How to Understand Electrolysis

Electrolysis is a permanent means of hair removal. If you are tired of plucking and waxing and messy depilatory creams, consider electrically destroying your hair root forever.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Understand that electrolysis consists of sliding a small electric needle down the hair shaft into the base of the hair follicle, and destroying it with an electric current.
2. Realize that an experienced electrologist can treat several hundred hairs in one session, each session lasting about 45 minutes.
3. Know that electrolysis is often painful. The small needle inserted into your pore will actually produce a tiny shock, and then that hair will be plucked out with tweezers.
4. Accept that you may require many treatment sessions because hair grows back about 40 percent of the time. If you have extensive facial hair, it may take years of periodic electrolysis treatments to achieve satisfactory results.
5. Try a home electrolysis unit if you have only a few hairs you want to remove. Home units can destroy about 50 hairs an hour.

Tips & Warnings

• Before electrolysis, your electrologist will remove your makeup. No other preparation is needed for electrolysis.
• According to Dr. Joseph Bark, a diplomat on the American Board of Dermatology, electrolysis is the least desirable way to remove hairs. He says that it doesn't work the way it is supposed to, often leading to scarring, infection and the appearance of aberrant hairs that grow in crooked.