Here is a photo of my right cheek. I washed my face and shaved this morning and applied moisturizer afterward. There has never been any treatment of any kind on this skin. I do not have rosacea or any other skin condition that I am aware of.
In effect Caith, your skin is very delicate.
Hi Margaret! Regards from Spain!
You are entirely correct. This is why I’ve re-stated this fact many, many times in this thread. My skin is an extreme example of tender and delicate tissue. The beard itself is an irritant.
I took a new picture this morning, to show the most serious follicular redness beneath my lower lip from last week’s treatment has resolved. I do appreciate everyone’s concern last week. 
wow you look clean and smooth there caith. how many days ago was your treatment? how many total treatments on the upper lip and how many more to go? i hope i can look at least that smooth and clean like that every day. only a couple tiny stubble showing on your right upper lip. they look like hairs that were missed? did you shave your upper lip at all from the last treatment?
No, I don’t shave these areas, once we’ve started treatment. This picture is about eight (8) days after the last treatment. If you go back a page or two, you’ll see the redness below my lower lip some people were concerned about. I don’t think the electrologist “missed” those hairs on the upper lip as much as they hadn’t grown far enough above the skin to be grasped with tweezers. It’s taking less than 30 minutes every week to clear these few stragglers from my upper lip, now.
I’ve been having either one or two hours of treatment each week, starting late last November. So, that would be about 15 treatments, total. It took the first three weeks plus 15 minutes to achieve first clearance on my upper lip, because we worked in sections. She did my upper and lower lip lines the first session in about 30 minutes. Then she worked on the corners of my mouth in the second session for one hour, and finally the remainder of my upper lip in the third session for two hours. This left only the small patch beneath my septum in the very center for the fourth session, and that took almost an hour. It was several weeks after this that regrowth finally began appearing.
While waiting for that regrowth on the upper lip, we continued treating my lower lip and under the corners of my mouth. We had started clearing down to my chin when the regrowth appeared. Since then, it’s been primarily maintenance on my lips, plus whatever chin hairs we have time to remove.
Im not sure if i follow. total treatments on upper lip was 4 correct? and you dont shave and it looks almost bald. is this how it is going to stay? i thought hair kept regrowing and regrowing until it all gets treated. usually taking 12 months or so. how many more sessions for just the upper lip will you need?
It took four separate treatments and approximately 3.5 to 4.0 total hours to achieve first clearance on my upper lip alone:
a) lip lines
b) corners of mouth
c) majority of upper lip
d) area beneath the septum
Since then, I recently had a second clearance that required about 2.25 hours.
The third clearance required about 1.25 hours, and that’s what you’re seeing here. Look back to the first page of this thread, and you’ll see what hair existed before any treatment whatsoever. I had a light-to-average density beard composed mostly of red, blonde, gray, and white whiskers with the occasional brown/black hairs. For someone with a denser beard and consistently darker hairs, it would likely require more time.
I suggest you look at some of James Walker’s threads, where he’s done some fantastic work clearing EXTREMELY dense and fast growing beards. It’s truly impressive work, IMHO.
thanks for that. so will yours remain smooth like that now or will there be more hairs growing out that you have to clear again? im not sure what maintenance means. is it catching little hairs that were missed or re-clearing it?
anyway i dont have a dense beard. my mustache is not even as dense as yours. im just sensitive there and if i shave against the grain sooner than 4-5 days, i will get razor burn and irritation and redness. i want to look smooth there 24/7.
Maintenance is catching whatever few fine hairs regrow after complete clearance is achieved. All these hairs grow on different cycles, so different areas respond differently. In my experience after the third clearance is achieved, maintenance begins. Any regrowth requires weeks, and is typically finer and easier (and therefore much faster) to remove. In my case, we’ve gone from four hours over four sessions to just over one hour in a single session to clear away the regrowth on my upper lip. That’s a 75% reduction in time that’s allowing us to begin clearing my chin.
Sorry, I neglected to answer your question. It remains looking smooth like that, except for those few hairs actively growing back. If you run your finger against it, you’ll feel more resistance from some fine blonde hairs, but these are not visible without a lot of careful inspection.
so pretty much, if you just shave from now on, you will be smooth right? but i guess you prefer to just nuke every stubble you see.
I want it ALL gone. I don’t want to shave it, I don’t want to pluck it. If it’s growing out and visible, it’s getting treated. 
Hair will keep growing for about 12 months because it grows in cycles. With electrolysis, you come in every 3-4 weeks to kill all the hair that’s there at that time. Then you wait another few weeks, and come in the hair that came in from the next cycle, and so on. Treatments become shorter and shorter and you are completely done in about a year, i.e. after a year or so, nothing grows back at all because you have killed all hair in all cycles.
well your results are good. i hope my results are like yours. however i wouldnt mind if my hair would grow finer even with it mostly cleared. i dont mind shaving fine hair because its easier to do and i’d still look smooth. thats my goal. but having 100% of it removed there doesnt sound bad either
Because my skin is light and fair any dark roots clearly show through, and those will be removed. Blonde, gray, and white hairs are not such a problem, especially if they are fine or vellus hairs instead of terminal hairs or coarse. Anything that is dark, coarse, or stiff is being removed.
i like your results so much that i might even travel to your electrologist. im deathly afraid of side effects like keloids or infections forming or wrinkles, pitting etc. sounds like this electrologist is very skilled!
She’s good and she’s a sweetheart, too. Unfortunately that means she’s busy all week long and tough to schedule. It seriously makes me want to take the weeks or months of training necessary and obtain a license. Electrology is something I could probably do instead of my current work, and from which I would get a lot more satisfaction, for both me and my clients.
There is absolutely no substitute for a caring, intelligent, skilled, and most of all EXPERIENCED electrologist.
I would have to agree. Do something that brings satisfaction and fulfillment. I really am thinking of getting it done there with her. if that means flying there every month or so just to get the upper and lower lips til its mostly gone, then so be it. its about 200-300 round trip and a night at a motel. not terrible. worth it for excellent permanent results like that.
Maintenance on both lips required barely an hour today. That meant we could continue working to clear my chin for the other hour. My chin hairs are straighter, shallower, and more uniform and they released much more easily than any around my lips. It felt really good to have two pulses and then no resistance whatsoever, allowing the electrologist to work more quickly. When we were done, Margaret described my chin as “red as a firecracker” so when I got home I took an aspirin for the inflammation and then applied a package of crushed ice on and off for 90 minutes. The redness was gone, and now it’s just time to let it heal for a week. Picture is forthcoming in a day or two, after it recovers more.
I’ve had some lymph drainage and crusts from the last treatment, but this is a completely different area with a different type of skin, so it’s not entirely unexpected. All the swelling and redness is completely gone, and I only wash my chin once daily so as not to irritate it further. I apply Neosporin cream after washing, and moisturize after that. After this lymph drainage resolves, I’ll get a new picture posted.