Brazilian Electrolysis Progress
I don't see a lot of detailed info on Brazilian electrolysis, so after nearly a year I thought I'd give my experience. I knew this would be a long endeavor because 1) the density and coarseness of the hair 2) I had been waxing for 8 years, so the hair would be stronger and may need more passes.
1. Hair Treatment
My technician uses an Apilus xCell Pro on the Synchro mode (thermolysis).
I've had 20 hour long sessions with an experienced technician and 15 hour long sessions being a practice client for two new trainees. I did 8 sessions weekly before moving to bi-weekly. We decided it was best to work in and down, clearing those areas then moving down versus doing a thinning out each time. So after the first 4-5 sessions working on clearing the upper bikini line and top, we've done full clearings of this area nearly every time.
We've been moving to the lower bikini line and lower areas beginning around session 12. We always clear the upper areas of any new growth before moving to the lower sections we haven't treated. I've been noticing a large reduction of hair in the cleared areas. What's growing back is fine and sparse. I would estimate we'd need another 8 sessions to do a full clearance of the whole Brazilian region (so around 17 months/28 sessions since the first treatment with the experienced technician).
The trainee sessions are much, much slower and treat far smaller sections than with the experienced technician (as expected, but I do receive free treatment so I'm happy for any progress to be made without having to pay for it). To give an idea, each to trainee session we only treat about a 1in square. They mostly treat the harder areas since the experienced tech clears the easy stuff in our sessions, so it makes sense it's less as they learn how to work in awkward angles or deeper follicles.
2. Pain
I don't do anything out of the ordinary. I moisturize the area the day before and morning of, drink about 2-3 large glasses of water the day before and a glass or two prior to my sessions, and sometimes take 3-4 ibuprofen before. I tried numbing cream, but found it causes an intense itching sensation during treatment that is almost worse than the pain on my right side (not sure why just there) and it really didn't do much.
The pain ranges from feeling like I'm being poked with a pinprick (medium intense and focused on just that follicle but quick, 5/10), to a warm pain (more heat than sharp 4/10), to a sharp intense pain (deeper and the pain is felt in a wider circle vs the pinprick pain 6-8/10).
The warm and pinprick pains are easy to breathe through and talk through. The sharp intense pain requires deep breathing and focus, I usually can't talk through it or I take a quick pause when it happens. For the most part, the intense pain happens around thinner skin near the ligaments on the inner thigh, and around the top meeting point of the labia. Often it's just a few probes that feel intense, then after moving on the pain goes back to the pinprick pain. The warm pain seems to happen when I haven't hydrated enough which makes sense since the probe wouldn't have enough hydration to burn off, instead the little moisture from my skin is zapped.
For 95% of my sessions, the session is 97% 5/10 pain and is entirely manageable and I never get anxious about it. For the other 2%, the session will be 40-60% 5/10 pain and 40-60% 8/10 pain. I've started tracking when those sessions happen to try and figure out why - normally it's working in more sensitive areas during my period. So obviously I avoid that time.
3. Cost
The trainee sessions are free. I paid $92/hr for the first 16 sessions before they increased their prices to $95/hr.
Happy to answer any questions! I'm excited on the progress and can't wait to see what progress looks like in 20 more sessions!!