I have successfully reached full clearance, and many clean-up appointments of my full back, shoulders, upper chest, and upper arms. Under 6 months.
Mind you my back was covered in hair but some fine and rather patchy. Once all the dark hair was removed the finer hairs were more noticeable so I opted to have them removed as well.
Now, my question is I have removed my upper arm hair all the way to my elbows. I obviously would like a natural look, but blending the dark and long hairs wasn’t really an option for my electrologist due to the fact the hair there was so dark and long. Do you think if I complete another clearance and just let the remaining dormant hairs come in will the weaker and finer hairs give me the desired effect?
Did you go like 10 hours a week? I’ve been going 6 months now (avg of 10 hours a month) and am just now maintaining clearance on half of my back and right shoulder. And I am pretty sure my practitioner is fast.
Thanks Dee for your response. I will see how much comes out and try to get it to blend in.
Bryce, after seeing a “slow” electrologist using manual flash, I found a new electrologist who uses an Apilus. She removes anywhere from 25 to 30 hairs per minute, extremely fast and deadly, trained over-seas.
I also followed the extremely important advice that is beaten repeatedly into our heads on this site. Put up the big long hours at the beginning and you will be rewarded. I am finally at that point, I am fully cleared, and I was going around 5 to 6 hours a week. Some weeks here and there I only went for a few hours.
I thought my practitioner was fast too, until I realized the benefits of micro flash.
Thanks for confirming those concepts, caliagent. You have done this correctly and bigs hugs for you and your electrologist. She is extremely fast and you are extremely loyal and consistent. No hair can live to see another day when a skilled electrologist with good equipment is in attack mode. What has the sensation side of things been like? Are you using any numbing creams or is the sensation level tolerable?
No numbing creams at all. To be honest it’s a little messy and annoying to me especially for a large area. Since getting treated on the Apilus it’s literally a cake walk compared to that antique Hinkel I was getting treated on. Some areas obviously are a little more painful than others, like the back of the neck, near the elbows and lower back near the beginning of the buttocks. Sometimes I will take a couple advils if I didn’t sleep good the night before. Other than that I can go through a 3 hour session pretty comfortably.
Nice. I guess I just have more hair and I am going fewer hours per month. I go for four hours, and the last hour I’m getting pretty tired, cranky, and sore.
How have your ingrowns been? I get quite a few and my skin doesn’t look great right now, but I think it will heal fine. I am worried a little bit about tiny scars.
Yeh, at the beginning it was hard for me to do so many hours per week, but now it has become so routine. I almost don’t feel right without my weekly treatment, funny.
I’m actually prone to ingrown hairs, even prior to electrolysis. I have oily skin on my back, when I first started electrolysis the lady had to literally dig out hundreds of ingrowns in my upper back. My new practitioner still releases a few hairs here and there. I have been getting some ingrowns on my arms as of late but they are fine and release easy.
Once you get cleared and only have finer hairs left your skin will look fine. My skin is starting to look really good. Just stick with it.