Does anyone know whether electrolysis be undertaken on a 13y.o. with braces?
Yes, it is perfectly safe. You will still have to make the rounds to find a good practitioner. My suggestion is to have an adult (if you are said 13 year old) go and do the sample treatments in order to choose the practitioner.
Please put your location in your profile so that those in your area can make suggestions as to who is good in your area.
thanx for your reply. i forgot to mention it’s on my chin
The area doesn’t matter, good work can be done at that age. Just be sure to be well hydrated, electrolyte balanced, free of caffeine, and do all sample treatments on a place like the leg or some out of the way place, so you are not exposed to poor work. Keep in mind also that the sensation will be different on different parts of the body. (Leg hairs are much more shallow than face hairs, and so actually can hurt more than face work)
are you female? 13 years old? how much hair do you have on your chin? any other problem areas? you might want to see an endocrinologist if you have other hair problems to eliminate any underlying medical conditions that might need to be addressed.
Thirteen year olds usually don’t have disease processes occurring. This is a hormonal occurence where normal hair patterns are beginning to show. There are three times in a woman’s life cycle where she has new hair develop: puberty, preganancy, and menopause. Once mentrual patterns are “established” in a teeange girl, a hair problem can calm down and be quite normal. A lot of this increased hair growth is familial.
I’m not a big proponet of running to endocrinologists for help if someone is just natually hairy, which many people are. A lot of money is spent to find out that all lab values are within normal range and then a prescription for Vaniqa is slapped into the patients hand. This is just my observation,but if you and your parents feel that you need to pursue a medical consult, then by all means do so.
Dee
Thanks guys for all your replies. I may not have made it clear. I am writing as a parent alongside my daughter. We had the electrolysis done yesterday without a problem. I made sure that she could only feel the needle in the exact area it was directed to . My electrologist (sp?) was concerned that it may send a shock up along her gum so we tested one first. Apart from the expected pain she was fine. Thanks for the concern about underlying issues. Unfortunately, I am well aware of such issues, suffering from PCOS myself and am currently treating facial hair with electrolysis after about 6 years of laser - but that’s another story. Since she hasn’t started her cycle yet i’m reluctant to see anybody. I guess we’ll wait and see. My PCOS didn’t rear until my 30’s whereby all my hairy issues engulfed like wildfire. lol.
We wish your daughter the best. It is great to see a parent that is so supportive of a child that needs help. Just having electrolysis yourself is really neat because you both can share in the process.
Please be generous and share the name of the electrologist you are using when you reach success. Many consumers are dying to know of someone good in their area.
Dee
Oh, and at some time, can you share your facial laser experience with us?
Thanks Dee for the rap. I’m in Australia so not sure whether location of my electrologist is of interest but nontheless she’s in Hawthorn Melbourne. More details for anyone if interested. My laser experience well, I started Dec. 99 on sideburns (29yo), upper lip, hairline and feet. Initially i went in for sideburns which were an issue for me since puberty kicked in. What the heck since i’m here may as well do the lip hairline and feet which i waxed. After 8 sessions the hair on feet, gone. To put in perspective the hair was brown (not black and thick). However, the sideburns well kept on keeping on. After 8 sessions we started to treat the chin from a couple of stray black hairs which then progressed to the neck area (again fine but noticeable), then my jawline. It wasn’t until my sessions became from quarterly to 6wks i began to question whether the laser was inducing the hairgrowth. I started researching on the net and nothing came of it. This is when i found hairtell and even here it wasn’t mentioned. My laser therapist put it down to my PCOS which i did to since my feet were gone and i noticed my thigh hairs getting thicker. Around Oct '04, Enough was enough, then I started seeing sparse hairs going higher and higher unto the cheek area, i then began to treat the jawline in between laser treatments with wax, cream, tweeze (i know, bad move but… )the cost of going to laser was enormous and now to treat it every month was painful both for the hip pocket and me. Instead of waxing etc., in between laser treatments i decided to do electrolysis. End of 2005 information came to hand about laser induced hairgrowth, mainly from this site. Again i brought it up with my laser therapist and now my electrologist and they had no information about it, again we related it to PCOS (which i must say is a slight case needing no treatment). Now March 2007 I began consistent therapy with electrolysis and have had 8 sessions. The electrologist is excited about it because apparently under the magnifying glass she can see bald patches. I am yet to be convinced because i am going weekly so i haven’t given the hair a chance to grow. I have no choice i have put my all into the electrologist and hope she is right. Because the area is so vast, after the electrolysis she waxes instead of plucking out the hair. However, even though it’s a vast area, the hairs are darker than the natural fluff on our faces hence noticeable but i can’t say they are like a beard either. We do notice hair shafts on the wax strip and she does pluck the occasional hair to ensure it has weakened. From 8 weekly sessions I am going to fortnightly. She now wants me to have a blast of laser which she is hoping to kill what’s left. As you can imagine, I am hesitant but at the same time eager to get rid of this. Finally, for those interested, the hair on my feet have grown back but very finely and need waxing or shaving bi monthly. For all those laser patients that have scalded i found the best cream for after treatment is paraderm. It’s an all over cream which specifically treats burns, abrasions etc. and have found that even when my face would burn after the laser (positive i would scab)this cream applied about 4 or 5 times that same day would guarantee me no or very little scabbing. Hope i’ve been of help.
Of course people are interested. We have to be able to answer the question “who is good in my area” for people from all around the world. Please put your practitioners info in the Referral Directory with a title like “Electrologist in (your city) Australia”
You have been a tremendous help and thank you so much.
There are some things I see about your present treatments that are bothersome. I also have some questions. First the questions.
What type of laser were you receiving all those years? Alexandrite, diode, yag or IPL? The wrong machine with an inexperienced person can be an invitation to no where.
Getting waxed or tweezed is a big no-no once you start electrolysis. The face IS NOT A LARGE AREA for electrolysis treatment unless your electrologist is using tools of the past. If she is using a high-ended epilator with microflash thermolysis capabilities, then you will be extremely happy with the clearance that can be attained after a couple hours or so, depending on how much hair you present with. That is not to say that you will need to keep tacklng any new hair that comes to the surface over the next two-three hair growth cycles. You will be chasing rainbows forever if you allow yourself to be waxed/tweezed in between sessions. And, absolutely, no laser or IPL on the face. You already saw that you responded with this phenomenon called “laser-induced hair growth”. It is real. It truly happens and consumer postings keep piling up on this site and other hair sites,as well.
More questions:
What method of electrolysis does your electrologsit use? What kind of epilator does your electrologist use? Ask her to tune in to hairtell and contribute if she desires.
Trust me, do not get more laser on your face and NO WAXING OR TWEEZING WHILE UNDERGOING ELECTROLYSIS. If more electrologists came on board to microflash thermolysis with the better computerized epilators available today, they wouldn’t need to wax or lase faces to keep them clear. The quickness and deadliness of microflash would keep the consumer well within the realm of hope that they are improving and the hair will be gone as fast as possible.
Just my thoughts and recommendations for your particular situation.
Dee
Hi Dee. The laser was Gentlease (sp?). Not sure of electrolysis but know it wasn’t thermolysis (it was the other one). Straight after the electrolysis she would pluck the hair out, which most times I could not feel. But because the area was so much and time consuming I actually asked her why doesn’t she wax the area to remove the dead hairs. We tried one half of the face with wax and the other with plucking and there was no difference in the hair regrowth. Actually i could probably say that there was probably less on the waxed side because that was always hairier to start off with. NOt sure what you mean by epilator. Hope i’ve answered all your questions. You’ve given me lots to think about to. Muchly appreciated.
Epilator refers to the machine that is used by the electrologist to remove the hair, including the root, from the follicle.
These machines/epilators are capable of performing galvanic, thermolysis and blend, ususally. Some machines can only be used for thermolysis. The newer computerized epilators can perform microflash thermolysis as well as the other two electrolysis modalities, blend and galvanic.
It sounds like you were treated with a good actual laser. Maybe you were undertreated??? in the beginning.
Rather than wax/tweeze the area while you are having electrolysis, you really should clip or shave the hair until your electrologist can catch up with and clear the offending hairs. If she is using a slower method, it will work, but you may feel more frustration because results will come slower. That’s why many electrologists around the world have updated their equipment so they can do a faster method that works as well as a slower method. Clients find hope that this will all end when a first full clearance is obtained. There is a deep psychological bonus to getting the hair off asap.
You are very welcome and thanks for your kind words.
Dee
there are a ton of things that are bothersome in your long post about your experience. it sounds like you weren’t getting treated by someone knowledgeable with laser, although with a good machine, and that you’re not being treated by someone knowledgeable with electrolysis now. here’s why:
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you should NOT be waxing any hair once you started electrolysis. it defeats the purpose. there is no way to know whether the hair was affected after she treated it until she tugs on it and it slides out easily. not all hairs do and some need a few zaps. just waxing everything off afterwards is a bad idea and you might be doing these treatments forever if you continue this. also, if the hair is not very deep and coarse, you will probably get faster results with thermolysis, microflash etc. I would look around for other electrologists asap. I’m not sure why she took yoru advice about waxing. She’s supposed to be the electrologist and should know why that shouldn’t be done. After all, she should have been educated on the process. Once you wax the hair, it may not come back for weeks or even months, leaving you doing this process forever.
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What is the color of your skin? It sounds like your lack of results on the face may have been two-fold: 1. due to darker skin and somewhat lower settings and 2. due to PCOS that is not being controlled.
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If you have that much growth from PCOS, it should be controlled with medication etc in my opinion. The issue is that if you don’t get it under control, your body will continue developing NEW hair especially on the areas that are hormonally stimulated like your face, which means you can be doing permanent removal forever, and still be seeing NEW hair pop up that your body is producing due to PCOS. I think disregarding it as something minor and not doing anything about it is doing yourself a disservice.
I don’t believe i have that much growth from PCOS, I believe now that it may have been laser induced. My PCOS is a mild case (as per gynaecological advice) and in no need of medication. I am olive skin and i think the laser was set to 22 (if this means anything to you). My electrologist believes from her 15years experience that waxing does produce weaker and finer hair. She had photos of showing me this with letters of thanx from happy customers. I was referred to her by a friend of mine with the same problems as me - she is now hair free. The only fault that leaves me in 2 minds of laser induced hairgrowth is that i wasn’t consistent with treatments in the beginning (as Dee picked up). They were treatments every 4 months, sometimes 3 depending on the necessity. I didn’t believe i needed to come in every 6 weeks when there was no hair. In heinsight (sp?) maybe i should have to totally destroy the root. But then why was my vellus fine hair turning dark?? PCOS or laser induced (the million dollar ?) Now with electrolysis, time will tell. Medicate PCOS, no thanks i can do without the hormone drugs stuffing up everything else. Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t. So far it’s been under control apart from the obvious - hair. I tried the pill which apparently would control the hirsutism but unfortunately it controlled my whole emotions to. Thank you to for your advice.