Do you use the method where you zap appoximately 10 hairs and then use the tweezers to remove them? Or do you use the method where you zap, tweeze, zap, tweeze. I personally find it goes much faster using the first method but am curious as to any pros or cons doing it that way. I feel like she is able to remove at least triple the amount of hairs using this method.
It depends on the area and the clients sensitivity. I prefer to “zap” hair according to patterns and will go for several at one time and then gently lift the treated hair out of the follicle. It is neat to find hair that is growing in rows. A row of hair is treated (zapped), hair if lifted out, next row is treated, hair is lifted out… next row, lift. Some rows can be ten hairs, some rows can be as much as thirty hairs. This process goes specifically faster with MICROFLASH THERMOLYSIS. With proper levels of intensity and timing and accurate insertions, those hairs can be treated with one zap and lifted out with little or no resistance. This is the speed we talk about here on hairtell. This is the speed factor with great outcome that can get most cases finished in 9-12 months, with the client adhering to a good schedule to get anagen hairs.
Speed and permanent destruction of the follicle does not affect the condition of the skin. There is no pitting or scarring. Hair is gone and skin is left in beautiful condition, minus the hair, when you go to a trained professional who has invested in quality equipment and has taken seriously the importance of getting the help and guidance to learn how to perform microflash/picoflash thermolysis with superior skill and outcome.
You have touched on something that I think needs amplifying.
What decides how many hairs the electrologist zaps before flipping to the forceps and epilating the treated hairs can be several different things. On our side, the pattern of the growth can make it so that large numbers can be treated, (10, 20, 30) and then removed, because the hairs are lined up in neat rows and columns that require no thought in retracing one’s steps. Others have growth patterns so sporadic that it is like playing a game of concentration to be able to follow your own pattern and keep track of what hairs one has treated, and what hairs are still untreated. In this case, one would rarely do more than 5 hairs before removing them, for fear of losing track of what one is doing and leaving a hair treated, but still sittting inside the skin. Lastly, if the person is fidgety, or in some other way anxious about treatment, it makes it impossible to do more than 3 hairs at a time due to one’s desire not to lose track of the treated hairs just because the client moves them out of the electrologist’s field of vision (which is always limited to the focal point of their magnification).
Clients don’t seem to be aware that with our vision reduced to as little as 2 square inches of skin, crossing and uncrossing your legs, can move the section of skin we are treating outside of our scope of vision and we are often racing against the clock of the next fidget.
I recently worked on the back of a gentleman who wanted a large amount of work done, but kept tensing, wincing and fidgeting, which left me trying to hit a moving target, thus reducing me to removing only 3 hairs at a time or less, instead of 10 hairs at a time. Of course, I take the blame for being slower than normal in this case, but if he had been unconcious and laying there still the whole time, I would have been moving 3 times as fast as the rate we accomplished (and we still accomplished a lot, just not what I could have done otherwise)
The place one is working on also plays a role, in that, under the chin is slower work because 9 times out of 10 the insertion angles are opposite of the easiest angle to do an insertion, so the electrologist has to contort into some high stress position to treat a hair, odds are none else are accessable with a mere pivot move, so then one is down to treat one hair, remove one hair again. Clients are also more likely to move during work on the area under the chin and on the neck, so that can slow it down even more.
So you see, there is a whole lot that goes into how many hairs per minute one can get treated. Of course, one’s practitioner must first be confident enough to try to treat many hairs before removing them in order to gain any speed.
Back home in Canada, I have gone to at least 4 electrologists and none of them treated more than one hair at a time. . . zap, remove, zap, remove. When I return to Canada in a few months, do you think it will be ill/well received if I tell about the method the electrologist used in the US and ask her if she might consider it? I don’t want to be rude and perhaps she just isn’t able to do it the same way and was trained differently but since it is sooooooo much faster, I would love her to try it. Professionals . . . what do you think? She also uses different lighting and magnifying and she seems to be able to see the hairs way better. In Canada she uses this circle lamp thing with a magnifying glass in the middle. In the US, she uses something that looks like a very tall desk lamp and wears these square magnifying glasses. I’m trying to get as much done as possible before returning to Canada for the obvious reason . . . she’s faster and can see the fine hairs.
From my observation, when electrologists zap zap zap zap and then lift all of the hairs out speedily, they tend to do some random tweezing. As an educator, I like to encourage electrologists to create their own studies; in this case the scenario would be:
On one side of the face or body, do the zap zap zap zap - then lift out the hairs.
On the other side, do the zap/lift, zap/lift technique.
Very few electrologists do these studies but you can always bring up the subject and perhaps it might pique the interest of someone.
How do you know that they are doing some random tweezing, Arlene? Are your observations based on watching neophyte students?
I have seen this with both students and professionals.
Its very interesting to participate in these tests/studies and is a great opportunity to learn. The goal is permanent hair removal and to achieve that, I encourage both students and professionals to explore all modalities and techniques, examine what their personal strengths and weaknesses are, and become the best electrologist they can be.
But how do you really know that random hairs are being tweezed? What kind of magnification are they using? What kind of magnification are you using?
During observation, when a hair is tweezed, you can see tissue movement which can result from resistance. In order to observe others, you need personal mag. loupes as the lamps often obstruct the view. Many of my friends and colleagues are using the Designs for Vision glasses. These glasses are built for the wearer as measurements are taken, eye Rx are built in too. I have 2 different pairs of these glasses that have different mag. and each allows me to work at different distances; this too was built for my body. These are the same ones that are made for surgeons by DFV and I also have the DFV fiber optic surgery room head lights along with various overhead lights that we use as needed. If you want more info. about them, give me a call.
In any event, over the past few years, the NYEA leadership has presented the most amazing seminars. I think only one other state has presented seminars on genital hair removal. NYEA is a very progressive organization and its members are encouraged to think outside the box and explore modality and technique. The current leadership here makes me very proud to be a member. Now just because the membership tends to be knowledgable and educated, doesn’t mean that they do things the way you or other knowledgable electrologists think is best.
So you are saying that you are sure that when a group of hairs are treated and then lifted out, that some random hairs are tweezed because you have observed the skin lifting?
I nominate you, your NYEA electrologist members and students to conduct studies as you suggested. Your students and colleagues are probably the best to study this issue further. You are highly capable and interested in this subject, and the electrolysis world could certainly use more research to back up statements like this.
Two things I never get tired of repeating here and on the AEA forum are:
-
Practioner skill is very important to client success.
Very close to that is investing in up-to-date equipment. -
All modalities of electrolysis work if practitoner skill is
present (back to that again).
Special technique enhance those modalities. In a perfect
world, all electrologists should know how to perform
galvanic, blend and thermolysis, with all it’s variations.
Yes.
Thank you for the vote of confidence but to establish a group/control group study requires that we adhere to strict scientific guidelines. I don’t even think Mike Bono could find enough grant money for such an endeavor and I have great confidence that he could accomplish a lot.
Conjecture through observation isn’t proof of anything other than proof that a bunch of folks are capable of observing and making an assumption.
The way of much of our world.
Again, the reason why the number of hairs removed, or even attempted to be removed varies is because in order to do this correctly, one MUST keep track of what hairs one is treating, so that one does NOT tweeze random, untreated hairs. One must also have a good idea of the proper treatment energy for the hairs one is removing and select only the hairs that will be properly treated by the setting one has on at that moment. One must also have a light enough touch on the forceps so that a hair that is not properly treated slides out of your grip instead of getting tweezed.
Of course, these are finer points that one’s instructor must educate the student on with one on one guidance. Of course, I am surprised at how many electrologists were never taught that one’s grip on the probe holder should never be so tight that it can’t be taken out of your hand, because one must be able to feel the sides, anchor and bottom of the follicle one is working on in order to do the best work.
The subject of this thread is “what method do you use?”
To sum it up, I personally change it up depending on the area being treated. You are going to get nowhere fast if you choose to zap and lift for every single hair on a full grown man’s back. However, if you place your fingers correctly and focus on a group of hairs, then a skilled electrologist using microflash/picoflash thermolysis can zap rows or sections of hairs to move the process along. Fingers surround and stay in place on the focus area until all hairs are treated and gently lifted out. Hairs that are resistant in that area are not pulled, but are treated with another zap. That assures that hairs are not tweezed, thus that light touch James was talking about.
On facial areas, I usually treat 3-5 hairs at a time, so I don’t loose sight of zapped hair, as this area can be densely populated with hair. Blond hair makes it worse and I may need to zap and lift, zap and lift so I don’t loose sight of the treated hair.
Now a word about students. Adult students are hard to work with especially if they have an “attitude” or can’t see. I, too, share practical information for free with other electrologists, whether new or seasoned. If they are receptive and very flexible, then I know they are on their way to pleasing clients. I never had the luxury of having an on site mentor demonstrate with patience and care certain techniques and strategies in a meaningful way at my electrolysis school. My electrology school offered an excellent classroom program, but the practical art of actually doing electrolysis on real people was, “You got to think for yourself -so get use to it! Figure it out”. This “gotcha” attitude was the wrong approach. I share this with you Arlene, because you are in a helping role and students need tender loving care and respectful feedback before they are thrown into a working environment where their clients can be their guinea pigs for awhile. They should be able to hit the ground with confidence. They should be trained well and not have to go beyond the classroom for practical information. Apprenticeships would be a positive approach.
I am thankful for the electrologist that actually taught me something that works with great success after I graduated and he knows who he is. The best way I can thank him is to pay forward and help other electrologists. Sort of like that Liberty Mutual commercial where one act of kindness, turns into another act of kindness and then spreads everywhere.
Personally, I do the same thing with Blend and single needle/probe galvanic. I spread the area, select a number of hairs that seem to be accessable from the same approach and with no more than a pivot of the wrist, I insert, wait for the treatment energy to complete, retract, and hit the next hair, then after doing the pattern that I have set out, I retrace my steps and remove the hairs. The only difference between the 3 modes is thermolysis energy goes quickly, blend takes seconds, and galvanic takes tens of seconds, if not a minute.