Professional electrologist here. From this picture, your insertion looks way too deep. Unless you're using half length probes?
Personally, i would never recommend doing insertions on your own face. But I also understand how prohibitively expensive professional services can be, if they are available in your area at all.
If you haven't already, do a depth test on a hair: Pluck a hair, placing the tweezers as close to the skin as possible, and then compare the amount of hair below the skin to the length of the probe. Your insertion should be ever so slightly shallower than the depth of the hair. If your skin is dimpling when you insert the probe, you're doing it wrong. Either bad angle or bad depth.
Just trying to help my community, friend. No need to get defensive.
FYI, that is a standard length probe, not short. I'm struggling to find a good picture of the short probes, but the insertable length is about half that of your probes. They're pretty uncommon. Ballet only makes them in size 2 (for those unfamiliar with electrolysis probes, size refers to the diameter of the insertable portion of the probe).
So I still suspect you're going deeper than necessary. I've never had a client where I needed to bottom out a probe on the upper lip like that. On the neck I might. But I am not saying you won't get extractions like this. Galvanic is the most forgiving on depth of the 3 modalities, since the lye will flow to the target area anyway. But you are at less risk of puncturing the bottom of the follicle if you go a little shallow vs a little deep.
That's wild, but also very impressive that she was able to build it! The nice thing about galvanic electrolysis is that it uses a very low power (my work machine doesn't go above 1mA DC), which means you aren't likely to majorly hurt yourself. Scarring is still possible with poor technique. My only question is how do we verify that the machine is outputting the energy it says it is? Truth be told, this is something I wonder even with professional machines.
The video where she demonstrated removing a hair made me SCREAM! Your skin should not be dimpling like that when you insert the probe if you're doing it correctly. If this were a professional electrologist, I would report them to the state board if there is one. It takes a lot of stretching of the skin to do a proper insertion. You wouldn't try to put your sock on your feet without holding the sock with your hands, would you? Same concept. Hair follicles aren't rigid tubes, they're like a deflated balloon. Our skin is stretchy and we need to eliminate that variable to get our straight probe inserted without puncturing the walls of the follicle. It also looked like the hair wasn't fully treated by the way it resisted being pulled out. A properly treated hair will slide out without resistance.
Like I said, I would not recommend self-insertions if you can avoid it. Finding the right insertion angle is so much harder when you can't adjust your viewing angle, and getting the right stretch on the skin is so very important.
Side note, I think her units of lye calculation is actually for blend, not galvanic. The heat from the HF current in blend increases production of lye by something like 4-7x. I'm gonna need to find my old textbook to verify, but generally speaking, galvanic treatment times typically range from 20sec to 3min per hair.
oh wow that's cool, i've been following this one (alt link) but updates have been very slow. the one you linked looks pretty much production-ready, i might have to try building it soon...
most of the cost is the electrolysis unit. the one i got was about $1200 if i remember correctly. you can probably get cheaper units, but i wanted to order straight from the manufacturer for some reason. the mirror wasnt too bad, like $60 i think. its a 10x magnifying mirror meant for makeup. i really like the magnification and the LED light ring. makes it way easier to see what im doing. once you have the unit the probes are very cheap. tbh though i just reuse them. im doing pure galvanic, which sterilizes the probe when you use it, and im only doing it on myself so im not worried about an infection or anything. ive been doing it on myself for months and have never had an issue.
as far as how hard it is to learn, its not too bad if you can see what youre doing. i started learning on my chest and belly since i could see there much more easily. initially it was just very slow to get each hair because i was still figuring out how to find the hole, how to get the probe in at the right angle, and how much to treat the hair before it was done. i was really scared of over treating but i know now that i was under treating by a lot. i dont think my early learning really worked at all.
i got kind of fatigued of it after a couple months of trying because it was so slow and i barely had the motivation to do it, so i went to a professional for a while. i think that helped a lot because i could feel what they did and i knew it was working. my big takeaway was that i didnt have to be so afraid of over treating because their machine was much stronger than mine and hurt a lot more.
i had to stop going to the professional due to the cost but i felt much more confident doing it on myself afterward. that motivated me to do it more and really accelerated my learning. at this point ive cleared my upper lip, lower lip, chin, and cheeks completely multiple times. i cant reach my neck or sideburns so sadly theres a limit to what i can do atm. ill have to figure that out or go back to a professional at some point, but until then ive been lasering the parts i cant reach with electrolysis.
Thank you so much for the detailed response! I really appreciate reading about the process and the early mistakes, I definitely would have the same fear of over treating
14 Comments
cheeseandkrakens@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 14 pts · 1d
Professional electrologist here. From this picture, your insertion looks way too deep. Unless you're using half length probes?
Personally, i would never recommend doing insertions on your own face. But I also understand how prohibitively expensive professional services can be, if they are available in your area at all.
If you haven't already, do a depth test on a hair: Pluck a hair, placing the tweezers as close to the skin as possible, and then compare the amount of hair below the skin to the length of the probe. Your insertion should be ever so slightly shallower than the depth of the hair. If your skin is dimpling when you insert the probe, you're doing it wrong. Either bad angle or bad depth.
applebusch@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 9 pts · 1d
everyones a critic... my probes are short and my hairs are very deep. believe it or not i do know what im doing.
tanisnikana@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 1d
They’re just trying to look out for you.
It’s best to believe in the human good; otherwise, the world is a miserable and irredeemable place.
cheeseandkrakens@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 19 pts · 1d
Just trying to help my community, friend. No need to get defensive.
FYI, that is a standard length probe, not short. I'm struggling to find a good picture of the short probes, but the insertable length is about half that of your probes. They're pretty uncommon. Ballet only makes them in size 2 (for those unfamiliar with electrolysis probes, size refers to the diameter of the insertable portion of the probe).
So I still suspect you're going deeper than necessary. I've never had a client where I needed to bottom out a probe on the upper lip like that. On the neck I might. But I am not saying you won't get extractions like this. Galvanic is the most forgiving on depth of the 3 modalities, since the lye will flow to the target area anyway. But you are at less risk of puncturing the bottom of the follicle if you go a little shallow vs a little deep.
beyoublahaj@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1d
Hi professional electrologist, what do you think of this?
cheeseandkrakens@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 23h
That's wild, but also very impressive that she was able to build it! The nice thing about galvanic electrolysis is that it uses a very low power (my work machine doesn't go above 1mA DC), which means you aren't likely to majorly hurt yourself. Scarring is still possible with poor technique. My only question is how do we verify that the machine is outputting the energy it says it is? Truth be told, this is something I wonder even with professional machines.
The video where she demonstrated removing a hair made me SCREAM! Your skin should not be dimpling like that when you insert the probe if you're doing it correctly. If this were a professional electrologist, I would report them to the state board if there is one. It takes a lot of stretching of the skin to do a proper insertion. You wouldn't try to put your sock on your feet without holding the sock with your hands, would you? Same concept. Hair follicles aren't rigid tubes, they're like a deflated balloon. Our skin is stretchy and we need to eliminate that variable to get our straight probe inserted without puncturing the walls of the follicle. It also looked like the hair wasn't fully treated by the way it resisted being pulled out. A properly treated hair will slide out without resistance.
Like I said, I would not recommend self-insertions if you can avoid it. Finding the right insertion angle is so much harder when you can't adjust your viewing angle, and getting the right stretch on the skin is so very important.
Side note, I think her units of lye calculation is actually for blend, not galvanic. The heat from the HF current in blend increases production of lye by something like 4-7x. I'm gonna need to find my old textbook to verify, but generally speaking, galvanic treatment times typically range from 20sec to 3min per hair.
DaPorkchop_@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 23h
oh wow that's cool, i've been following this one (alt link) but updates have been very slow. the one you linked looks pretty much production-ready, i might have to try building it soon...
kivihiili@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 1d
you did your nails super good! your hands are so soft looking
applebusch@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 6 pts · 1d
oh thanks haha. i keep them short and well filed for climbing. and for girls...
Carnelian@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1d
Oh wow I’ve never considered doing it on oneself. Is it expensive to get started? How hard is it to learn?
applebusch@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 6 pts · 1d
most of the cost is the electrolysis unit. the one i got was about $1200 if i remember correctly. you can probably get cheaper units, but i wanted to order straight from the manufacturer for some reason. the mirror wasnt too bad, like $60 i think. its a 10x magnifying mirror meant for makeup. i really like the magnification and the LED light ring. makes it way easier to see what im doing. once you have the unit the probes are very cheap. tbh though i just reuse them. im doing pure galvanic, which sterilizes the probe when you use it, and im only doing it on myself so im not worried about an infection or anything. ive been doing it on myself for months and have never had an issue.
as far as how hard it is to learn, its not too bad if you can see what youre doing. i started learning on my chest and belly since i could see there much more easily. initially it was just very slow to get each hair because i was still figuring out how to find the hole, how to get the probe in at the right angle, and how much to treat the hair before it was done. i was really scared of over treating but i know now that i was under treating by a lot. i dont think my early learning really worked at all.
i got kind of fatigued of it after a couple months of trying because it was so slow and i barely had the motivation to do it, so i went to a professional for a while. i think that helped a lot because i could feel what they did and i knew it was working. my big takeaway was that i didnt have to be so afraid of over treating because their machine was much stronger than mine and hurt a lot more.
i had to stop going to the professional due to the cost but i felt much more confident doing it on myself afterward. that motivated me to do it more and really accelerated my learning. at this point ive cleared my upper lip, lower lip, chin, and cheeks completely multiple times. i cant reach my neck or sideburns so sadly theres a limit to what i can do atm. ill have to figure that out or go back to a professional at some point, but until then ive been lasering the parts i cant reach with electrolysis.
Carnelian@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1d
Thank you so much for the detailed response! I really appreciate reading about the process and the early mistakes, I definitely would have the same fear of over treating
RumorsOfLove@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 18h
Cool. What brand?
katiecakes@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 17h
This is so metal. ❤️🔥