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Pros and Cons of Electrolysis Hair Removal

Endi Prayi, B.S Last updated January 25, 2014
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The benefits of using electrolysis hair removal (EHR) include:

  1. The chance of providing a permanent hair removal is great. Even the FDA has approved EHR as a permanent method of removing unwanted hair [3].
  2. It can work for all almost areas of the body where unwanted hair can grow such as legs, chest, back, neck, arms, abdomen, shoulder, sideburns, bikini line, and even small areas on the face (like hairline, eyebrows, lower/ upper lips, chin, a specific area between eyebrows, and cheeks).
  3. It can directly target the hair follicle without harming skin or pigment of the skin. Therefore, for people who cannot take laser hair removal due to certain reasons, EHR can be an alternative option.

The drawbacks include:

  1. EHR is not practical and more expensive than other practical choices such as with waxing. Though there are some products of EHR for home use, but they are typically not safe. In other words, you cannot do it on your own! You need to see a professional electrologist to perform it!
  2. Furthermore, the process can be slow. The process for each follicle to completely fall out can take about 1-20 seconds or more. In general, each treatment session can take about 15-60 minutes.
  3. Like in Laser hair removal, you usually need to perform several treatment sessions of EHR to get the permanent result.
  4. Though EHR can be used to remove unwanted hair from all almost sites of the body, it cannot be used for hairs inside nose or ears. It is also not recommended to remove hairs from a birthmark /mole!
  5. It poses few risks – even in a healthy person! For instance, you can feel mild pain during treatment due to the electrical current flow! Then your skin may also get redness or inflammation after the treatment, but fortunately these are usually temporary!
  6. There is also a chance to have skin color change, scarring, or keloid scars after treatment – particularly if EHR is not done correctly. For this reason, again it’s important to make sure you choose the right person to perform EHR!
  7. And typically, it is more difficult to perform EHR on area of the skin with bent follicles. Bent hair follicles usually occur due to other hair removal methods such as previous tweezing or waxing.

The major checklists you need to concern before taking EHR!

Although electrolyte hair removal has good track record in removing unwanted hair, but in fact it doesn’t always work as well as you expect. To make sure that it works well and meets to what you expect, just remember the following major checklist!

Find the testimonials around you!

Your friends and family can be the starting point to find the best electrologist in your local area. Ask them whether they have experience in using EHR. If necessary, ask your GP /doctor – he /she may also have a best recommendation!

Observe the professional’s qualifications!

A professional electrologist must obtain the certification and license to be qualified to practice and perform EHR. And many states have had regulation about this issue. So, make sure to check the certificate of electrologist is on display and current.

If you live in a state that doesn’t regulate the practice of EHR, choosing an electrologist who has certification from a qualified & accredited electrology academy is also helpful to reduce your chance of making a wrong choice!

Make sure the practitioner does the procedure correctly!

The major concern about this issue is usually about the kind of needle electrolysis. There are some practitioners that use only electronic tweezers. This technique is not the permanent procedure for hair removal.

Instead, make sure your practitioner only uses ‘needle electrolysis’. The FDA only recognizes it as a permanent form of hair removal!

Explore the free consultation service!

There are many places that offer free consultation. Though this is free service, but a good company should not ignore it.

In a session of this consultation, make sure they can answer all of your questions! The following are some major questions you need to ask:

  1. What are procedures you need to take before, during, and after treatment?
  2. About the chance of getting a permanent result!
  3. How many times or visits you need to take the treatment?
  4. About the cost of each visit or each session treatment!
  5. How long does each session last?
  6. About the history of electrologist and how long he /she has been in this business.
  7. Ask also about the number of visitors (particularly clients – not all visitors are client) that she /he has treated!

What else you need to concern?

It’s also recommended to look around when you make an appointment for free consultation. Observe anything that can be a reason for why you should ‘choose’ or ‘not choose’ them. These include:

  1. The cleanliness of the place and workers – do they look clean?
  2. Observe also about the equipment that they use! For instance, do they utilize disposable needles /gloves?
  3. Meet a professional that will perform EHR! Does actually he /she look professional? Do you feel comfort with him /her?
  4. Etc.
Citations /references:

  1. http://health.howstuffworks.com/skin-care/beauty/hair-removal/electrolysis-hair-removal2.htm
  2. http://hairremoval.about.com/od/electrolysis/a/Electrolysis101.htm
  3. http://www.webmd.com/beauty/hair-removal/cosmetic-procedures-electrolysis

All of these citations accessed on Jan 2014

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