Id be worried about the scarring, I never had anything close to scarring with blend electro... Never any bleeding either and so far there aint much hair coming back

I donno Id at least ask them about scaring, a "scar" sounds permanent to me no???

Im gonna start back up with electro on Thursday after about 6 weeks off, she had me nearly totally cleared for the second time and less came back this time...

Id estimate at my electro womans old rate of speed about 4-5 hours worth of work....

I havent seen her since she was involved in a bad car wreck though

She says she will probably be a little slow now and might not be able to go for more than an hour and she'd probably only charge me for 45 minutes

Im looking forward to seeing her again and hearing this story, sounds terrible....

I agree that the combination of galvanic and thermolysis modes, i.e, the so called 'blend' method, delivers a higher kill rate (60%) with less chance of scarring than pure flash thermolysis (25%), but it will end up costing about 2/3rd more ($18K vs $11K) and take longer, as well.

Flash vs. Blend

The use of blend electrolysis after the beard has been greatly thinned out by multiple laser treatments works best. Unfortunately, those of us with gray, blond, or red hair, or those with darker skin can't use laser. We have no choice except to go with electrolysis.

After four clearings with flash, my electrologist switches to blend to "clean up" the remaining hair.

Where the beard is particularly dense, there will be some roughening of the skin (pitting) depending on many factors that are hard to quantify.
Any pitting which does not heal all the way can often be corrected by fractional laser resurfacing of the skin once the beard is permanently removed.

Lasers are amazing!

Clara

Has anyone tried using justformen beard to dye those pesky white hairs to aid in laser removal?

thanks for posting all this info along with the pictures Clara. It's been very helpful to me as I'm starting to explore the options out there. There is a gal from my couples support group who just got back from Texas last month. It's nice to know I can get the same thing done in Chicago because it's so much closer for me.

Has anyone tried using justformen beard to dye those pesky white hairs to aid in laser removal?

Hey, Lana, thanks for chiming in and asking a good question. The answer is that dying the hair would not help. The dye only changes the color of the hair that's above the surface of the skin. That portion of the hair would absorb some energy from the laser, but not enough to raise the temperature at the hair root to the 130F needed to cause cell damage in the vicinity of the papilla, cutting off the blood supply capillaries.

Clara

thanks for posting all this info along with the pictures Clara. It's been very helpful to me as I'm starting to explore the options out there. There is a gal from my couples support group who just got back from Texas last month. It's nice to know I can get the same thing done in Chicago because it's so much closer for me.

You're welcome, Kari. I'm happy to share my experiences.

Hmm, what about melatonin (or anything) that would help darken those stubborn things?

I saw a probuct on amazon which was a carbon solution that was intended to soak into the pores and make the roots more targetable. And linked it in another thread.

I am not sure if this is a clever idea or a terrible idea.


- Jaded Jade

In less than 24 hours I'll be sedated and anesthetized for my second full face and neck beard clearing via flash thermolysis. It will take all day to accomplish, that's 10 to 12 hours in the chair with two lovely ladies working on each side of my face. I won't feel a thing because my face will be completely numb from multiple lidocaine injections. If I'm lucky, I will fall asleep for a couple of hours, but I doubt that will happen. How much time it takes to clear everything will determine the kill rate on the 1st pass. A good electrologist will get at least a 25% kill, but a lot depends on the patient, as well. Looking at my beard this morning, it seems that I got a higher kill rate. It took 32 hours for clearing #1 so it should take no more than 24 hours for clearing #2. The pitting has been healing up pretty well, too. There's one place where I think permanent skin damage was done. I remember that my whiskers were very dense in that spot. When the time comes, laser skin resurfacing will minimize that scar and smooth out my whole face. The new collagen that is produced rejuvenates the skin and helps prevent wrinkles.

I'm actually looking forward to tomorrow. It's another step toward becoming the person feel I should be.

Clara

Hmm, what about melatonin (or anything) that would help darken those stubborn things?

There is recent research that suggests UVB light treatments can reverse graying hair. UVB is used (very successfully) to re-awaken melanocytes in people suffering from vitaligo. The research I read (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/260089.php) said that exposing the scalp to UVB caused the hair in that area to regain its original color. I assume that would would on facial hair as well (even more successfully).

UVB lamps are available on eBay, if anyone wants to try that.

Misty