Yes, do ask the electrologist on Tuesday about Proactiv. All I can say is that I work on clients that use Proactiv and all is well. I work on Accutane clients as well, and all goes well. It’s all about skill and equipment and observation.
Bleaching is fine, but you won’t need to do this too long, as the hair will be treated and lifted out at each session making a dramatic visual affect that will be very pleasing to you.
The electrologist just needs quality vision equipment so she/he can see those hairs and observe the reaction of your skin to electrolysis. Get a small sample treatment, go home and see how you heal and then move forward with a longer treatment if you are pleased. Follow good aftercare and you will be fine.
Let us know how this goes for you, hollym and good luck Tuesday.
Thanks so much Dee for all the help, and to everyone on this site, you are all so helpful. I had my first session today and it went pretty well, and eased my nerves a lot. The electrologist was so nice and seemed very skilled and professional. She put witch hazel and aloe on afterwards, and the redness is already gone an hour afterwards. I’m going back next Tuesday so hopefully it will continue to go well. I will keep updating as I continue the sessions. Thanks so much!
Great. We appreciate that you took your time to come back and share how your first appointment went. We look forward to more posts. It sounds like your Mom is okay with this decision afterall! Continued luck.
Sorry I haven’t posted for awhile. Have had two electrolysis sessions (1 week apart) since last time and I think it’s going pretty well. It’s just hard to let the hair grow darker in between…she likes me to do this so it’s easier for her to get more hairs in less time. My chin did break out pretty badly after the last appointment, and I’m worried that the marks they’re leaving may be permanent…I put this tea tree gel --which is tea tree oil combined with aloe vera and witch hazel-- on my upper lip last time which helped to fade marks that looked like they were forming there, but the marks on my chin seem like they may be more stubborn. Overall though, it’s proving to be a much less nerve-racking process than I anticipated. I think it might take awhile for me, because she says even though the roots are pretty weak my hair is pretty dense. I can definitely tell that the hair is much less but I definitely didn’t have general full clearance from the first three times. Is this okay? She said in the last appointment that she removed something like 130 hairs, and she uses Flash Thermolysis. Does this number sound good? Thanks so much.
These marks are not permanent. I would use the essential oil, tea tree oil instead of the mixture gel you are using now. Use the tea tree oil sparingly at bedtime. Spot dab on rougher looking areas of your chin. Do not overuse the tree tea oil. You can find tea tree oil at Target for around $5. Use witch hazel 3-4 times a day for a couple days. Use aloe vera gel - 100% would be nice to use during the day if you can, just for the first couple of days after treatment.
Clip or shave the hairs while you are working toward a first, full clearance. The number of hairs she removed is good, but she has to do this her way on her comfort scale.
Lastly, tell her about your healing so she can make adjustments with probe type or intensity and timing. For instance, gold probes cause less irritation than stainless steel probes. On your part, keep the freshly worked on area clean. Do not touch it with your fingers. Do not go play tennis and sweat a lot, do not wear makeup… get the picture? Many times, bad skin reaction is caused by what the client does or does not do when they leave the office.
Get in the mindset that you need to doggedly stick with this for the first six months and then the next six months you will be coasting to the finish line.
Thanks so much Dfahey and VickieCNY-I will start using the oil instead of the gel now. The marks do go away eventually and I have been pretty careful about skin care afterwards. She removed the 130 hairs in a half hour session. She does do a very good job and I feel very comfortable with her. I was also wondering though-I know it’s a good idea to put on sunscreen, but even sometimes a day afterward I’m a little hesitant to put it on my skin since I am using other aftercare products like tea tree oil and witch hazel, and don’t want to irritate it. Is it still a better idea to put on the sunscreen even if the skin is a little irritated the day afterward or is it better to just wait a few days until the skin is fully healed? Thanks.
As someone who has had both Laser and Electrolysis over the years i agree entirely with LAgirl. Large areas coarse hair and the right skin shade and laser - cheaper faster and effective. BUT in the hands of the correct operator.
Small areas fine hair or coarse with the danger that the surrounding fine hair might be kicked into turning coarse by laser - then the needle each time. BUT in the hands of the correct operator.
When it went wrong I have been burnt by laser and left with pitted skin by electrolysis. When it went right i now have hair free legs post laser and the coarse hair on my chin has gone and no scarring these new machines are fantastic.
Thanks, but this young lady has mainly an upper lip problem that is best treated with electrolysis. In the hands of a professional electrolgist using modern tools there is NO PITTING with electrolysis. Just wanted to say that for clarification and to ease her mind about your pitting comment. With electrolysis, she will get permanent hair removal as oppossed to a certain percentage of reduction with laser.
Sunscreen is fine Hollym, but if the ingredients in the sunscreen irritate your skin, then it is best to go back to using the witch hazel, aloe vera gel and tea tree oil (sparingly) for the first three days.
I think “therish” meant that he got burned and scarred by bad operators, i.e. in both laser and electrolysis, and got great results with both methods by great operators.
I had my 4th electrolysis earlier this week. The woman who usually does it couldn’t be there so the other woman who works in her office did it today. She is also very nice but it felt like she didn’t do the electrolysis in the most effective way–I don’t have much to base this off of, since I’ve only had sessions with one other electrologist, but from what I’ve read on this website also it seemed like it might have not been the best way. She seemed to do more per minute than the other woman but the blasts of current were much shorter-like a split second—I was almost suspicious of it hurting less, because it barely even tingled. Usually the electrolysis is bearable, but will bring tears to my eyes. But I was mostly unsure because after the blasts of current it really felt like she was plucking most of the hairs out, and not kind of sliding out like they usually do. If she wasn’t doing it in the best way and was sort of “plucking” hairs, I assume this is okay just for one time–that if those particular hairs will grow back in a way the electrologist I normally go to can get rid of them? I just wanted to see what people thought - if it does really feel like she is plucking them, it’s probably not being done right, right? And also I wasn’t sure if the length of the blasts of current has anything to do with anything–I assume this may just have to do with the type of machine. It’s mostly the plucking feeling I had a question about. Thanks
It’s not clear. Did you feel the hair being plucked? (this usually hurts, but in a different way). Or were the blasts not lasting as long as last time and you assumed she was plucking? Technically, she could have been using a faster method of electrolysis, like microflash, which would have shorter currents.
Yeah, she may have been using a type of electrolysis with shorter currents. The blasts were shorter, but I definitely also felt her plucking afterwards. The plucking didn’t hurt, it just felt like normal plucking does.
Anytime you feel like hairs are being plucked, ask the electrologist why you feel it. There are circumstances when you could feel a tweezing sensation, but it shouldn’t feel that way for every hair. If you ask for an explanation, and she really wasn’t treating the hair properly, you’ve at least put her on notice that you know what it’s suppose to feel like and hopefully she will adjust the settings.
Anytime this may happen to you in the future, I agree with Choice that it is best to ask the electrologist to stop the treatment and give her feedback as to what you are feeling.
Are you clipping or shaving before you go in, hollym? I assume you are talking about your upper lip, right? Are you close to a first clearance? She was using either flash, microflash or even picoflash thermolysis, which is fine, as long as the energy and timing levels are correctly set. Insertions have to be dead accurate with these modalities and vision wear has got to be up to par if the hair is light and fine. If her insertions were off, then the hair was not receiving dead on treatment, thus the tweezing sensation, although, there are hair structures that are not in the growth stage that are resistant and offer traction after they are treated. Hopefully, you can just see your first electrologist from this point on, since you were so satisfied her.
Yeah, the electrolysis is being done on my upper lip and chin. I’m not clipping or shaving before I go in. I usually don’t bleach in between either if I can go without it because my regular electrologist says it’s easier for her to see the hairs when they are darker.
The electrologist I usually go to goes slower than the electrologist I had today did but I feel like she gets the hairs more accurately–because she says it’s easier for her to get more hairs when she can see the root better and she even told me when I first started the electrolysis in the beginning that I shouldn’t be feeling a plucking sensation, more like the hair is sliding out–which, based on what I’ve read, sounds like the correct way. She (the electrologist I normally go to) uses Flash, but I’m not sure what the electrologist I had today used.
I don’t think I’ve really gotten a full clearance yet, but the hair is definitely getting less dense -this is fine right? It seems the clearance might vary person to person? I feel like the electrologist I’m normally going to is working well. Hopefully I will be able to continue going just to her.
Clearance means that you’re completely cleared of all the visible offending hair in the area you are treating. You achieve it when you go in as often as possible in the beginning for longer treatments to get all the visible hair on the area. That way, afterwards, you only need to come in when new hair pops up and clear it all in one sitting. So you always look cleared and you always kill the hairs as soon as they pop up when they’re still weak.
Yeah, then I haven’t gotten full clearance yet. I’m still going once a week and think it will be a little awhile before I can go less often. I’ve only gone 4 times though…so it’s normal not to be fully cleared by then right?
If I am being plucked, this doesn’t mean it will end up messing with the electrolysis I have got that I think has been done right, right? And I am going back next time to the woman who I’m pretty sure does it well-I rarely feel the plucking sensation with her, even though the electric current is longer with her --but I assume this is because she uses a different kind of thermolysis.
