I want to find an electrologist in the UTC, San Diego area for treatment on my face, but I do not know anyone who gets treatments in my area. Any recommendations will be appreciated.
I read the post by LAgirl “How to find an electologist in your area.” Using the information from there, I found a nearby electrologist from the American Electrology Association. It stated she is a CPE and does shortwave (thermolysis), galvanic, and blend. I found the same person on yelp and she was rated well. I would like to do a consultation with her. I know it’s important to know type of machine, her experience, try to get a sample treatment, and her sanitary standards. Is there anything that I’m missing?
I’m also open to being treated by students at a discounted rate since money is an important consideration for me. I’ve started a separate post for that and would really appreciate the input there too.
I posted in your other thread to answer this question, but I agree that student work on the face really worries me personally. I love student work, but not for that area. The school you were inquiring about earlier (that I go to) doesn’t even allow lower-level students to work on faces, only the “seniors” can ($20 per hour). I would use student work on the body and use the money you save to get pro work on the face. If you don’t want to treat bodily areas and want to get face done only, then just spring for a pro.
Not trying to knock students, I know they have to learn to do faces somewhere and many of them are close to graduating anyway. Perhaps pick a student and get some body work done with her before deciding if you trust her on your face, and start with a very very small area to judge how well you do before going for an hour long session or something? Like a five minute “test patch” and then see how it heals for a few days?
A good place to work the body hair test areas would be the legs. What woman would miss any leg hairs? It is also an easy place to work. If the person can’t deliver good work on a leg, that person can’t be trusted to do a face yet. On the other hand, keep in mind, that since leg hairs are easier than facial work, great work on the leg may only translate to good work on the face, until their learning curve is at its peak.
I do realize student work on the face doesn’t sound like a great idea, but with my current financial situation I thought I should at least ask. Thank you for all the input. I really respect your opinions and will do more research on finding a professional for my face.
One of my biggest concerns about finding an electrologist is that I might pick someone who ends up scarring me. Does scarring mainly occur due to the electrologist’s lack of skill or if they’re using cheap/outdated equipment or is it a combination of both?
Our joke around here is that a great electrolysis practitioner can remove hair perfectly fine with a sewing needle, an onion, gatorade and speaker wire – but a good machine helps, and will allow you to get more hairs cleared per hour.
Skill is the be all end all of this trade. The different machines only increase, or decrease the learning curve, and then increase or decrease the number of hairs per hour, one can do.
Excellent work can be done with ANY machine, IF the person working it knows that machine very well.
Yep, it’s all about skill. It may hurt less or go faster with a newer machine (which could save you money in the long run if it takes fewer hours to clear the area), but if she knows what she’s doing then you shouldn’t get scars no matter what machine it is.
I am in the process of getting electrolysis from
2 different places and am giving each place a
different body area to work on.
Place A is near my home: MY left leg
Place B is near my work: My right leg
I started wearing sweat pants or baggy pants so the fabric does not rub my skin. I just show one leg and tell the electrologist
that I just want to do one leg at a time. I have not told them
that I am having one leg done here and the other leg done somewhere else. Is this okay to do? I don’t know how else to figure out what is the better place. My hairs are too light for laser and no one told me it was just a waste of time and money.
Both places A and B, I get scabs.
Place A, the scabs are bigger than B.
Place A, it ouches a little more.
So far, at both places, I rarely feel a tug.
It has been one month so far from my first appointments and I still see red spots on both legs. How can I speed up the healing so that I go back to having normal looking legs?
For body work, it is almost a given that you should expect scabbing. If you do, they should be pinpoint, heal within 7-14 days and then drop off. Any red spots left behind should fade within three weeks to three months. All depends on your healing powers and your aftercare. I would rub witch hazel on your legs after you shower and then use aloe vera gel. If you have few rough spots, dab a little tea tree oil on before you apply the aloe vera gel. Wear loose fitting clothing so as not to irritate the area that is healing. This approach should speed up the healing. You may hear all kinds of suggestions for aftercare, but I like this one the best and so do my clients.
Both electrologists sound fine and it is none of their business if one is working on one leg and the other is working on the other. You may need both as your needs may change from week to week. It may be more convenient to see the one closer to home one week and the other that is closer to work the next week. No tugging is good and they both are the same on that point.
Body work = scabbing for the most part. I had terrible scabs when I had my work done years ago. My skin healed quite nicely, eventually, and today, there are not visible signs that I had electrolysis on my legs. It hurt like a shark, but it was worth it. Today, with the newer types of epilators, it is very tolerable and the skin looks great afterwards. I wish they had Apilus Platinum’s a decades ago! I don’t know if you have that advantage going for you?
Glad you discovered that laser hair reduction would be a waste of time and money FOR YOUR PARTICULAR CASE. Electrolysis will get you somewhere good if you and your electrologist work hard together. Don’t slack off. Be aggressive up front and don’t look back. I will try to post an example of a leg work case tomorrow or the next day to give you an idea of what this entails from start to finish.
Thank you for such a detailed response. I still see lots of red spots but both electrologists told me what you told me so I feel so much better.
Electrologist A started using a coated needle on me after I mentioned that the red spots bothered me. I still got red spots anyway but that appointment was more comfortable.
Do you mean insulated probes? If you do, then I like them. I like gold probes as well. Insulated probes are more expensive to use, but if used correctly, it concentrates the energy at the bottom of the follicle and protects the upper layers of skin. It’s worth a try to switch probes. I like her flexibility to try something different.
Place A and B are giving me different answers for the same question.
Place A says that each follicle has to be treated about 5 times before it stops growing hair.
Place B says it takes one treatment in the follicle if caught in the early stage of growth and by focusing on specific areas it does not require so many insertions in the same follicle.
Place A said that the needle type doesn’t make enough of a difference to change it. She uses a 4.
Place B said that she prefers making needle changes and she can use a thick needle and then switch to a thinner needle towards the end of my appointments to catch thin hairs in the areas she just completed removing thick hair. She uses a 5 and 3.
Place A is doing my Left leg and is near my home @ $90 an hour.
Place B is doing my right leg and is near my work @ $75 an hour.
Is the only way to know who is doing a better job, to wait and see what happens in terms of regrowth?
I am dong aftercare with aloe. Is there any way to avoid getting scabs and red marks? They both told me that it can not be avoided.
Hmm…I wonder if Place A will take 5 times longer and cost more than 5 times more than Place B, since Place A has told you each hair takes 5 treatments?
If you are going to these places equally (same length of treatments at same intervals) then there should be a point where you either see a difference in the amount of visible hair on each leg - or you don’t see a difference.
Place B sounds a bit better than place A, especially if she told you it takes, literally, 5 treatments per follicle to kill a hair. A hair can be killed in one treatment, or take a few treatments depending on various factors. (If I can be bold enough to critique B, they should have pointed that out, and keeping your appointments on schedule will reduce the time it takes to finish. Treating them when they first start growing, that is in anagen stage, will increase the likelihood of being killed in one treatment, and keeping on schedule will help with this.)
I am going to each place for 1 hour a week and I will continue doing this until I figure out who is doing a better job.
Electrologist B is near work and I go in before work or during lunch. B explains everything and always asks if I have any questions. B works very carefully moving her body and tools in all different directions because my hair grows in all different directions.
Electrologist A is near home and is so much more convenient even though it is more expensive. A asks me to move around alot so that she can get into my follicles that grow in all different directions.
Waxing used to be awful for me because of this because it made me suffer with ingrown hairs. Laser could not help me because my hairs are too light colored.
Hi Vickie,
I go every week, one hour for each leg, so that I can hopefully get the growth in the early stage. Both A and B made that clear to me that anagen was best.
I think this is a great website and wish I found it sooner.