I am new to this forum so I apologize if this is redundant. I am one of those unfortunate souls who tried laser first with no results. In fact it almost appeared to make it worse. I have contacted several electrologists in the area to get an idea of the options and pricing. I have narrowed it down for now to 4.
There are 2 ladies who have certifications, license, and belong to one of the associations. They both have equal years of experience. They do thermolysis using the Proteus EP2000. (It seems that many of the electrologists in the area do thermolysis on the Proteus).
The other 2 ladies are similar. They have about 20 years experience, are certified, etc. These two perform shortwave and blend using the Apilus Senior II.
How do I choose? I assume that I might want to initially try the 2 with the newest equipment but I don’t want to assume anything.
You are correct. Start with the ladies with the Apilus products, and then see the rest, and when you have done consultations and sample treatments with them all, make your pick basedon who gives you the best skin result, with the least amount of time, while maintaining quality of the work.
I went yesterday to one of the ladies using the Apilus. For the first treatment she said she preferred to use Thermolysis to see how my skin would react. I think I might have an unusual or difficult case. My hairs aren’t terribly dark above the skin (below the skin they appear dark). However, they are like needles they are so course and extremely deeply rooted. Apparently obsessive tweezing over the course of over 2 years did this. The treatment was relatively painless but there was an extreme amount of tugging on most of the course hairs. I decided to go to one more treatment next week with the same lady and then try the other one using the Apilus. I have a feeling it shouldn’t have required that much tugging. Maybe using blend would be better since my hairs seem to be similar to deeply rooted thorns!
Just as a note… The electrologist office waiting area seemed nice enough. She sells a variety of products that she stands by like Glymed and Jane Iredale. She also offers permanant makeup and microderm. However the treatment room (which she also uses for an office) seemed quite disheveled. It didn’t seem dirty necessarily, just very cluttered. She used a dentist chair and light and magnification glasses. I will definitely be going to another one just so that I can make a comparison.
I had my first treatment and she used Thermolysis. The hair grew back quickly (just as course and just as much). I just had my 2nd treatment a couple of days ago and she used Blend. Although there was still lots of tugging on the hairs (which I thought was not supposed to happen) and it was more painful, the regrowth seems much slower. Ironically blend seemed gentler in the end on my skin. I think I will stick with the Blend method. I plan on going to another electrolysis tomorrow for comparison. Fingers crossed… 2 treatments down, millions to go!
The same hair that was treated at your first treatment did not grow back quickly, unless it has been 6 weeks or more since you had a that first treatment… What you are seeing is NEW HAIR that was not seen or available to treat at your first treatment. You are experinencing HAIR GROWTH CYCLES. Just another wave of many waves of new growth to come in the first six months especially. Did she not explain this to you at your consultation??? Please understand first that patience is required for about one year. You will then be in a cleanup phase that MAY require a couple of nit picky trips here and there for the next six months since you presented with hair that had been tweezed over the years.
It will not take millions of treatments, unless you are going to a ketchup slow electrologist. Blend is good for the thick hairs, but a good microflash thermolysis electrologist can do those hairs in as well. You were a busy plucker. Expect hairs to come forth in waves and waves over the next six months. It will calm down afterwards if the practitioner yhou choose has the power and timing set correctly and makes good insertions deep enough into the follicle.
The Apilus Senior II is a good machine. It can do Blend and microflash. I frequently switch back and forth between the two modalities. It is all dependent on how much hair one has to begin with and the structure of the hair. You must get full clearance asap and then keep your face cleared thereafter. Put in the time up front. More frequent, longer appointments followed by less frequent shorter appointments. It will work for you much better than laser hair reduction did. It is good that you are sampling four electrologists.
As far as the tugging goes, we have discussed those differences here many time. New cases present with all stages of hair growth. Some hairs resist, some hairs slide. Big, coarse hairs are bigger at the bottom than the hole they have to slide out of, so you may feel a pop. With blend, even if you feel a small tug, the lye (sodium hydroxide) that was created in your follicle remains working for a couple hours after a treatment, working its way into all those little nooks and crannies destroying any left over hair germ cells. That is one of the advantages of blend. I do more of the faster thermolysis (PicoFlash or Microflash) than blend and all turns out fabulous in about 9-12 months for most facial areas as long as the client shows up and allows me to clear her/him everytime. Hopefully, you can find someone who has decent speed.
Visit and then rate the electrologists that you sample. Amazing how electrologists in certain locales all have the same epilator. Your looking for practitioner skill, but some of the epilators with better technology that skilled electrologists own will end up costing you less in the end and will speed up your hair removal journey. Amen.
(HairTell Humor, you will get in on the in jokes in no time)