It Feels Like My Electrologist is Just Plucking Hairs, Am I Getting Scammed?

If your electrolygist is charging you to pluck hairs instead of treating them, you are absoloutly being scammed, but there may be another explanation for plucking the sensation.

Electrolysis works by individually targeting each hair follicle and destroying its ability to produce new hairs using an isolated thermogenic or chemical reaction. A successfully treated hair will release from the follicle and easily slide out of the skin when grabbed with tweezers. This process must be repeated for every hair in the treatment area, and this takes time, but it is highly effective and has been beloved for its permanence for over 100 years. 

Unfortunately, reality is not always so perfect, and several factors can lead you to feel like your electrologist is plucking your hairs instead of properly treating them. 

One of the best ways to establish if this is happening to you or not is to pay attention to the ratio of zaps to plucks. If everything goes perfectly, the number of zaps will perfectly match the number of plucks during your treatment, but in life, it is hard to be perfect, so the number of plucking sensations may slightly outnumber the zaps due to things like the hair slipping through the tweezers, the hair breaking , or simply tugging on a neighboring hair by mistake. If however, the number of plucks is far outweighingthe number of zaps, your electrologist is unfortunately failing to provide the treatment promised. If you feel this is the case, it is always best to bring up your concern with your electrologist and give them the chance to explain why this may be occurring, but if you feel they are dismissive of your concerns or can't provide a satisfactory explanation, it is in your best interest to look for a new electrologist. 

Now, assuming that this is not the case and that you are seeing a competent, upstanding, Certified Electrologist, here are some other situations that may explain why you feel more plucks than zaps. 

1. You Have Keratinised Root Sheaths

This pertains somewhat less to the number of plucks and more to the "strength" of the pluck. As mentioned above, successfully treated hairs can be removed using much less force than untreated hairs and this difference is one of the ways your electrologist can confirm they treated the hair effectively. One situation where this becomes more difficult is when a client has very stiff, keratinized hair sheaths. In this situation, the force required to remove a successfully treated hair increases slightly to overcome the resistance created by the stiffened sheath. This can result in a stronger plucking sensation but does not mean your hair was not effectively treated. 

2. Your Hairs Keep Breaking

This can occur for a multitude of reasons, but the 2 most common are that you have brittle hairs or that your electrologist is using tweezers with an edge sharp enough to clip the hair during the removal process. In both of thesecases, you may feel your electrologist attempting to remove the remaining portion of the hair several times (ie several plucks) before moving on to zap and remove the next hair. 

3. Your Hairs are Slippery

The use of a medical-grade antiseptic is an important part of the electrolysis process, but excess can contribute to hair slipperiness, making it more difficult for your electrologist to efficiently grab your hairs. If a hair slips from grip during the removal process, your electrologist will have to re-attempt to remove the hair, creating a second pluck without an associated second zap. For clients who use a topical numbing cream, residue left on the hairs can also make them more difficult to grab, creating the same situation as slipperiness caused by excess antiseptic. 

4. Your Electrologist Has a Hair or a Piece of Cotton Stuck in Their Tweezer 

While working, your electrologist may get a piece of cotton or hair stuck in their tweezers, causing them not to close fully or as easily as they are supposed to. Like the slippery hair situation, this can cause them to lose grip on the hair, requiring them to make another attempt at successfully removing it. If this is the source of the excess plucking sensation, it will likely be short lived because the onset of increased hair slippage will trigger your electrologist to check their tweezers for this problem.

Overall, if you are currently seeing an electrologist for regular appointments but you are not noticing the results you expected, please bring this up with them. Hair growth is influenced by numerous factors, such as genetics, hormone levels, and stress, and unfortunately, all of these elements can result in stubborn hairs that may make you feel like you are not making progress. Because every person is different, your treatment plan should be individualized to you and should be adjusted in response to your results (or lack thereof) to ensure that you are receiving treatments that meet your needs, and if this is not happening, it is time to consider switching electrologists.