Electrolysis Case Study 1 – Female With Coarse Chin Hair

FINALLY, after years of begging and pleading, I was looking down at a good friend under my microscope. Jennifer had been pulling out her chin hair for years. Notice I didn’t say tweezing. That would be a beauty regime and she eschews those, so whenever she was bored she gave those hairs a good yank and was sometimes rewarded with a big juicy root – “My favourite ones!”, as she said.

Jennifer continued to tug, although I admonished her to stop, for years; her own mother has practically a full beard after decades of daily tweezing but Jennifer still wouldn’t come in for a treatment because the hair didn’t bother her that much.

What really surprised me though is that after all the years of watching me practice, develop and refine my technique she still said to me, “It’s ok if comes back, I don’t care.” Actually even before we agreed to an appointment she said something even more offensive, she said to me, “You mean it’s really permanent?”

Sigh.

This is the single biggest hurdle electrologists face. No one believes us when we tell the truth that, yes, electrolysis is permanent hair removal. If my own best friend can’t believe it, who will?

It will take a few months before she realizes that I indeed provide permanent hair removal. Actually she might even be mad because I will have taken away her habit of pulling at her chin hairs while she’s in traffic or chatting on the phone. If she takes up smoking instead, I’ll never forgive myself!

Anyway, here is Jennifer’s chin prior to treatment.

Coarse hair on female chin prior to treatment with electrolysis permanent hair removal

The funny thing is that the only reason I could treat Jennifer is because she had a broken leg and she couldn’t move! I was able to bring my equipment to her and, although it wasn’t comfortable for either of us, I treated only the very coarse chin hairs while she reclined on her sofa.

To the left below is an image of the same area 2 months later.

Two coarse hairs remain. There are other dark hairs but they’re not obvious under normal conditions(this image is magnified 400%), and I treated only the coarsest hairs. In fact, I think those 2 remaining hairs would have been gone had they been treated properly. They were the first 2 hairs treated during Jennifer’s first ever electrolysis treatment. Both times I inserted she jerked her head to talk to someone sitting on her right and I had to tell her, “DON’T MOVE YOUR HEAD, YOU TWITCHED ME RIGHT OUT OF THE FOLLICLE!!!”

Electrolysis Case Study – Coarse Chin Hair 2 months on

I’m pleased with the treatment and I think Jennifer is as well. She told me she keeps going to stroke the hairs (remember it was her nervous habit) and now there’s nothing there!

Recently I treated 4 hairs on Jennifer’s chin (Sorry for the bad image quality on this one I forgot my camera). Her chin has vastly improved from when I started treating her and she is no longer tempted to tug the few hairs she has left. I treated these 4 hairs using straight galvanic current because given that I was working without my microscope (I travelled to her with my machine because she is still not fully mobile after her leg injury) I couldn’t be certain I was making an exact insertion, as well they are very coarse hairs that would benefit from the slower, but highly effective method of manual electrolysis.

Coarse chin hair prior to appointment at 6 month mark.

Electrolysis Case Study 2 – Post-Menopausal Female With Very Coarse Facial Hair

Pictured below is Vivian, 60, who has tweezed her face and neck almost daily since her 30s. At the beginning of our treatments in May 2013 the hair on Vivian’s neck was extremely coarse, while the chin, cheeks and upper lip were a mix of very coarse, colourless hair and thick black hairs. During the first few months of treatment most of Vivian’s hair was not yet at the surface so she had a lot of ingrowns coming up throughout April, May and June.

Electrolysis Case Study – Vivian’s upper lip, chin and neck immediately following 45 minutes of electrolysis. Redness and swelling are common side effects and generally subside within 24 hours.

According to Vivian, her skin is sensitive to stimulation and becomes temporarily inflamed after cleansing or scratching. Prior to discovering Follikill, she spent 4 years doing weekly thermolysis treatments with an untrained practitioner who left her skin oozing pus and a bit of blood, and even worse, left her with the same density of hair growth after 4 years.

Oozing pus and/or blood on a regular basis is not a normal post-treatment reaction. If it happens once or twice in a few follicles then there is no cause for concern but it it’s not something you should expect from a series of electrolysis treatments.

Electrolysis Case Study – Vivian 4 days post treatment

By the time this image was taken I had treated Vivian about 5 times – or about 7 hours total over 7 weeks. Attached is picture taken 4 days after I treated her treatment (the image above was taken on the treatment day). As you can see her skin is no longer inflamed and the redness has subsided. There is no evidence of electrolysis anywhere. This is the ideal reaction for the face (the body responds differently as you will see in my next case study). After the initial swelling and redness in the few hours after treatment, there should be little to no evidence that the treatment was done.

electrolysis case study – 4 days post treatment

If you do have a stronger reaction, that is no reason to fire your electrologist. Sometimes a stronger reaction may happen in a few follicles where the hair was particularly resistant or where an ingrown was released. In general, however, facial skin that stays inflamed, oozes fluid or develops scabs has either been overtreated (energy level is too high or you worked too long in a particular area) or the insertions by the electrologist were really bad.

If this worst case scenario happens to you, don’t worry it will be ok. Your skin will recover provided that you give it the time and gentle care it needs to heal.

Electrolysis Case Study – Progress At 4 Months

When I started working on Vivian in May 2013 she had fairly heavy hair growth under her chin and a moderate amount of hair on her chin, jawline and upper lip. A significant percentage of Vivian’s hair was coarse, white hair and it was the same texture as a man’s beard.

Although I met with Vivian on an irregular basis over the first 4 months of her treatment she made fantastic progress. I attribute this progress to the fact that she followed my advice and stopped tweezing completely. In between appointments she trimmed her hair with a moustache trimmer and she exfoliated her skin regularly.

Throughout May and June I saw Vivian 6 times total. I saw her twice in July and not at all until September 9th. Back in May and June when I was treating Vivian once a week there was a lot of bristly hair on her face. When I looked through the microscope at her neck last Monday I saw about one dozen hairs, whereas 4 months ago there had been a hundred or more at least. On her upper lip and chin she had quite a few ingrown hairs back in May, yet last week only a few ingrowns remained along with the finer hair on her upper lip, chin and jawline.

Prior to seeing me, Vivian visited a spa where she paid $100/hr for electrolysis that did not work. For 4 years Vivian paid for a once weekly appointment and yet she saw no reduction in the density of hair growth. Absolutely none.

Vivian herself said that after the roughly 10 hours of treatment with me she no longer thinks about her facial hair because she can see the reduction in growth and the improvement in the feeling of her skin. Although Vivian will still see me for at least 6 months we’ve come through the most difficult part of her treatment. For the next 6-8 months her appointments will start decreasing in time and frequency because there just won’t be any more hair to treat.

Although you can’t see much in this pic, here is Vivian after last week’s treatment when we spent about 30 minutes on her chin and upper lip.

Electrolysis Case Study – Vivian immediately after electrolysis treatment on the chin and upper lip.

Electrolysis Case Study – Vivian’s Progress At 7 Months

When I first met Vivian in spring 2013 I assured her that she would see results at about the 6 month mark if she kept up with regular appointments and stopped tweezing from that day forward. She complied with the second request although her busy work schedule turned her initial weekly appointment into a monthly one. When I saw her in late November 2013 I was very pleased with her results. Although her appointments have been inconsistent in the past few months, the fact that she has refrained from all tweezing means that we still see real progress. Check out her chin below:

Electrolysis Case Study – Vivian’s chin prior to treatment at 7 month mark

You can see a few dark hairs and at least one coarse white hair, but there is far less than there was 7 months ago (I will not treat the vellus hairs that are visible in the image as they are unnoticeable except under magnification). At the beginning Vivian had a lot of ingrowns that looked like the second image below.

Black dots on Vivian’s skin show ingrowns.

There were many black dots visible under the skin in the early months and Vivian’s face felt quite “bristly” (her word). Although there is still a bit of hair on the neck and the chin it is the finer growth that we see more of now. I treated the coarse white hair during the first few months because that was what gave her the most trouble in terms of the feel of her skin as well as the time it took to tweeze it out. Within another 6 months Vivian will most likely have just the odd hair here and there provided she keeps up with her appointments and doesn’t go back to tweezing.

The funny thing is that Vivian was so used to seeing no progress from her previous electrolysis treatments, she is unconvinced that this finer growth is the result of my treatments. She insists her hair is in hibernation for the winter! Although the hair does grow more slowly in the cooler winter months, the type of hair reduction Vivian has achieved is the result of effective treatment with electrolysis. Accurate insertions and a healthy dose of current will allow you to see these results too.

Update May 2014: I will see Vivian in June and have another update soon.

Electrolysis Case Study – Bikini Line

Tina came to me to finish her bikini line after a round of laser treatments she had done 2 years before she started electrolysis with me. She said that laser had produced some bald patches on her bikini line, but that she had also experienced some regrowth in areas that were previously clear. I first saw her in September 2013 and we worked to clear every little hair visible through my microscope. 3 months later we did the same with the stray hairs that remained. At 8 months there isn’t any visible hair and the area feels smooth to the touch. The bikini line (and underarms) are 2 areas of the body that can see dramatic results very quickly.

Bikini line prior to thermolysis treatment

Bikini line 3 months after electrolysis hair removal

Bikini line 8 months after first electrolysis treatment