Hair Types

• Swedish Moustache • Black Hair
• Italian • African American
• Mexican or South American • American Indian, some Chinese
• Central European or English • Grey Hair (anyone)
• Red Hair    

Hair is not just hair. Everyone has hair and skin characteristics that differentiate them from the next person. While most fall into general categories, it should still be noted that no two are exactly alike. So it goes without saying that there is a distinct possibility that the treatment for eliminating them is never exactly the same. This is why I like my work.

  Hair is generally classed into two primary groups, sebaceous and terminal. The picture you see here is a sebaceous hair, though of an extreme kind. It possesses a shallow root, often emanating from a sebaceous gland itself, and it is generally white in color and grows quite slowly. It is the same type of hair that generally causes "peach fuzz" that most people have no great problem with, unless they become large and wiry, like this one.
Sebaceous hairs can often appear later in the facial electrolysis time-table after the serious shaving has taken a turn for the more intermittent. Here are several types of hair that I have encountered:


The Swedish Moustache

This culprit is incredibly deceiving. It is usually blonde or at least a light brown. The client tends to be of Norwegian or Swedish extraction. At first glance, this project seems like it should be very easy to eliminate. Wrong. What follows the first clearing is a round of regrowth that appears as dense and as robust as the original. Following the clearing of the second regrowth, another moustache, a carbon copy of the first, grows. When I first encountered one of these, I was nearly devastated to think that I would be faced with failure over some damn blonde moustache
  


Magnified at 100 times, the skin begins to look coarse and scaly. A very fine body hair exits a small follicle
that wasn't even all that visible in the first place. Now, here it was, dark and obvious and pernicious as ever. Since then I have learned this is common with clients who can trace their "roots" (bad joke) to Scandinavia. The first client I encountered this on was actually English and I love to point out that she was English only until the long boats turned up offshore and this Norseman--Eric The Furlip--waded ashore with both ends of that moustache trailing in the water behind him, looking for a saxon native to ravage. I should point out that there was a strange blessing in those genes of Eric. The rest of the facial hair dies more easily than average.



Italian
You are very lucky. The hair is usually very dark and noticeable, yet it removes so easily that I can often run with about half the power and achieve just as effective results. The apparent density at the beginning should not be cause for alarm as far fewer subsequent passes will be needed to render the skin completely hair-free. Covering the shadow until treatment is done is the worst of the problem. Regrowth is very fine and easily dealt with. You are probably thin and cute, too. May the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits...


Mexican or South American
The hair type is very similar to Italian. Generally South Americans tend to have more skin subsurface moisture. This makes galvanic electrolysis tremendously effective against the hair. Permanence is good.



Central European or English
Well, those whose ancestry escaped the ravages of Eric, anyway. Seems that this type of hair represents what is "average" in terms of density and difficulty to kill. Usually the hair is quite deep and not easily done in. The regrowth can often be significant. Typical number of hours to "do" a complete face is about 225. By this I mean, done. I might see you every 6 months for an hour or two at the most, if I see you at all.

 

Getting even closer, this 200 times magnification again shows a fine body hair. By now, the skin has become quite another place.



Red Hair (English, Irish or Scandinavian)
For the most part, red hair dies quite readily. Generally regrowth is fairly normal but visibility is minimal. Because of minimal visibility or shadow, many reds decide that they would rather shave than zap. This often leads to sessions running years longer than normal if they are motivated to complete at all. Bad move, I think. Mr. Right can still "feel" the hairs, even though he can't see them. Reds generally have quite fair skin and a properly done job can yield a most excellent complexion. On the other hand, skin damage is very easily observable.


  Black Hair
Eastern European, French, Dutch. More difficulty encountered here with removal. Difficulty and regrowth tend to be similar to central european. Some clients have very deep roots and the results of bad electrolysis can produce dark areas under the skin that may plague you for years, if not for life. Regrowth, however, tends to be thin and easily removed on subsequent passes. There is something about black
hair that seems to make it easier to remove than brown. Again visibility is an issue as the skin tends to look blue. What is actually visible is not the hair. Because of the lighter shade of skin tone, the transparency of the skin allows the shade of the root to be visible. Some cosmetics can cover it, latex paint works the best...


African American
Black, curly. To be honest, my experience with curly hair has been on Scandinavians and Italians so far. But I learned some things. I would emphatically recommend that the work be done with galvanic. No thermolysis. Here is why. Thermolysis can wreak havoc on the texture of the melanin layer in the skin. This could result it discolorations caused by the work. You may also have a tendency to keloid and this type of scarring could be very damaging if the scarring is the result of thermolysis burns. The tendency of the operator is to turn up the thermolysis power to "blast" out the curved follicle. The nature of the thermolysis "wave" is to be a straight line off of the tip of the needle and may result in the energy missing the root of the hair entirely.		  

Curly hair exiting the skin. Note two things, how the hairs tend to curve back into the skin, causing problems with ingrowns. Secondly, how the skin
is discolored below the surface by the hair shaft. The closest shave cannot eliminate shadow because of this.
Galvanic will "follow" the curvature of the follicle and the results should be more effective and to be sure, not damaging to the skin. Again, avoid the tendency to rush to completion. You will get there just as quickly with less damage. It will seem too long to be sure, but it will happen.


American Indian, some Chinese
Generally, very thin beards and moustaches, however, the roots are exceptionally deep and difficult to remove on the first pass. Usually the second or third pass can be difficult, too until every hair has been hit once. After that, the roots weaken and the regrowth is easily dealt with and speed picks up as well. Patience is the rule for those first clearings.



Two fully treated and removed curved hairs. The hair follicle encases the lower shaft and the bulb at the end is removed as well. The black bulge at theend is the "source" of the hair.
 
Grey Hair (anyone)
I have also noticed that grey hair is yet another matter separate from all the above. The root systems will increase about 50% in depth and the texture or shear characteristics of the follicle will change also. Hairs with color that were easily removed at a given power setting may require an additional 25-30% when grey. Of late, I have noticed that grey hair has not presented nearly the same difficulty as it did in the past with the Blend Method. Galvanic is truly effective with grey hair, and completion times have approximated that of normally colored hair.