Originally Posted by austfred
ErnieThis is interesting.
“The probe is a very fine stiff wire that you insert into the base of the hair for about 45 seconds when you set the machine on high.”
Could you please explain this in some more detail. Do you have to penetrate the skin where the hair comes out? How far does the wire have to go in and how can you be sure you get to the follicle? Also I assume you need to use some sort of conductive gel?
Also I have a TENS unit. I wonder if I could make a probe for it that would do the same thing.
I have tried just about every other hair removal technique - shaving, depillatory creams (Hair no more) ,laser removal tweezers and an epilator. They all work up to a point but none of them have been a permanent solution. Shaving leaves irritating stubble especially around the penis root. Depillatory creams work well in the short term and I still use them from time to time as a tidy up. I did laser using a special introductory deal at a local clinic at a reasonable cost. Worked pretty well at removing most of my hairs which are normally dark but now get some residual fine grey hairs which laser will not work on. Have removed some using tweezers and find an epilator is pretty effective and not painful now my hairs are so fine. The epilator is not very good at achieving a clean line between the cleared areas and the area where I want the pubes retained. I am not so fussed about removing all my hairs on my balls were not lasered for safety reasons but find I can use the epilator there if I carefully stretch the skin. Would like to try the electrolysis especially on the shaft and around the root.
Austfred
Austfred -
I’ll try to answer your questions. But there’s a good forum (hairtell.com) that includes a section on this - it is called “home electrolysis” You can find a lot more detail there. Like Thunders, it is full of people that try to help each other out and aren’t selling stuff. You don’t need to set up an account to look around.
If you look for “one touch electrolysis” on ebay or amazon, you’ll see a picture of the little machine I was talking about. I looked on both today, and the single probe unit can be had on ebay for less than $20 plus shipping. The small thin wire is perhaps 3/8” long, and you insert it in your skin at the base of the hair, trying to follow the direction the hair is growing. The probe has a metal area you grasp with your fingers, and a tiny current flows from the tip of the wire to your fingers, powered by a 9v battery. The electric current kills the hair root so it doesn’t grow back. The probe doesn’t really “penetrate” the skin, but follows the path the hair uses to reach the root of the hair.
You can put some conductive gel on your fingertips if you like, or you can simply lick them so they are wet, making the electrical connection a bit better. A TENS unit won’t work. TENS produce AC current, and you need DC current.
Finer, thinner hairs are harder to remove because they are harder to see. If you can see them, and find the base of the hair follicle, you can get rid of it. But because they are harder to see, you’ll miss your target more often.
Someone asked about risks. You can look at the hairtell site to see what kind of problems sometimes occur. The biggest risks are infections, but if you wash the skin first and keep your probe clean, infections shouldn’t happen.
As for pain, there is very little - more of a tingling sensation that I found to be helpful because it let me know the machine was working properly and the battery had not died.
I don’t like depillitories; they are messy, they stink, and I seem to get ingrown hairs a week later.
Professional electrolysis machines cost $1500 and up, and take a lot of skill to use. Their big advantage is that they are much faster, working in a couple of seconds instead of 45 seconds or so. The one touch is simple and cheap, but very time consuming. For small areas like the base of your penis, they’re fine.