Electrolysis Reality Check

June of 2018 I went to my first electro appointment. They started on my face. It took over 20 hours to fully clear my entire face 1 time. Yesterday they cleared my face in 2 hours. It will probably take an additional 6 months of full clearings and then it will be gone for the entire rest of my life!

Now we are slowly working our way down my body. 6 hours was spent on my upper bikini line. I hate the process, it is shear torture. The cost is outrageous, $125 an hour per electrologist, plus $50 an hour for the nurse to do lidocaine injections. So yesterday it was 4 hours, 2 techs, 1 nurse, $1200!!

The results are truly priceless though. Well, my belly doesn't look like it right now, but I just need to hold steady, be patient, and maintain this heading.

Love you!

My Awesome Electrologist

The photo on the left is from one year ago.  The photo on the right is from today.  This is to show what 7 months of facial electrolysis has done for me.  I don't have makeup on in either photo, well except for my obvious pink lipstick on the right. 

Why am I appearing so bare??  This is an advertisement for Dana Elise Solutions in Beverly Hills.  Well, it is for sure going to come off like a commercial, however, it isn't really a commercial because I'm not getting any sort of compensation for this endorsement.  Which for an honest assessment that is probably a good thing huh?  Probably.  At least there is a hope of honesty. Hmm.....

Anywho..... point at hand - Dana's electrolysis services are amaze balls.  I somewhat reluctantly agreed to go for facial electrolysis back in July.  Which makes it about seven months now since I have been going in.

The nitty gritty:

- I have worked with Dana, Karen, and Gladys.  All three of them do great work.  Though my personal fave is when I get to work with Dana and Karen together.

- The rates are very in line with everyone else.

- Expect for the hairs to be flying when working with them.  They are super concerned with speed, accuracy, and being thorough.  I happily shake off the stray hairs every time I get up. 

- The basic policy about what hair they can remove is pretty simple - if they can see it and get to it, they can zap it.  So they will do hairlines, faces, arms, legs, backs, chests, genitals, inside noses, ears, you name it, they've probably zapped it!

- They have a nurse on-site who can administer lidocaine injections - a mandatory thing in my never to be humble opinion.

- The office is super clean, with a highly sanitary work environment.

- Parking is super easy even with it being in Beverly Hills - it is right across a small street.  You park, go down an elevator, hop across the street, go up 1 flight of stairs and boom you're there.  I frequently pass nobody, and at most it may be four or five people.

- Scheduling is a challenge, because they are SO good at what they do.  Currently I am scheduled until June!  So, they are worth the effort and wait!!  Obviously, because they are so busy right?  Well duh!  Anybody who is going to fit you in tomorrow when you call today is probably not someone you want to go to.

- They will do marathon appointments, with two electrologists.  Which is great for out of town folk.  My longest appointments have been 6 hours with two people, which equals 12 hours of work!!

- With the photo on the right, from today, I just had my last treatment last weekend.  The swelling took about 4 days to go down.  This was the 4th time my face was fully cleared.  In about two weeks or so, I will have some of the hairs return for another round of zapping.

Okay.  So, I think that is the basic lowdown.  Other than that, the ladies working there are super friendly.  They make a tough day a very enjoyable one.  I am super appreciative of the hard work that they do and the high quality of work I have had.  How many issues have I had with scabs and scarring, ummmm, NONE!!!!  None at all, not one issue.  And they are using some super zapping equipment as well.  I have no idea what it is, but apparently their machines are the bomb!

What else can I say????  How about some personal tips???

- Don't expect to go in, have your hair zapped off, and then to go out on the ton later that night, or even the next few days.  I have been going now for eight months, the last time was a full face zapping, my swelling lasted for about 4 days.

- Find a licensed electrologist.  Do not skimp on quality.  Especially if they are working on your face.  You want the best!  Some states do not require electrologists to be licensed, anyone can do it.  Ummm.... yikes!  That is scary.

- Be willing to pay for and wait for experience.  You want someone who knows what they are doing.

- Treat your electrologist well!  I know it hurts, but they are doing you a favor!  It is hard work that they are doing, and you being an emotional basket case makes the experience worse for everyone involved.

- Be prepared for the long haul.  This is not a quick road to travel.  Electrolysis is the only proven method of permanently removing unwanted hair.  But it will take you about one to two years to get it all done.

Hair Removal IPL Update - 1 Year Later

LumaRX - IPL - From Amazon

It has been about a year since I updated you all on my hair removal progress.  Mostly that has been because over the last summer I stopped using it as you are not supposed to use it if you are getting a tan, and with all of my outdoor activities I generally do tan quite a bit.  Thus I stopped for the summer, but I had fully intended to continue using it once my tan faded.

Alas, life got in the way and I did not zap myself nearly as much as I would have liked over this past winter.  And what do we have quickly approaching us again?  Yup summer!

Well, even though that bothered me a bit and I was quite annoyed with myself that I didn't do it more, I realized that really said something about the effectiveness of this product.  I only used it on my body maybe three or four times last year and the resulting hair growth was so minimal that it really didn't bug me that much.  Oh sure, I still have hair growing where I would prefer to not have hair growing, but it is seriously diminished.  So much so that it doesn't bother me nearly as much as it did when I originally began this adventure.

The Good:
- My arms are almost basically hairless.  I still shave them but I often wonder why as I generally don't even see hair on them.  That is fantastic!  I really don't even feel stubble on them anymore.  Woo-Hoo!!  So on the arms this was fantastic!

- My chest is also almost hairless.  It does still grow hair that I notice, but gosh not nearly as much as it used to.  I generally go about a week between shaves now, and even then it is super sparse and not nearly as noticeable as it used to be.

The Medium:
- My lower legs are doing well, but they are still growing quite a bit of hair, maybe about half of what they used to, but it is a good result.

The Not So Good:
- My upper thighs and bikini line still have most of the hair.  But admittedly this is one of the hardest areas for me to zap well.  Thus I haven't done it as much as my chest, which was really the most annoying area for me.

- My belly still has most of the hairs growing.  This area does annoy me and is generally the impetus for me shaving my chest/belly each week.  The small fine hairs grow out, form stubble, and then proceed to poke me.  Annoying.

- Arm pits - I haven't noticed much hair diminishing from this area at all.

The machine itself:
- I have not used any other IPL machines, but this is a quality product that has held up well over the past year.  It is still delivering good light zaps.

- This machine requires a large amount of pull from the electrical system in your house.  I have had some difficulties with the machine beeping to me indicating that it can't draw the required voltage from the wiring.  Most of my home circuits are 15 amp rated and it quickly heats up those lines and the machine wont function.  It works better on the 20 amp lines I have.  But even then, with trying to zap your entire body in one sitting, the machine itself will heat up and will beep and will not function anymore.  This generally takes about an hour or two to occur, but it is still kind of annoying.  Considering how much electricity it takes to operate I don't know if any other machine would function much better than this one.  Maybe if there is a more "professional" level of machine it would handle more zapping at one sitting before over heating.  Who knows?  I don't!

Overall, I am super happy with this purchase and I think it was well worth the money when you consider the costs of doing this in a professional setting and having to pay somebody else.  I also like the convenience of pulling it out whenever I want.

Okie Dokie!

Love you!

Love yourself!

Boo-hiss body hair!!  Well at least to me.  Maybe if you are FtM, then you love body hair and want more.  Can I give you mine?

IPL Hair Removal - Update

Here we have a picture of my chest.  This photo was taken at two weeks after shaving.  Does it look hairy to you?  Yeah, it looks pretty hair free to me as well.  If you zoom in on it a bit you might be able to spot the hairs that still remain.  But hey, that is pretty darn near hair free huh?

On this photo you can more easily see the remaining hairs in my armpit.  Again this photo was taken two weeks after the last time that I shaved.

Overall I am very impressed with the results of my IPL experiment.  In total I have zapped myself about 4 or 5 times.  The directions are that you are supposed to wait 2 weeks between zaps.  I have followed those directions for the most part.  From the start til now I could probably have zapped it a few more times, but I have been lazy!

From Amazon

I don't know if you can tell from my photos, but I have multicolored body hair and that is a problem for IPL hair removal.  The darker hairs have been pretty much entirely removed, but the lighter colored hairs are still there.  But I don't mind the lighter colored hairs so much.  It really is the darker ones that really bug me.

I have been using the LumaRX IPL Hair removal system as an experiment, trying to decide if the 4-5 hundred dollar investment is really worth it.  And my overall opinion???????  YES, it is SO worth it.  I will then obviously keep this unit and I will continue to zap away at some of the more difficult stragglers.  I will keep you updated!!

Love ya!  

Oh...... I did want to say, that overall my goal is a total hair free body, and that is not what I have achieved so far, nor do I think that I will ever actually achieve that state.  With all of the light colored hairs it may very well prove an impossibility.  But, the hair loss I have achieved is very much worth the cost.  As well, if you are considering going to a professional, and your skin and hair is the right type, this is well worth the investment.  If you buy this and use it first, before going to professional route, there will be far fewer hairs for the professional to attack.  So.... to me.... it is totally worth it.

Hate hair!

Well unless you love hair, then Love hair!

But for me, hate hair!

Well...... hate body hair...... I would LOVE my natural head hair back again...... oh so sad it had to depart from my life...... booooo-hooooo-hooooo!!!

Loves!

Update #2 - IPL Hair Removal

From Amazon

Unfortunately I have been very lax in updating my hair removal attempts as I have actually been experiencing them.  Ahh what great plans I have and then I watch as they slowly fade into the past never to be seen again!!!  Time, you are such a never ending _________!!!!

Okay so anyway.....  I gave you my first impressions after using this device for the first time.  Since then I have used it several more times, so I will try and give at least a brief overview of everything from the first time until now.

Two weeks after the first use:
     The directions clearly state that during the first two weeks following the use that not much hair loss will be visible.  That was true.  I didn't really notice much, until I went to shave again before the second use.  I didn't shave at all during that time, just my choice, and I noticed a significantly less amount of hair growth occurring.  Most of my hair was still growing, but I did not less, and what was growing was growing far slower than untreated areas.  As well, shaving was far easier than it should have been for two weeks worth of growth.  It was more like just a few days worth of growth.  Thus my shaving time was greatly reduced!!!  Yay!  First positive signs that this pricey item is actually working!!

Second use:
     This was fairly similar than the first time, except now I knew what to expect.  It went fairly well.  But I did notice that this machine does not like operating on the highest setting for more than about 30-40 minutes before it overheats.  Which is not necessarily a bad thing.  I get a bit tired after zapping myself for about a half an hour anyway.  Generally what happens, when it overheats, is that it begins to make an odd beeping noise.  I have to turn it off and let it sit for an hour or so.  A fan on it helps it to cool off.  Other than that, this time went pretty smoothly.  It did hurt here and there, but generally only occasional spots were sensitive.

Two weeks after second use:
      Nothing dramatic happened.  :(   I was kind of hoping to see a huge difference in the amount of hair I have, but unfortunately I did not see that.  What did I see?  A continued lessening of the amount of hair growing and continued slow growth.  At this point I would say maybe about half of my hairs are still growing.

Third use:
      About the same as the first two.  I was better at using the machine.  I spent more time making sure that I went over every area well.  The first couple of times I was very worried about too much overlap and zapping an area too many times.  This time I had much more overlap between the areas that I zapped.  I had no adverse reactions.  As well, I should mention a bit a personal info.  I hate the hair around my nipples, but they are quite dark.  Far darker than what is recommended for the machine.  I took a deep breath and placed the machine slightly overlapping one of my nipples and zapped it.  Nothing bad happened.  It felt just like every other area.  So I did all around my nipples.

Two weeks after the third use:
       According to the directions, this should be when the user becomes just about hair free!  Yay, hair free!!!  Boo-Hiss!!! I am NOT hair free!!  Bummer!  Supposedly, at this point I should be hair free and only need maintenance use.  Well apparently, they did not mean people like me!  I have significantly less hair growth now.  Some area, like my forearms are almost entirely hair free.  My calves are also almost hair free.  Other areas - my arms pits - about 50% reduction in hair.  My chest - about 75% reduction in hair, yay!!!  My stomach - about 50% reduction in hair.  My thighs - about 50% reduction in hair.

Conclusions:
       I purchased this machine for about $400!!  Yikes!!  I decided to do it and test it out during the 90 day trial period and then evaluate if I would keep it or return it.  Conclusion?  I am going to keep the machine.  It is working, and I have hope that with continued efforts I will get better and better results.

A few points to ponder:
-  I have multicolored hair.  Some of my hair is dark, some is medium, and some is super light blond.  The machine is not designed to remove lighter colored hair, thus I may not ever get perfect hairless results.

-  I think I did not overlap the zaps enough to make sure I got every single area of my skin covered during the first two attempts.  It does not bother my skin to overlap the zapped areas.  The machine says to just make sure you move the machine between zaps and that some overlap is fine.  I will continue to use this method.

-  I think male hair is super resilient!  It does not want to go away!  Now then why can't I get the damn stuff to grow on my head!!  Ugh!!

- I have not experienced much skin sensitivity or problems with use.  My skin is a bit tender for the day and one or two after using it.  I have experienced an uptick in the amount of ingrown hairs I am getting on my legs.  Which is annoying, but helped by applications of PFB Vanish.


Afterwards:
      I have now zapped my body a fourth time and am waiting the suggested two weeks before doing it again.  I am going to keep moving forward and zapping those darn little hairs, hoping they will all go the F--- away!!

Okay, I am off!

Love you!

Hate body hair!

Okay, well I hate body hair!  You can do what please you!  Maybe you are FtM and are wanting some more body hair??  You can have mine if we can figure out how to transfer it!

Love you!

Thank you readers!  I am blessed to have you!

Zap-Zap!!


Photos:
By User:Rockpocket (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
By I, Genesis89, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2380990
https://www.flickr.com/photos/madebytess/8340755246