Harness Electrolysis To Permanently Remove Unwanted Hair

Pearl Warner, CPE, LE

Well, thank you very much, Dr. Gersh, for inviting me. It is a pleasure to be here and to share information with women who are affected by PCOS, or excessive unwanted facial or body hair. I’ve been an electrologist for over 23 years now, and I became involved with electrolysis is that I had unwanted hair myself at one time and I didn’t know what to do. Nobody told me what to do, and nobody knew what to do. But I happened to be looking at a Sunday newspaper, and there was a big spirit there that told me about unwanted facial hair and how to get rid of it. The company is no longer in existence now, and I took up the idea in a hurry, and that Monday morning they contacted them. From there, my journey began, and this was approximately 1983. I went through the process of getting hair removed from my face and underarms because I was affected by PCOS, and nobody knew what to do or how to take care of it. Nobody even knew about PCOS. That wasn’t even a discussion at that time, and it was just that you had this dysphoria of unwanted facial hair. From that point on, I went through and finished my career in corporate America, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I felt I was too young to retire. I looked around for other options, including the idea of becoming an electrologist. You helped other women who were affected by this unwanted facial hair. I did that. I went to school here in Illinois. I happen to be located in the Chicago, Illinois, area. I went to school here at that time. Illinois was not a licensed state. That’s the first thing you want to do, if at all possible. Get someone who is licensed and properly trained. From that point on, I decided to venture out and work with other women. I’ve worked with women from all walks of life over some time and explained and went through the process. That process is: first of all, you want to go through and have a consultation. You don’t just jump into it. You sit down and talk about it. You talk about how long you’ve had this unwanted hair. How it has affected your life and the changes that you’ve had in your body. Most electrologists will just do an in-depth consultation and explain the process and procedure to you. That process is number one: we find out why, and if at all possible, we have an association with a physician. We will refer you to the physician so that he can do the proper examinations and run the proper tests to determine the cause of your unwanted hair. One of the things we’ve learned over time is that sometimes unwanted hair is part of your DNA. Of course, our DNA is something we can’t change, but we can help control the situation so that you don’t have such dysphoria when you’re dealing with it on a day-to-day basis. From that point on, you would go to the electrologist, and she or he would determine which modality is best for you. There are three modalities: galvanic, which is direct current; thermolysis, which is alternating current; and heat. There is a significant amount of heat. You don’t even feel it. It’s moving so fast. Then there is the blend, which is a combination of galvanic and thermolysis. What you feel is a little bit of pressure from the galvanic and heat from the thermolysis. You don’t have any scarring or unwanted side effects. You might have a little bit of puffiness after the treatment is over, but that is controlled with cataphoresis or an ice pack from your electrologist. Then you should avoid direct heat. That’s the sunlight. Ensure that you use sunblock to protect the skin from the ultraviolet rays from the sun and the heat. You don’t want to pick or use makeup immediately after your treatment. That procedure is not 100% permanent at the time that you receive that first treatment. It may take a series of treatments over some time, depending on the individual. That means that your situation is different from that of your best friends, your sisters, or your mothers. It’s not going to be the same outcome, and you’re not going to have the same evaluation when you go in for your consultation. Those are some of the things that you want to remember, and it can take as long as two to three years, or you can have unwanted hair over some time for the rest of your life, which is one of the things that doctors are looking at now. They determine that it’s part of a woman’s life cycle. We go from infancy through childhood to puberty. Then we become pregnant, and we go into menopause. All of these lifestyle changes cause a hormonal imbalance that can cause the unwanted facial hair that many of us experience throughout our lives.

Felice Gersh, MD

Thanks, Pearl. That is so much information. I’m going to backtrack and go over some of the things that you told us. Number one, you suffered from this excessive facial hair, what we call hirsutism. You mentioned the emotional impact. I thought maybe you could share a little bit about how you felt as a woman with this problem because honestly, this is not well appreciated. It’s glossed over as to the emotional impact of this unwanted facial hair. maybe a little bit. Tell us about how you felt and then also about your clients. What did they express to you about the emotions of having this unwanted hair?

Pearl Warner, CPE, LE

Well, for me, the emotional side effects were very traumatic. I didn’t know what to do. We didn’t have masks to wear back then. What we did was carry a pair of tweezers in our pocket or purse. The minute I get to a stop sign or stop light, I know how much of a hurry we are in our day-to-day lifestyle. I would pray that I would get stopped by the stop light long enough to tweeze those unwanted facial hairs out of my chin. Over some time, not realizing the damage had been done to my skin, I scarred myself. I had significant facial scars, and then, with the complexion that I have, we hyperpigmentate with a dark complexion and Fitzpatrick four, four and a half, to five Fitzpatrick: The pigmentation caused attacks, but my whole chin had become almost blue, black from bruising. A friend of mine mentioned it to me, and then I became upset. I started to wear a significant amount of makeup. I didn’t even think to go to a dermatologist just to talk about it. Nobody ever said anything. Nobody has ever said anything to me. None of my best friends, no one. I’m pretty sure that most of you experienced the same thing. Nobody, not even your best friend, is going to say anything to you about it. This is something that we have to take up for ourselves, pay attention to our parents, and decide to do something about it. For me, it was very traumatic, but I didn’t know what to do. I would spend hours in the mirror trying to correct my problem, not realizing I was only making it worse. I had conversations with women while I was sitting in my car, I would tend to answer the phone because it’s a potential client calling me. I’ve had women cry during the entire first few minutes that they began to talk to me, and I received that from the girl. They start to tell me how devastated they are, what this has done to their lives, and how it makes them feel. My heart goes out to them because I know exactly that. How is that what that feeling is like? You look around and you look at other people, and you wonder who’s looking at you and who’s noticed it. Unfortunately, nobody is going to say anything. I’ve assured them in most cases that I can do as much as we possibly can with the help of their position. Again, this is something you have to take upon yourself and seek out a good physician. An endocrinologist would be a good doctor to look for. Or you can start with your gynecologist if you feel more comfortable with that person, and they can refer you to an endocrinologist who will test your hormones, test for hormonal imbalance, and help you get started on your journey at least. These are some of the things that I would recommend, and this is what I’ve seen with my clients coming in.

Felice Gersh, MD

Well, yes, the personal stories of unwanted hair are enormously devastating, and they’re so underappreciated. Thank you for sharing your journey. Now many women may think, “Oh, I’ve heard of lasers.” So maybe you could talk about the relative merits of your procedure versus laser.

Pearl Warner, CPE, LE

Lasers have always been considered to be temporary hair removal. Laser hair removal burns the hair on the surface of the skin. It does not penetrate the surface of the skin and goes down to the base of the hair root, which is what electrolysis does. It burns it on the surface of the skin, and the hair stays there. It boils up sometimes within the next three days; we don’t know how quickly it leaves the surface of the skin, but we know it does. It’s there. When you leave the clinic with the electrolysis, we insert all the sides of the hair into the hair follicle and release a controlled amount of current. That current goes to the patella, which is the growth area of the hair. We release this current, whether it’s galvanic or thermal, as we release the current, and it starts to disable the hair at the root where it’s going. Unfortunately, each one of these—the treatment itself—does not permanently disable that hair follicle. Over some time, the hair follicle is disabled. Remember that our bodies are healing mechanisms in themselves. Once the body starts to heal itself, it starts to figure out a way to control what is going on inside of it. Your white blood cells rush to the area to start healing it, but at the same time, you’re fighting against your system. You stimulate the hair growth below the surface of the skin. With tweezing, tweezing stimulates the hair follicle below the surface of the skin. over ten, 15 years when you’ve been tweezing for that long time, then you’ve got this hair that’s growing so below the surface of the skin we all have and no number of hair follicles that have not begun to grow yet. This is why you’re seeing hair later, or after that treatment happened. There were five treatments; maybe what you’re still seeing here is growth. That’s because you have dormant hair follicles below the surface of the skin that come alive and start to grow.

Felice Gersh, MD

You mentioned that certain women, women who have darker colored skin, may not be candidates for everything. Maybe you could talk about it. Could you mention your Fitzpatrick score? What about the color of your skin? Is that an issue with electrolysis? What about that as an issue with lasers?

Pearl Warner, CPE, LE

With electrolysis. Electrolysis is effective and works on us, and it doesn’t matter whether you have just one or six. Anyone can use electrolysis, unfortunately, with laser hair removal. Everyone is not a prime candidate for laser hair removal. We talk about skin tone. Fitzpatricks one through three: They’re prime candidates for laser hair removal. However, once the hair turns white or gray, the laser is no longer effective on those white or gray hairs because the laser beam has to have contrast, which is why it doesn’t work. With that in mind, you want to ensure that you go to someone who is going to be upfront with you and let them because sometimes lasers can work in tandem with electrolysis. If you have an excessive amount of hair, you’re a prime candidate, meaning your skin tone is good, the color of the hair is good, your Fitzpatrick is one or two, and you have brunet hair. You’ll be a good candidate. But if you have this patchy one, two, or three and you have red hair, you may run into a little bit of a problem because you don’t have the contrast there that is needed for the laser beam, which is why Fitzpatrick, four, five, and six may not be good candidates. After all, there’s not enough contrast between the dark hair and the skin tone.

Felice Gersh, MD

I’ve always thought, and it’s so correct for me, that when you have a huge area, say, the legs, and you have the proper skin contrast with the hair color, doing the legs with laser hair reduction seems like a reasonable thing because electrolysis for the entire leg would be a challenge. But when you’re dealing with the face, around the neck, or the chin, electrolysis is such a wonderful option because it is considered permanent. Although, as you said, new hairs can come. It’s permanent for the ones that are treated, the way that they have to be treated often. You said multiple times to make that follicle, give up the ghost, and stop having that hair regrow. But for the area involving the chin or the sideburns that are under the chin, the mustache, and the neck, electrolysis is a fantastic option. How do you think about blending it in that way?

Pearl Warner, CPE, LE

That is a perfect option. If you’ve got leg hair, because, for some of us, that leg hair can be a nuisance, a laser is the better option. You can get the legs laser-cut without any concern at all, and then you can blend the two. Is that mentioned? Blend the two and do electrolysis on your face in that area between the breasts if needed. But for the legs, I would also recommend anyone because, even for males with that hair, sometimes some of the men look like bears. Laser is a much better option for them in the beginning. Now, if all of that hair is removed and put to rest if you will, then you can start doing your electrolysis treatment for permanent hair removal on those areas after you’ve gotten rid of the bulk of the hair and it is thinned out. yet it’s not such a nuisance to you.

Felice Gersh, MD

That’s great. What about other methods? You mentioned that if you use tweezers and pluck the hair, you’re stimulating hair growth. I’ve heard similar things concerning shaving, and I know that shaving has been around for a long time. Maybe you could comment on these alternative things: desperate women just do whatever they can come up with. A razor blade is usually readily available. What about the option of shaving? The hair grows back fast, but does it even grow back in greater quantities?

Pearl Warner, CPE, LE

There’s been a lot of conversation about that. Does shaving stimulate hair growth? I don’t know personally; but I don’t think shaving stimulates hair growth. What shaving does is give the hair a blunt edge. It seems that your hair is thicker or that you are getting more hair. But the other problem is with shaving; hairs grow in five different directions. If you take a coin the size of a nickel, a hair coming from a point, or any place around that nickel, it has some. Here’s the point up there, one on either side of that nickel, if you will. It can go to the right or the left. Well, your razor is a lot wider than that nickel. You’re going to be shaving hairs against their growth. If you do that, you can ask to oftentimes cut that hair off and cause ingrown hair. One of the biggest problems with shaving is ingrown hair. The other problem is that most people think that they can shave the hair below the surface of the skin to get a smooth face. Well, you can’t shave the hair below the surface of the skin. Oftentimes, you find yourself damaging your skin even more with your corrective measures, even though you don’t realize it at the time, and maybe one or two times doing that won’t show any damage to your skin. But if you continue to do that, and most people, from my conversations with them, shave every single day, women as well as men, because they want that smooth finish on their skin, they will shave every single day. This is what I tell my clients when I first begin with them. Nobody can see those real short hairs that are on your face that you see and feel. Anyone who gets closer than 18 inches to your face can’t see anything because your vision acuity is lost when you get that close to a person’s face. Besides, trust me, they’re not looking at hair or caring about hair. If they get that close to your face,

Felice Gersh, MD

Another technique I’ve heard of is threading, where if you’re threading, you’re pulling hair out. Would that be correct in that there might not be any real difference between doing a tweezer treatment?

Pearl Warner, CPE, LE

Threading is very similar to tweezing. The only difference is with threading. You’re getting numerous hairs out; you’re getting more than one hair out at a time. You’re just ripping the hairs out of the tissue. Same effect as tweezing, if not worse, because I kind of watched the threaders in the shopping malls, and they’re going over their faces quickly and they’re ripping it out. If you’re tweezing and you’re tweezing gently in your bathroom mirror, can you imagine the damage that that threading process is doing to your tissue and the hair follicle itself? It’s snatching that hair up out of the tissue. It’s causing a big response from your system. It causes a response from your system. It’s when you pull a plant out of the garden. If you go and pull a lead out, we don’t pull our plants; we usually pull the weeds out. You notice sometimes that when you pull the weeds out, they have a lot of roots on them. When you pull it up, you tear up a lot of the ground around it. The same thing happens on the inside of your skin when the load surfaces, the skin when you’re threading.

Felice Gersh, MD

Well, I just love that analogy. All I can do is imagine the weeds and all the lovely soil coming up with them and the whole ground just looking like it’s exploded in little bits, so that resonated with people. If we go back to the process, you mentioned a wire going into the hair follicle; maybe talk a little bit more about how the process occurs. What do people feel? How long does it take for that type of thing?

Pearl Warner, CPE, LE

With the wire, it’s a very fine wire, and it’s sterile. Number one. They’re one-time uses. That’s one thing you want to keep in mind. All of the probes, we call them probes. All of the probes, a one-time use that wasn’t 50 or 60 years ago, had some different things going on. But today, they’re for one-time use. As I said, they come prepackaged from the manufacturer in a sterile condition, and most electrologists do not open that package until the client is in a position to be treated. That way, it stays sterile. The probes come in various sizes, from one to seven, and you would use the probe that is most appropriate for the hair itself most of the time for facial hair around the lips, eye, and upper lip. They would be using anywhere from three to five. But the fifth is barbaric, coarse hair. I use threes and fours because that’s about as thick as the hair gets. When you go into the hair follicle, you’re not making a new entry into the tissue; you’re going into the hair follicle or along the side of the hair. That’s why the probe has to be the same size as the hair itself, and you release a controlled amount of current. Probes come in different materials. Some of them are gold, and some of them are stainless steel. The stainless steel has nickel in it, so that’s a question you want to ask your client when you’re interviewing or you want to keep in mind as to whether or not the patient is allergic to nickel. How do you know if you’re allergic to nickel? If you’ve never been to the doctor and had someone tell you that you have an allergic response to nickel, it’s because you wear inexpensive earrings and your ear turns blue or black. Then you have an allergic reaction to nickel. That’s one of the easiest and quickest ways to tell. That’s something you want to make sure that you find out and avoid because most people don’t know whether or not they’re allergic to nickel. I use gold probes. That’s the other material that the pill comes in. They come in gold, and mostly everybody does. I haven’t met anybody who was allergic to going yet. Gold has been my way out to get around that situation. But again, that’s something that’s a choice that the electrologists can make as to whether or not nickel or gold is most appropriate for their practice. Many of us will carry both prototypes in our office for various reasons.

Felice Gersh, MD

I have never met anyone allergic to gold either. About the sensations that are generated by the treatment, does it feel like heat? Do you feel a buzz, do you have to have numbing, or do you need to have emotional preparation because it’s going to be a little uncomfortable? What would it feel like?

Pearl Warner, CPE, LE

When you get the treatment, I’ve heard different responses from different people. For some people, they say that they feel a little bit of heat. For some, they say they feel a little bit of pressure. Does it hurt? I say the sensation is more on an individual basis as to whether it hurts or not because we all have different levels of pain tolerance. So. But as far as it is painful, no, it is not painful. It’s not painful. I’ve had clients who lay down and go to sleep while I’m working. I don’t talk to them; they don’t talk to me, and I just work and they sleep. They look forward to that time to rest and relax. On the other hand, there could be someone else who is very sensitive, and we can put a topical on them when they get to the office. Most of the time, those topicals will take 10 to 15 minutes—maybe not a half hour—to be effective. There are various schools of thought regarding whether or not to apply topicals to the person in your office. Some clients years ago; I don’t see it happening too much now, and when I first began to practice, I would pull up in front of my office, and there would be a lady sitting in front of my office with Saran Wrap wrapped around her chin, and she’s reading the newspaper. Well, this is called a Clooney, and they clip the tissue so that the heat can cause the topical ingredient to penetrate the tissue and numb the nerves. That has been done, and it’s done quite often even today. Clients will be there before they have a treatment, and I rarely numb my clients because we’re able to adjust the strength of the current that we’re using. I try to use something mild and comfortable, and I tell people all the time that if I were causing pain and you were lying there in tears, I wouldn’t be able to work on you. I wouldn’t be able to do it because it would have the same emotional effect on me. I’m not in it to hurt someone or to make them feel uncomfortable. I go out of my way to make sure that my clients are comfortable with the treatment and doing the treatment. This is one of my most recent experiences, and I’m very pleased with the outcome. She’s a young lady; she just graduated from grammar school. This is her first semester in high school. She has hair on her neck and face. Some sideburns, chin, and neck. When she came, she was petrified. She was almost in tears when she lay on my table for the first time. We have a lot in common. We started to talk about school. We talked about religion. We happen to have the same faith base we talked about. I found ways to talk to her and make her comfortable. That means a lot to the client when you make them feel that way. From that point on, I haven’t had a tear from her yet. The only problem I have with this young lady is that if she gets out of school early, she hits straight to my office, and she can end up being there 15 minutes to a half hour early. I had the class, and her two kids came early because I try to put 15 minutes between clients so that I can get the other person out. You can clean up between the clients, and I’ll assume you can’t come 15 minutes early. You can give me a call and let me know that you’re running, and you can probably get here early. That would be fine. then I can let it come on. But if I’m still working on somebody, then you might want me to stop and get you a treat or something, or just sit back and relax until your time is available. That’s one of the things I always think about with my clients. As far as being uncomfortable, electrolysis does not hurt. It’s not a visit to the dentist. It’s not, and going to the dentist today doesn’t hurt anymore because they’ve figured out ways to spray your gum to make sure that you don’t feel the insertion of the stronger deadening process. We have found ways to make electrolysis as comfortable as possible for the most sensitive person.

Felice Gersh, MD

Well, that is so reassuring. The idea that you have around a 14-year-old who can’t wait to arrive, the eagerness, is just indicative of what this process means to someone to have that hair taken care of. I know that with lasers, they often say you should shave and prepare the hair ahead of time. Do you need to do anything ahead of time for electrolysis, not shave or shave, or does it matter? Or, what would you say is the prep for going through this procedure?

Pearl Warner, CPE, LE

For electrolysis, all we want you to do is cleanse your skin very well before you leave home, if possible. Most of us wear makeup, and some women with excessive hair wear excessive amounts of makeup because they think their makeup is going to hide the hair. The most important thing is to cleanse your skin. If we also ask you not to cut, that is the procedure that you would use to minimize the amount of facial hair that is visible to the naked eye. You would take a small pair of cuticle scissors with a rounded tip that gives you a little bit more comfort and ensures that you’re not going to stick yourself with the hand that does scissors. You want to clip the hairs as close as you possibly can in between treatments, but two to three days before your treatment, leave the hairs be because we need the hairs to be above the surface of the skin so that we can grasp with the tweezers. We don’t want to scratch your skin with the tweezers, trying to get the hair out of the skin with the tweezers tip. We ask you to cleanse the skin, drink lots of water, and stay hydrated. The more hydrated you are, the more comfortable your treatment will be. Minimize the amount of coffee that you drink, because caffeine sometimes tends to stimulate the nerve endings. If you want to minimize the amount of coffee, you should try to have two or three cups of coffee a day. Try to have maybe only one cup of coffee before your treatment, and then after the treatment, of course, you can have as many cups as you want, but then with water, drink as much water as you possibly can.

Felice Gersh, MD

Now, a lot of women with PCOS, yes, many have bad acne. it’s often on the jawline and the areas where the hair is growing. Is that a contraindication or can you work around acne or how would that interfere, if at all, with your procedure?

Pearl Warner, CPE, LE

With an individual with acne, if the acne is still, I will not put an insertion. if the hair is coming out of that pustule, I will not go into that person to pull the hair out with my pro. I will work around it if possible, but for the most part to ensure that the person does not have any contraindication with the acne. We try to make sure that the acne is calmed down before we work on an individual with acne.

Felice Gersh, MD

That sounds like a very important point. Now everyone out there I can guarantee wants to be your client because you are fantastic. You have an organization and that you head on. Is that a good way for people to try to find someone if they’re not in Chicago? so if they are how can they find you and how can they find someone who is well-trained and caring, who can do this electrolysis process for them?

Pearl Warner, CPE, LE

The American Electrology Association has over 900 members throughout the United States and Canada. You go online to the American Electrology website, americanelectrology.com. You go to find an electrologist, and they will ask you how far you are willing to travel. Five miles, ten miles, 15 miles, or depending on if you live in a rural area, if you’re willing to travel a little bit further, you can find an electrologist near me, meaning you. Click on it and say your town; we got it there throughout the United States, and electrologists are throughout the United States. You want to find someone who’s listed on our roster. They are listed on the website by state. It will tell you what type of treatment they offer. If they do all three modalities: blend, galvanic, or thermolysis, it will tell you on the website by their name. It’ll tell you if they’re certified professional electrologists. What you will see is a CPE behind their name. CPE means that that person has gone above and beyond the requirements of their state as an electrologist. As a CPE, they’re required to have 15 continuing education hours every year for five years, and they are recertified. In some states, you’re only required to do 30 hours over two years or maybe 10 hours over two years. Some states aren’t licensed at all, so you want to make sure you find someone, if possible, in a licensed state. If you are unlicensed, try to hook up with a CPE. That person who has gone above and beyond the call of duty as far as training, and they’re staying on top of their goal because they have to continue their education hours.

Felice Gersh, MD

I know that you have those letters after your name, so that’s what you are looking for. I know your organization has an annual conference where you do a lot of continuing medical education hours. and I was very impressed with the members that I met at your conference a year or so ago. Everyone should look for a quality, trained individual, just as you described. I can’t thank you enough, Pearl. This is such important information. I’m sure you are aware of this; many medical doctors don’t even know about it. This is not included in medical training. Sometimes this is where people have to just take charge of themselves and say, “I want to get treated,” like you did. Nobody told you you had to go and do your work in an investigation. That’s why I’m so glad that you were able to join us so that everyone out there, and I would say 99.9% of everyone watching this, would benefit from this service. Thank you so much. I look forward to staying connected and connecting my patients to other providers as close to you as I can find because this is such a life-changing process to eliminate that unwanted hair, which is so emotionally devastating. Thanks again so much.

Pearl Warner, CPE, LE

Thank you again, Dr. Gersh, for having me. It’s my pleasure. I wish you all the best in your endeavor as we try to educate as many people as we possibly can. Thank you.