Common Myths About Electrolysis Hair Removal

False. Laser is not FDA-recognized as a permanent form of hair removal. Electrolysis is. While laser may be more efficient in terms of time commitment for very limited combinations of skin and hair colors, electrolysis is universally applicable regardless of those same variables. There is also no risk of electrolysis stimulating dormant hair follicles to begin growing new hair, which is a rare risk that laser hair removal carries. Learn more about the differences between laser and electrolysis here.

False. Electrolysis is effective for all types of hair, whether it be thin, sparse, straight, and red, or thick, dense, curly, and black.

False. While electrologists do use tweezers to remove hairs after being treated with current, electrologists like to refer to this as "lifting" or "epilating" the hair — the hair is not really being plucked in the way you might assume. When the dermal papilla at the base of the hair is successfully destroyed, the hair loses the rooted strength that normally anchors the hair bulb to the base of the follicle. In most cases, when the treatment is performed consistently, the client will not feel much, if any, plucking sensation when the hair is removed as the hairs simply slide out without much resistance.

False. Once the hair root has been successfully and fully destroyed with electrolysis treatments, it will not grow back, ever. An addendum to this of note is that there is up to a 60% chance of thorough and successful dermal papilla destruction with each treatment. This means that some hairs may need to be treated more than once to be fully destroyed. So, with each successive treatment, more of your hair will be gone for good.

While this is not necessarily a myth, it is more of a misunderstanding of the hair growth cycle and the nature of electrolysis' permanence over time. You can think of your hair growth as having multiple phases or groups. For example, if you came in for a few sessions in May and June, hairs in Group A will be visible and grown out above the surface of your skin. In August, some residual Group A hairs will inevitably be present. These are the Group A hairs that either did not get fully destroyed in the initial treatment sessions or may have yet to be treated entirely due to time constraints or other variables. Hairs from Group B that were dormant in May and June may also now be present. Oftentimes, our hair growth is much more dense than we realize due to the fact that some of our hairs are dormant at any given time. So, in short: each time you come in for treatment, you are giving the electrologist, and yourself, more opportunities to treat all of the hairs that grow in the area you want hair free. As time goes on, your hair will gradually begin to visibly thin out in the treatment areas and become more sparse.

False. Electrolysis hair removal has been practiced since 1875. Since then, the technology has been iterated and its modern practice often no longer resembles the original machines, though the general principles of its functionality still remain. The fact that electrolysis has been practiced for over 150 years does not mean that it is outdated however, as it is still the only FDA-recognized form of permanent hair removal. Due to its long history, it is the tried and true effective treatment option for those looking for universal hair removal, regardless of hair, skin color, or any combination thereof.

Home electrolysis is a fraught subject for any experienced electrologist. Any advertisements for such devices are generally rife with blatant disregard for the risk that any customer or user of their product may unknowingly be signing on for. Due to the technical and precise demands of electrolysis as a form of hair removal, effective and safe treatment requires a professionally trained technician and proper equipment. Attempting to perform electrolysis without accompanying, accredited education means that you will be undertaking a far greater likelihood of serious negative side effects than you otherwise would be consenting to if you were treated by a trained professional. There are also many infection control standards and regulations that electrologists are legally bound to behind the scenes. These standards work to ensure the sanitation and sterility of various types of equipment and the safety of our clients is top of mind.

Some risks of home electrolysis include: far higher chances of scarring and skin blackening/tattooing, burns, nerve and tissue damage, and infection — not to mention completely ineffective hair removal.

False. Electrolysis can be performed on the same client in the same area for hours on end and be effective from start to finish. In some cases, the risks of skin irritation or scarring can increase with extremely long sessions on very dense hairs, but there are also things the electrologist can do during a long session to help mitigate these risks. For some clients, their ability to tolerate the sensations the treatment brings may increase gradually the longer a session goes on, but this varies wildly from person to person and the treatment area in question.

False. This is a very common assumption for many. It may seem unintuitive, but, in general, the more grown out your hairs are, the less effective your electrolysis treatment will be. This is because of the way each hair matures over time. As hairs are left to grow out longer, they are also making their way up the length of the hair follicle to eventually be shed and replaced by new hairs. When the hair begins to detach from the root of the follicle, the dermal papilla (the part of the follicular structure that electrolysis is intended to target and destroy) becomes harder to reach and even inaccessible in some cases.

To avoid running into this issue, it is ideal that a client ensures their hairs are just long enough to be easily grabbed by a pair of tweezers. Any longer than that can reduce the effectiveness of your treatment, and any shorter than that can make it hard for treated hairs to be removed from the follicles by the electrologist. That being said, it is usually best practice to err on the side of caution and, if you are unsure, leave your hairs a bit longer than tweezer length. Prior to and in between sessions, when aiming for this target length, you should exclusively be using a razor to manage your hair growth.

False; this is utter misinformation. A trained electrologist should only ever recommend that their clients shave before and in between sessions. Plucking and waxing hairs repeatedly can distort hair follicles and make it more difficult to effectively treat your hairs.

False. Electrolysis is universally applicable, regardless of hair and skin color, or any combination thereof.

While electrolysis can sometimes carry a very small risk of scarring, it is unlikely to occur with proper technique. There are also variables that clients can control to mitigate this risk as well, such as hydrating very well before appointment to ensure moist skin (see Myth #13) and presenting to a session with the right length of hair growth (see Myth #9).

False. Electrolysis works far better when there is more moisture in the tissue surrounding the follicles that get treated. Grasping the mechanism of action for electrolysis is beneficial to understanding why this is. The goal, inside each individual follicle, is destruction of the dermal papilla (the source of hair growth). Gleam Hair Free primarily employs the type of electrolysis called thermolysis. With thermolysis, high-frequency (HF) current that the electrologist delivers via their machine is intended to interact with the surrounding moisture inside each follicle to generate enough heat to destroy the dermal papilla via electrocoagulation. When there is less surrounding moisture to work with, the current application cannot generate as much heat as may be necessary for papilla destruction. When this occurs, the electrologist usually has to increase the intensity of the current application on their machine, which can not only be more painful for clients but increase the skin irritation and risks of treatment as well. Conversely, when there is an abundance of moisture in the surrounding tissue, the electrologist may be able to turn down the current intensity, making the treatment far more comfortable, efficient, and effective. HYDRATE! HYDRATE! HYDRATE!