Now as I said when I wrote about LHR, quite a bit of what I write about in general tends to be "Your Mileage May Vary" (YMMV). The same can be said for a great many things in life, but when it comes to transitioning, it seems to me to be even more common. Now I don't feel that electrolysis falls as much at the far end of the YMMV spectrum as LHR does, but experiences will DEFINITELY vary - and likely a lot. Anyone else's experience may be better, may be worse, but in all likelihood different.
As with LHR there are definitely some pros and cons - let's touch on a couple of each:
- Pro - is generally considered the only "permanent hair removal option", though some dispute that.
- Con - works one hair at a time so it's far more tedious than LHR.
- Pro - skin/hair colors aren't an issue like they are with most (virtually all?) LHR techniques.
- Con - unlike laser which works best with a good clean shave, electrolysis needs some hair growth. In my case that was at least 2 days, but 3 was better.
So beyond those couple of pros/cons, what else should be considered? Well among those things, at least for most of us who are transitioning, would be cost. As with LHR, there are definitely variances in cost; though at least in my area it wasn't as big of a variance, most places averaged about $1/minute at least if you were doing 30 or 60 minute blocks. Where I ended up going the numbers worked out to pretty much exactly $1/minute PLUS $5 which seemed reasonable in my research and truthfully the place was recommended by the tech who handled my LHR. Obviously that could be a pro or a con, but I trust her and thought her recommendation was a good one.
For me, time was also a big consideration as even the best technicians can only do so many individual hairs per minute whereas the laser can hit a pretty good sized area in that same time. Now for the LHR on my face we were doing it every few weeks so when I switched to electrolysis I was doing several sessions in the same time frame. Now this mean that the electrolysis was costing me more than the LHR but it was in smaller chunks so in some ways it was nicer. However, that also means more lost time commuting to/from the sessions.
As with LHR, a big consideration, especially for those that are full-time, is scheduling. For me, and I suspect many, electrolysis is a bigger concern with this since you do need some hair growth. As I work from home some might think what is the big deal? Well as I needed a good 2 days of growth it meant I really had little chance of passing on those two days before a session. This could be mitigated somewhat by scheduling on the weekend, but those appointments often aren't easy to come by depending upon where you are going. Additionally for me, my face didn't take electrolysis as well as it did LHR so for a couple of days afterwards I really couldn't do makeup or go out and expect to pass. Well put those together with more or less weekly appointments and I wasn't getting out very much. I'm not complaining, just passing along *my experience*. And before someone says it, *no* - I do *not* believe it was an issue with my technician or her technique. I firmly believe it was simply my face. I'm not trying to be discouraging, rather just trying to convey *my personal experience*. I'd make the same decision over again if that helps.
The last consideration I want to touch on is pain. Now this one really varies from person to person but for me electrolysis was *far more painful* than LHR. Now before anyone leaps to conclusions it was NOT an apples to apples comparison. In the case of LHR the facial session(s) were much quicker than electrolysis. LHR was maybe 10 minutes for my face (usually less); and my electrolysis was anywhere from 30-60 minutes. Even if the pain would have been equal to start with, putting up with it for <10 minutes versus 30-60 minutes - well most of us are going to wear down. Secondly, the longer time of the session meant the numbing cream would be less effective by the end of the electrolysis than it would be for LHR. Additionally for electrolysis I was applying it myself before heading into the session and for LHR I was arriving early and they were doing it. Perhaps it could have been handled the same way for electrolysis, but I didn't ask as I started having my Doctor prescribe the cream and paying my co-pay ($4 I believe) in lieu of getting it from the LHR place when I went there were it ran me "their cost" (or at least that's what they profess and I have no reason to not believe them) which was something like $45. I'm sure I wasn't as effective doing it myself and considering my drive time to my electrolysis appointments, sometimes it was on earlier than it should have been and sometimes I did a less than stellar job with the plastic wrap over it.
For me, time was also a big consideration as even the best technicians can only do so many individual hairs per minute whereas the laser can hit a pretty good sized area in that same time. Now for the LHR on my face we were doing it every few weeks so when I switched to electrolysis I was doing several sessions in the same time frame. Now this mean that the electrolysis was costing me more than the LHR but it was in smaller chunks so in some ways it was nicer. However, that also means more lost time commuting to/from the sessions.
As with LHR, a big consideration, especially for those that are full-time, is scheduling. For me, and I suspect many, electrolysis is a bigger concern with this since you do need some hair growth. As I work from home some might think what is the big deal? Well as I needed a good 2 days of growth it meant I really had little chance of passing on those two days before a session. This could be mitigated somewhat by scheduling on the weekend, but those appointments often aren't easy to come by depending upon where you are going. Additionally for me, my face didn't take electrolysis as well as it did LHR so for a couple of days afterwards I really couldn't do makeup or go out and expect to pass. Well put those together with more or less weekly appointments and I wasn't getting out very much. I'm not complaining, just passing along *my experience*. And before someone says it, *no* - I do *not* believe it was an issue with my technician or her technique. I firmly believe it was simply my face. I'm not trying to be discouraging, rather just trying to convey *my personal experience*. I'd make the same decision over again if that helps.
The last consideration I want to touch on is pain. Now this one really varies from person to person but for me electrolysis was *far more painful* than LHR. Now before anyone leaps to conclusions it was NOT an apples to apples comparison. In the case of LHR the facial session(s) were much quicker than electrolysis. LHR was maybe 10 minutes for my face (usually less); and my electrolysis was anywhere from 30-60 minutes. Even if the pain would have been equal to start with, putting up with it for <10 minutes versus 30-60 minutes - well most of us are going to wear down. Secondly, the longer time of the session meant the numbing cream would be less effective by the end of the electrolysis than it would be for LHR. Additionally for electrolysis I was applying it myself before heading into the session and for LHR I was arriving early and they were doing it. Perhaps it could have been handled the same way for electrolysis, but I didn't ask as I started having my Doctor prescribe the cream and paying my co-pay ($4 I believe) in lieu of getting it from the LHR place when I went there were it ran me "their cost" (or at least that's what they profess and I have no reason to not believe them) which was something like $45. I'm sure I wasn't as effective doing it myself and considering my drive time to my electrolysis appointments, sometimes it was on earlier than it should have been and sometimes I did a less than stellar job with the plastic wrap over it.
As I did with LHR, I won't really delve into the actual process, though if anyone wants a "play by play", simply drop me an email. However, I do still want to make a few points based upon my experiences and questions I've seen elsewhere. I'm going to do this in sort of a Q&A format as I did with some of the other posts in this series. And again, these are my experiences, YMMV.
- Does it hurt?
Again, as with LHR I've ran across people that maintain it doesn't hurt at all. *I* on the other hand think it hurts *a lot* - even more than LHR. Though I've seen people who say if it's done right it really doesn't hurt. I'll say the same here as I did in the LHR post - good for them, but I don't think that's a general statement for the majority of us. I'd recommend being prepared for some pain and if per chance it doesn't hurt for you - then awesome. But going in expecting it to be painless because it was for someone else is just begging to disappoint you.
- What can I do about the pain?
Well, as with LHR I did my first session without anything - and as with LHR I regretted that a bit - though I stand by the choice as I felt I needed to know what it felt like without anything to determine what I could/should do about it. Again, as with LHR I opted for the Lidocaine numbing cream for my face and that helps; sometimes more than others - generally if my appointments were on the weekends or later in the day where work wasn't an issue I seemed to do a better job with it and it worked better. Regardless, there are some areas that were just horrible regardless. The upper lip, especially closer to the nose for me was *really* bad. The other place that was really bad for me was the lip line - think where you'd like lip liner. Now ironically enough for me, the one place it really didn't hurt me at all was also on the lip line, but right at each corner of my mouth. I barely felt those - with or without the cream. A
- How many sessions will it take?
*A LOT OF THEM!* Seriously this is a hair by hair process and unless you are blessed with little to no hair either naturally or via LHR, it's going to take a while. As with many others, if LHR can work for you I would *strongly* recommend it first to get what it can and then use electrolysis to "clean things up".
- I need/want to have my "private parts" done, how can I deal with showing them to someone?
The answer for this to me is the same as the one I gave for LHR, so I'll leave that below. That being said I did *not* have any electrolysis done "down there". I can't imagine how painful it would be *for me* based upon my face. As I've mentioned elsewhere, I did have some LHR done down there, but frankly when/if I approach surgery I will seek a surgeon that does not require hair removal down there. Yes a lot of mine is gone, and yes I might regret that choice, but I simply couldn't continue to deal with the pain from LHR and I shudder at what electrolysis might have felt like down there.
I'm the first to admit that I don't have a whole lot of dysphoria at all, much less about what "equipment" I currently have. That being said, I definitely understand where the question comes from. For me, it was actually more stressful broaching the subject with my LHR tech than it has been actually having the process done. But even with that being the case I won't say it doesn't bother me at least a little to have the procedure done. Now I realize I don't technically have to as many SRS surgeons don't require it, but the ones I've seriously looked at do recommend it; so I see this as something that needs to happen and while it is a touch uncomfortable for me, it's simply another check box to mark off so I deal with it. Regardless of that my technician is wonderful, and frankly I'm pretty sure she's seen it all. I can't/won't tell anyone else how to handle their business, but I will say that sometimes we simply have to do things that we may not like in order to accomplish what we want and I see this as one of those things. If you really and truly cannot bring yourself to have LHR or electrolysis down there, then perhaps you can opt for a surgeon who doesn't need/want that done; but if your surgeon does recommend or require it, then - well it is what it is.
- Can I do this at home?
I've seen people ask this and perhaps they can, but I don't see how you could do it on yourself very well, but that's simply *my opinion*. I'm not sure I'd chance it though as everything I've read says that you can scar easily from electrolysis if it's not done right so is it really worth the chance of that? It wasn't for me, but each of us has to make our own decisions, so if you feel it is, please be careful.
As always dissenting viewpoints are welcome; I realize that this topic lends itself to that even more than most of my posts. Either way these are my thoughts and experiences when it comes to electrolysis and in some areas how I feel it contrasts to LHR. As always thanks for reading.
I do have one more thing to say. As you can tell if you visit here much, I haven't posted in months (I think it's nearly 8 months now). There are many reasons for that and one of them almost led me to take down the blog. I'm not going to do that as it does still get enough visits I think it might be helpful to some. However, it's not going to be overly active going forward. I'll still post certain things here, but my intention is to start another blog here that focuses more on things I enjoy. That would be be mainly cooking, our pets, and probably some reviews on things and businesses; with a little bit of other things sprinkled in from time to time such as something I might have read or a game that I'm enjoying, and so on. That was really what I had originally intended when I first decided to start a blog; it just happened that my transition started about the same time and it was easy to write about that and I hoped I could share some things that might help others or at least be found useful. But for the most part that has ran it's course, though I'll still post here from time to time. Thanks to those of you who have read this over the years and hopefully you'll pop in from time to time to either see what I have posted here or perhaps to read the new (as of yet un-named) blog that I'll be working on shortly.
- M
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