I have been DIY electrolysis for some time now. I mainly do slow thermolysis since my insertions are not that good. I do not have problem putting the probe in the follical but the depth drives me nuts. Sometimes I just cannot figure and end up pulsing 3 different times at 3 different depth to get the hair. Most of the time when I pull the hair and see where the bulb was to know the actualy depth I find that I had inserted too deep. Why does the hollow of the follical go way beyond the bulb of the hair?. How do you figure the depth? My hair since I had previously plucked a lot has different depth in different hair.


I eventually get the hair but it takes so long pulsing 3/4 times.

Can any of the pros please please comment on this. I feel like i made so much progress where I know what is good and what is bad but I am so excruciatingly slow and seriously lack technique. If you can tell me what to try or point in a direction I will very much appreciate it.

You can easily measure the the anagen depth by holding the hair against the tip. That is Your insertion depth.

Beate

I'm definitely not a professional, but i can speak from a lot of experience. You have an advantage over most of the professionals working on clients, as working on yourself gives you the ability to easily gauge the proper heat application and hopefully soon, the proper depth.

Admittedly, when i began doing it on myself i couldn't properly internalize what i was doing wrong, to help me out with this i developed a trick. When i would destroy a sheath i would measure the length of the sheath against the needle and get the depth of insertion that way. Now this won't work always because some of the follicles are deeper/shallower than others, i was just blessed with a massive amount of hair that was relatively the same depth.

Good luck!

_Actually my arm even when I shave and do electrolysis once they come out( all anagen) still has different depths that drives me nuts.

My face is another problem it has varying depths due to lot of plucking previously.

It is important to be able to recognise the phase the hair is in before inserting. If it is anagen it is approx 3mm in depth and if it is in telogen, they have less depth about 1mm to 1.5mm.

My kill rate went up immensely as I got more comfortable doing shallow insertions.

The hair anchor system and the signaling stem cells are both located at the bulge area, which has a shallow depth and much smaller range of movement than the bulb. If you don't sufficiently heat the structures in that area, then the hair will not release properly and it will definitely regrow.

See the image here: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/27490/files/JCI0627490.f1/medium

Be very careful when doing shallow insertions though, practice making your insertions more and more shallow very slowly until you learn the right depth and energy (most hairs will release cleanly in a single pulse once you get it). Be aware that insertion angle is extremely important on shallow insertions, you *do not* want to fry the sebaceous gland area next to/above the bulge as that is likely to result in pitting.

Also note that it can be very difficult to gauge the proper insertion angle on some curved/distorted follicles (which may be the case on your face if you have a history of plucking), in cases of severely distorted follicles it is better to use blend method or galvanic.

Thank you thank you t4ngent. Yes the insertions need to be shallower than I thought. I do realise that my insertion need to be shallower for it to release easily but I ended up frying like you said with pitts trying to insert shallow. This is so hard !!!

This is what worked for me, may be a one step better technique but still ways to go. I take my RF current much lower than required and I hold it a little longer wiggling a little bitin the follicle. Although it is a better than what I used to do technique I havent had the guts to increase the current and give a direct pulse.

In time may be. I have a new sense of recognition to a lot of those electrologists who have a great technique and depth perception.

I had one question though according to the diagram you showed it looks like the bulge and stem cell are much lower for telogen. To kill telogen hairs the insertion should be much deeper then anagen?

Is that true, I thoiught the opposite was true.