Hair Removal Options: Electrolysis

Please first read Thoughts about Hair Removal Options for some important preliminary information.

Electrolysis has been around for a long time and used to be the only permanent method of hair removal. It is now running neck and neck with laser techniques in popularity.

Electrolysis works by sending an electrical current from a needle down into the hair shaft, affecting the root and basically destroying it. Electrolysis is not foolproof, and the effectiveness rate varies from person to person. Some clients have an 80-100% success rate, while others have less than 50%. You have to go back for repeated visits for best results, and electrolysis can be expensive.

When I was working for a spa back in my early years as an aesthetician, I had a client who was getting electrolysis on both of her legs. Imagine the time and expense of having this done! But I also picture this woman today, never having to shave or otherwise worry about unwanted hair on her legs. I’m sure she thinks it was worth every penny.

Electrolysis is not initially a permanent removal, but is a process of weakening the hair. With continued treatments, the hair essentially gives up and does not grow back, so you will need a series of electrolysis sessions lasting anywhere from a few months to a year or more depending on the location of the hair and how stubborn (thick) it is. This process varies with each individual, and you will have to discuss your specific needs with your technician.

Don’t think that going in for one electrolysis session will permanently eliminate your unwanted hair. The duration of your treatments will depend on your own personal hair growth cycles, how much damage you have done to the area (through tweezing and/or waxing), and how coarse the hair is, along with the depth of the hair within the follicle. Even medications you are taking can affect how the hair grows, which can in turn affect the success of your treatment process.

Generally, once you start getting electrolysis, the hair will grow back thinner and finer, setting the stage for permanent removal. Most electrolysis experts will tell you not to tweeze or wax the area—it makes electrolysis much more difficult. They need to work with “untampered with” hair. So if you decide to go through electrolysis, consult with your technician and obey their instructions, or the process will take longer and may potentially be more painful. Put your confidence in the professional you have chosen and leave your hair alone!

I highly recommend checking out more than one electrolysis facility. If you can, get some referrals from friends. If you don’t know anyone who is getting or has gotten electrolysis, call a few reputable skin care salons in your area and ask them for referrals. If all else fails, get out the phone book or go online and start calling around.

Be careful when it comes to discounted electrolysis. Cheaper doesn’t mean better. What you are looking for is a highly qualified technician who will help you get rid of unwanted hair. You don’t want to waste your time and money on a person who may be charging you less than the rest, but is doing a less-than-effective job on your unwanted hair.

For more information, see:

• Hair Removal Options: Epilation (ouch!)
• Hair Removal Options: Women & Shaving 
• Hair Removal Options: Bleaching

Perhaps. As you've read, electrolysis is not one-size-fits-all.

If you use Yonka’s spray toners, please read this for a helpful tip!

The other day I was spraying the very last bits of my wonderful (favorite) Lotion PS. The spray on this toner is very fine and hits my face so lightly and evenly. The next time I sprayed I used a brand new bottle I had just opened. The toner is still wonderful, but the spray just wasn’t up to the standard of the last bottle. This reminded me of something I usually forget to tell my clients: If you have a bottle of toner with a sprayer you love, keep it! Here’s what to do:

• Once your toner runs out, take the sprayer out
• Toss the glass bottle in your recycling bin
• Spray whatever remains in the sprayer (there will be a small amount left in there)
• Let it dry completely, maybe for a day or two, somewhere out of the way
• Then put the dried out plastic sprayer in a sealed baggie for possible future use. I put mine in the cabinet under my bathroom sink
• If your next bottle of toner has, like mine did, a sprayer that is OK but not as wonderful as you’ve had before, pop the old sprayer into the new bottle and once again you can say, “Ahhhhhh!”

Luckily, I hadn’t yet tossed out my old, empty toner bottle, so I will be able to do as I’ve just instructed. Now when I go to spray my face, I’ll get to feel the fine spray that I have loved for the past 6 months (about how long a bottle of toner lasts).

A bit of an update!: I just tried to open the older toner bottle to get the sprayer out without much luck. So I just popped off the little white, plastic spray top (without the full spray straw attached) and popped it on the new bottle of toner. Voilà. That is a whole lot easier than the aforementioned method. However, either way will do; choose one and enjoy endless hours of spraying your yummy Yonka toner!

If you’re not sure which toner you should be using, along with other toner information, see:

• Yonka toners: Which one should I use?
• Do I really need to use a toner?
• Does my toner need to dry before applying cream?

Pigmentation is so one-sided

This, of course, is an exaggeration.

Recently I had a client come in who had just seen her dermatologist. We were talking about pigmentation and “sun spots” on the skin. Her dermatologist pointed out how she had more pigmentation on the left side of her face, especially around the cheek and chin area as well as her upper neck. My client was shocked to find out that this was due to driving in her car. I see this a lot—even on my own face; there is usually more dark pigmentation on the left side of the face, the side closest to the window of the car. This dark pigmentation is caused from sun exposure—exposure while sitting in your car driving. And if you are rarely the driver but are frequently a passenger in the front seat, you’ll see this discoloration on your right side.

Your hands are also receiving a lot of sun while they are up or around the steering wheel. Look down at your hands next time you’re driving and you’ll see what I mean. Early in my skin care career I (unbelievably) used to wear white gloves when I drove. I felt like a debutante, but I also knew I was keeping the sun off my hands and therefore keeping sun damage away. I progressed to gloves that matched my skin tone, which were harder for onlookers to see (!), and sometimes I would wear my gym gloves. It doesn’t matter what type of gloves you wear, if you are concerned about getting dark spots on the tops of your hands as you age—wear gloves.

The dark areas of discoloration on the tops of the hands (or the face), also known as “liver spots,” “sun spots,” or the dreaded “age spots,” are simply pigmentation spots caused by sun exposure. Those names, by the way, are all describing the same thing. Consider keeping gloves in the car to protect your hands while driving. 

For more information, see 

• Hyperpigmentation: A few Q & As 
• Let Bed Bath & Beyond save your skin! This article will tell you an easy way to keep sunlight from getting to your face and neck while you’re driving (sun your visor can’t protect you from)
• What is Post-Inflammatory Hyperpigmentation?

These gloves would be pointless since they don’t cover the very place you’re trying to protect: the tops of the hands.

De-stressing Quick Tip: Music IS the doctor!

Music can have a therapeutic and relaxing effect after a stressful day. If you aren’t sleeping well, try playing a relaxation or meditation CD while lying in bed. This type of music tends to be monotone without a lot of crescendo. It is ideal for helping your mind to slow down and stop working so hard, which is usually what is keeping you up. I have made many CDs of the music I use in my facials for clients who were either under stress or just having trouble getting to sleep from time to time.

I also recommend this type of music for a baby who is having trouble sleeping. My clients are quite relieved to find these soothing tones help lull their babes to sleep. And for you new mommies, playing this type of music while lying down (or even sitting up nursing your infant) can help you, too, to relax and hopefully even sleep!

Here are links to a few of the favorites that I play during my facial treatments (and some client favorites, too!):

Daniel Kolbialka’s Fragrances of a Dream and Velvet Dreams

 Aeoliah’s Angel Love

 

Here is a list that encompasses most of the music in my facial treatment CD library. Please know I do not receive any compensation or anything for you clicking through to Amazon with the following links. In some cases you can listen to snippets from the CDs on Amazon, so I thought this might be helpful to you.

• Deuter: Tibet, Wind & Mountain, Earth Blue
• Steven Halpern: Music for Healing, Gifts of the Angels, Crystal Bowl Healing, Spectrum Suite
• Relaxation & Meditation with Music & Nature: Summer Solitude
• Aeolah: (see above), The Liquid Light of Healing
• 33 Bowls: Tibetan Singing Bowls—I don’t play this often in facials, but I do play it a lot at home. In fact, I love the sound of these bowls!
• Brian Eno: Ambient 1: Music for Airports, Ambient 2: Plateaux of Mirror
• Daniel Kobialka: (see above), Timeless Motion 
• Steve Roach: Structures from Silence, Quiet Music 
• Paul Horn: *Music (1997), Inside the Taj Mahal

*For some reason I couldn’t find this particular CD on Amazon. I wanted to include it here because once in a while a client wants me to change the sometimes “eerie” or spacey music I have on, and I always grab Music by Paul Horn.

For more anti-stress ideas, see:

• HEADSPACE: Get your meditation on
• Are you tired?
• The Webs We Weave

Airplanes, travel, and skin care: Supplemental help

As we all know, the air in an airplane is poor quality at best. Add to that the potential of sitting next to someone who is sick with a cold or flu, and you have all the ingredients for coming down with something yourself. I recommend taking some type of immune system booster before, during, and even after your flight to help your body fight off foreign invaders.

There are many herbal supplements that can help boost your immune system. Garlic has well-documented antibiotic properties, and most brands have special coatings on the pills to inhibit giving you garlic breath. Astragalus is another immune system helper that can be taken in capsule or tincture form. (Tinctures are liquid concentrates that are usually taken mixed with a little bit of water.) Echinacea and goldenseal are both excellent immune stimulants, helping to fight off germs that may have infiltrated your body during the flight.

Antioxidants are another way to help your body fight off the bad air you are breathing in an airplane. Vitamin C, probably the most widely known antioxidant, comes in many forms and is easy to take with you on a trip. You can pop chewable vitamin C tablets throughout the flight, or Emergen-C powder can be mixed with a glass of water as a refreshing, thirst-quenching drink that also helps you internally. Zinc is another popular remedy to fight off unwanted foreign invaders.

Sleeping can be a concern when flying, and not getting restful sleep can adversely affect your skin. For a simple way to help your body relax, take a bottle of essential oil of lavender on the plane with you. Lavender is known for its sedative effects. By just sniffing the soothing aromatics of this amazing mood shifter, you can truly help your whole body relax. If you carry a pillow when you travel, dab a few drops of lavender on it, lie back and relax. You could also use a handkerchief if you prefer. Lay it on the pillow, and you’ve just created an opportunity for some shuteye during your flight.

If you know you aren’t able to fall asleep on an airplane, you might want to inquire at your health food store for supplements that might help. There are many homeopathic and natural products that help induce sleep without giving you a prescription sleeping pill hangover. 

Creating a mood. Sound pollution (in this case the constant noise in an airplane) not only stops your body from relaxing, it can create tension for some people as well. The healing power of music is widely believed by many people, myself included. Consider using music to help create a mood of relaxation while flying. Take soothing music to listen to on the plane. You’ll be able to cancel out the airplane’s noises and soothe your mind at the same time. Music truly is the doctor, so don’t forget to partake in some soothing tunes to help you relax and enjoy your flight. 

If you won’t or can’t listen to music, try writing in a journal. Gratitude journals in particular help you to reflect on all the blessings in your life, which surely will help to calm you down. Even writing down three good things that happened to you that day or that you appreciate about your life can go a long way to helping you relax. It may sound silly or simple, but it’s true. Try it and see for yourself. I’ll bet there are dozens of things you can think of right now that you are grateful for in your life. Maybe being grateful for a safe flight would be something you could jot down in your journal. No matter what you write about, using a journal to help remember the good things in life can in turn help you relax on any flight.

There are many things you can do to relax your body and to take care of your skin while traveling. Add to my list and do as much as possible to make your traveling experience more enjoyable.

For more information, see:

• Help for dehydrated skin on an airplane
• Help for a winter (or any time) cold
• Emergen-C—a little effervescence for your health.
• De-stressing Quick Tip: Music IS the doctor! for specific relaxing music suggestions