And by thing, I mean experience.
Background:
I’ve been to 7-8 electrologists over the last 10+ years, but only 4 with any regularity. I first focused on the face, and perfecting the beard line. That was taken care of nicely years ago, and thereafter I’d go to work on probably-unnoticeable-to-others hair because I’m pleasantly neurotic. I never got into work on the body because I didn’t want to go there with a more time-consuming approach like electrolysis.
I thought I’d use laser for that. And I tried it on a very limited basis, 7 years ago: 3 treatments on the back of the neck, and one on the back. Seemed to work well enough, I suppose, but I left it at that…and that’s not enough to really get anywhere.
Fast forward to 2007: I went to a local electrologist for more minor work on the face, but only here and there, occasionally going months to over a year without a treatment. Despite a bit of sporadic research and a couple of consultations, I had been too lazy to look properly into laser. Eventually, I had another consult with a (cute) woman in the city, and she was honest enough to say that there were some fine hairs in some areas that simply wouldn’t respond to laser.
Being the nutcase that I am, I knew that I wanted those hairs gone as well. I thought it might be best/faster/cheaper (in the long run) if I just hit up some electrolysis and get the work done that way, rather than messing around with laser again at all.
So, after reading here a bit, I decided to try the Gior family over in Great Neck, NY. They seem to have an excellent reputation, and I was impatient enough to skip the additional mental rumination and simply give 'em a try.
Since my first appointment in mid July, I’ve been to see John 10-15 times. He’s a righteous cat, and very easy to talk to and work with. He has the right attitude…“if it grows, it can go.”
Since I’ve wasted too much time not enjoying a highly hair-free body, and since I’m impatient, and since I have more money than common sense, I’ve been at this full force since then. I’m thinking somewhere between 35-40 hours thus far, with the latest sessions being 4-5 hours each.
Today’s session was 7 hours, and the entire chest is now fully clear (sans some random stragglers and really fine targets which will die in the near future). This was the longest yet, and I probably won’t be repeating it. I am a damned machine, and I can take pain like no other dude he’s seen (the women are apparently another story), but it still hurts like a mofo+1 at times. The chest, yeah, she is a sensitive area. The lido/prilocaine cream helped, but only a little. Since these hairs are/were thick and the roots probably fairly deep, I assume he was using a big probe and a high level of juice.
My aim, for the nonce, is to clear my entire upper body (including upper arms) of every hair that is more than 2.37 mm long (I measure each one individually every fortnight). My short term goal is to achieve an initial clearance before the end of the year.
So far, so good, I suppose. I don’t have a solid benchmark as to how things should go, but I’ll have some faith until a promising alternative comes along. I don’t care how much it costs, as long as I don’t reach the conclusion, at some point, that I could have saved significantly more money going a different route.