Last year (2016) I (again) struggled through (insurance covered) ELECTROLYSIS ...
(both) Facial&Pubic Hair ...
I repeatedly requested some kind of "numbing injection" ~
something akin to the Novocaine injections
administered when "pulling teeth" ...
Even though such a "numbing injection" was not forthcoming
earlier this year (2017) I did come across the following:Surgeon recommends "Numbing Injection" for Electrolysis ... (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3312144/)
Quote from: Harold Morgan Reed, M.D."Electrolysis is preferable to laser.
Subcutaneous injection of lidocaine or bupivacaine
is preferable to a topical anesthetic,
which is preferable to nothing at all,
as good analgesia permits higher settings, and portends less hair regrowth."
The San Francisco Dept. of PublicHealth "TransgenderHealthServices"
has (this month) been (both) relocated ... and renamed ...
THS is now called "SF GenderHealth" ~
which (imo) is an improvement ...
The SF DPH (also) finally gave SFGH its own (City/County owned) office space ~
which is located in the SF GeneralHospital
(which is now called Zuckerberg SF General Hospital :rolleyes:) ...
SFGH is having its "OpenHouse" next month ...
where I plan to inquire of the SFGH Director
if SFGH might (sometime in the future)
pursue the above recommended
"subcutaneous injection of lidocaine or bupivacaine"
as standard ELECTROLYSIS ... pain prevention ...
There are also other details of the SFGH HairRemoval "regimen"
I will (in some cases again) suggest (to the SFGH Director)
that the SFGH tweak/improve ...
Are you looking for suggestions on how to control pain or are you trying to get lidocaine injections covered by insurance. I.e. Looking for official recommendations for the use of lidocaine injections being medically necessary?
~Brooke~
Any type of anesthetic injection must be done under a physicians care in case something goes wrong. Lidocaine and other meds of this type do have side effects, most notably cardiac side effects.
There are a few offices that offer marathon electrolysis sessions. sometimes going with two techs for as long as 8 to 10 hours in one day. These places use injected lidocaine.
If your electrolysis is working out of a physicians office, this could be done with very little extra cost.
However, the lidocaine injection will last for several hours and using it for shorter electrolysis sessions seems like over kill.
Annecy, its very hard to read your posts with all the colors and fonts and all.
Hi Annecy, I had 6 genital clearings. Each one month apart and ending 6 months prior to GCS. I had lidocaine injections and the injections were very painful. Much worse then GCS. They used a spinal tap needle and ran it from top of the groin over the scrotum and throughout the area. After the 5 minutes of pain the electrolysis was pain free.
Quote from: Brooke on May 28, 2017, 11:00:50 AM
"Are you looking for suggestions on how to control pain or
are you trying to get lidocaine injections covered by insurance. I.e.
Looking for official recommendations for the use of lidocaine injections being medically necessary?
~Brooke~"
Well, the "administered" "pain management" ...
for Electrolysis ... in San Francisco ...
just ... simply ... is NOT ... :icon_rolleyes2:
I mean ... "they" ONLY cover/provide either a 5% topical ...
or a 2½%+2½% compound topical ...
There are 25+% compound topicals ... available ... OtC ...
"They" won't even cover/provide those ... :icon_rolleyes2:
Marathon (multi-hour) Electrolysis sessions
(even if "pain-free") can/will still severely "stress" one's skin ...
"CardiacArrest" surfaced last year (2016) in some "discussions" ...
My reply was that "Electrolysis could give me CardiacArrest :icon_rolleyes2:"
Seriously ...
I could (even) feel facial electrolysis all the way down my to my toes ...
Electrolysis was kinda like
what (I would guess) "ElektroShockTherapy" would be like ...
I'd rather risk CardiacArrest from drugs
than from Electrocution ... :icon_shrug_no:
Then there's one of the differences between Facial & Pubic hair electrolysis ...
I had "surgical consults" with two surgeons ...
The first surgeon told me I could skip PubicHair electrolysis
if I couldn't stand the sessions/pain ...
if I was willing to risk some "scarring" from "follicle scraping" ...
Then my electrolygist advised/"warned" me
that the "follicle scraping" would (for sure) mean "losing some sensation" ...
as a result ... :icon_shrug_no:
I wound up mentioning to the 2nd surgeon
with whom I had a "surgical consult"
(and who did my GCS/SRS)
that a good "follicle scraping" was probably/maybe a "good idea" ...
Electrolysis is (imo) the WORST :icon_shrug_no:
The two (2) LaserHairRemoval sessions I have done ~
the first was both Facial&Pubic / the 2nd was just Facial ~
were nowhere near as horrible (for me) as any Electrolysis session ...
atm ... my (darker) FacialHair ReGrowth is like about 5-10%
of what is was 2½ months ago ...
thanx to the LHR sessions ...
I finished the third of three full face clearings at E3K in Dallas (Lewisville), TX, which were 1-2 day marathon sessions each. I had two electrologists working 8-10 hr days, with periodic lidocaine injections. Now, I imagine I have a higher threshold than some people for the injections, but I thought it was infinitely easier than just doing the facial electrolysis bareback or with topical lidocaine. The biggest drawbacks to that approach, for me, are the travel costs (LA to Dallas) and the cumulative swelling/trauma that takes the better part of a week to get back to a normal appearance. Three sessions did clear me sufficiently to (hopefully) finish clearing my face in weekly 2-hour sessions. I am also finding that as the hairs get cleared from my face, they come back weaker and fewer, such that I think I'll eventually be able to take quite a bit without even effective topical lidocaine.
Just a couple of points regarding the topical analgesic, for it to be effective, you ought to be hydrated. I think I was a little dehydrated this past week, and was getting hit pretty hard during my session. Second, it takes a little while for the lidocaine cream to take effect, and as it evaporates it becomes less effective, so I put it on in two or more layers, and then cover it up with kitchen plastic wrap to keep it from just evaporating off to nothing.
I did also get about 3 or 4 laser sessions in my genital region last year, not a total clearing, but it really knocked out a lot of hair there. And it's got to be vastly less painful and costly than electrolysis alone. Of course, as with other laser, one will likely eventually have to follow up with at least some electrolysis.
Erin
I have Electrolysis with Facial Injections that I coordinate with the Electrologist and the Dr so the appointments flow into each other about once a week. It takes a fair amount of co-ordination. These injections do not have any adrenaline in them and there is limited to no risk apart from bruising. The down side is that this also makes the injections shorter acting.
There are places where even a direct injection into the spot will not numb it well enough not to hurt especially along scar lines. Some parts like the neck and jawline responded really well for me. I have had real trouble with the lips despite having 2 sessions already with injections...the longest only lasted 40 minutes until my nose lost control and I was dribbling mucous which is a physical response that I cannot control. Prior to this I had Dental injections and they worked really well around the top lip with no coverage along the edge of the nose...so it is never perfect. The Dental Blocks lasted the hour or more. My electrologist thinks I have about 30 minutes left to do on my lip so will be having my hopefully last round of injections into my lip ...considering I have already had 4-6 hrs on it
I am about to switch to numbing cream for the secondary clearance stuff. I have maybe 2-3 injecting sessions left to remove the very last of the thick original beard hairs from 3 different area's. The injections are limiting the speed at which I can have my clearance completed. I am going to try and build tolerance using the numbing cream and whatever other techniques I will find helpful.
Maybe I just have a higher pain tolerance or went in with realistic expectations, but my experience has been very different. I had the vast majority of my face cleared with no anesthetic beyond Tylenol (and usually not even that) and while it wasn't my idea of a good time, in no way was it excruciating pain or Medieval torture or what not. The upper lip sucked, especially near the lip line, and I did use numbing cream on that area and definitely had to talk myself through some of those hairs, but it wasn't the end of the world. Twice I had injections for my upper lip with a local (at the time, this was 12 years ago) dentist, but I actually regret that because my upper lip is the only place I have skin damage and I attribute that to the aggressive "stripping" we did under anesthetic. I'm now having genital electrolysis prior to SRS, and I'm just using over-the-counter LMX 5%. I honestly find genital work LESS painful than the upper lip was, though some areas to the sides of the scrotum get pretty ouchy.
If you go into something (and I think this happens a lot of the TS community) having been told horror stories of how awful it is, and are anxious and expect to be in horrible pain, that can have a lot to do with how you experience treatment. While I know everybody has a different pain tolerance, and certainly injections and such can help, most people don't have easy access to physicians that can provide shots, IV sedation, etc. I like to listen to music, play with my iPhone, chat, or other things to take my mind off it and help me relax. Mainly, though, I just focus on how grateful I am that we have a way to permanently remove hair, and on how nice it will be when everything is cleared for good.
Quote from: AutumnLeaves on May 29, 2017, 10:40:48 AM
"Maybe I just have a higher pain tolerance or went in with realistic expectations,
but my experience has been very different."
I first did some Electrolysis (& LaserHairRemoval)
back in the years 2001~2002 ... (in Amsterdam) ...
Almost nothing went well ... with those sessions ...
My next Electrolysis session was here ... in the BayArea ...
last March (2016) ... much to my surprise ...
my first 1-hour session was "uneventful" ...
My reaction was that I could easily endure "repeat performances"
of an hour-long session like the one I had just completed ...
For whatever/unknown reasons ...
the pain increased with each subsequent session ...
and quickly became unbearable ...
imo ... I probably should have started last year (2016) with LHR;
however, given that my LHR experience/s in Amsterdam
were WAY worse than my Electrolysis experience/s there ...
I was quite prejudiced against LRH ... at the time ...
btw: I ended up doing DiY HairRemoval ... for years ...
First I waxed my own facial hair ... about once a month for most of a year ...
That thinned out my regrowth so much that
I could no longer wax the subsequent regrowth ...
Then for years I tweezed my face of every hair I could see ...
I can't imagine what life will be like when FacialHairRemoval
is no longer like a preoccupation/obsession ...
I think my pain tolerance is average, and I had an above-average amount of body and facial hair (my half-Welsh ancestry overriding half Japanese). I found the strongest available Lidocaine cream wasn't enough for some areas. Initial beard removal involved 3 visits per week, 2 hours per visit. The first time my facial hair was completely clear involved a 3 hour session. I've never used injections for any hair removal and I am almost done everywhere - including the infamous South Pole.
For pain management I do four things.
1) No coffee that day. Sometimes when I wonder if I can tolerate another half hour of electrolysis (often at the 90 minute mark), I think how good the coffee will taste after I leave - a reward for getting closer to my goal.
2) I drink a lot of water every day (helps in other ways), but even more on electrology days.
3) 1 or 2 ibuprofen or equivalent, right before I arrive.
4) Five percent EMLA cream, only where absolutely necessary. I don't use much - it's expensive and isn't super healthy if you get carried away with it. 5% EMLA requires a prescription in the US but is OTC in most countries. I purchased mine from Amazon Canada, shipped without any issues.
After enduring 200+ hours of electrolysis and a bunch of laser I am convinced the first two items are most important for pain management. Skip the coffee, and make sure your are hydrated with enough water.
I discovered yesterday that crying seems to help the pain! :)
There's a prescription product I'm excited about, but it has not been available for some time, as the licensing rights get shuffled around. It's called Pliaglis. It's 7%/7% Lido/Tetra and is self-occluding -- turns into a peelable film after it dries. I have a prescription from my Kaiser doc but waiting for the new licensee, Taro pharmaceuticals, to get it out to pharmacies.
Very interesting and makes sense - a self-occluding cream. So instead of a clumsy plastic-wrap goopy Emla mess, Pliaglis is designed to dry on and peels away to leave an area numb.
I'd never heard of it. Wish I had something like that before enduring 200 hours of electric joy on my face.
http://www.crescitatherapeutics.com/products/pliaglis/
Quote from: Wendy Lynn on July 03, 2017, 08:37:06 PM
There's a prescription product I'm excited about, but it has not been available for some time, as the licensing rights get shuffled around. It's called Pliaglis. It's 7%/7% Lido/Tetra and is self-occluding -- turns into a peelable film after it dries. I have a prescription from my Kaiser doc but waiting for the new licensee, Taro pharmaceuticals, to get it out to pharmacies.
Thanks for pointing this out Wendy Lynn. Reading the descriptions here have me terrified of getting started, though I
will get it done. My electrolygist suggested BLT cream, though I'm not sure how a sandwich will help. Actually, it's Benzo/Lido/Tetra 5% each, and I couldn't figure out where to find it. I just learned about compounding pharmacies, but I told my doctor about Pliaglis and he says he was able to order the prescription. He'd never heard of it, and asked me to report back on how well it works. It hasn't shown up as being ordered on my mail-order pharmacy's website so far, so we'll see if it's really available yet.
It sure sounds better than driving 1.5 hours to my appointment with Saran Wrap on my face, unless it's bright purple or something.
I'll report back here as I learn more.
Stephanie
Quote from: Steph2.0 on August 20, 2017, 04:35:42 PM
It sure sounds better than driving 1.5 hours to my appointment with Saran Wrap on my face, unless it's bright purple or something.
I'll report back here as I learn more.
Stephanie
But Steph, that's just about the right amount of soak time. And plastic wrap is the new fashion statement. Didn't you know that?
Laurie
Quote from: Laurie on August 20, 2017, 05:33:29 PM
But Steph, that's just about the right amount of soak time. And plastic wrap is the new fashion statement. Didn't you know that?
Laurie
Well I do now! I simply can't keep up with all the new trends.
It's no stretch, and I won't shrink from saying, "that's a wrap." Is that clear?
Stephanie (I'm on a roll!)
Wow Stephanie - a Costco sized roll of puns.
Quote from: Kendra on August 21, 2017, 09:29:54 AM
Wow Stephanie - a Costco sized roll of puns.
Kirkland brand, eh? We were just in Seattle a couple of weeks ago, scouting out some neighborhoods. Maybe see you in a few months :icon_chick:
Erin
Sounds great!
I have completed about 125 hours of electrolysis. I started about the same time I began HRT in May of 2016. My HRT regimen started off with very conservative dosing and the levels were increased gradually over the the following 12 months with the increases permitted only after quarterly satisfactory blood work results.
At first, I managed the electrolysis pretty well with a 10%/10% prilocaine/lidocaine analgesic prescription. Unfortunately, as my skin started changing from the hormones (a very desirable change), the effectiveness of the topical numbing solution decreased substantially. For me it was never a walk in the park even though I have a generally high(er) pain tolerance. Let it suffice that Electrolysis has tested my transition commitment and thanks to sheer determination I am finally able to see light at the end of the (very dark) tunnel.
For those who haven't started HRT, I recommend starting electrolysis as early as possible and ahead of starting HRT. If you've already started hormone therapy, get as much done as quickly as you can. It's a long process unless you can afford the "marathon" sessions.
Quote from: trish33455 on August 22, 2017, 05:42:43 PM
...................Let it suffice that Electrolysis has tested my transition commitment and thanks to sheer determination I am finally able to see light at the end of the (very dark) tunnel.
For those who haven't started HRT, I recommend starting electrolysis as early as possible and ahead of starting HRT. ........................
Hi Trish
I am heading for a workout today to clear my neck...It should only take an hour...I agree with your assessment of the increase in pain as this happened with me as well. I can now mange with the numbing cream and the reduced currents far better than I did. I too can see the light at the tunnel. But I still have one more full dental block (number 9 I think) in a couple of weeks and will be growing that out for 7 -10 days as you cannot feel much of what I have any more, as the hair is too soft, so it has to be long enough to be seen. Thank goodness no more facial injections...I had about 20 sessions of those...without them I would not be where I am. We are looking to be in maintenance mode sometime within the next 4 - 6 hours of work.
I agree the more you can get done the prior to HRT the more comfortable you will be with it.
Quote from: Wendy Lynn on July 03, 2017, 08:37:06 PM
There's a prescription product I'm excited about, but it has not been available for some time, as the licensing rights get shuffled around. It's called Pliaglis. It's 7%/7% Lido/Tetra and is self-occluding -- turns into a peelable film after it dries. I have a prescription from my Kaiser doc but waiting for the new licensee, Taro pharmaceuticals, to get it out to pharmacies.
I got my endo to prescribe Pliaglis, but I'm completely striking out in all the pharmacies around here. Galderma sent me to Crescita, which has apparently licensed it to Taro. I have emails out to both of them, but I'm not hopeful.
Might be out of luck, and have to get BLT cream and buy stock in Saran Wrap. This is taking too much time, and I need to get started.
Steph
Quote from: Steph2.0 on August 28, 2017, 02:26:56 PM
I got my endo to prescribe Pliaglis, but I'm completely striking out in all the pharmacies around here. Galderma sent me to Crescita, which has apparently licensed it to Taro. I have emails out to both of them, but I'm not hopeful.
Got a reply from the VP of R&D at Crescita:
Quote
Thanks for your interest in Pliaglis and we'll be in a position to resume fulfilling orders for Pliaglis in a few months once we have a new batch of product made available from our manufacturer. I'll provide further details as soon as we have a firm delivery date (hope to have this in the new week or 2) but anticipated delivery is looking to be close to the end of the year. There is no other product available until we receive the new batch so we're working to expedite this as much as possible. Let me know if you have any questions and we hope to have further details to share very soon!
So it's back to BLT cream and plastic wrap. Since Laurie says clear is the new black, I'll be stylin'.
Steph
Interesting info on Pliaglis - let us know when you hear more on availability.
My electrologist is on the board of the American Electrology Association, and she wants to know more about Pliaglis as a potential improvement over Lidocaine & Prilocaine.
Quote from: Kendra on August 28, 2017, 11:15:49 PM
Interesting info on Pliaglis - let us know when you hear more on availability.
My electrologist is on the board of the American Electrology Association, and she wants to know more about Pliaglis as a potential improvement over Lidocaine & Prilocaine.
I'll let you all know as soon as I hear more.
Considering it's 7% Lido + 7% Prilo, and self occluding, it sounds really good. But I haven't used anything at all yet, so I don't have a baseline. I just emailed my doctor about BLT cream so I can get started ASAP. At this point I've gotten myself all freaked out about the pain to come. :icon_flamed: I need to figure out how Michelle does her mindfulness/self-hypnosis stuff.
Steph
I use a 20% lidocaine/prilocaine compound that is custom mixed by "Custom Scripts Pharmacy" in Wesley Chapel FL (near Tampa). It's available by prescription only and runs about $39 including shipping for 30 gm tube. While it helps a lot it i recommend getting as much electrolysis done before starting or at least as early into HRT as possible as discomfort increases as the skin changes despite the analgesic compound.... At least that has been my experience.
Proper electrolysis treatment should not be very painful. If it is then they are doing something wrong.
Quote from: MyMichele on September 03, 2017, 05:23:51 AM
Proper electrolysis treatment should not be very painful. If it is then they are doing something wrong.
Hi MyMichele
Can I ask you to explain a bit more of what you mean by this. I am always looking to find ways to reduce the discomfort.
Quote from: ElizabethK on September 03, 2017, 05:41:48 AM
Quote from: MyMichele on September 03, 2017, 05:23:51 AM
Proper electrolysis treatment should not be very painful. If it is then they are doing something wrong.
Hi MyMichele
Can I ask you to explain a bit more of what you mean by this. I am always looking to find ways to reduce the discomfort.
My first electrologist used a thermal machine that was very old and even though she had it on a lower setting, every zap was painful and I was using a prescription strength numbing cream. Her technique was good. The pain was caused by just that the machine was an older model.
My present electrologist is using a blended machine that has thermal and galvanic pulses. She sets the area to be worked on in the machine and the machine sets the zap level. She can adjust the level setting somewhat for my comfort, but the machine makes the primary setting.
She tells me that of all her patients, I have one of the highest settings she can use for a given area. Technique is important, but to kill a follicle the needle must be in the base of the follicle. Newer computer controlled machines are much for comfortable than the older manual machines.
I follow the recommendations I've seen here and from my electrologist to lessen the pain. But in a weird twisted sort of way I welcome it. With every sting I am forced to ask myself "is this really worth it?" The answer better damn well be yes for why else would I put myself through electrolysis and all the other pain my condition has caused me? Either it is worth it or I'm freaking insane. I'm not too sure about either atm.
laurie
Quote from: ElizabethK on September 03, 2017, 05:41:48 AM
Hi MyMichele
Can I ask you to explain a bit more of what you mean by this. I am always looking to find ways to reduce the discomfort.
Elizabeth,
I think the main problem is technicians using the wrong modality. Not every hair is the same. The thick terminal hairs need pure galvanic or blend. This takes more time for each hair, but it is more of a constant energy (and chemical reaction) being applied and hardly any pain at all.
Also remember that your technicians are human and can get tired. From my experience the times I felt pain was when they are not being careful enough putting the probe in and taking it out. You have to be very vocal with them if they are hurting you. Sometimes they need to stretch the skin to get the probe in at the right angle and then after they zap the follicle and before they remove the probe they let go of your skin which then retracts like a rubber band which in effect shoves the probe inadvertently past the point where it needs to be causing pain and skin damage.
This is also why I don't believe numbing injections are a good idea. You really have no idea what is going on. You need to be vocal with them. I know we all go in there and the technicians become our best friend. But they can always learn from you. They are the experts, but you are the expert on your own body.
I also go to a thermolysis only electrologist, but that is because I am at the point where I'm really getting the fine peach fuzz hairs, not all of them, just the ones that grow long because those are the ones that can develop back into terminals from what I can see. I did allow her to remove a few stray terminals and it was a mistake. Skin damage. I was burned. My skin turned black at the point of treatment. A dot about a millimeter wide in a few places on my upper lip.
The first electrologist was a very bad experience and she charged less than half of what the others charge. Maybe that was a sign, but according to my latest technician, she said that the first must have been manually applying the current. I would feel the zap, but it was more of a long zap. She would do this up to 4 times for each hair, which I believe is the limit. My latest said she would never go that high, but high settings are needed to kill the terminals, and most of the time it can't and it just gets half killed and then plucked. Then it grows back.
Sorry for the long winded post, but my best advice, find a blend electrologist and let them know you want galvanic. It is slower, but more effective and less pain. You know you have blend if you're holding the wet probe. That is what you want. And again, if it hurts then tell them because pain is not fun, but skin damage is even less fun.
Quote from: Dani on September 03, 2017, 06:24:16 AM
Hi MyMichele
Can I ask you to explain a bit more of what you mean by this. I am always looking to find ways to reduce the discomfort.
My first electrologist used a thermal machine that was very old and even though she had it on a lower setting, every zap was painful and I was using a prescription strength numbing cream. Her technique was good. The pain was caused by just that the machine was an older model.
My present electrologist is using a blended machine that has thermal and galvanic pulses. She sets the area to be worked on in the machine and the machine sets the zap level. She can adjust the level setting somewhat for my comfort, but the machine makes the primary setting.
She tells me that of all her patients, I have one of the highest settings she can use for a given area. Technique is important, but to kill a follicle the needle must be in the base of the follicle. Newer computer controlled machines are much for comfortable than the older manual machines.
I wish I read this before I posted! You explained it better than me.
Quote from: MyMichele on September 03, 2017, 06:06:19 PM
Sorry for the long winded post, but my best advice, find a blend electrologist and let them know you want galvanic. It is slower, but more effective and less pain. You know you have blend if you're holding the wet probe. That is what you want. And again, if it hurts then tell them because pain is not fun, but skin damage is even less fun.
+ 1 , very important to let your electrologist know when the zap is too much.
Thanks for your input both from Dani and Mymichelle... My tech uses the latest blend equipment and it is still painful. ;) the zapping is what gets me, rarely is it the insert of the probe
Mymichelle, I take your point about the injections however this has not been my experience ( I agree you should be careful) but I think this is also about the skill of my technician who is able to use the correct current for the correct hair type, strong enough to slide but not to burn. I think you make a good point about the operator/tech. My tech will not do any longer than a 1hr 15 minute session because she says she cannot maintain her standards and will not go above this time.
I think I am pretty lucky to have got her...I am on the last hours before hitting matinenenace mode and am having my hopefully last clearing of my lips next week but as we all know with hair nothing is ever guaranteed. I don't have any new scarring (yay) as my Tech is very careful. I have had "bad" electrolysis before and it hurt far more than what I am having now and I do have a couple of scars from that but lucky for me they are in the neck/ Jaw area. After what I have read I will stick with the blend thanks I think the outcome will work better for me. ;)
Thanks for taking the time to talk about your experiences. I Was hoping you had found something new I could add to my arsenal of "better ways to cope with electrolysis"....I need all the help I can get
"Proper electrolysis treatment should not be very painful. If it is then they are doing something wrong."
IMHO There are so many things that can affect a poor experience so thanks for your detailed explanation. I think prep is one of the Key things to improving your discomfort and with the addition of some kind of meditative help. Things that can make it better are things like getting as much treatment as you can prior to HRT, reduce caffeine , be well rested, be well hydrated just to kick off with a couple
I think my bad past experiences have put my current treatment in perspective. The pain now is nothing compared to what I have endured early on. Bad machine, bad technique. So many factors. I am in maintenance mode too now. But I could picture someone now who has no other choice but to go to an electrologist who is causing unnecessary pain and skin damage. That's why I say if it's so unbearable something is wrong.
Quote from: MyMichele on September 05, 2017, 08:17:35 AM
my current treatment
Nice pun. ;)
The thermo electrolysis hardware my electrologist uses is described as high-end - a machine by Apilus, base price over $10k USD and the supplies for it aren't cheap. Her business is doing great and I know she would buy something better if available. She had her own electrolysis done in the 1950s and described that as something from a horror movie.
The goal of high-end hardware is to deliver electricity in the fastest possible spike with enough duration to be effective and quickly stop so the nerve endings have less time to process what happened. She said cheaper thermo electrolysis machines have a ramp-up and ramp-down curve - guaranteed to deliver the higher electrolysis pain levels from earlier decades. Minimizing pain and complications requires high quality hardware and a skilled operator.
Something to think about before jumping on a Groupon Special.
Quote from: MyMichele on September 05, 2017, 08:17:35 AM
I think my bad past experiences have put my current treatment in perspective. The pain now is nothing compared to what I have endured early on. Bad machine, bad technique. So many factors. I am in maintenance mode too now. But I could picture someone now who has no other choice but to go to an electrologist who is causing unnecessary pain and skin damage. That's why I say if it's so unbearable something is wrong.
I agree compared to what I got from "bad" treatment, now is very easy. I actually ached my back up off the table when she was doing my top lip and I could feel the constant tugging as she pulled the hairs out...nothing like my current tech.
I think you make a great point and agree whole heartedly " if it's so unbearable something is wrong
Quote from: Kendra on September 05, 2017, 12:40:25 PM
Something to think about before jumping on a Groupon Special.
Absolutely
Has anyone noticed a very slight electrical ummm taste when getting electrolysis?
laurie
Quote from: Kendra on September 05, 2017, 12:40:25 PM
Nice pun. ;)
cheaper thermo electrolysis machines have a ramp-up and ramp-down curve - guaranteed to deliver the higher electrolysis pain levels from earlier decades. Minimizing pain and complications requires high quality hardware and a skilled operator.
This is exactly what it was. Each "zap" was more like a long pulse and she would do it up to 4 times for each hair. I felt like it was going into my brain. Kinda like a novacain injection, but for every single hair. Then she'd pluck it out anyway. The machine clearly was not good enough for thick terminal hairs.
I thought at the time "this is how electrolysis is, just deal with it". I had her do my entire upper lip and most of the front of my chin in one 2 hour session. My upper lip looked like Marge Simpson's for 3 days. I had to call out sick for work it looked so bad. I also had so many tears coming out of my eyes that a bunch went down into my ear canal and caused more problems that the ENT had to take care of.
Nightmare!
Quote from: Laurie on September 06, 2017, 04:02:05 PM
Has anyone noticed a very slight electrical ummm taste when getting electrolysis?
laurie
No, but I'm going tomorrow and will keep that in mind.
Quote from: MyMichele on September 06, 2017, 05:19:37 PM
This is exactly what it was. Each "zap" was more like a long pulse and she would do it up to 4 times for each hair. I felt like it was going into my brain. Kinda like a novacain injection, but for every single hair. Then she'd pluck it out anyway. The machine clearly was not good enough for thick terminal hairs.
I thought at the time "this is how electrolysis is, just deal with it". I had her do my entire upper lip and most of the front of my chin in one 2 hour session. My upper lip looked like Marge Simpson's for 3 days. I had to call out sick for work it looked so bad. I also had so many tears coming out of my eyes that a bunch went down into my ear canal and caused more problems that the ENT had to take care of.
Nightmare!
It's not so much the machine as the operator. My facial hair was removed with a 40 year old blend machine and only occasionally did I feel a stubborn hair being tugged. If the hair didn't come out, my operator would cook it a bit longer and then the hair would slide out. Modern machines should be at least as good as the ones used on me if not better but one of the secrets is the proper setting on the machine. Setting vary from person to person and may also vary depending on the part of the body being treated.