I see the top electrologist in Oregon. She does between 700 and 1000 hairs per hour at my weekly sessions. Equipment makes a huge difference. The computer controlled Epilus Platinum costs over $10,000 but allows very rapid follicle kill. In the typical setting for face whiskers it sends 1000 pulses in a second. A cheaper slower machine can take much longer. I have very sensitive skin but have had no scarring. My skin is much healthier since treatment has also removed hundreds of ingrown hairs to which i am prone.
Note that for best speed you need to have at least 4 days since shaving. I never shave between sessions.
Literature indicates that with proper technique and equipment and settings each root is killed the first time it is treated. Follicles do tend to have multiple roots that mature at different times. So typically you will remove about three roots before each follicle is permanently hairless.
After 52 weeks i am getting down to cleanup of less noticeable white hairs that we skipped the first time around.
Note that if you used laser to do the mass clearance, per hour counts will be lower as electrolysis will be handling a higher proportion of distorted or scarred roots that were damaged but not killed.
If your insurance doesnt cover Emla you can purchase it inexpensively from overseas pharmacies. I actually use a veterinary topical anesthetic cream that doesnt need to be occluded (covered with plastic wrap).

Quote from: MadelineB on January 11, 2013, 04:17:30 PM
I see the top electrologist in Oregon. She does between 700 and 1000 hairs per hour at my weekly sessions. Equipment makes a huge difference. The computer controlled Epilus Platinum costs over $10,000 but allows very rapid follicle kill. In the typical setting for face whiskers it sends 1000 pulses in a second. A cheaper slower machine can take much longer. I have very sensitive skin but have had no scarring. My skin is much healthier since treatment has also removed hundreds of ingrown hairs to which i am prone.
Note that for best speed you need to have at least 4 days since shaving. I never shave between sessions.
Literature indicates that with proper technique and equipment and settings each root is killed the first time it is treated. Follicles do tend to have multiple roots that mature at different times. So typically you will remove about three roots before each follicle is permanently hairless.
After 52 weeks i am getting down to cleanup of less noticeable white hairs that we skipped the first time around.
Note that if you used laser to do the mass clearance, per hour counts will be lower as electrolysis will be handling a higher proportion of distorted or scarred roots that were damaged but not killed.
If your insurance doesnt cover Emla you can purchase it inexpensively from overseas pharmacies. I actually use a veterinary topical anesthetic cream that doesnt need to be occluded (covered with plastic wrap).

This is very interesting to me. I had used a local operator, who I believe used this same equipment. Unfortunately she has had to retire from the business for medical reasons. She was very fast, but without a doubt she was "plucking" more hairs with more resistance than the new operator, which leads me to believe that the new operator is getting more complete kills.

It isn't a matter of trust of my electrologist, I love her very much and she seems very knowledgeable. She is far more fun to spend an hour with than my first electrologist. The question is, which technique gets me to the goal faster? This is a lot of money to spend, and a lot of hours to invest, and the results won't be known for some time, which is why I am asking the advice of others.

MadelineB, You indicated that after 52 weeks you are down to "cleanup" stage, which is roughly my goal, but I am concerned that I may not be on track to reach that with my current provider, although I love her dearly and believe she is doing a wonderful job in every other respect. What you didn't say is how many hours per week you have averaged over those 52 weeks? I am trying to accomplish 4 hours per week, which would be just over 200 hours in a year.

Please feel free to PM me if you would like to recommend your provider.

Thanks!

I was fortunate that I didn't get the usual facial hair pattern of men in my family, with very heavy full beard. Mine was mostly limited to the goatee, moustache, and sideburn areas. That said, I've done about 60 hours / 50,000 hairs so far, and I'm guessing maybe 10,000 to go. Some people can have as many as 300,000 hairs if they have extremely heavy and full beard growth, so faces will vary greatly.

By the way, I take a couple of benadryl (diphenhydramine) over the counter allergy capsules half an hour before each session. It goes a long way to reducing redness and irritation from the treatment.

I'm no expert, but I believe the plucking occurs most often when not enough energy is being delivered to the base of the hair. Many practitioners use the smallest needle and least energy they can to reduce irritation and discomfort, but tradeoff may be more re-dos. My practitioner (Jaimee Bloom) makes no apology for using larger probes and more intense settings as needed to get them the first time, though you can look like you were attacked by bees after a long session. To me it is worth it.

Quote from: M777a on January 11, 2013, 02:57:39 PM
If you trust an electrologist their skill and knowledge should be your guiding light. Any thing usually said here is an opinion and should be taken with a grain of salt. If you trust your electrologist and yourself you outcome can be nothing less than great.

My last post was deleted so I'll try again

It has nothing whatsoever to do with trust but it does have everything to do with ability. Your electrologist might be the nicest person in the world but if they don't know how to kill a follicle trust counts for Nothing!

If your hairs aren't disappearing your trust is unfounded in spite of liking the person who is doing the treatment.

As for knowledge: Unless you know different it's easy to find yourself thinking that the person in front of you is knowledgable and knows what they are doing. Why would you question anything they might be saying when they are so nice. . .

Sorry! The older I get the more skeptical I become certainly where electrolysis is concerned., there's so much drivel to wade through.

A bit off-topic, but the visible side effects of electrolysis, how long do they take to go away? Is it like laser, where as long as you don't go back to school the same day, it looks fine?

Quote from: A on January 12, 2013, 02:26:51 PM
A bit off-topic, but the visible side effects of electrolysis, how long do they take to go away? Is it like laser, where as long as you don't go back to school the same day, it looks fine?

In my experience it depends entirely on the operator, and I suppose it also depends on the sensitivity of your skin (but of course I only have experience with my skin). I have had some electrolysis which only caused a bit of puffy red skin for about 6 to 12 hours, and other times I have had larger red bumps and mottling for a couple days.

I have very reactive skin- a lot of red heads do. I will have redness and mild swelling for a few days. I use Apres Cosmetic Cream under my foundation for the first day or two especially if i have escharoles from ingrown removals. Then i switch to my regular neutral mineral concealer. Early in my treatment i used a green mineral concealer on the redness, and an orange mineral concealer for the black beard shadow before the next treatment. If you are just using electro for post laser cleanup or your skin isnt the sensitive type you may have less redness. Hydrocortisone after treatment also helps

Hah, well, my skin is weird. For one, every damned cream I try on it gives me white pores full of sebum ready to become a pimple or literally pimples. Let alone if it's irritated. I'm not even sure I'll ever be able to try make-up without consequences, so the one thing I know is that if electro makes me look awful, I'll have to deal with it. xD