Can anyone who has done both tell me how the sensation differs between laser hair removal and electrolysis?
Also, has anyone had their upper arm area done with electrolysis? About how long did it take and how much did it cost?
Also, if anyone can recommend anyone in Houston, TX. I’d appreciate it.
Thanks : )
They’re really different. Electrolysis involves inserting a probe and zapping each follicle. It feels like a sting. Newer machines can almost feel painless even.
Cost varies from $60-100 per hour depending on the electrologist, location, etc.
How long it took someone else is not really relevant in figuring out your costs. You need to estimate how many hairs YOU have to treat since you’re treating one hair at a time. Average electrologist removes 5-10 hairs per minute. If you get full clearances each time, about once every 3 weeks, you’d need to go for 12-18 months. Treatment spacing will decrease a lot half way through and by the end to once a month or so.
Say hello to Christina Navarrete for me:
Houston Location:
River Oaks Tower
3730 Kirby Drive Suite 1200
Houston, TX 77098
Phone (832) 922-9607
Austin Location:
Spicewood Forest Office Park
4131 Spicewood Springs Rd. Building I Suite 4
Austin, TX 78759
Phone (832) 922-9607
E-mail: [email protected]
I definitely preferred the pain with laser compared to the pain I experienced with the 5 electrologists I have tried to date. I did laser twice (upper right forehead plus lower back each time) and I didn’t get a feeling that it was working, although two treatments is too little to tell for sure.
I also have skin type 4.5 (dark) and got skin darkening on my forehead that I thought was due to laser, so I decided to stop. The darkening is now gone.
Anyway, from my experiences with 5 practitioners, electrolysis is painful in at least half the areas I got treated, even with the newer machines. I tolerate the pain because it works, something I am not sure about with laser.
Electrolysis did not cause me pain when I was getting treated on my upper back and forehead and back of neck. On the lower back and love handles area, it was very painful. On the lips, I have heard it can be absolutely horrible.
I had one treatment with a company called electrology 3000. They inject you with lidocaine before treatment, with the pain from each injection being slightly more than the pain from a laser treatment. However, then they can treat you pain free all day long with electrolysis! If I lived in Dallas, that would be my first choice over regular hourly lodocaine free electrolysis or over laser.
Thanks for the recommendation James. And Thanks for the input to everyone else. : )
My upper arm has tons of hair… so I’m still unsure whether electrolysis would be a good option for me. I was hoping the laser would get most of the hairs but now I am not even sure whether I should treat this area with laser…decisions, decisions.
But I’ll definitely look into electrolysis to get the few stray hairs that remained on my leg after laser.
I guess there is no way to quantify the pain until I experience it myself. 
The worst part is that I suffer from blood-injury-injection phobia so just thinking about electrolysis makes me cringe.
Is the needle very similar to regular needles?
You mentioned your upper arm doesn’t have dense all coarse hair. The fact that there is a lot of finer hair doesn’t help laser work better. Unfortunately, you need electrolysis.
The needle is tiny and you don’t feel the insertion at all. Don’t worry about it.
Ennovi, You will not feel the needle because it slides along a pre-existing channel.
With the right machine you can achieve this in an hour.
Thanks for the reassurance everyone!
The pic really helps me visualize the outcome. Thanks for sharing it!
The thing about my arm hair is that is is all over the place in respect to fine vs. coarse hair. The back of the upper arms is somewhat coarse but the inner part isn’t. So I wanted to treat the upper back side with laser just to see how the hair would react then I could know for sure if I would need electrolysis for all of that section. The place I’m going to is not forcing me to buy packages so I thought a session with laser wouldn’t hurt if it doesn’t work… but at the same time I don’t want to cause hypertrichosis. I’ll try to post a pic on my other thread b/c I think I’m being confusing. LOL
I guess scheduling a consultation is the next step.
You don’t want to touch it with laser unless the hair is coarse and dense like your underarms and bikini. A photo would help. Coarse is relative. People tend to think their hair is really bad and coarse when in relative terms it’s not 
I posted pics in my thread in the LHR section.
Ennovi, a good layer of Emla allows us to work very, very fast and with very little pain. I imagine you’ll like to know the progress experienced in the arm with 2 hours of electrolysis.
Thanks for the pics.
The red dots look like blood… do they turn to scabs?
If so how long is the recovery process for an area that big?
Thank for your help!
They’re not blood. They’re scabs, which fall off within a week or so.
In the arms and legs crusts are approximately 2 to 3 weeks. Recovery time is the same for a small area or a large area. Post-treatment care is what influences the speed of recovery. Keep the area very, very clean.
In this leg, almost all the scabs have fallen off. Note that in the treated follicles do not show hair. The treatment has been effective and irreversible elimination is a reality.
One thing I don’t understand… is what is meant by “clearance” or “first clearance”?
Clearance is when you leave the treatment with all visible hair removed from the area that you want hairfree.
If you do that the first time, does that mean you can go back less often?
Means that an area that has needed 3 hours to treat all visible hairs, you need 36 minutes after 3 or 4 months to treat the same area. It may take 5 years, too, you still need 36 minutes.
BEFORE THE STARTING OF TREATMENT…
ONE HOUR LATER… (FIRST CLEARANCE COMPLETED)
9 MONTHS LATER… (BEFORE SECOND CLEARANCE)
Ok that last statement confused me even more. LOL
Let’s say I have a square 1 inch by 1 inch that I want to clear.
I go and get first “clearance”.
When would I go back? When there are new hairs to treat?
How often would I go back if I get “clearance” every time I go?
Thanks for all your help! : )
Those pics are awesome! 
