yes I know what you mean…
Many times it is the anchor but also the problem is this…
I can see the bulb many timem thorugh the skin because it’s so thin…BUT when I slide in the needle for example it can go very deep, even too deep according to my idea without myself feeling puncturing the bottom of the follicle or even seeing blood, because that happens when you puncture the follicle right?
How can I make sure I have the right depth?
Ow and one other question…Can I bend insulated needles?
Yes, you can bend the probe. Refer to Bono’s book if you have it.
Do frequent depth gauges. There is a ‘how to’ on this in Bono’s book as well. I’m thinking you got Bono’s book,right?
No I got the one from Gior…Bono is difficult to get in The Netherlands.
But wouldn’t bending the probe break the insulation?
You have to bend a Ballet probe at the top of the blade near where it connects with the shank. The shank is the part that fits into the needle holder. It won’t harm the insulation.
I see,
Well I give it a quit for today…It just doesn’t seem to work out today…very demotivating this, as I do not understand why…
Ow yeah…one can insulate needles with nailpolish right? Does it HAVE to be clear nailpolish? I am curious as to why?
I had the same problem with pulling nothing but catagens and telogens in an area I have previously treated. In addition to finding the correct depth, here is another reason you might be frustrated.
A reason you might be pulling only catagens and telogens on an area you have previously worked on is this: You take a small area, clear some hair but not completely, and you get a reasonable amount of anagens and it seems to be working fine. Then, you go back to that area and you are only pulling catagens and telogens. It might be because the anagen hairs that were in the remaining hair you didn’t treat the first time are now in catagen by the time you try the second treatment, so you can’t find any anagens now. To make a long story short, wait a few weeks or so before doing that area again and then see what you get.
When I first started, I initially thought I was doing something wrong. Once I upgraded to a scope, I could see the ends of the hairs in great detail and could determine what stage of growth they were in, and I realized I was not necessarily wrong with my treatment strategy.
Technically speaking, the nail polish does NOT have to be clear, but since the chemical reaction WILL dissolve the nail polish as you work, one might want to limit the amount of extra junk one is putting into the bofy via an open source to the blood stream.
Ah I see…
Vicky I understand what you mean, but in my case they DID have bulbs (so anagen) but just no sheaths anymore :S
And I thought ow well some miss shots…But it happened again and again…
While the week before I had like a rate of 60%!
I really cracked my brains over this, even up till now…I just cannot figure out why…Ahw so demotivating 
Another question as I want to get the healing process to a minimum. Is it possible to get the really fat thick black hairs with a low treatment setting?
I know it takes long but it makes such a difference to the skin healing if I use lower settings.
For example: If I do blend (yes James I know you don’t know the machine, sorry, but please try to answer fromm your overall experience, if that’s possible) with my semi analog machine and I have HF to 4.5/10 and DC to 0.4mA, the fat ones let go in like 10 to 12 seconds if inserted correctly and with uninsulated probes (with insulated ones the insertions must be even more perfect) BUT some spots seem to be more vulnerable to that setting as the follicles are close to the surface.
So I want to use lower settings…Can I calculate this way?:
if the before settings were in 12 seconds should 2.25/10 HF + 0.2mA DC take the double amount of time like 24 seconds? Because that doesn’t always seem the case or am I thinking in a wrong way?
If you would guess from experience for an analog machine, what settings would you use for the fatties?
anyone?
If you did not get sheaths with your bulbs, you either got the insertion wrong, or you got the treatment energy wrong. Increasing the treatment energy usually compensates for poor insertion technique, which is why so many are taught to just crank it up to the highest level the vict–er, um, patient can endure, and blast away.
As the insertion technique gets better, one can usually lower the treatment setting, as one is delivering the treatment energy directly to the point of growth, instead of relying on a large path of collateral damage to include the germative growth cells.
If I were you, I would be using a gold ballet one piece for this work, and would try using as large a probe size as my vision equipment would allow. The best vision equipment typically allows use of size 6, 5, or 4, whereas circle lamps limit one to sizes 2, 3, and 4. The larger probes will allow good treatment at lower energy levels.
Thanks,
I can get the bigger probes in but the problem is that many of the hairs are slightly curved. Because the skin being so thin I CAN get the needle to the bottomm of the follicle as the follicle is flexible. BUT when I cannot see it I have to feel that I am at the end and not at a curve…THAT is difficult so I won’t use a too high setting as I would damage the skin easily.
Also when they are curved it is easier to use smaller probes like size 3 or 4…
For me the most difficult thing is feeling I am at the bottom. I gauge the depth with a hair from that area but many times the needle can go further and further without feeling ANYTHING or seeing any blood or bruizes. So it is really this gauging I have to rely on…But I want to ‘feel’ it…
How in heaven’s sake can you feel the end of the follicle?
Some never do feel the bottom of the follicle. They look for other clues. When the skin dents inward, then one might say that they reached the bottom and then they pull the probe back slightly until the skin evens out. That is why we say that performing electrolysis is technically very difficult where one becomes more confident as they do thousands and thousands of insertions a week. Practice cures awkwardness.
I think that a larger probe makes a curved follicle straighten out.
I think of it this way, suppose I have a sock (curved) and I insert a pipe cleaner into it. The pipe cleaner is going to hit the curve and stop or bend. If I insert a broomstick into the sock, the sock is going to flex around the broomstick and the broomstick will go past the curve and on to the toe.
Lovely 
.
Yeah I know what you mean,
But the problem is…when straightening the curve with a big probe one gets resistance so you have to use a little force to get the probe in deeper, making it almost impossible to know when you are at the bottom.
While a thin probe is easier as it goes straight to the bottom while the slightest resistance means you are at the end. On the other hand a thin probe breaks through the bottom more easily.
So for me as pretty much a beginner I am at a loss here…I gues what Dee said…It’s practice, practice, practice and more practice…
I have found using the biggest probe you can accurately insert definitely helps with finding the bottom of the follicle. But even then, when I can’t feel the bottom of a follicle and it goes in with no resistance at the bottom, here is what I do. I am almost certain this is the correct way to do this, feedback from the pros is welcome.
Determine a small area you want to remove hair from. Zap a few hairs in whatever modality you are using, until you hit a few nice anagen hairs. Once you have a few anagens, line up your needle to these anagen hairs and you can get a good idea of what the depth for the anagen hairs are in that area. (The Bono books discusses this.) Now, when you insert in a follicle and can’t feel the bottom, insert to the depth of those anagen hairs you previously removed and zap at that depth.
One thing to keep in mind, the anagen depth can vary quite a bit as you move around a given area, so check your depth regularly and adjust accordingly. If the hairs are still tough and won’t come out easily, they may be distorted. Insert as discussed above, and try blend or galvanic to remove them.
Hey Vickie,
Yeah thanks for your tips, that was what I did already.
Now I have put down the needle for a while just because it made me stressed out. Sometimes one needs to admit that it won’t work at the moment and try a while later.
So two days ago I finally started again.
I switched back to galvanic to perfectionize my technique even more.
About your remark concerning distortion…Well I can see the follicles through the skin and you could say that they are all distorted but almost straight…so they have a slight curve in them but it isn’t impossible to reach the bottom.
Here is what I do, and the pro’s can comment on this one.
I found out that this works: I insert the probe until it won’t go any further but I KNOW the follicle is deeper so I will give it a slight DC current…like 0.3 mA and then even without pushing the needle sucks itself into the bottom…Great technique I have to say
Another thing that worked is that switching back to a size 4 needle instead of 5 or 6 works way better to get to the bottom. Size 3 is too small as I get less hits on the fat hairs…
When I do blend, I use the same trick: first a slight dc current to go to the bottom, then ad the HF…works like a charm…But still I want to perfectionize my style even more so I will stick to galvanic for a while…
No a question for the pro’s:
I have seen the lye charts and fat hairs in galvanic (the deepest terminals) need an average of up to 240 units some times right?
Now am I a special case or what? Because I have these really strong thick black hairs on the abdomen and believe me they need more than that.
I use a galvanic power of 0.3mA although I can even cope with the highest settings i like 0.3 even though it takes a while. 0.3 gives me apart from a slight redness or raising absolutely no skin reaction at all…So I will stick to that for a while…
Now to get back to my question: These thick black bastards need 2 minutes or 2 minutes and 20 seconds preferably to release when doing galvanic on 0.3mA…so that is like 140x3= 420 units of lye(!!!)
Am I a freak or what? Is it normal to have such strong hairs?
It is not unusual for men to have hairs like you describe.
Your perfect probe size may actually be a size 4. The 5 and 6 may be a stretch. I know that my perfect probe size is actually a 5 and not a 6. If the person can’t see or insert well, we step down to a 4.
Giving it a little galvanic zap to help it drop down is perfectly fine form if you can manage it. I just have to say that in any case, there is a “Zen” to finding the bottom of the follicle, and it is the hardest thing to teach someone to do. They really have to do this long enough to “Use The Force” and “Let Go”. 
Yeah,
Well I give the galvanic zap and the probe ‘sucks’ itself in deeper and I just let it slide and just like “feel” but not actually feel that I am at the bottom. Very hard to describe but I sense I am about there in a way…
It sounds like you might be hitting and getting stuck on the anchor system in the follicle, and then by applying a little DC current it opens up the passage enough for the needle to go to the bottom of the follicle. I noticed the same thing happening when I started off using galvanic but you are ahead of the game, using the largest needles you can fit (I was using needles that were the same size of the hair and not fit to the follicle width.)
Like James said, your hair/follicles may only need/take a size 4-5. I can use a size 6 almost anywhere, and a 5 to do the thinner less noticeable ones. In fact, I could probably fit a size 7 needle into the hairs around my bellybutton (if they actually made size 7 needles), it is easy to insert a size 6 into those wide/deep follicles.
Don’t get discouraged, keep practicing and eventually you will get the hang of it. It just takes time and practice.