General Electrolysis Info
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Q: How does electrolysis work?
A: The electrologist inserts a metal filament into each hair follicle, uses electricity to heat up the tissue, and permanently kills the hair. I then tweeze the hair out.
Q: How should I prepare for a session?
A: Let the hair grow out long enough that it can be plucked with a tweezer. A couple millimeters / a couple days of growth is usually enough. Check out my Before / After Care page for more details!
Q: Is it painful? If so, how can I ease the pain?
A: Almost all of my clients express after their first session that it’s far from being as painful as they had imagined. You can expect some pain, but it varies vastly based on client’s pain tolerance, area of treatment, length of treatment, and so on.
In order to make treatments as easeful as possible, I usually advise getting prescription-strength prilocaine-lidocaine (numbing ointment) from your primary care physician or elsewhere online. I recommend putting the numbing cream on about 30 min prior to the session and covering the skin in Saran wrap so it absorbs fully. Applied correctly, you should feel essentially no sensation in the area during treatment.
Q: How many sessions will it take electrolysis take to clear my hair?
A: Everyone has a different number of hair follicles, so it varies vastly person-to-person, and depends on what area we’re treating. We’ll discuss on our introductory session the time-scale for your personal goals.
Keep in mind, permanent hair removal does not happen overnight. It takes years of committment to remove all of a trans woman’s facial hair, and it is an investment. Think of it more as therapy—a weekly process that only yields results over the course of a long period time. But with weekly one-hour sessions, you can expect a noticeable decrease in hair density within a few months.
For a trans woman, clearing one’s facial hair generally takes between 30–100 hours over the course of years, but some people require as long as 150 hours. This depends on the density of the follicles, whether/when you started HRT, etc.
Q: What’s the difference between laser and electrolysis?
A: Laser and electrolysis can both be used as tools in a trans woman’s transition timeline to remove her hair, but it depends person-to-person what the most effective strategy might be. Schedule a consultation to discuss how to best achieve your own goals.
Electrolysis is the only FDA-approved “permanent” hair removal method—all other hair removal methods, including laser, are legally considered temporary “hair reduction.” Because electrolysis physically accesses the root of each single hair, it delivers heat more directly to provide a higher follicle kill-rate than other methods. It is equally effective on all skin and hair types.
Laser was created to be less invasive and treat wide patches of skin far more efficiently than electrolysis. However, the tradeoff is that its efficacy varies depending on skin tone and hair color and it provides a lower follicle kill-rate (some of the hair is only made dormant and will return later on).
In short, you can think of laser as a bigger, weaker, faster brush and of electrolysis as a smaller, stronger, and more meticulous brush. Both of these methods can potentially have a place in your hair removal journey.
Q: I thought electrolysis was permanent, but the hair grew back?
A: This is a misconception. Hair grows in cycles. The hair visible on your face at any one time is only a small fraction of the follicles in the area. Even when you kill all the visible hair in an area of skin, just as many dormant follicles will go into an active phase and start growing in over the following weeks / months.
So yes, the longer you go without your next electrolysis session, the more dormant hairs there will be activating and growing in. These are new hairs that haven’t been treated yet.
Q: Where can I learn more?
A: For some general advice on transgender electrolysis, try this:
Transgender Map Electrolysis Info
For general info: Hair Free Life Guide
Q: Do I have any health conditions that might be an issue for electrolysis?
If you have hemophilia, diabetes, a heart condition, pace-maker, high blood pressure, take blood-thinning medication, or are pregnant, you should talk to your primary care physician before starting electrolysis treatment