Looking for an opinion on this electrolysis pricing...

[placeholdername]

Well, I'm on the verge of taking that dive into starting the facial hair removal ordeal.  I called up a place that does laser and electrolysis, and the woman on the phone said that for facial hair they usually do electro since it's 100% permanent.  The pricing scheme she gave me goes like this:

15 mins - 40$
30 mins - 55$
60 mins - 95$

Or they do a package where you get 4 hours for $360, but you can split up the time into a number of sessions in multiples of 15 minutes.

So my question is, how does that compare to pricing others have gotten for their electrolysis?  I'd likely end up going for the 4 hour package.  I might also try to convince them to start with laser at first to see if that gets anything done, depending on if it's cheaper.  I have a (free) consultation scheduled for this Thursday.

[Hannah]

Those prices are twice what I pay in Boise, Idaho. It seems to vary pretty wildly by region though, and anything under $100 an hour is usually accepted as fair.

[Flan]

wayyyyyyyy too expensive

for comparison, the rates my electrologist (woodbury, mn) charges are as follows:
15 min or less, $40
30 min, $45
45min, $55
60min, $65
75min, $75
90min, $85
105 min, $95
120 min, $105

[sarahb]

Uh, yeah, those prices are expensive! My lady charges $60/hr...or $255/5 hours, which comes to $55/hr.

$95/hr is crazy expensive! That's a rip off.

~Sarah

[Alyssa M.]

if you're in San Francisco or NYC, that seems reasonable. If you're in Bismark, ND, then it's too high.

I live in a fairly expensive area and pay $1/minute, plus $20 per session -- so, $50 for 30 minutes, $65 for 45, $80 for an hour.

Going with laser for the first 6-8 sessions is a good idea if your hair color is significantly darker than your skin.

[Dana_W]

They look on the higher end for the area I'm in (Minneapolis), but not off the charts.

I pay:

5 MINUTES - $10
10 MINUTES - $22
15 MINUTES - $30
20 MINUTES - $35
30 MINUTES - $44
45 MINUTES - $65
60 MINUTES - $75
75 MINUTES - $83
90 MINUTES - $112
120 MINUTES - $150

Also, please note that electrolysis is eventually permanent. But you should still expect about a 40% regrowth rate until they successfully zap it just right. At least that's the last my research into it told me.

[placeholdername]

Thanks for the replies.  I'm in Pittsburgh so not quite NYC, but not Bismarck ND either .  It's only one of the possible places so I'm planning to check out others before I decide where to go.  The consultation is free so I figured it couldn't hurt.

And I do realize that electrolysis isn't immediately permanent .  As for laser, my skin is mostly light, and the hair is dark so in theory I'm a good candidate.  I'm half hispanic, but I've been living in the frozen north long enough that I'm sadly very pale (relative to my Dad anyway, which is to say about normal for the average 'white' person).

[aubrey]

That's a little high but if they are really fast, have the latest machines, very professional, well trained and on a board or whatev, in a trendy salon etc...that may explain it. You get what you pay for. But in this case I would see what the cheaper options have to offer before settling.

[Hannah]

hey that's a good point with the plurals. It would be awesome to get someone on each side of you just letting ya have it.

I forgot to ask Ketsy, does that price include local numbing cream? Sometimes when I'm low on vicodins I pay a little extra for the topical. It's no where good as opiates are as good but it keeps the tears back.

[aubrey]

I had a few sessions with two doing me. The place I go to is like the local version of E3000 or whatever they call it now. But it was strange, and the other lady wasn't as good so I stopped that

[placeholdername]

I forgot to ask Ketsy, does that price include local numbing cream?

I don't know, I guess I'll find out at the consultation.  How do you go about getting the vicodin?  Do you ask your doctor for it or something?

[Hannah]

Yeah, it has taken some trust building but she is pretty free flowing with the narcotics nowadays. At first she would only write for 5 pills at a time but as time has gone by she's seen that I'm not abusing them (sadly) and is pretty good about keeping them coming.

I'm asking her for precocet today, wish me luck 

[Alyssa M.]

mija -- you were getting double teamed by electrologists? Um ... wow ... that kind of pain is usually in violation of the Geneva Conventions.

[Autumn]

How many years of experience does your tech have?

I pay $40 for 15 also but she has 23 years.

She has not scarred my face at all in a couple of hours, whereas when her apprentice was training for free on my arm, she scarred me in several places.

If you have someone who is really experienced, it will be quicker, less painful, and you will have a lessened chance of bad reactions. Also, do the laser first unless you have all blond hair. It's not worth starting with electro. Laser *IS* quite effective. Or at least mix laser and electro between sessions where they electro the blond ones and leave the dark ones for laser.

Also if you are starting some part of HRT, you'll probably have better results.

[placeholdername]

I'm not on HRT yet, but I might be by the time I get the finances together to actually pay for this.  But that's a good point about the experience thing, I'll have to ask about that too,

[aubrey]

mija -- you were getting double teamed by electrologists? Um ... wow ... that kind of pain is usually in violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Oddly enough it kind of helped to distract me. The pain is usually in one spot so you can sort of focus on it better and thus feel more pain there. With two it's like there's so much going on, they go at different speeds....them talking to each other as well...that it was better. More annoying was how they were each pulling the skin tight in opposite directions. I couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of it all. I'm one of those unlucky (or lucky) girls with nothing but blond hair everywhere, so double teaming seemed like the only way to go quicker. I'd do it again if the 2nd lady was as skilled as the other that I see regularly.

[FairyGirl]

mija -- you were getting double teamed by electrologists? Um ... wow ... that kind of pain is usually in violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Because of the proximity of my SRS date and the fact my surgeon requires it, I'm having genital electrolysis done with 2 machines/32 probes in six hour sessions weekly. That's 3 hours in the morning, followed by a short lunch break then three more hours in the afternoon. In Sydney I'm afraid to even say what it's costing me, but talk about torture! sheesh.

[placeholdername]

Well I went to the consultation and the lady explained the whole electrolysis process (although I knew most of it anyway).  It's a husband and wife team that specializes in hair removal only and nothing else.  The lady has 27 years experience, and the husband (who I didn't meet), has 15 years experience, so I think I'm covered on the experience front .

I asked about laser and she explained a few things, although I'm no expert.  From what she said, the laser has the benefit that the treatments themselves are pretty quick, but the time involved over the long run ends up being more since the hairs often come back and so on.  Also that it's not as good on the more coarse beard-type facial hairs, as opposed to the softer (but still dark) facial hair that women sometimes get.  She said sometimes people go for the laser anyway because they're busy and just don't have the time (or pain tolerance) to sit through the electrolysis sessions.

She also made some comments about how a lot of places doing laser removal or more of the skin center type places that try to get you in with the laser hair removal mainly so they can sell you things like botox .

I'm going to try and see if I can find some other places nearby to compare to, but despite the fact that it seems to be somewhat on the expensive side compared to what other posted, the place is about 10-15 minutes away and I really do like the 27 years of experience factor .  She estimated (from seeing me) that in total it might end up costing about $1000-2000 for the full facial hair removal, which as mentioned above is mostly divided into 4 hour packagaes for $360, or $90 per hour.

So now the other thing is... how am I going to pay for this?!  With that there are two things... I have some money in my name in stocks, but I'm supposed to talk to my parents before I use that for anything (and I haven't told them yet), or the other thing is maybe they will help me with it since I'm planning on telling them in the next week or two (but that's a whole different thread ).

[Hannah]

So is it $90 an hour for both of them at the same time, because that's a steal anywhere.

The pain is not a joke either, and it gets worse the longer it goes. Seriously for the 100th time try and get some vicodins (or percocets!). I'm not going to quit nagging you about it so you might as well give in.

[Flan]

I can't really say the pain level is anything to get worked up over (I mean genital area electro)

worse comes to worse, get lidocaine applied locally