You might be happy to know that the follicle is an indentation in the skin. It is naturally an open space. The electrolysis practitioner is only inserting a probe into a natural opening and (if all is done correctly) not breaking any skin during this process. I like to say that it is like inserting a drinking straw into a Coca Cola Bottle. As long as you don’t break the sides, or break through the bottom, there is nothing to feel.
The Apilus Senior is a nice epilator. I am very happy for you. Yes, this very addictive! I guess we all have our preferences as electrologists. Some hairs do show some clues that they may be old, but you never know! I have been surprised many times by the bottom structure. What I thought looked old turned out to be a moist, hearty anagen hair. I would just treat the hair that is there and not assume they are old. If they are shedding hairs, you can still damage and weaken the follicle.
Dee
James- That is a very vivid description! Egads! shivers I guess I just don’t have a realistic concept of how thick skin is. And I might be more squeamish than I like to think. I just hope the probe is as damaging to my skin as a plastic straw would be to a glass bottle, i.e. not very. I guess it all depends on how one wields it.
Dee- I was hoping she would just treat whatever is there, too. But she is doing a such great job and it is a small thing to complain about, so I don’t mind doing this the way she wants. I just loathe the idea of picking up the tweezers even just to synch up the hairs growing on my belly.
I am more and more convinced that (former) tweezers like myself are just addictive types, as I am now just as consumed with new skin care rituals as I was with tweezing. We just need to satisfy our compulsions with something helpful and not harmful.
Treatment #6 today: I had about 10 med dark hairs zapped on the chin, and 3 under my chin that appeared after being clear for 2 weeks in that area. There were a few in the areolas and belly area. We spent most of the 15 minutes weeding out darker hairs on the upper lip/corners of the mouth. The more hairs she zaps away the more hairs I start to notice. Now that there are fewer and fewer coarse black hairs showing up, I am losing tolerance for the medium dark hairs on my lip.
I am feeling so much happier since beginning electrolysis. I am getting used to smoother clearer-looking skin and I am losing my fear of going without make-up, pulling my hair back, full sunlight. All that time I used to spend tweezing, applying layers of make-up to hide the scarring, and obsessively checking and re-checking myself in the mirror is suddenly free. I am feeling very optimistic, even though I still have to stick to weekly appointments for while. It’s like therapy, but better since you see results much quicker!
Treatment #7: Zapped 3 coarse black hairs on chin and half a dozen brown/blond ones on chin/under chin, several at the corners of the mouth, and a couple around nipples.
My updates are getting pretty boring, right? I get it now why people disappear from this forum and we rarely get to hear about their long-term results. When everything is going well, posting an update is no longer in the front of your mind.
Just two months ago I had 4 square inches of coarse black hair on my chin and now <6 dark hairs pop up per week. That, to me, is dramatic. Dear Tweezers, stop the plucking! It only makes it worse! Find a good electrologist and get yourself cleared. You will wonder why you waited so long.
Dear adieutristesse,
Your posts are anything but boring. Your success brings many hope, but do keep the clearing part in perspective. You will see waves of new growth and some regrowth for the next several months that may distress you and make you wonder if this will ever end. The first six months are the hardest, then, if all is being done correctly, you will see gaps or spaces where no hair grows at all. Everybody needs to be consistent to get any new hair as it comes to the surface. Expect to have your up’s and down’s. As you claw your way to the end, you will be spending less time on the table and you will have shorter sessions.
I for one, really appreciate your information in the signature.
Hi Dee,
I think there is no exact duration that till when you have to go for treatments.One year two years or how long.Because when I ask this question from my electrologist they don’t give any answer they only say that in future your frequency of the trearments will be less.
Is thers any specific duration till when a person can get all his treatments finished?
Thanks.
Jimmy
Dear adieutristesse,
I am very happy for you that you are getting good treatments.In my case I am very worried.I was in Munich.I did two treatments with a lady after second treatment I got on one point of my face pitting.I don’t know it will heal or not.And right now I am in Baden-Baden and yesterday I started my treatment with another lady near stuutgart.I have to travel 2 hours for my treatment.This was also very expensive with this lady and very slow because this lady is using blend and previous lady was using thermolysis.Today I got acne on some points of my face.And some raised bumps I dont know what is this.
I am very afraid about all the reactions and success.If I will get any skin problms on my face and if I will get any success.All is really confusing.
By the way best of luck for your treatments.
Jimmy
We are taught that you really can’t be specific about when one will be finished because there are so many variables that we cannot control nor can the client control. I believe people have to know something though, so I do try to make guesstimates based on cases I have done that are similar. I stress that they are only guesstimates and their particular unique hairprint may require more time or it may be resolved in less time. I tell the client that asking me when they will be finished is like me telling them what the weather will be like third Saturday in June in 2011 in Washington D.C. I can only guess that it will be above 60 degrees for this time of year, but I don’t know if it will be a rainy Saturday or or sunny Saturday. Does that help put a perspective on time questions and explain why electrologists sound so evasive when asked how long this will take?
I know that most female upper lip cases I SEE take anywhere from 8-25 treatments spread out over 9-18 months. Not all hairs structures or amount of hair are the same for all people. It varies from person to person as you can reason for yourself, Jimmy. You just have to punch hair as it emerges over several months time and within 9-18 months you should be pretty happy.
Treatment #8 this week: in this 10 minute-long session my electrologist zapped less than 10 dark/brown hairs on and under my chin. I am happy to report that the right side of my chin had no new growth–that I could see anyway. She also zapped 3-5 hairs (a couple of which had been ingrown last week) around my nipples and several on my belly.
Jimmy-- it is too bad you don’t live closer to Köln so that you could visit my electrologist! I will ask her next time if she knows any fellow colleagues in that region. Where are you located exactly? You can send me a private message if you want. Also how much are you paying for treatment? I pay 1 Euro/min.
I seldom get a scab on a treated follicle with my practitioner, but when I do, I don’t think pitting will result. I will often get a couple whiteheads in the next two days after treatment, I apply tea tree oil and they are gone within 24 hours. I have never noticed bumps, only a bit of redness that goes away in an hour, though at the beginning I was swollen for a couple days.
Based on reading the many recent posts on this forum, I tend to think that folks have very sensitive skin and/or practitioners that overtreat them. Unfortunately we can’t make our skin less sensitive. Overtreatment, however, is a big problem no one should tolerate. There is a way to change it-- ask him/her to adjust levels or get a different electrologist.
But the one other thing we can change is our attitude. I think that the process of getting electrolysis makes all of us extremely tuned in to slight changes in our skin, and when this attention goes too far it can be detrimental (especially to our psyches). People who don’t check their skin 10 times a day looking for hairs popping out, scars, ingrowns, pits, and redness like we all do would likely not notice the things we notice.
I have a long history of acne and was never very vigilant about not picking/touching my face since I was an obsessive tweezer, so I already have some pretty major scarring and rough texture. I do not worry about new scarring for several reasons: my skin is not very sensitive, my electrologist uses moderate levels, and I made a conscious decision to not be so critical about random spots that appear on my face.
Personally, I would rather have some scarring on my face than dark coarse hair. I might be in the minority, but I think scars (even acne scars) make people look interesting and unique. They show that we are real humans with life experiences and not barbie dolls with perfect plastic skin that sit in a box all day.
I do not mean to downplay anyone’s worries about scarring on their skin. We should all do what we can to look and feel our best. I know very well how important appearance is to one’s self-esteem. But I think it is important to remember we don’t have to be perfect, because ultimately no one is.
/end rant 
Hi adieutristesse,
Thanks for the reply.I am paying 22euro for 10 minutes.And this took me one hour to finish my face and some hairs on my ear.I have sent you a private message regarding my electrologist.My acne is also finished but two to three places this left brown spots that almost appear after acne.With this lady I healed very soon with little problems.But with the previous lady I got scabs and this took me always more than a week to heal out.But previous lady used thermolysis and this lady uses galvanic method.So thats why my treatment is so slow.
By the way I liked your post very much and I appreciate your talk.
Regards,
Jimmy
I have been out of the loop for a couple weeks, but unfortunately not because my problem hair has magically disappeared.
Treatment #9 two weeks ago: I had no coarse hair, just a few brown ones, 15 minutes total, nothing unusual. BUT In the last week and a half many dark hairs have been growing in. I had treatment #10 last Wednesday and my electrologist spent nearly 30 minutes clearing my chin (plus 4-5 at the corners of my mouth). Same thing again today, another 30 minutes just clearing my chin area.
I am feeling a bit discouraged that so much regrowth is suddenly appearing. It is not coarse, I can hardly feel them, but the hairs are dark and noticeable and there are a lot! It also doesn’t help me feel very confident when my electrologist tells me that she has never seen so much regrowth at this point in treatment on any other similar clients. Ugh.
Is this normal for 11 weeks into treatment? Are such sudden bursts of hair growth going to keep happening as I cycle through the next year? I have been sick for the past week, at the very least I was not worried by my appearance, but I am feeling frustrated after my visit to the electrologist today.
I hope everyone is enjoying their holidays! Best wishes for a happy hairfree new year to all of you
It would be unusual if you did NOT see what looks like a rebounding effect. Please check out the growth thread and ask any questions you have after you are done reading this:
http://www.hairtell.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/8979/all/Regrowth_charts.html
Hi James,
thanks for responding. Yes, I have read this thread a few times and I get it, for the most part. I know that I will get growth, but thought it would be less and less. I am just dismayed that so much is appearing and so quickly.
Today the area looks pretty much the same as it did yesterday BEFORE my visit to the electrologist! 60 or so fine, but dark hairs have appeared on my chin. For a few of the weeks since I started (weeks 6-9) less than 15 hairs would appear and I would have almost nothing grow in for 3 days after treatment. There was no need to shave the area as the growth was so sparse I could just clip it. Now at week 11 it feels like I am starting again at square one.
I am feeling discouraged… I am worried that somehow new growth is being induced and that I will have to start going in twice weekly!
First of all hair regrowth becomes finer, and after about six months of regular clearances, in the case of strong hairs that had been tweezed, growth becomes sparser. You are still in the early stages of your treatment and I know how dissapointed you feel, but this all sounds normal to me. I always say to my clients that electrolysis is like a patience lesson. If these were upper lip hairs that had never been waxed or tweezed, you would now be seeing a reduction by now. A year from now,this will just be a vague memory.
How do you know if these hairs are NEW growth or REGROWTH??? It may be a mixture of both? This is way too early for you to feel discouragement. Your electrologist should reassure you that this is only a HAIR GROWTH CYCLE in action and it is a happy day because there are good, juicy anagen hairs to treat! Another full clearance puts you closer to the success. Fear not, this is going as it should. It takes a minimum of 9-12 months to finish. Some? Many? clients may need 14 months, some may need 16 months. Stick with this and you will see what will happen if you have a skilled electrologist doing your work.
Yes, without copious progress pictures, you won’t see a steady noticeable difference until you have been doing this on schedule for 3 to 6 months as you are getting full clearances, and never letting the hairs slip into shedding phase before you treat them.
The mantra for that first 3-6 month period especially is:
Fully Clear and Maintain, Fully Clear and Maintain, Fully Clear and Maintain… Go with the hair growth cycles by…Fully Clearing and Maintaining…fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la…
Put in as much time as needed up front. Save up for this period of time so money is not a critical item to keep you going strong. Of course, you need to find an electrologist with a good set up who is willing and physically able to do longer appointments.
Hi everyone,
thank you all for your replies and encouragement. I had hoped that progress would be a steady lessening of growth, and not the two steps forwards, one and a half steps back kind. It is nice to hear that you all think that I am on track. I think I too quickly got used to running out of the house without checking a mirror. Now I have to go back to nitpicking every morning. I am looking forward to this being a distant memory.
I guess the one sign of progress is that the hairs, though dark and numerous, are much finer. And to answer your probably rhetorical question anyway, Dee, I don’t have any clue if it is regrowth or new growth. Is it even possible to tell? Reading about hair growth cycles one would think that every follicle that grows hair would have grown a hair in the last couple months, therefore each hair-growing follicle should have been zapped at least once so far. But other posts have indicated that sometimes a follicle might grow a hair only once a year. As much as I want to cling to this idea of a 6-week cycle, it all sounds fairly unpredictable to me, and makes me feel like I am not making progress when so much hair appears all of a sudden.
It would be interesting if one could know what percentage of follicles are growing their one hair a year at the moment, what are finer regrowth from follicles that were zapped already, and what are permanently zapped hairless.
My electrologist is really great. She is very patient and doesn’t mind that I check in the mirror several times and point out hairs that I want her to zap. I suppose some folks might feel like their work is being checked. It is nice to just really like the person you see every week. And I am absolutely dedicated to going every week, I haven’t missed one visit. She clears the chin area every time. I just hope that that is often enough, she said to me once that some hairs might cycle to the telogen phase within that time (?!).
I am taking progress pictures, though I slacked off a bit when everything was looking so good. I am trying to be patient and wait for that 6-month mark. I will try not let this spurt of growth get me too depressed. I had a small taste of the hairfree life and I don’t want to go back!
Since you have pictures to use as a reference, I want you to go back to your hairiest before picture(s) and compare them to your hairiest current picture(s). You should already see a difference, if you are honest with yourself.
The overwhelming majority of the hairs that you find on your treatment area are going to be the ones that are just growing in their one time this year. As you have not gone a full year, or even nine months of treatments yet, you are still clearing out new hairs. In fact, the only way that you could have true regrowth is in the case of a plucked hair, or an undertreated hair, and it would take as much as six weeks for that to regenerate.
Think of this process like a video game. You need to zap a certain number of villainous hairs on every level, but after a certain time limit you are sent to the next level no matter if you have “cleared the board” or not. “Them’s just the rules of this game.”[sic] Now, all of the villainous hairs look alike, because the computer programmers were lazy, and the gaming system doesn’t have enough bits to give you a cast of thousands. The thing you must remember, however, is that once you clear all the foes on a particular level, that level stays clear, so during your time enforced stay on that game level, you just sit there and nothing accosts you. It is a rest break in the game. Maybe one single hair villain comes your way just before you get sent up to the next level, but that one is easy pickings, as you have only that one to look for and knock off.
Eventually, you just get sent from level to level and you never get accosted by any villainous hairs, and the game is over… unless you knock over the bucket of hormones, slide down the chute of menopause, or get splashed with the acid of irritation, and then the game can regenerate new villainous hairs! 
I would say this, you should be at a point where you are either spending less time on the table, and/or removing fewer hairs per treatment. The thing is, the later treatments can still be as long, while yielding fewer hairs, because the practitioner is spending more time searching for hairs to treat, and thus the number of hairs per minute is plummeting down to as low as one a minute, as it takes that long to locate and eradicate something worth your consideration.
Does this help your understanding?