Home electrolosys machine may save me & you ££££'s

[Jayne]

In these tight financial times we are all looking for ways to save money, one of the biggest expenses FTM's face is electrolosys, depending on who we see for this we could be facing thousands of pounds of bills.

Last week I discovered a home electrolosys machine, i've done a test patch & it's easy to use, i'll have to rope someone in to help with some hairs that can't be seen easily in a mirror but this makes it possible for my costs to be reduced from thousands of pounds to only £35!!!!

I purchased the machine from Argos in the UK, considering how much each session will cost this will be a massive saving, for those interested here's a link:

http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?storeId=10001&catalogId=1500002951&langId=-1&searchTerms=ELECTROLOSYS

Using it is very simple:

1: You start by cleaning the area to be treated with warm water & mild soap.

2: Apply a small amount of conductive gel to the hairs to be removed.

3: Take hold of the hair with the electric tweezers where the hair meets the skin, apply gentle pressure with tweezers for 30 seconds until you hear a bleep & a green light comes on.

4: Increase the pressure on the button on the tweezers to pluck out the hair folicle.

There you go, 4 easy steps to hair removal (5 if you count buying the machine).

As i've mentioned on other topics I suffer from excema, fortunately i've had no bad reaction to this treatment so it's very gentle on the skin.
I hope this helps others as much as it's helping me.

[Jayne]

Is there any particular reason why they are a bad idea?

Even if I don't manage to remove all my facial hair myself then any reduction in the hours that i'll need to spend on professional electrolosys will save money so I don't see why it would be a bad idea.

[Sarah Louise]

Done wrong you can scar your face. Trying to do your own face in the mirror would not be easy, you need to be very precise.

And typically home machines are not powerful enough to really kill the hair.

[JenJen2011]

Yeah, I would worry about f'ing up my face. Becareful.

[vanna]

it has been cover many times here but simply tweezer conductivity is too low to actually kill off hairs

that is scientific fact( i posted the papers once here) and why needle insertion is the only real way this can work

by all means try, but the give away in any permanent hair claims are usually "pain free" from there it is usually just a way to extract money

[Jayne]

Thanks for the responses, I know doing anything like this is a risk but i'll have to stick with it until I can find a second job to pay for it to be done professionaly.

When I shave my skin instantly goes red, after a day or two of shaving my skin will be flaky & within a week my skin will be raw. I've been using this machine for a week now & i've had no reaction with my skin so right now this is the lesser of two evils.

[smooth]

Sorry to repeat what others have said but it's quite well known that electric tweezers are just another scam. They've hijacked the word electrolysis to give credibility to this gadget but this treatment won't have Any impact on the follicle which will keep producing hairs. The electric tweezing you are doing could well make the hairs stronger and harder to remove with electrolysis. The hairs you are tweezing could be gone for as long as 6 to 9 weeks but sure as eggs are eggs, most, probably all of them will come back. You might even get some smaller ones in between that will have been spurred into life by the increased blood supply as a result of the plucking. These newly stimulated hairs can increase in size slowly turning into typical terminal beard type hair if helped along by testosterone.
You could expect to achieve a level of success with a home "needle" electrolysis unit (similar price I think) but these need modifying to be effective and you'll need a partner and you'll need to do your homework as well. No good stumbling blindly forward not really knowing what you're supposed to be doing. I've heard about people scarring themselves with these units so be careful and it's slow slow slow because it's galvanic and a single beard hair can take as long as 60 seconds to properly treat with one of these units.
A second hand, professional, entry level machine could be purchased which would be better, but still not comparable to the more expensive professional machines which are worlds apart when it comes to sensation balanced against effective treatment. Something else to consider if you're going to do this. The professional machines are capable of higher treatment levels and doing damage is easier. You'd also need sterile needles of the correct size, adequate magnification, gloves, sterile tweezers, sharps box etc etc. Not having the Essentials would leave you open to the possibility of infection and as a result scarring. To carry out effective electrolysis treatment does mean sailing close to the wind. It's a fine line between treating the follicle effectively and over treating it and causing excessive post treatment reaction. Over treatment doesn't always mean scarring it can just mean more visible marks (small pin point scabs) which take longer to disappear completely.
Hope this helps
 

[Jayne]

After reading all of the advice given by all the posters on this thread i've decided to hold fire on this at the moment.
I'm seeing a dermatologist early next month so i'll discuss my options then.

My biggest issue with my facial hair is that I hate having any facial hair visible but as soon as I start shaving my excema goes nuts, right now the skin on my top lip & just below the mouth is red & weeping & thats from just 3 shaves in the last 4 days.
To keep my stubble under control I would ideally need to shave at least twice a day, i'm sure you could imagine the damge that would do to my skin.

[vanna]

i can understand jane and feel for you as you have all this extra issues with hair removal. It is a long road i am only just at the end of myself

even if you have use the twezer method it would of taken you even longer then registered electro

perhaps you could save and save and consoder gonig to somewhere like E3 texas  for full clearance sessions or in the uk Dr curtis also does them i.e painless sessions made painless by lidocane that last all day or two etc

they are no cheap but they will give you results

hoping you have some good luck

[Cindy]

Depending where you are you could ask for medical treatment to remove your facial hair as shaving is causing eczema, which is a clinical condition that needs treatment. If so your health insurance may cover it.

As others have said and I have mentioned several times, the home laser/ tweezer systems are useless. They are no where near the power of the commercial systems. It cost me in the region of $2-3000, I no longer need to shave.
Yippeee

Cindy 

[Jayne]

I'm seeing my dermatologist next week so i'm going to ask if I can get electrolosys on medical grounds, i'm betting that the answer is no but it wont hurt to ask

[Cindy]

That sounds a good idea, particularly if you show the 'mess' your face gets in from shaving. I would have thought a decent dermatologist would consider that as treatment. Do they know you are transitioning? If so you may also be able to get a referral letter from your therapist as well.

Keep us posted.

[Jayne]

I saw my dermatologist last week, i've discussed treatment & the problems my skin is causing with regards to transitioning.

They are going to put me on immune supressants, i've got to wait for blood test results first & I have to decide which ones to go for, one choice can be used for the rest of my life & the other can only be used for 6 months to 1 yr.
I've had this treatment long term before so I know it works very well, the only reason i'm not on them right now is because I started chickening out on blood test so they wouldn't prescribe the medication.
I'm tempted to go for the short term ones so I can come off them when I start HRT to know what effect hormones have on my skin.

It looks unlikely that I can get electrolosys on the NHS but I expected that so it's no big deal, at least if I can get my skin cleared then I can start private electrolosys sessions.

[susanewing]

Wasted lots of money on home units. Go to a pro!

[JessicaH]

I'd recommend signing up and watching for a deal on groupon or livingsocial.com.  There are great deals for laser all the time. Set a little money aside so you have it when a deal comes up!

[ShawnaB]

sk!n clinics run offers fairly often and the cost my laser was significantly reduced.  All in I think it cost me about £1000. I also happened to be an ideal candidate for laser with really dark hair, and light skin so YMMV