One of the goals of Mt. Pearl Electrolysis is to provide our patients and clients with periodic information about the hair removal processes that we use at our 14 Centennial Street clinic in Mt. Pearl, NL. Patients are often surprised when they hear that electrolysis has been around and used for over 100 years. Many will ask about the history of electrolysis for hair removal.
Background & History of Electrolysis
Electrolysis for hair removal did not exist prior to 1875. Up until that period in history, people used many temporary methods of dealing with unwanted hair including things such as poultices to treate the area where hair removal was desired. These methods were largely ineffective and the hair always grew back.
In 1875 Dr. Charles Michel, an ophthalmologist discovered through experimentation, that painful ingrown eyelashes could be removed from his patients by inserting a fine wire and attaching a battery. This wire was inserted into the hair follicle and the release of a small amount of electrical current flowing into the hair follicle destroyed the hair forever. Merely by accident, electrolysis was born. Men and women with unwanted hair could now be helped.
Throughout the last 100 plus years, electrolysis for hair removal has stood the test of time. It has become fully recognized by the FDA and accepted by by medical doctors as the only safe and effective form of permanent hair removal.
This leads to many patients of Mt. Pearl Electrolysis to ask how electrolysis works?
Electrolysis is a minor medical treatment that involves inserting a sterile probe approximately the same size of the hair into the hair follicle down to the dermal pappilla. This is the area that the electrologist targets with the electrical current and is the part of the follicle that contains the blood and nerves that feeds the growing hair. If the papilla and the regenerative cells surrounding it are destroyed, the hair will also die and fall out.
With the probe in place, a low-level electrical current is applied. This current destroys the papilla and surrounding cells, loosening the hair in the follicle. Once this happens, the hair is removed. Multiple hairs will be eliminated in a single treatment but others will need multiple electrolysis treatments to achieve permanent hair removal.
These electrolysis treatments will occur over a period of time, with the length of time depends on the amount of hair, its coarseness, the cause of the excess hair and many other factors. However, once the dermal papilla has been eliminated, the hair is dead and will not re-grow.
To arrange your hair removal consultation, please contact Mt. Pearl Electrolysis.
