In the last post I discussed the pros and cons of both Ballet and Laurier probes. Ibis and Protec are the only other probes I’ve used although there are other brands out there like Sterex and Uniprobe that may be used by your electrologist.

Ibis

I bought the Ibis probes to try them out after receiving some with an electrolysis machine I purchased. They were my first experience with 2-piece probes and I remember they felt so wobbly compared to the one piece probes but I soon adjusted.

The best feature of this probe is how it fits onto the probeholder. It’s so easy to just put it on and you’re ready to work. No twisting of caps on and off or sterilizing them after your client. I wish all probes had the cap built into the probe. It would save so much time and money over the long run.

Protec

I would never have tried the Protec needles had I not received a free sample with a large order I placed with Dectro. Although I think they do manufacture one piece probes, I’ve tried only the 2-piece IsoBlend and IsoGard probes. I really like these probes. They aren’t as rigid as I’d prefer but they more than make up for it with other features. Out of all the probes I’ve used (except Ibis) the Protec probes are easiest to insert into the probeholder. I just loosen the cap and drop it in, tighten the cap and I’m ready to go. The Ballet sometimes requires me to remove the cap from the probe holder to properly insert the probe (The Laurier probe requires me to adjust the pin vise on my probe holder as well).

The colourful “Sterigard” protective collar is the reason the probe is so easy to insert, the plastic ring makes it easy to fit the probe snugly in the vise of the probe holder so it doesn’t fall to the bottom once you put the cap on. The plastic collar is colour-coded by probe size so you can be sure of the probe you’re using.

I’ve also noticed that not as much tissue sticks to the probe when I’m using the Protec probes, I find I have to clean off the probe less than with other probes I’ve used. That might just be something peculiar to me, but it’s what I’ve noticed anyway.

Curiously when I view both the Protec and Laurier probes under 16x magnification the tips appear exactly alike. The Protec probes advertise an oval-shaped tip that won’t perforate the follicle wall, while the Laurier advertises a bulbous tip for the same purpose. I can’t see a difference between the two under my surgical microscope, nor is there any noticeable difference in the insertions with either probe (except for the lip on the insulation on the Laurier, see previous post).

All brands of probes have their strengths and weaknesses. The Ballet and Laurier are good rigid probes, but they don’t fit into the probe holder as easily as both the Ibis and Protec probes. In terms of efficacy it doesn’t matter what probe you use because an electrologist’s technical skill is what trumps everything. Tools are matter of preference only.

In the majority of cases it’s because life is just like that. Although most women will sprout the odd hair out of their chin at some point, some of us are just chronically hairier than others. Sometimes it’s ethnicity – chances are if you have a lush mane of dark hair and gorgeous dark eyes fringed with long, dark eyelashes you pay for it with side burns and an upper lip that needs a bit of work.

If fine soft hair is apparent on your face as a child or a teenager then it’s just part of your genetic profile to be hairy and I wouldn’t worry about it. We’re so used to looking for a root cause to every condition on our body, but a little bit of extra hair doesn’t necessarily mean a hormone imbalance. Excessive hair growth often accompanies changes in our physiology and that’s why you might notice hair growth during puberty, pregnancy and menopause (when hormone levels are fluctuating) or during periods of extreme weight loss.

If you start playing around with the hairs on your face you may also contribute to the problem. Upper lip waxing, threading and tweezing may all stimulate new hair growth in those areas. Many women start out with one lone hair sticking out of their chin, and they pluck it. Before long they’ve got a few more, and then a few more that are creeping up on the jawline.

Normal patterns of hair growth on the body can also see a woman growing hair from below her navel up to her breast bone, or in a triangle on her lower back, or on the upper arms and shoulders. This may not be a desirable situation, but it is not uncommon, and thus, in most cases can fall under the rubric of normal.

When the growth of facial or body hair is the result of more serious imbalances in your body, there are generally other symptoms to accompany it. In the next post I will discuss a few of the most common conditions that contribute to an overgrowth of face and body hair.

Although the majority of women’s “excess” facial and body hair is the result of the normal genetic makeup of the individual, there are some instances where the hair growth is linked to genuine imbalances in the body that need medical attention.

Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is probably the most common disorder amongst women of reproductive age that contributes to excess hair growth. If you have a sudden increase in hair growth on your face or body accompanied by other issues such as an irregular menstrual cycle or sudden weight gain then it’s a good idea to see your doctor for an assessment. The hair growth that results from PCOS can, in some instances, be controlled with pharmaceuticals, however, for most women permanent hair removal such as electrolysis is the only way to get rid of it once it’s there. Hair growth from PCOS will not go away on its own.

While PCOS is the most common disorder leading to excessive hair growth in women, there are other possible causes if your doctor has ruled out PCOS. Tumors or cancers of the adrenal gland or ovary, Cushing syndrome, congenital adrenal hyperplasia and even the uses of certain medications can all contribute to excessive hair growth in women. Often the symptoms are similar between the various disorders – unexplained weight gain, problems with the menses, acne and infertility are all characteristic of the above-mentioned disorders.

Most cases of female hirsutism can be brought under control with permanent hair removal. Electrolysis is the only permanent method of hair removal, thus, you will not grow new hair in the follicles treated by a good electrologist. It is, however, important to understand the underlying cause of your excessive hair growth. The majority of time it is a genetic predisposition to hairiness, but in the case of PCOS or another disorder you need to understand how to manage the disease in order for you to gain control of the excess hair.

I remember when I was an electrolysis client I used to get so angry at my electrologist if I thought she was working in an area where I didn’t see any noticeable hairs. She must have tired of my saying “no, not that one, the other one that’s more noticeable!” She used to tell me that they will all be noticeable at some point and that just because I didn’t see them didn’t mean they wouldn’t bother me in the future.

It wasn’t until I looked through the microscope myself that I understood what she meant. When I was training I had a bad habit of skipping hairs because they were barely there under the microscope and nearly impossible to see and feel with the unaided eye. And then be I’d be confused when I noticed thicker, darker hairs in an area a few weeks after I had cleared it. These weren’t new hairs, they were the hairs I had skipped that had grown out and gained strength.

I didn’t realize this until I started to pay attention to my own hair growth. When I worked on my legs and bikini line I would see tiny blonde hairs with fine pointed tips scattered throughout any given area. As I viewed my skin every day after treating myself I was able to notice that this fine blonde hair grew to be thick, deeply rooted dark hair – with blonde tips. It was a eureka moment for me as I finally understood why my electrologist insisted on getting the teeny, tiny ones that I didn’t notice.

The picture below gives an idea of what I’m speaking of. This is a patch of skin on a thigh that hasn’t been shaved for about 2 months. As you can see there are various textures of hair ranging from very fine to fine to slightly coarse. These hairs are in a different stage of growth ranging from active to those nearing the end of their growth cycle. They all need to be treated in order for this skin be be smooth and hair free.

Those tiny ones are exactly the type I’m speaking of. They’re fine (this image has been magnified) and slow-growing so they seem harmless. But give them some time and they will turn into the coarser type evident in the picture.

The answer to the question of how long electrolysis treatment should take must consider things from both the point of view of the electrologist and the patient. I’ve said in many previous posts that a good electrologist should be confident that she is killing the majority of hair she treats with one shot. That being said, aside from the skill level of the electrologist there are a few other factors that determine how long treatment with electrolysis should take.

The area being treated is a huge factor in the duration of electrolysis treatments. The face is the area electrologists treat the most and you can expect 4-6 months of regular appointments with your electrologist to get a handle on the problem of excess hair growth. What is considered a “regular” appointment schedule varies with the amount of hair being treated but it is generally every 10-14 days. It is crucial to get each hair as it emerges from the skin because the roots get deeper and stronger with time. Letting large amounts of time pass between your appointments will stall your progress and make you feel as though electrolysis is ineffective.

You have a little more wiggle room with the body in terms of the length of time between appointments. An electrologist can completely clear at one time a much larger area on the body than we can on the face. This is because it’s easier to work on the body (less contoured surface so speed increases) but also because the hair tends to be spaced further apart so you see an improvement at a much quicker pace. Two or three hours work on underarms or a bikini line will yield a visible improvement in that small area, whereas 2 or 3 hours on the face is just the beginning. After clearing an area like the arms or legs once, you can easily wait 10-12 weeks for another treatment. This allows as much hair to be at the surface of the skin as possible, making for a more effective treatment.

If you begin electrolysis appointments with a commitment to complete your course of treatment then you should finish in about 18-20 months maximum. Making appointments monthly or bi-monthly is going to stall your progress indefinitely because you will no doubt shave, tweeze or wax in the meantime which will undo some of the work you’ve done previously. Electrolysis shouldn’t take years with regular appointments, rather it should be a matter of months before you see an improvement. If you are losing confidence at the 6-8 month mark then it’s time to seek out a more effective practitioner or change your behaviour by not tweezing, waxing or missing appointments to ensure you see results soon.

Proper visual aids are, in my opinion, the defining factor in the effectiveness of electrolysis. Looking through a cosmetic mirror simply doesn’t show you the follicle opening, nor are you able to properly gauge the skin reaction to the current. When I was a client of electrolysis I had one electrologist assure me that anyone who uses a microscope did so only because their eyesight was bad. The scary thing is that I think she really believed it.

Investing in medical grade tools is a must at some point in an electrologist’s career. Your kill rate will increase substantially, and you will be able to work with better posture and less eye strain in the long run. It’s an investment that will pay for itself many times over as once you purchase a pair of loupes or a microscope, it is very unlikely that you will ever have to replace them.

Heine 6x Surgical Loupes

Heine Loupes with Headband

Heine Surgical Loupes

I tried both of the styles of loupe pictured before I decided on the headband (my particular model does not have the lenses in between my eyes and the loupes). The best loupes for electrolysis are the 6x magnification because at that point you are very near to the level of magnification a surgical microscope can provide for a fraction of the price. I paid about $2600 CAD for my loupes.

There is a very steep learning curve with the Heine loupes as it takes some time to learn to focus them properly. I also find that it takes time to learn to work with them without constantly adjusting them to get a good focus. Your eyes will feel strained during the first few weeks you use them and you will have to build up your tolerance to them. I chose the headband style because I simply couldn’t get a good focus with the glasses style.

The best thing about the loupes is that you have a lot more freedom to move than with a surgical microscope. They also travel well so that opens up new possibilities for in-home treatments.

The drawback of the loupes is they just don’t have the power of the microscope. If you are upgrading from a magnifying lamp then the loupes will be a big leap forward for you. You’ll have a clearer idea of the entry point of the follicle, as well as the direction of the hair under the skin. Your speed and accuracy are sure to improve as well.

Opmi 99 Surgical Microscope

Zeizz Opmi 99 Surgical Microscope

A surgical microscope has a much higher price tag than a pair of surgical loupes. Even a secondhand one will set you back between $5000-7000. And they are not cheap to transport either. The microscope can be mounted to a tabletop or you can keep it stationary with an iron base (set on caster wheels) that weighs 100kg.

In terms of magnification there is nothing to surpass it. There is 6x, 10x, and 16x magnification. I generally work with 10x magnification. The Opmi 99 uses a halogen bulb as a light source and it gives out some heat. My Heine loupes have an LED light source which I prefer.

The Opmi 99 has a long arm and many points of adjustment so you can get the angle and level of focus just right. In contrast to my loupes I find I don’t have to adjust my microscope as much because I don’t lose the focus if I am looking to the outer reaches of the working area. There is a much broader field of vision with the microscope than there is with the loupes.

I use both my loupes and microscope on a day-to-day basis although I tend to favour the microscope. This may be because I’ve been using it longer so I’m much more comfortable with it. I am trying to transition to the loupes simply because they take up less space and really allow me more freedom of movement during a treatment.

Whether you are an electrologist or a client it is important to understand the science behind hair removal otherwise you can neither give nor get a good electrolysis treatment. The term electrolysis actually covers 3 different methods: galvanic, thermolysis and the blend. Each has a slightly different effect on the hair follicle, but each is equally capable of terminating hair growth in treated follicles.

I will deal with electrolysis proper (a.k.a galvanic) in this post and subsequent posts will explain the effect thermolysis and the blend have on hair follicles (for the series finale I’ll throw in a post on the science behind laser hair removal too!).

Electrolysis is a chemical reaction. Electrical current moves through the needle cord and out through the probe and into the hair follicle. The electrical current reacts with the salt and water in body tissue to produce a substance called sodium hydroxide, more commonly known as lye. It is the lye that destroys the tissue and cells responsible for hair growth, not the electrical current itself. The lye works over a period of 30 seconds to more than a minute to decompose the tissue and completely disable the follicle.

Lye is caustic to hair and skin.*** Don’t worry though, the amount of lye produced in the hair follicle does not impact the surrounding tissue. It is a very localized damage. If you are having electrolysis or the blend performed on your body you may even see the teeniest bit of lye escape the follicle. It looks like a tiny white foam bubble. Straight electrolysis is used very rarely simply because of the amount of time it takes to effectively treat each follicle. Full body work or even extensive facial work is just too time-consuming to use galvanic current alone.

Next up…an explanation of how thermolysis works to kill hair.

***If you want to see an hilarious example of the powerful effect lye has on hair and skin watch Denzel Washington in Malcolm X. Lye was (maybe still is) used in formulas to relax black hair and Malcolm X was giving himself a “conk” when the water goes off, the cops come in to arrest him and his head is on fire so he ends up head first in the toilet.

Electrolysis is known as direct current because you have electrons travelling straight through the needle cord without any interference, whereas thermolysis* is the result of an oscillating current travelling through the needle cord. The heating action of thermolysis occurs because of the friction created by atoms being bounced around millions of times per second.

There are 2 frequencies set aside for electrolysis currents, they are 13.56 megahertz (MHz), which is the level of current that the majority of electrolysis machines deliver, and 27.12 MHz, which thus far is delivered only by the Apilus Platinum. 13.56 MHz means that atoms travelling through the needle cord vibrate 13 million + times per second. The friction of molecules bouncing around at such a vigorous tempo creates lots and lots of heat. It is the heat that damages the tissues it comes in contact with that destroys the hair follicle permanently.

This is the reason that thermolysis requires an insulated probe. You want the heat created to be as effective as possible so by insulating the probe the heat is concentrated at the tip of the probe and doesn’t escape through the side of the probe. This is also the reason thermolysis requires a lot of experience to get it just right. The heating pattern is very narrow and concentrated at the tip of the probe so the electrologist must be at the exact spot where the hair-producing cells are to deliver an effective treatment. This is generally at the base of the follicle and somewhere in the middle (There is no definitive proof that hair regenerates from the bottom of the follicle, so it’s a good idea to also target the upper middle of the follicle or the “bulge” as it is also known).

Thermolysis depends on finding the delicate balance between timing and intensity, and this is a subject I will discuss further in an upcoming post. For now all you need to know is that thermolysis kills hair because the heat it produces necrotizes the tissue it comes in contact with.

*What we refer to as Thermolysis in Canada may be referred to as High Frequency or Diathermy in your area.

The Blend method of electrolysis is a balance (or blend as the name suggests) of 2 types of current – galvanic and high frequency. Galvanic and high frequency currents may also be referred to as direct current (DC) or electrolysis, and thermolysis or diathermy, respectively.

During a blend electrolysis treatment both a direct and a high frequency current are delivered into the follicle. The direct current fills the follicle with sodium hydroxide (lye) and the high frequency (thermolysis) is generally pulsed in at 1 second intervals. The heat produced by the high frequency current heats up the lye and allows it to build up to a caustic strength more quickly.

With straight galvanic (direct current) the production of lye in the follicle is very gradual, and thus, it takes a long time to successfully treat each hair so that it does not grow back. The addition of high frequency current reduces the time spent in the follicle by more than half. A practitioner using the blend to treat a follicle will spend anywhere from 2-3 seconds for very fine hair to 8-12 seconds for stronger hair.

Ultimately, it’s the lye that disables the follicle when you are using the blend method. The success of the method depends of leaving the probe in the follicle long enough for the lye to build up to the level it takes to kill the hair being treated. There is a standard of measurement called Units of Lye (UL) that was devised by Art Hinkel, the inventor of the classic blend method. Hinkel created a formula, UL = time x intensity (in mA) to accurately predict the amount of energy needed to permanently disable a hair follicle.

The business of hair removal is worth millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars each year, yet there is surprisingly little serious scientific research into the factors that stimulate hair growth or the theory and practice of permanent hair removal. The advertising and sale of laser hair removal (although laser isn’t permanent hair removal but, rather, a long term reduction) is ubiquitous and consumers are spending thousands of dollars without understanding the science behind the technology, therefore, a significant number of consumers end up disappointed and disillusioned when they don’t achieve their hair removal goals.

An understanding of basic physics is all you need to understand how laser works. When you understand the technology you can make a more informed choice on which hair reduction services you should purchase. There are 3 simple things to know about lasers: A laser beam is a beam of light. Light is a form of energy. Light energy has the ability to create heat.

It’s common sense that you don’t wear black in the summer sun. Why? Because it absorbs more of the sun’s energy and, thus, makes you hotter. This is essentially the principle behind laser hair removal. The light of the laser beam is attracted to the (presumably) dark root of a dark hair. The light generates heat upon contact with the hair and this heat ideally necrotizes the cells and tissue responsible for hair growth.

Laser clients are advised to shave prior to their treatment to ensure as much of the energy as possible is delivered to the root of the hair. If there is dark hair on the surface of the skin the energy of the laser will be intercepted and, thus, the full energy level will not reach the target area.

What many clients, and I suspect, some technicians of laser hair removal don’t realize is that the vast majority of hair on certain body areas do not have a dark root most of the time. This is because at any one time the majority of body hair is in the telogen, or resting, stage of hair growth. This means that its root has shortened and lightened because it’s getting ready to shed. Hairs may reside in the telogen phase for several months before they begin the cycle anew and grow a thick, dark root.

Blonde, red or white (grey) hair will not be affected by laser hair reduction treatments because the hair isn’t pigmented enough to attract and absorb the light energy from the laser. The same can be said for dark hairs in the telogen phase. You will have to have repeated treatments to ensure that all hairs to be treated are in the active phase of growth and can benefit from laser treatment.

In upcoming posts I will discuss laser hair removal and black and brown skin, as well as paradoxical laser hair stimulation.

Post Inflammatory Hyperpigmentation (PIH) is a very common side effect of minor skin trauma of the type you experience when undergoing either electrolysis or laser. Is it permanent is probably what you want to know. Most of the time it is not permanent and your skin just needs time to heal. Depending upon your skin it could take weeks or months. You are the best judge of that by taking into consideration how you’ve healed from minor scrapes or pimples in the past.

You can treat PIH with topical ointments such as retin-A (tretinoin), or any product with AHAs, glycolic acid or another ingredient with an exfoliating effect. Skin lightening creams often contain these ingredients, however, I would choose a high quality one over a cheap, no-name brand (Shiseido and Estee Lauder both have lines of high quality skin lightening products). There’s a wonderful lotion called Lachydrin which is recommended for very dry skin, however, the 12% Lactic Acid concentration has an exfoliating effect that may help with the pigmentation problems produced by PIH.

It’s not necessary to treat your skin with any products in order for PIH to go away. Allowing your skin the time to heal is probably the best treatment of all. It’s important that you avoid the sun completely if you have Post Inflammatory Hyperpigmentation because sun exposure contributes to the development and/or worsening of PIH in susceptible skin types. Covering exposed skin with a hat, scarf or clothing is the best type of protection as sunscreens are reliable only when applied properly and reapplied often.

Since PIH is the result of trauma to the skin it cannot be avoided. Eating well, moisturizing your skin and staying out of the sun prior to your electrolysis or laser treatment is a good idea so you go into your appointment with healthy skin. I can’t say for certain it will mitigate the effects of PIH, but looking after your skin will not hurt your treatment outcome.

Now that I think about it I should have asked which areas of the face and body cannot be treated with electrolysis and the answer is none. Electrolysis is suitable for any area, however, certain areas must be treated with caution because of they are sensitive and unable to withstand aggressive treatment.

Take the nose. Most people have a few stray hairs poking out of their noses at some point in their lives. They’ll never go away and, most likely, more will appear in time. Trimming is a short term solution but if you get a few zaps from me, voila, you are hair free. No more scissors up the nose! The nose is probably one of the most uncomfortable areas to receive treatment. Only a few hairs can be treated at a time partly because of the pain factor, but also because of the fragility of the area. Keep in mind that an electrologist can remove hairs only at the rim of the nose, it is not safe to venture too deeply. EMLA is very useful in this area as it doesn’t take long for the numbing to take effect and it will make the treatment a lot more bearable. It is not wise to remove more than 5-6 hairs per nostril per appointment. The bridge of the nose is less sensitive in terms of pain however your electrologist should still proceed with caution and treat just a few hairs at a time.

The ears area another area where hair can sprout, either from inside the ear or on the lobes. My advice is the same as for the nose. Treat only half a dozen hairs per ear per appointment otherwise you can damage the cartilage and it will not heal properly.

Coarse hairs on the areola can be treated easily with electrolysis. The one caveat with removing hair that is directly on the areola is that you may trade the hair for a tiny freckle as PIH is occasionally permanent in this area.

Essentially any area on the body can be safely treated with electrolysis. Remember to proceed with care on these sensitive areas as it is best to go slowly and give your skin a chance to heal between appointments.

Most electrologists develop their technique using one method that is adapted to fit each client’s particular skin and hair profile. I think preference for the blend or thermolysis is often dependent on how (and where) people were trained. The older generation of electrologists that I know personally tend to favour the blend because that was the training available to them during the late 70s and 80s. Throughout the 80s and 90s the technology advanced to allow thermolysis to become more effective, more comfortable and gentler on the skin than it previously was and it is the method that is favoured by most electrologists today.

The blend was developed in the 50s to deal with the shortcomings of the technology of the time, essentially that galvanic was reliable but slow, and thermolysis was fast but not as effective in achieving truly permanent hair removal. The thermolysis units of today, however, are vastly different in both current output and the timing of the machines. In my opinion neither the blend nor thermolysis is intrinsically more effective than the other because the success of electrolysis depends entirely on the skill of the person performing the treatment.

Both the blend and thermolysis require a certain level of technical understanding of the particular current and its impact on the tissues. The electrologist controls the current and must constantly adapt both the timing and intensity to suit the particular area they are working on. There is no one size fits all hair removal prescription.

The blend, when performed the way it was designed to work, is a manual technique that allows the electrologist to fill the follicle with the exact amount of current needed to remove the hair. It is a more foolproof method than thermolysis. I say this because the blend is a very forgiving technique that does not require an exact insertion. This doesn’t mean that you can be sloppy and get great results, it just means that, unlike thermolysis, the current impacts a broader area in the follicle because the lye travels. Thermolysis demands an electrologist be exact in the insertion because essentially you are placing the current in a particular area and it needs to be the proper area or the hair will grow back.

I think it’s most important that a client seek an electrologist based on the effectiveness of their particular technique. If you’re doing a small area like the face then the overall cost shouldn’t change much whether the electrologist uses thermolysis or the blend. If you are doing a large area like the legs or back then thermolysis will most likely be the better method in the long run. The blend is certainly capable of hair removal in these areas, it’s just that since it requires more time in the follicle you may not be able to achieve a full clearance unless you have an unlimited budget. There are electrologists who use the blend for large areas like the back so ultimately it depends on your electrologist’s willingness to treat large areas.

If you’ve been following my blog you will be familiar with Vivian. I’ve been treating her since mid-spring for coarse facial hair on her chin and neck. Vivian is postmenopausal and had been tweezing for over 25 years prior to seeing me. Vivian also endured 4 years of painful thermolysis treatments that were ineffective.

When I first met Vivian in the spring I assured her that she would see results at about the 6 month mark if she kept up with regular appointments and stopped tweezing from that day forward. She complied with the second request although her busy work schedule turned her initial weekly appointment into a monthly one. When I saw her on Saturday I was very pleased with her results and although her appointments have been inconsistent the past few months, the fact that she has refrained from all tweezing means that we’ve seen some real progress. Check out her chin below:

Vivian’s chin prior to appt. at 7 month mark

You can see a few dark hairs and at least one coarse white hair, but there is far less than there was 7 months ago. At the beginning Vivian had a lot of ingrowns that looked like this:

Ingrown hairs visible as black dots under skin

There were many black dots visible under the skin in the early months and Vivian’s face felt quite “bristly” (her word). Although there is still a bit of hair on the neck and the chin it is the finer growth that we see more of now. I treated the coarse white hair during the first few months because that was what gave her the most trouble in terms of the feel of her skin as well as the time it took to tweeze it out. Within another 6 months Vivian will most likely have just the odd hair here and there provided she keeps up with her appointments and doesn’t go back to tweezing.

The funny thing is that Vivian was so used to seeing no progress from her previous electrolysis treatments, she is unconvinced that this finer growth is the result of my treatments. She insists her hair is in hibernation for the winter! Although the hair does grow more slowly in the cooler winter months, the type of hair reduction Vivian has achieved is the result of effective treatment with electrolysis. Accurate insertions and a healthy dose of current will allow you to see these results too.

One of the great things about running a small business like mine is that my clients become like friends because we spend quite a bit of time together zapping thousands of hair follicles into oblivion. Recently one of my closest clients asked me if they could review me on one of the online sites like Yelp that lists ‘reviews’ from customers of local restaurants, shops, and businesses. I practically hollered at her, “don’t you dare!” for a number of reasons. The primary one being that a considerable number of reviews online, whether positive or negative, are fake, see this article here. As much as I appreciate my clients wanting to spread the word and help me out with some free advertising, I think that the online review community is too fickle to entrust my business reputation to it.

So to all my present and future clients I ask this of you. Please use this forum to comment, ask questions or even to review my work. My whole purpose with this blog is to be as transparent as possible. There are so many false promises made by hair removal specialists – both electrologists and laser technicians alike – that I make sure I work twice as hard to overcome the skepticism that so many people have about permanent hair removal. I encourage public dissemination of the tools and techniques of electrolysis because we can all learn something from open discussions about what works and what doesn’t.

I remember when I was an electrolysis client I used to get so angry at my electrologist if I thought she was working in an area where I didn’t see any noticeable hairs. She must have tired of my saying “no, not that one, the other one that’s more noticeable!” She used to tell me that they will all be noticeable at some point and that just because I didn’t see them didn’t mean they wouldn’t bother me in the future.

It wasn’t until I looked through the microscope myself that I understood what she meant. When I was training I had a bad habit of skipping hairs because they were barely there under the microscope and nearly impossible to see and feel with the unaided eye. And then be I’d be confused when I noticed thicker, darker hairs in an area a few weeks after I had cleared it. These weren’t new hairs, they were the hairs I had skipped that had grown out and gained strength.

I didn’t realize this until I started to pay attention to my own hair growth. When I worked on my legs and bikini line I would see tiny blonde hairs with fine pointed tips scattered throughout any given area. As I viewed my skin every day after treating myself I was able to notice that this fine blonde hair grew to be thick, deeply rooted dark hair – with blonde tips. It was a eureka moment for me as I finally understood why my electrologist insisted on getting the teeny, tiny ones that I didn’t notice.

The picture below gives an idea of what I’m speaking of. This is a patch of skin on a thigh that hasn’t been shaved for about 2 months. As you can see there are various textures of hair ranging from very fine to fine to slightly coarse. These hairs are in a different stage of growth ranging from active to those nearing the end of their growth cycle. They all need to be treated in order for this skin be be smooth and hair free.

Those tiny ones are exactly the type I’m speaking of. They’re fine (this image has been magnified) and slow-growing so they seem harmless. But give them some time and they will turn into the coarser type evident in the picture.

The answer to the question of how long electrolysis treatment should take must consider things from both the point of view of the electrologist and the patient. I’ve said in many previous posts that a good electrologist should be confident that she is killing the majority of hair she treats with one shot. That being said, aside from the skill level of the electrologist there are a few other factors that determine how long treatment with electrolysis should take.

The area being treated is a huge factor in the duration of electrolysis treatments. The face is the area electrologists treat the most and you can expect 4-6 months of regular appointments with your electrologist to get a handle on the problem of excess hair growth. What is considered a “regular” appointment schedule varies with the amount of hair being treated but it is generally every 10-14 days. It is crucial to get each hair as it emerges from the skin because the roots get deeper and stronger with time. Letting large amounts of time pass between your appointments will stall your progress and make you feel as though electrolysis is ineffective.

You have a little more wiggle room with the body in terms of the length of time between appointments. An electrologist can completely clear at one time a much larger area on the body than we can on the face. This is because it’s easier to work on the body (less contoured surface so speed increases) but also because the hair tends to be spaced further apart so you see an improvement at a much quicker pace. Two or three hours work on underarms or a bikini line will yield a visible improvement in that small area, whereas 2 or 3 hours on the face is just the beginning. After clearing an area like the arms or legs once, you can easily wait 10-12 weeks for another treatment. This allows as much hair to be at the surface of the skin as possible, making for a more effective treatment.

If you begin electrolysis appointments with a commitment to complete your course of treatment then you should finish in about 18-20 months maximum. Making appointments monthly or bi-monthly is going to stall your progress indefinitely because you will no doubt shave, tweeze or wax in the meantime which will undo some of the work you’ve done previously. Electrolysis shouldn’t take years with regular appointments, rather it should be a matter of months before you see an improvement. If you are losing confidence at the 6-8 month mark then it’s time to seek out a more effective practitioner or change your behaviour by not tweezing, waxing or missing appointments to ensure you see results soon.

Now that I think about it I should have asked which areas of the face and body cannot be treated with electrolysis and the answer is none. Electrolysis is suitable for any area, however, certain areas must be treated with caution because of they are sensitive and unable to withstand aggressive treatment.

Take the nose. Most people have a few stray hairs poking out of their noses at some point in their lives. They’ll never go away and, most likely, more will appear in time. Trimming is a short term solution but if you get a few zaps from me, voila, you are hair free. No more scissors up the nose! The nose is probably one of the most uncomfortable areas to receive treatment. Only a few hairs can be treated at a time partly because of the pain factor, but also because of the fragility of the area. Keep in mind that an electrologist can remove hairs only at the rim of the nose, it is not safe to venture too deeply. EMLA is very useful in this area as it doesn’t take long for the numbing to take effect and it will make the treatment a lot more bearable. It is not wise to remove more than 5-6 hairs per nostril per appointment. The bridge of the nose is less sensitive in terms of pain however your electrologist should still proceed with caution and treat just a few hairs at a time.

The ears area another area where hair can sprout, either from inside the ear or on the lobes. My advice is the same as for the nose. Treat only half a dozen hairs per ear per appointment otherwise you can damage the cartilage and it will not heal properly.

Coarse hairs on the areola can be treated easily with electrolysis. The one caveat with removing hair that is directly on the areola is that you may trade the hair for a tiny freckle as PIH is occasionally permanent in this area.

Essentially any area on the body can be safely treated with electrolysis. Remember to proceed with care on these sensitive areas as it is best to go slowly and give your skin a chance to heal between appointments.

Most electrologists develop their technique using one method that is adapted to fit each client’s particular skin and hair profile. I think preference for the blend or thermolysis is often dependent on how (and where) people were trained. The older generation of electrologists that I know personally tend to favour the blend because that was the training available to them during the late 70s and 80s. Throughout the 80s and 90s the technology advanced to allow thermolysis to become more effective, more comfortable and gentler on the skin than it previously was and it is the method that is favoured by most electrologists today.

The blend was developed in the 50s to deal with the shortcomings of the technology of the time, essentially that galvanic was reliable but slow, and thermolysis was fast but not as effective in achieving truly permanent hair removal. The thermolysis units of today, however, are vastly different in both current output and the timing of the machines. In my opinion neither the blend nor thermolysis is intrinsically more effective than the other because the success of electrolysis depends entirely on the skill of the person performing the treatment.

Both the blend and thermolysis require a certain level of technical understanding of the particular current and its impact on the tissues. The electrologist controls the current and must constantly adapt both the timing and intensity to suit the particular area they are working on. There is no one size fits all hair removal prescription.

The blend, when performed the way it was designed to work, is a manual technique that allows the electrologist to fill the follicle with the exact amount of current needed to remove the hair. It is a more foolproof method than thermolysis. I say this because the blend is a very forgiving technique that does not require an exact insertion. This doesn’t mean that you can be sloppy and get great results, it just means that, unlike thermolysis, the current impacts a broader area in the follicle because the lye travels. Thermolysis demands an electrologist be exact in the insertion because essentially you are placing the current in a particular area and it needs to be the proper area or the hair will grow back.

I think it’s most important that a client seek an electrologist based on the effectiveness of their particular technique. If you’re doing a small area like the face then the overall cost shouldn’t change much whether the electrologist uses thermolysis or the blend. If you are doing a large area like the legs or back then thermolysis will most likely be the better method in the long run. The blend is certainly capable of hair removal in these areas, it’s just that since it requires more time in the follicle you may not be able to achieve a full clearance unless you have an unlimited budget. There are electrologists who use the blend for large areas like the back so ultimately it depends on your electrologist’s willingness to treat large areas.

One of the biggest complaints I hear from people is that electrolysis didn’t work for them. Although it irritates me to no end, I really can’t blame people for believing in their personal experience because it’s highly likely electrolysis hasn’t work for them. Many electrolysis services are offered by people who quite simply have no idea what they’re doing or what the machine is doing so their technique is pretty much poke-and-pull, that is poke the probe into the skin and pull the hair out. There are a number of reasons that electrolysis doesn’t work for people – poor training, poor equipment, lack of ethics, and fear of overtreatment are just a few. (There are reasons for failure on the client side as well, I’ve addressed those in several previous posts.)

Fear of overtreatment is the issue I am most concerned about because I think it’s responsible for a lot of the <em>undertreatment</em> that leads to poor results. Those poor results in turn lead to a bad reputation for electrolysis. I think a lot of people performing electrolysis fear high levels of current because they fear causing a skin reaction they can’t explain to clients.

I was a client of electrolysis services years ago and now that I’m a professional I realize that the only practitioner who achieved a high level of success zapped the heck out of my hair. By the standards set in electrology textbooks I would say she went way over the top in terms of energy levels. But she was effective.

I tend towards a higher current level as well simply because I want to kill the hair in one shot whenever possible. The important thing is to watch the skin reaction on the surface. If the insertion is accurate and the electrologist has inserted to a good depth then there should not be any surface reaction. Even on the face I rarely see anything but swelling and minor redness. If you come up with lots of puncture marks or bleeding then a bad insertion is the most likely culprit.

This isn’t to say that there is no such thing as overtreatment. Some of these epilators are very powerful. If you see blistering then that is definitely a case of overtreatment. Either the setting is too high or the electrologist should switch to an insulated probe. There is very little risk of long term damage from electrolysis overtreatment so don’t worry if you do get a stronger skin reaction than you expect. Your skin will heal.

In my opinion, undertreatment combined with inaccurate insertions do the most to undermine the possibility of a successful outcome.