Electrolysis of the armpit area: getting rid of unwanted hair for a long time

The canons of attractiveness of our time include the absence of unwanted vegetation on visible areas of the body. Women pay special attention to their armpits, because they are often visible, especially in the warm season. Regular shaving of this area or removing hairs with wax strips quickly becomes boring because it does not cause the most pleasant sensations, and the results are disappointing due to their short duration. Electrolysis of the armpits will help in solving these problems. Therefore, this procedure is one of the most popular in beauty salons. Thanks to this hardware manipulation, you can achieve smooth underarm skin for several years.

The essence of the technique

Electrolysis is based on the effect of electric current on the follicles, as a result of which they are destroyed and can be removed without problems. The specialist influences each hair follicle individually, bringing an electrode to its base that passes a high-frequency current. Under the influence of electricity, follicles are destroyed. They lose the ability to produce hair tissue. During this process, it is important not to harm the tissues adjacent to the hair follicles.

Hair in the armpit area is removed by applying electric current to it

Unlike other hardware methods for removing unwanted armpit hair, the electrolysis procedure gives results immediately, and not ten days after its completion..

The essence of the method

Electrolysis of armpits works as follows:

• an electrical discharge through an electrode (tweezers or needle) is directed directly to the hair follicle;
• the follicle is literally burned out. This leads to the irreversible death of the hair follicle, which guarantees permanent hair loss.

A new hair will never grow again at the site of electric shock, which is a rather tempting prospect.

How harmful is electrolysis?

Recently, a technique for removing unwanted armpit hair using electrolysis has become very popular. This method cannot be called the safest of those that exist today, but it has gained its fans.

Removing hair from the armpit area using electric current is not a harmless process. If a specialist performs the work ineptly or using faulty equipment, he may harm the lymph nodes that are located in this area close to the surface of the epidermis. Such situations are rather the exception to the rule. In practice they occur extremely rarely.

Electrolysis is a complex procedure that requires highly qualified specialists who perform it. For example, according to the International Guild of Professional Electrologists (USA), the minimum training period for electrolysis is 120 hours, the optimal is 1100. And in France and England, only employees with at least 5 years of experience are allowed to independently perform electrolysis.

Svetlana Bobro, pharmacist-cosmetologist.

https://cosmar.com.ua/articles/3287/

The likelihood of damage to the lymph nodes by an experienced specialist during manipulation using high-quality equipment and following all the rules is reduced to zero. However, finding out in advance the level of qualifications of the chosen cosmetologist can sometimes be quite difficult. In this matter, everyone decides for themselves whether it is worth taking the risk or whether it is better to choose a safer method for removing unwanted hair in the armpit area.

In my opinion, removing unwanted hair from the armpit area using electrolysis is not the best choice due to the pain of the procedure and the health risks caused by the proximity of the lymph nodes to the skin of the armpits. This is why many women, including my friends, would prefer to resort to electrolysis to remove hair on other less delicate areas of the body, such as arms, legs, and torso. Due to the increased sensitivity of the skin in these areas, it is better to treat the bikini area and armpits by resorting to less traumatic methods for removing unwanted hair, such as shaving or depilation with a special cream.

How to prepare the skin of your armpits before the procedure

The good thing about electrolysis is that no special preparation is required. You can do a gentle exfoliation of your armpits in a couple of days to open the pores and remove rough cells. Avoid mechanical hair removal, that is, waxing, sugaring, a month before the session.

Also, if possible, take a warm shower or bath immediately before the electrolysis session.

How to reduce pain during electrolysis

The feeling of pain during electric hair removal depends on the power of the pulse applied, the thickness of the hair and the electrode needle. The first session is always more painful than all subsequent ones. This is due to the fact that after each epilation the hair becomes thinner and grows more slowly.

But still, in all salons, before the procedure, a painkiller is applied to the skin of the armpits. This can be a spray or cream, for example, Emla. To make the product last longer, you need to apply a cellophane film over the composition on the skin.

Before electrolysis of the armpits, Emla anesthetic cream is applied to the treated area.

Also, modern devices are often equipped with special cooling devices, which, when applied to the skin, emit a cooling gas.

Required hair length for removal with a needle-electrode

To make it easier for a specialist to determine the direction of hair growth and insert the electroepilator needle, they should be 2–4 mm long.

To make it easier for a specialist to determine the direction of hair growth and insert a needle, its length should be 2–4 mm

Therefore, it is important to shave a few days before the procedure with a regular razor. Plucking is excluded, as this damages the follicle. Each person's hair grows at a certain rate, so you need to independently calculate when to start preparing.

Kinds

There are several types of electrolysis - tweezer and needle. They differ in the type of electrodes and the current used.

Tweezer electrolysis is rare because it takes too much time. For this method, an electrode in the form of tweezers is used, due to which the skin is not damaged. The follicle is destroyed remotely, after which the hair is removed. With the tweezers method, removing each hair takes about two minutes. It is usually used on areas of the body with the least amount of hair and is not used to eliminate large accumulations of vegetation.

Needle electroepilator for the procedure by a cosmetologist

The most popular type of electrolysis is called needle hair removal. It involves the use of very thin (less than 0.1 millimeter in diameter) needles that act as electrodes. Today, manipulation is performed using a needle, which can be made of different materials:

• medical alloy (the most common needle, suitable for any patient who is not prone to negative reactions after its use).
• with gold coating (used in a situation where the patient experiences allergic reactions when using a medical alloy needle).
• with Teflon insulation (taken at a low pain threshold, does not provoke thermal burns).

Needle electrolysis can be used in different modes, differing in the frequency and intensity of electrical impulses. Today, there are six methods for removing unwanted hair in the armpit area:

• Galvanic electrolysis method. A direct (galvanic) current is supplied through the needle to the base of the hair. This causes sodium-based alkali to form around the root. When hydrogen bubbles appear on the skin, the specialist pulls out the electrode and removes the dead root. This procedure is not accompanied by severe pain, but its duration is longer than other methods.
• Thermolysis. This technique uses alternating high-frequency current and reduced voltage to remove hairs. Experts do not recommend using thermolysis to treat the armpits, because this method of electrolysis is the most painful and traumatic. Improper use can result in skin damage and thermal burns. To reduce the pain of the procedure, doctors use local anesthesia.
• Blend method, which includes the features of the two methods described above. The impact on the bulb is carried out using both direct and alternating current. The epilator blend allows you to regulate the frequency of electric current and voltage in real time, taking into account the characteristics of the human body.
• Sequential bland. This is a type of blend method. It is characterized by a decrease in painful sensations from manipulation, obtained by reducing the current amplitude pulse. However, the reduced intensity of exposure requires a longer procedure.
• Flash method. To some extent, it is related to the thermolysis technique, but differs from it in that it does not cause such severe pain. This implies the use of high frequency current (up to 2000 kilohertz). It does not injure the skin.
• Sequential flash. This is a more advanced flash method that allows you to remove hairs of varying thicknesses without changing the device settings. This is what distinguishes it from other electrolysis techniques. It is carried out using sinusoidal high-frequency alternating current. This allows you to increase the speed and efficiency of the procedure.

Presence of contraindications and side effects

Since electric hair removal is performed using a needle and is an invasive method, it has a number of limitations.

The procedure is contraindicated:

• if there is an acute disease of the skin of the armpits;
• expectant mothers and nursing women;
• teenagers under eighteen years of age;
• for oncological tumors and diabetes mellitus;
• pacemaker wearers;
• if you are allergic to electric current;
• if purulent pimples and warts have appeared in the armpit area;
• for psychoneurological diseases, for example, epilepsy;
• carriers of hepatitis, HIV infection;
• people susceptible to coronary heart disease or hypertension.

In some cases, after electrolysis of the armpits, there may be consequences that are unpleasant for a person. There may be several reasons for this: from the individual characteristics of the body to the low qualifications of the specialist.

The most common consequences:

• pigmentation of treated skin areas;
• formation of scars and scars due to damage to the epidermis;
• feeling of irritation and itching;
• inflammation of the skin pores after an accidental infection.

For pregnant women, electrolysis may carry the risk of miscarriage in the early stages, premature birth and disturbances in fetal development in the later stages. This is due to local thermal effects, which can lead to a chain reaction of the nervous or hormonal systems. There are many nerve endings and lymph nodes concentrated in the armpit area, so you need to be extremely careful with it .

For women during lactation, electric hair removal of the armpits may result in a change in the composition or amount of milk produced.

In adolescents under 18 years of age, active hormonal changes occur in the body, so the body’s reaction can be completely unpredictable. And after an electrolysis session, purulent pimples may appear, getting rid of which will take much longer than the entire course of hair removal.

Advantages and disadvantages

The advantages of the method of getting rid of unwanted hair in the armpit area using current include the following:

• it is suitable for hair of any structure and color, while most other methods are characterized by narrow specialization;
• Electrolysis leads to complete destruction of hair follicles.

Those wishing to resort to this procedure may be deterred by its disadvantages. These include the following points:

• manipulation causes severe pain in many patients;
• there is a risk of infection when performing needle type electrolysis;
• obtaining the desired result requires a long time and a considerable number of sessions;
• This type of hair removal is quite an expensive pleasure. It is paid per minute. Prices start from 15 rubles. per minute and depend on the class of the establishment and the qualifications of the cosmetologist performing the procedure.

Benefits of armpit hair removal using electrolysis

The main advantage of electrolysis of the armpits is the ability to get rid of annoying excess hair once and for all. Other benefits:

• the ability to remove hair of any thickness, length, density and color;
• Suitable for all skin types;
• smooth armpits for the rest of your life without the need for re-intervention.

It’s difficult to say how much armpit electrolysis costs. The final price depends on many factors. But it costs five times less than the same laser hair removal. If one EE session the master requests 2,000 rubles, then EE will cost about 10,000 rubles (depending on the region of residence).

Features of the manipulation

Electrolysis is carried out in three stages, proceeding in the following sequence:

1. preparatory, during which the patient prepares the skin and hair for exposure to electric current;
2. the procedure itself, carried out in a cosmetology salon;
3. rehabilitation, which includes caring for the skin on the epilated area after completion of the manipulation.

The results obtained depend not only on the actions of the master, but also on how correctly the patient followed all the cosmetologist’s instructions at the preliminary and final stages.

Preparation for the procedure

The method of solving the problem of unwanted armpit hairs by exposing them to electric current does not require any special preparatory measures. Experts recommend the following:

• Refusal from sunbathing and visiting a solarium to avoid weakening the epidermis by tanning. This may cause increased pain during manipulation in the cosmetologist's office.
• Preparing hairs for the procedure requires removing them two to three days before using a razor. It is necessary that their length reach 3 millimeters by the beginning of the manipulation. This helps to increase the efficiency of electrolysis. It is not advisable to remove hair shortly before visiting a specialist using other methods such as waxing or chemical depilation, as they can damage the hair and reduce the effect of the equipment on the follicle.
• On the eve of the procedure, it is advisable to peel the area to be epilated using a scrub. Thanks to this, dead epidermal cells will be eliminated, which will facilitate the penetration of the needle during the procedure.
• Those with oily skin should use a special lotion, since oiliness can interfere with the manipulation. With normal skin, just taking a shower is enough.
• Before electrolysis, it is advisable to take care of moisturizing the skin by drinking water or juice. It is better to avoid alcoholic and caffeinated drinks.

A few days before the electrolysis session, you should shave your armpits.

Carrying out electrolysis

Once in the beauty salon, the patient sits comfortably in a special chair. She will need to hold in her hands during the manipulation a neutral electrode that does not conduct current and does not cause pain in the palm. It is necessary for normal operation of the active electrode.

The sequence of actions when a specialist performs electrolysis is as follows:

1. A specialist treats the skin of the armpits using an antiseptic.
2. Anesthesia is administered. For this purpose, an injection of an anesthetic drug is given.
3. After the anesthesia takes effect, the doctor begins to treat the hair with electric current. He inserts the needle under the root of each hair one by one and waits for some time necessary for its destruction. Then the hair is removed using tweezers.
4. The final stage is treating the epilated area of ​​skin with an antiseptic drug, followed by the use of an anti-inflammatory soothing agent.

In my opinion, you should choose a specialist and salon as carefully as possible. Real professionals, as a rule, practice only in specialized clinics, and do not receive appointments in a regular beauty salon and, moreover, do not come to your home. It is better to carefully study all the reviews about cosmetology clinics in the city in order to choose the most reliable one. Having decided on the place where the procedure will be performed, it is worth visiting the website of this institution on the Internet to find information and reviews about practicing specialists and choose the most qualified cosmetologist. Another important aspect is the behavior of medical personnel and doctors. All employees of the institution must comply with existing sanitary and hygienic standards. Before the procedure begins, pay special attention to the electrode packaging. It must be new, unopened. Reuse of a needle or tweezers is unacceptable. Everything must be sterile.

Video: carrying out the electrolysis procedure in a cosmetology salon

After the procedure

As soon as the manipulation is completed, it will become noticeable that the skin is red and slightly swollen. It is even possible that hematomas may appear on it. This is a normal phenomenon that goes away within a week.

Redness of the skin immediately after the procedure is normal.

The recovery period after the procedure takes several weeks. It requires the patient to comply with certain rules to ensure rapid healing of the epidermis. These include the following:

• wearing loose-fitting clothes to avoid chafing under the armpits;
• refusal to use anteperspirants for several days immediately after the procedure;
• abstaining from visiting a bathhouse, sauna, swimming pool, or taking hot water procedures for the first three days after electrolysis. Allow only a lukewarm shower;
• refusal of physical activity to avoid increased sweating;
• You cannot sunbathe or visit a solarium for seven days.

Compliance with the above recommendations will ensure rapid skin restoration and prevent complications.

Skin care

After electrolysis of the armpits, the skin requires additional care, because the wounds formed after the needle penetrates the skin can become infected.

Recommendations from the master:

1. Do not expose your armpits to ultraviolet radiation or sunbathe for at least two days after the procedure.
2. Pay attention to the products used to care for the area. They must not contain aggressive substances.
3. Refrain from activities that cause increased sweating for a week. You should also exclude the pool, bathhouse, sauna, and hot baths.
4. Avoid contact with water in the armpit for seven days. If there is a need to wash this area, thermal water should be used. It can be purchased at pharmacies or cosmetic stores.
5. Treat the skin with a skin disinfectant recommended by the specialist for 7-10 days.

Complications after electrolysis

Sometimes the method of removing unwanted hairs in the armpit area with electric current leads to the problem of increased pigmentation. The skin becomes covered with dark spots.

There is also a risk of ingrown hairs, which can cause rashes and itchy skin.

In the list of side effects you can also see the following:

• scars and uneven skin;
• irritated state of the epidermis;
• inflammatory processes caused by infection during the procedure.

All of the above complications most often appear in patients who went to a questionable clinic, when the procedure was performed by an unqualified doctor using faulty equipment.

Possible consequences and complications

If we talk about whether laser hair removal of the armpits is harmful, it is worth understanding that the depth of penetration of the beam into the epidermis is very small, about 1–4 mm, and the risk of complications after the procedure is minimal.

However, if the manipulation was performed in the presence of contraindications or by an incompetent specialist, the consequences may be as follows:

• allergy;
• hyperpigmentation;
• burn;
• redness of the skin;
• herpetic rash;
• retinal burn.

As for redness of the skin, it often appears after the procedure, but quickly passes. A retinal burn can only occur if you do not wear special glasses that will protect your eyes. The cosmetologist must give them out before the start of the session.

Read material on the topic: Laser hair removal of the upper lip: effective and reliable or expensive and useless?

Contraindications

Due to its risk of injury, electrolysis has a number of contraindications for use. You can't resort to it:

• in the presence of skin diseases, especially in acute form;
• if the patient suffers from diabetes or cancer;
• in the presence of hypertension and ischemic disease;
• in case of epilepsy and mental disorder;
• with damaged epidermis, presence of moles, tattoos;
• if a woman has varicose veins;
• with an implanted pacemaker;
• if there is increased skin sensitivity;
• during pregnancy and breastfeeding.

If there are the above restrictions, this method of removing unwanted vegetation should be abandoned, since there is a high risk of harming your health.

Pros and cons of electrolysis of the armpit area

Like any cosmetic procedure, armpit electrolysis has its advantages and disadvantages.

The technique has a number of disadvantages:

• quite a long procedure. Compared to modern hardware hair removal, for example, photo and laser, electrolysis takes the longest time. This is due to the fact that the cosmetologist must treat each hair separately, insert a needle into the follicle, and wait until the device supplies the current. Modern devices work much faster, but still the average armpit treatment session lasts about an hour;
• high sensitivity is due to a large accumulation of nerve endings, thin skin of the armpit area, as well as pinpoint pain from current pulses. You can use a lower frequency current, but it will be less effective on thicker hair. This disadvantage of electrolysis can be easily corrected with anesthesia;
• the risk of complications in the form of damage to the epidermis, residual red spots, scars is quite high;
• the possibility of infection entering through micropunctures from the needle-electrode. Of course, modern cosmetology strictly adheres to the rules of hygiene, but you need to be as careful as possible;
• Greater dependence of the final performance on the skills and dexterity of the specialist. The effectiveness of destroying the hair follicle depends on the correctly inserted needle with a precisely selected diameter into the right place.

Despite the disadvantages, the procedure has clear advantages, which is why its popularity has not declined for a long time.

Advantages of electric hair removal:

• this is the only officially recognized method known that removes hair permanently;
• the current destroys hair regardless of the melanin pigment, that is, any color for all shades of the skin;
• Hair hormone dependence does not affect hair removal. The action of hormones sometimes leads to the degeneration of vellus hair into terminal hair, that is, hard and dark;
• sessions are carried out on areas of the body where vellus and coarse hair grow together;
• the ability to remove hair in areas with benign moles that are carefully avoided;
• The risk of trouble in the form of ingrown hairs is practically absent.

Compliance with safety measures

The electrolysis procedure requires compliance with safety measures by the cosmetologist.

Safety precautions for electrical hair removal are as follows:

• electroepilator needles must be sterile, since through them accidental contact with blood can occur with all the attendant risks, for example, hepatitis infection;
• the cosmetologist must always use disposable medical gloves;
• before and after the procedure, the skin must be thoroughly disinfected;
• the medical salon must have the appropriate license allowing the provision of such services.

Course duration

Most patients, for natural reasons, are concerned with the question of how long it takes to remove unwanted hair from the armpit area using electrolysis. No one, not even the most experienced specialist, will give an exact answer, because everything is individual for each person due to the characteristics of the body, starting from the structure of the hairs and their color, ending with the characteristics of the skin. The darker and coarser the hair, the longer it will take to remove it.

The effectiveness of the hair removal procedure depends on many factors: your individual hair growth characteristics, hormonal levels, your use of certain medications, the quality of the equipment for the procedure (country and manufacturer, technical features of the device), the qualifications of the specialist and much more. This method of targeted damage to the hair follicle with electric current works regardless of hair color. This technique gives very good results on any growth zones, even light hair, and the effect is noticeable after the first procedure.

Tolstaya Anastasia Igorevna, dermatocosmetologist

https://www.tat90.ru/page.xhtml?u=3494B66392574CA9A63687B7ADD8EBEA

With one procedure, you can eliminate hairs for 1–1.5 months. Then the hair will grow back. After undergoing one electrolysis, it is impossible to remove hairs from the axillary area. No more than 80 percent of the hairs are in active development at any one time, and the remaining 20 percent “sleeps”, being stored in reserve. That is why you can fully understand the problem only after completing a course prescribed by a specialist.

If we talk about individual manipulations, they last more than 2 hours. At the same time, the duration of each subsequent procedure is reduced. This can be explained by the fact that bulbs damaged by electricity for the most part lose their ability to “produce shoots” and do not need treatment. A person should be prepared for the fact that the first procedure of the course will be the longest and most unpleasant, and the subsequent manipulations will be less intense. To achieve absolute smoothness of the armpits, you will need to complete a course consisting of at least 4-8 electrolysis sessions, lasting from 40 to 60 minutes each .

For complete hair removal, at least three full courses are required, but each time the intervals between procedures increase from several weeks to several months.

Svetlana Bobro, pharmacist-cosmetologist

https://cosmar.com.ua/articles/3287/

Sometimes the patient is able to permanently eliminate unwanted hair using electrolysis. Basically, the cosmetologist advises taking several full courses to finally solve this problem.

Smooth armpit skin for a long time - the real result of a course of electrolysis

How many electrolysis sessions should I perform?

On average, 5-6 sessions will be required, and you will have to visit a cosmetologist up to 15 times over 1.5-2 years.

Here is an approximate table of frequency, which, by the way, is used by cosmetologists themselves:

• 1-3 sessions – no more than 1 time every 1.5-2 months;
• 4-6 – no more than once every 2-2.5 months;
• 7-8 times - once every six months.

After the basic scheme of electrolysis is completed, you will need to visit the cosmetologist’s office again after some time. That is, after a couple of years, it is possible that very sparse fine hairs will appear. Of course, you can fight them with tweezers or sugar paste. But this is fraught with consequences, such as ingrown hairs; in addition, it is better to get rid of them forever. To do this, just visit your cosmetologist again for 10-15 minutes and forget about your hair.

Reviews from doctors

Lucinda Nersisyan: Approximately how much time and money will it take for the armpit area and bikini area completely?
Natalya Sergeeva: Lucy, on average it takes 2 hours for each armpit. In order for hair to stop growing there completely, you need from 3 to 5 procedures. But, of course, the amount of hair also plays a role. That is, it may turn out to be less, or maybe a little more. For now the price is 15 rubles/min. Next will be the average for St. Petersburg -20 rubles/min. Natalya Sergeeva https://vk.com/topic-74364263_30685373?post=36

Electrolysis is effective during a course of sessions.
If you have a low pain threshold, I do not recommend this method of hardware hair removal. Svetlana Sergeeva, cosmetologist https://ladyspecial.ru/krasota/uxod-za-liczom-i-telom/kosmetologiya/elektroepilyatsiya-protivopokazaniya-i-posledstviya