Electrology question

[Rena-san]

So I have started electrology for just my chin. I have done only about 8 hours so far. I just wanted to see if this was a common thing: does your electrologist test the hairs after treating them by slightly tugging on them with tweezers and then fully tweezing them if the treatment was successful? This is what my electrologist has been doing. She'll treat a hair with the needle then take a pair of tweezes and test it. If she feels the follicle has been destroyed she'll pull it out. if not, she'll treat it again. Repeats. Moves on to the next hair. Does this sound right?

She has also told me that each hair follicle takes about 4-5 treatments before it stops growing forever. This information is somewhat contrary to what I have heard others on here saying. They have said that once a hair is treated that specific hair shaft and follicle should be dead and not come back. They have referred to this as the kill rate and that you want an electrology treatment to have a high kill rate. I don't know, it just seems that this information is not the same as the information my certified electrologist is giving me. What's true?

[Annah]

your electrolysis coordinator is correct.

You have three totally different sets of hair follicles. What this means is, they will need to electrolysis every follicle hair on your face and repeat it two other times since a hair will regrow (different hair but in same follicle) two more times from the previous cycle. The hair she treats is dead but there is two more cycles to get to in the same area.

The chin requires even more work because it is densely packed with hair follicles. If you done 8 hours you have anywhere between 120 to 200 more hours to go (YMMV)

[Rena-san]

your electrolysis coordinator is correct.

If you done 8 hours you have anywhere between 120 to 200 more hours to go (YMMV)

What does YMMV and the other 4 letter things I've seen stand for? And also, is the 120-200 hrs estimate for the whole face?

[Annah]

YMMV means Your mileage may Vary

The 120 hours was one of the least amount of hours I've seen...she hardly had any facial hair to begin with.

I've usually seen it averages about 180-220 hours.

[smooth]

Annah sorry but your advice is somewhat adrift I'm afraid. Follicles can be killed first time if it is done correctly. The insertion has to be bang on and the energy needs to be adequate, it also needs to be released in the correct place/places within the follicle. Depending on modality this is done differently.

For a blend treatment the needle is inserted and kept still (sometimes) whilst the energy is released (anywhere between 2 and 7 seconds. This allows for the lye to build up and spread within the follicle causing the relevant cells to be killed. Similar for galvanic but without the addition of low level thermolysis to warm the lye making it more effective.

For flash there can be a couple of pulses, sometimes more. The pulses will be released at different depths within the follicle to ensure the right areas are hit. With flash depending on machine and operator each pulse will be very quick (fractions of a second rather than seconds) For chin hairs a good amount of energy can be required to achieve a successful 1st time kill. Chin hairs are amongst the strongest ones you will come across, some of them are so big they have personalities. Usually at least 2 pulses are required unless the hairs/follicles are very shallow and this would be unusual for chin hairs unless they are in telogen (late stage, almost ready to shed)

Each follicle goes through three stages: anagen catagen and telogen You're going to hear that hairs can only be killed in anagen but it really does depend on who you speak to, the majority do think this, I don't.

Hippolover your electrologist is gently tugging on the hair to make sure it is fully treated. If she is working properly the second she encounters any resistance she will stop gently tugging and re-insert and re-treat the follicle. A hair will slide out without resistance when it has been adequately treated. it shouldn't feel like the hairs are being tweezed. You might feel the odd tweezed hair sometimes. This can be an adjacent hair that gets tweezed accidentally or it might be one that is particularly stubborn and your electrologist may be reluctant to use more energy or to treat it again. With someone who knows their stuff tweezing really shouldn't be happening very much.

The myth that follicles can't be killed first time is a convenient one because it is an excuse for under treatment or for an operator who has poor insertion technique and isn't putting the energy in the right places.

[TanaSilver]

The myth that follicles can't be killed first time is a convenient one because it is an excuse for under treatment or for an operator who has poor insertion technique and isn't putting the energy in the right places.

This jives with what my electrologist has told me. There seems to be quite a bit of art to this. She said when inserting the probe to zap the root (or the blood vessel at the root or whatever the hell it is they're actually killing), there is a certain degree of guesswork as to how deep to go, hitting the target dead on. If you hit it, it's dead and not ever coming back. If you miss, well ... it's going to grow a hair later and you'll have to try again.

I can tell from my own face though that most of the areas that get hit once are gone for good.

I don't know about the whole zap and tug thing the OP asked about, but I think there is a fair amount of adjusting an electrologist must do for individual clients. Mine has used several different probes with me to find the one that works best, and hurts the least. This isn't necessarily the same one that would have the same results on someone else.