Review (5/5): Electrolysis ain't easy but it works
I'm giving this product a five star review because it actually does work. It might not be working consistently or easily for many users because electrolysis is actually pretty hard to do. That's why there are professionals who do it full time as a job. This product uses galvanic electrolysis. There are two other types that professional users and equipment can do. However if people are patient and follow through with good technique they will get good results eventually. And electrolysis is the ONLY permanent method of hair removal that you can do on your own. Anything else, however easy and painless, is just a temporary fix. So the product should not be judged by how difficult it is to use, but by the permanence of the results.
-Hair grows in three phases. Electrolysis only works best in the initial growing phase and sometimes works in the intermediate phase. It will not work in the final, dormant stage because the root, which electrolysis kills, is not active. An easy way to make sure you are only spending time on hairs in the growing phases is to shave an area and wait a few days. The hairs that poke up are growing.
-It only makes sense to do electrolysis on terminal hairs. Those are the dark, coarse hairs. Vellus hairs, the light and fine ones, are not that compatible with electrolysis because the holes they grow out of are small like the hairs themselves and aren't very easy to thread the needle in to all the way. There's also a risk of scarring. So don't go nuts. Just focus on the terminal hairs.
-Electrolysis kills hair roots through a combination of heat and a corrosive, lye-like substance that results from the electric charge coming in to contact with biological cells. That white, yucky substance that people are complaining about? that's the "lye". Don't wipe it off and don't pluck the hairs right away. You want to let them soak in it a while and die. I treat a hair and then go brush my teeth or water the plants before I pluck the hair. The "lye" needs a few minutes to do the job of killing the hair root.
-You need to actually make contact with all of the root area and the sides at the follicle base to kill it. A hair root is sort of an elongated sheath shape not a little pin dot. If any cells survive it regenerates from the surviving cells. It's a good idea to sort of plunge the needle in and out very, very gently or jiggle it a bit side to side while treating a hair. This increases the area the electricity comes in contact with and improves the odds of killing all the root. It's better than holding the needle perfectly still.
-If you've killed the root the hair will slide out without any tugging and will feel almost "greasy". If you need any force to pull it out it's not dead and you should leave the hair in and wait a few days and try again.
-As you might be able to tell from my comments this is a pretty tricky process and the odds are against you. You need to hit the root perfectly, kill the whole root area and get it in the early phases of growth. I think electrolysis only really works well for targeting a few "crazy" hairs growing in weird spots. It's not that great for clearing large areas. Doing it requires focus and precision. And also a bit of luck. I had a half dozen weird hairs and I've used this product to kill them and am rid of them forever. For that, I consider it priceless. But if you are aiming to use it to clear large areas it's likely it will be a source of frustration. Even for professionals, with professional grade equipment and years of experience, clearing a large area takes months and months of detail oriented work.