Yesterday, I went for electrolysis on my face. She did my upper lip and sides of face. I told her that on the sides of my face I only want her to take care of the darker & coarser hairs- that the tiny blond ones don’t really bother me. This is what the treatment was like:
(1) Sides of face: First, she was electrifying the hairs - she was using the machine and I felt the shock. She would electrify like 30 or more hairs one after the other without sliding them out… and then after that she put the needle down and picked up the tweezers and started plucking the area— and I felt plucking and she did that for like 2 minutes. Then she started again with the needle and then again plucking. So I asked her if she really is plucking and she said ‘yes’… and then she says, ‘well the hairs that I zapped are dead already and the ones that you feel me plucking you said you don’t care about anyway’ (I guess she was referring to the tiny blond ones). But that got me worried so I said… ‘I read somewhere that you’re not supposed to feel plucking when doing electrolysis’. And she responded saying that that’s ‘not true… that even thought the hair is killed, you can still feel it being sort of plucked while it’s taken out’. She also said that ‘what I feel is most likely her just tugging on the hairs around the ones she killed because I have dense hair growth’.
On the Upper Lip, I didn’t have that much and she probably did about 15-20 hairs only and I did not feel plucking there…
Is this right? Do you think that the reason she plucked on the sides of my face is because I asked her to just get rid of the dark, coarser hair ???
I’m really confused and I don’t know if I should go back to her…
After treatment my sides were pretty much clear and so was my upper lip (except for the blond finer hairs)— the session lasted only 40 minutes…
I thought it takes much longer than that to clear the area I wanted done.
Is this your first electrolysis treatment? How did you take care of the hair before? My point is that if it is your first treatment it is probable that the hairs are in all different stages of hair growth. Telogen, or resting hairs, have a dry, white ball where the root should be. Most people feel this ball leave the follicle. If treatments are kept regular then you are always getting actively growing hairs (after the initial clearance) and should not feel plucking.
As for her epilation technique, many people “zap” 10 or so hairs and then take them all out. For some practitioners this makes them faster. I am not sure if that is the case if she is setting down and picking up her instruments.
Also, how did the skin react after the treatment?
Anyway, my advise is to keep looking for an electrologist if she did not make you feel comfortable or if you thought she was plucking the hairs around the treated hair. It might take a tad longer and some finer tweezers, but that shouldn’t be happening. It might even turn out that you were just uncomfortable with the new situation and after visiting others you come back to the original.
So you’re saying that during the first visit/treatment it is OK to pluck just to get first clearance?
I’m confused now because I read all over this board that you should not have any plucking done or feel plucking during electrolysis… but I don’t know if this also applies to first clearance/first treatment session…
You must be careful to read and comprehend what we are saying about good treatment, and early clearances.
Since only growing hairs can be reliably treated so that they are gone and gone for good, the best case is to only work on growing hairs. It is easy to treat only growning hairs after First Clearance, as, by definition, the only hairs one would see right after First Clearance would be growing, since all hairs have been previously removed.
This leaves one doing first clearance work to choose to treat all hairs in the area while working towards First Clearance, OR to minimize the work done by only treating hairs that are known to be growing. The way that is done is to have the client shave the treatment area 24 to 72 hours prior to the treatment, and therefore allow the practitioner to be able to see the difference between growing hairs and shedding hairs. At this point, one could save the client money by treating only the growing hairs (which would be higher above the skin’s surface than shedding hairs) and then plucking the shedding hairs (which would be stubby hairs barely above the skin’s surface) and in this way not waste treatment time on hairs that most likely would do no more than thinned when they regrow later. The alternative is to work all hairs in the treatment area, and hope that more growing ones were treated than shedding hairs.
All hairs in the region being worked on should be treated with electrolysis - in my opinion - no electrologist should tweeze.
The follicle can still be treated in the nongrowing phase as the bulge area is accessible.
If you, the client, feel a tweezing sensation on the face, keep in mind that when you first start treatment, this tweezing sensation can be felt about 30% of the time and then decreases as the area is being cleared.
i personally would look for another electrologist. sample 3-4 regardless if this is your first one. this practice sounds questionable to me. it could be ok for the first treatment, but if she continues doing this and actually plucking hairs, she will be sending many hairs into dormancy which is not what you want.
I understand what you are saying about shaving so that the electrologist can clearly see whcih hair is in active growing stage… but she plucked— is that still OK?
No.
Tweezing is a waste of time.
Administering electrolysis during any phase is better than tweezing as we can still do enough damage in the follicle to make a difference.
So then wouldn’t that make sense to tweeze during first clearance of an electrolysis session… so that after that only growing hairs in the anagen stage appear and therefore the electrolysis will be more effective and get the most for your money… or am I not correct?
This is really confusing me lol
TWEEZING A SHEDDING HAIR IS OK!
IT IS SHEDDING AFTER ALL!
My point is that when doing large areas, some people choose to pluck the shedders, or not treat them at all.
Discuss with your electrologist what that person’s strategy is, so at least you understand what plan of attack that person is utilizing. Then, if you don’t agree with it, you can request a different strategy (make sure you have attempted to understand the reasons for the strategy and not just dismiss it out of hand) or you can try to find someone using a plan you agree with.
Plucking shedding hairs normally doesn’t cause breakage, by the way. When the hair returns, it will be growingg, and can then be well treated, instead of just weakened.
According to research done by Clement Beaumont of Dectro, the follicle is treatable in all stages. Even though I knew this to be true, I spoke with him about a week ago and asked him about it again. His response was the same.
As one who has administered many techniques and all modalities, I know that the follicle is weakened throughout all stages. It doesn’t make sense to tweeze if it just takes a second to actually treat the follicle.
If tweezing has an effect on the follicle making the hairs grow deeper or coarser, why risk this result?
Also, why risk tweezing a hair that is not actually in the shedding stage? You do not know with 100% certainty what stage every single hair is in and examining it would cost more time than actually treating it.
Also, when the hair is about to shed, you wouldn’t even feel it being tweezed. Maybe those hairs are indeed in the growing or resting stage and that is why it is experienced as a tweeze.
Ok…now I am realllllllly confused! Should I stay with this electrologist? She has a very good rate and over 15 years experience… she assured me this will give me results fastest and get me my money’s worth…
i would sample 3-4 more and compare. it’s impossible to judge her if you haven’t tried treatments by others. i tend to agree with Arlene though that it’s very hard to tell with 100% certainty which hair is in which phase before you pluck it, so if it was me, I would shave only before treatments and have all seemingly growing hairs treated.
The only thing I don’t like about this electrologist’s method is putting her forceps down to treat 30 hairs and then picking it up again. She would save herself a lot of work if she learned the one-handed manuveur. Also, how does she keep track of what hairs she zapped with certainty? Maybe that’s why she was plucking because she lost track.
Those little white bulby hairs close to the surface are little devils that don’t want to cooperate much in those beginning sessions, so you may feel like you are being plucked.
I like the shaving strategy 3 days prior. It does help with identification purposes of which ones are growing and which are not. I am guilty of plucking hair for a client, depending on the situation. I’m not psychic and I don’t have special powers to see under the skin, but it can be quite obvious many times which hairs are bummer’s and which are ready to attack and kill. I inform the client about what I’m doing and why they partner with me in this strategy. This is not a daily happening for me, but there are situations where it is helpful. Zapping telogen hairs hurt more from my observations. I seldom grab an anagen hair, because I have become better at identifying the clues that present with bummer, no good hairs.
I think when you brought the plucking sensation up with your electrologist about the plucked side burns, she then went on to work on your upper lip without you feeling any plucking. She may have changed her proceedure, because she figured out you are a wise consumer. See, it’s good to know what is expected when you start any job or process, so you can’t be easily taken.
If you are still unsure about what to do, then do sample some other electrolgists and see what they can deliver.
Why not use the information here to ask your electrologist questions?
Ask her why electrologists tell clients not to tweeze yet she is tweezing you.
Ask her what effect tweezing has on the skin and hair follicle?
Ask her what the advantage of tweezing is.
Ask her what the advantage of shaving is.
Ask her why an electrologist would choose to tweeze rather than treat a hair if it only takes a second or so to actually treat it and takes a fraction of a second less to tweeze it.
Ask her is she knows with certainty every stage of growth each hair is in.
Ask her if she would recommend that you shave the area, then, examine the shaved area a few days later, tweeze the shorter hairs yourself, then leave the longer hairs for her to treat. In that way, you can save time and money.
You know, the funny thing here is that I was only explaining a treatment possibility that some people use. I was not advocating it, just explaining it.
I was not looking to argue the merits of that possibility, nor suggest what I might think would be a better way.
As I said before, you need to see as many electroloigsts in your area as you can, and do your best to understand what plan each one proposes to take with you, and go with the one who demonstrates the best treatment results and the willingness to follow the best treatment plan for YOUR goals.