Mapperley Park Clinic

Electrolysis is an established treatment for unwanted hair that works by passing a small electrical current through the hair follicle in order to heat up growing cells surrounding the hair. There is also an electro-chemical reaction that takes place helping cause follicle destruction.

Electrolysis is effective - it is the only hair removal method permitted to be called 'permanent' by the Advertising Standards Agency. However, electrolysis is also slow (one follicle at a time), invasive (the electrodes have to be inserted into adjacent follicles to allow current to flow), painful (ouch) and operator dependent, carrying a significant risk of point scarring.

We do offer electrolysis as a service for hair removal but, in the vast majority of cases, we would select laser treatment as being faster and, although we are not allowed by ASA rules to promise this, our experience is that laser treatment is equally effective on most hair types. Because much larger areas can be treated, the cost is also lower and consequently, electrolysis for us is mainly a treatment for white and grey hairs that do not absorb laser light very well.

Did you know that the first person to use electrolysis for hair removal was Dr. Charles E. Michel (1833 - 1913), a St. Louis, Missouri ophthalmologist (eye doctor) who, in 1875, reported the results of his use of electrolysis in trichiasis (ingrown eyelashes) (St. Louis Clinical Record, October, 1875, 2:145-148). He had been performing electrolysis since 1869.