Can't tell if I have many results to show for my time doing electrolysis

[shingleshake]

Hey there, this is officially my first post after browsing for some time. Lemme know if I forgot to include any important details. I'm currently doing one hour sessions once per week on my face. I started on mid November of 2017. I'm in the Richmond, Virginia area. When I was browsing around for places to try, I didn't find many results and finally settled on the one I'm going to now which is $95 per hour. I've got ginger undertones in my hair and pale skin, which I was told by my electrologist is the most stubborn to treat. my face isn't completely covered, it's a bit patchy in places and there's little to nothing on my upper lip/cheeks/chin area. My skin type is really oily (like oil slick), and the skin gets red very easily (like scratch me lightly with your nail and I'm red there). Not sure if any of that plays a factor, but thought I'd mention. She has been using thermolysis for all the hair so far and we've been focusing on my cheeks/sides of face. I've never plucked before and only shave. I can say I have noticed at least a few hairs missing (sometimes I keep track of just one hair that stands out from the rest to see if it comes back after a few treatments), but in general it still doesn't seem like as much progress as one would expect from this timeline.

I unfortunately was dumb and didn't take clear before pictures, but have pictures that were after one treatment. I've been trying to take more pictures (I started a few months ago), but this doesn't really help me show you. :\ I can still post if you think that'll help. I've pretty much always maintained my face hair and have no pictures of me with it grown out and not trimmed or anything (sigh).

I've got a few other concerns about her method, in general. She tells me that some hairs that get treated for the first time will be more stubborn, and I will therefore feel pulling when she grabs them. Half the time I can tell my skin is moving with the hair and I can feel it "pop" out. It doesn't exactly feel like plucking without treating the hair, as it's not painful in the same way, but I'm pretty sure the hairs are supposed to slide out. Again, she just assures me that the bulb is bigger than the opening on the skin, and that's why I'm feeling that pull (shouldn't the bulb be getting destroyed, though, with proper treatment?). I don't think she ever re-zaps a stubborn hair, she'll just go ahead and pull it anyway, even if there is resistance. All this combined is making me a little skeptical.

What do you think? Am I being impatient? Do you have anyone you can recommend for my area, instead?

Thanks for taking the time to read.

[Dena]

Welcome to Susan's Place. There is always a debate as to the best way of removing facial hair. Of the three methods, the one I personally would be least comfortable with is thermolysis though some have claimed good results with it. Galvanic is slow unless your using multi needle and it seems few operators do it any more. I was treated with the Blend and it seemed to be very effective. I rarely felt a hair being pulled out as my operator tested the hair and if it hadn't released, it received some additional time. Not all hairs require the same amount of treatment so the ability to give the hair another shot allows you to work at a lower setting but step it up when needed.

Figure that you will probably need a minimum of 200 hours to treat your hair and it will take around 150 before you start seeing significant clearing in a session. That will probably also be about the point where you stop shaving between appointments in order to have sufficient hair for the next session.

Working the entire face in a session means that you will see little progress because the dormant hair coming active will hide most of the progress. Working the entire face has the advantage that your face my only show the red for a few hours instead of days if you concentrate on spots.

There is nothing to prevent you from interviewing a few other operators in the area and see how you feel about them. While I liked the first one I interviewed, she was charging something like $120 an hour which in todays money would have been around $360 an hour. The going rate was about $60 and hour or $180 an hour in todays money. Switching operators saved me a bunch of money and the second operator was very good.

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[JudiBlueEyes]

Welcome!  As to seeing a change, you will need more time although hopefully you have points of clarity where you can see where it's going.  My technician initially focused on my upper lip and scattered about my cheeks so hair would evenly "disappear".  150 hours is where I'm at and I get cleared each week.  The ones that come back are weaker and weaker.  When you first start and the root ball is large I swear it hurt as much to pull it out as it did to zap it!  The smaller, new hairs slide out easily and I don't even notice now.  Have faith as it is a long process but you will love the results.

Dena is right to shop around or at least interview other electrologists.  As a potential long term customer you should be able to negotiate package pricing for 5 or 10 hours paid up front at a reduced rate.

Judi 

[Jayne01]

Hi shingkeshake,

Firstly, welcome to Susan's. You will find lots of information here and make some good friends in the process.

I too am having my facial hair removed with thermolysis. I currently have about 80hours of session time. I started early last year. What you have described sounds pretty accurate and lines up with my own experience. Some hairs can be stubborn and the plucking sensation you feel sounds about right. If the pluck was attempted prior to the hair being zapped, you will definitely know it. A slight resistance is normal. As you progress, new growth will start to come through giving the illusion that you are not making much progress. Rest assured that progress is being made. The treated hairs don't return if zapped properly, it is new hairs, behind, that were previously dormant that are appearing. As each new cycle of hair growth gets zapped, you will start seeing significant improvement. Unfortunately, it is a slow process and can not be rushed due to the nature of hair growth cycles. You will also find that when new hairs are zapped, it requires way less current and you can't feel a thing as they are plucked out compared to older more established hairs.

I wish you well on your journey. Be patient and you will get the results you are looking for.

Hugs,
Jayne

[LizK]

Hi shingkeshake

One of the big things my Electrologist talked to me about, was technique and that you should feel nothing as far as when the hair is taken, they should slide out...no pulling no tugging....the  "root/bulb" should be destroyed and the hair will slide out. 

It is a long and slow process but the results are, as others have said, well worth it.  You can feel a bit like you are just spinning your wheels and making no progress for ages and then you find you have places on your face that are no longer bristly,  then bristly patches are harder to find...then soon you are dealing with secondary growth as @Jayne01 said are much finer and involves much less pain to remove.


As Dena suggested shop around and find someone you are happy with.

Take care

Liz

[Harley Quinn]

From my understanding and experience, you will feel a slight stretch of the skin as the hair is pulled out.  It was explained to me that it was because the bulb/root is larger around than the hair shaft.  So the pop out of the skin means that they got the whole root.  I have experienced two way different takes on the blended method.  One electrologyst is more zappy than burn-y.  The other is straight burn-y... so much that I didn't feel the zap.  Both seem to be working very well.  I must say that I prefer the zappy over the burn, and it seems to be going faster from hair to hair.

Both are certified professional electrologysts.  One doesn't want anything done to the hair at all.  The other says that sugaring is great to start with and makes the electrolysis go faster.  She also likes that I had laser first, saying that it makes the "stubborn" hairs weak and easy to kill with the electrolysis.

[AutumnLeaves]

In general, if you feel plucking/traction you are being undertreated. The idea that you have to "weaken" the same hair by treating it a bunch of times is an outdated myth, though some people still cling to it. I think if you've had three complete clearings of one area over several months and can't tell a difference, something is wrong and it wouldn't hurt to get a second or third opinion. I had my face done ages ago, but I do recall that very rarely did I ever feel a pull/pluck and when I did it was usually a sign to adjust the settings. After three clearings of my face I had much less regrowth, and from them on it was a much faster process.

Hope this helps.