Hi all,
I have been a member of this forum for quite some time but have never posted before.
I am a female in my mid 20s and have felt hairy ever since I can remember. I had a full mustache and hairy arms and legs when I was younger and my mom would help me wax and bleach them starting from the age of 7. I vividly remember going to the salon and seeing the shocked faces when my mom mentioned that I needed to get waxed as well. Some people would refuse to do it because I was so young. Fast forward to age 14 where I begged my mom to take me to the only electrologist in our town. She gave me a quick consultation and we began treatment immediately. She told me to only shave the upper lip so I quit waxing and began to use an electric razor. I don’t remember the type of machine used but I remember the pain being so unbearable that I could barely tolerate 10 -15 minutes of treatment at a time. I went off and on for about 2 years and eventually ended up quitting altogether. I continued to shave my upper lip even though it caused a significant amount of ingrowns and left me with a dark shadow.
After that first experience with electrolysis I would have random bouts of treatment with electrologists who were using microflash so I was able to tolerate 30 minute sessions. I would end up going for a couple of weeks and then stop all together because of the embarrassment that came along with having to grow out the hair and the irritation and scabbing that would happen as well. I have finally started back up on a plan again but am frustrated because all the electrologists that I have tried out in my area never clear my entire upper and lower lip in one session. Mind you, my hair is not as dense as it used to be so I know they could both easily be cleared in under 45 minutes. Most of them also seem uneasy about removing the hair in the middle part of my upper lip so the growth there is extremely dense and it looks really odd when I grow it out! I have told all of the them about this and they nod but when I end up going to the mirror to look at the area after treatment I realize there are tons of little hairs still left in the middle part of my upper lip and the rest of the upper lip is cleared.
Is there a reason why electrologists are so against removing hair from the middle part of my lip or right below my nostrils? I use numbing cream so I never complain when they get to this area. I think I’m so frustrated from all the years of dealing with the pain that this has caused that I want to adhere to a program that I know will get rid of the problem in under a year. I am afraid that this will not be possible if I am not getting full clearance. Any help from you guys in figuring this out would be greatly appreciated.
45 mins is a pretty long time for this area, which is more sensitive than others. You can’t overtreat an area, or you can get permanent side effects. Usually, 15-20 mins on the upper lip is about max. Of course, you should come in again as soon as the skin is back to normal, which is usually within a week. That way, after a few weeks, you should be cleared and should be able to clear the area again and again every 2 weeks or so until you have to come in less often. Staying on schedule is important. Once you get to that clearance, you should come in every 1-2 weeks, AS SOON AS new hair shows up so you can kill it while it’s still weak and new.
Maybe the electrologists you saw couldn’t see the hairs on the middle upper lip and that’s why they shyed away from working there? If anyone of them had surgical magnification or stereo magnification, they could see the hairs plainly and treat them. Maybe, this being an ouchy area, made them reluctant to cause you discomfort? The proper size probe with carefully selected levels of intensity and timing would minimize the sensation. I would love to see a picture of your upper and lower lips.
With the top computerized epilators available today, it is more than possible to work on an upper lip for 30 minutes or more. I have done this for several years and all is well. However, you certainly don’t want to go to someone with older equipment that may be too “hot” for longer treatments.
All I can say is this can be accomplished better than you experienced. I have used a Silhouet-Tone VMC and an Apilus Platinum (two lovely epilators) and have routinely worked on upper and lower lips for longer periods of time and have observed the results years later. No scarring or any other side effects, just beautiful skin that looks like hair never grew there.
My electrologist treats hairs in the middle and right near the nostril (which HURTS, I can tell ya) and gets as close the the mucosal part of the nostril as she can. 45 minutes is a super long time for lip!
What about this–can you schedule 2 appts/week for a while so that you can let your skin rest while having shorter appts?
We were taught never to go longer than 15-20 minutes on an upper lip and never to return to an area less than seven days after treatment. That was because epilators were not engineered as well as some are today. I still adhere to the seven day rule, but not to the 15-20 minute line.
It would be better to schedule an appointment once a week than to go twice a week in my opinion. Length of an appointment is the call of the electrologist, but I am just sharing what I have done with success to let you know that there are ways to take care of large numbers of hair. Stay on a good schedule until the area is cleared, then spread it out a little longer between sessions.
Dee
Hi everyone,
Thanks so much for your replies! I unfortunately don’t have a digital camera right now so I cannot post pictures of my upper and lower lip.
I think Dee may be onto something in that the electrologists are unable to see the hairs. The ones I am most upset about are really close to the lip in the middle of my upper lip so this is definitely a possibility. How should I go about letting them know how much this bothers me? I don’t want them to get the impression that I’m trying to tell them how to do their job but it bothers me enough that I need to let them know
I would talk plainly and directly about your desires. Ask them if they can see these tiny hairs. This area can be very challenging to see without surgical magnification and halogen or LED lighting. Smaller probes are needed and a very steady hand is a must. Not all electrologists can treat this area. Many only want to treat hairs that are large.
Just ask her if she can see the hairs in the middle area of the lip. If she can’t, hopefully you can find someone who has a great vision set up and then proceed sucessfully.
Dee