes. However, I feel that my "hairs per buck" is far greater, so I have a better deal this way.

Oh, and I agree that longer sessions are better for me in regards to actual treatment minutes, but it is harder to tolerate as the lidocaine wears off, my body gets uncomfortable, and my pain tolerance dwindles. It is sometimes worthwhile to simply pay a bit more in $$ and time to have shorter appointments (e.g. 1 hour) more often.