Donna has been an amazing electrologist and I'm so lucky that I found her! I came to her from a…read moreGroupon because I was in search of a new electrologist in San Diego after moving. Her prices are the most reasonable I've seen ($70/hr and $1/min after the first hour) and she has years of experience behind her that are reflected in her excellent work. To top it off, she's sweet, professional, and flexible!
A little background...I've been blessed with beautiful, thick Indian hair from both sides of my family. Unfortunately, this also means that I have excess hair that's black, dense, and coarse in unwanted places, specifically facial hair on my chin, under chin, and sides. I'm not a good candidate for laser since I have a darker complexion, so electrolysis was the only the way to go as a permanent solution.
Prior to Donna I had seen two other electrologists. One of them was in North County and the other was in my hometown. I went to the North County electrologist every week for about 4 months and saw slim to almost no results. I went to the electrologist in my hometown while I was visiting in order to keep up with my work. At the time I didn't know what a good electrologist's work looked like. The North County electrologist was very sweet, but was inexperienced. She had only 2-3 years of experience at the time and I think because of my special features (darker skin, coarser hair) I must've been a challenging case, I doubt she had the experience to properly handle it (you can see my full review on the Coastal Electrolysis Yelp page). Same thing with the other electrologist in my hometown. Basically, both turned out to be a waste of my time and money, and would've possibly had permanent skin damage if I had continued too.
By contrast, Donna has been amazing. I've been seeing her for more than 6 months now and after about the first 3 months I was already starting to see results -- the hair was coming back finer and less dense. In the beginning I couldn't go a few days without shaving, but it's at the point now where I see her every 2 weeks and I feel comfortable enough with the amount of hair growth that I don't shave between appointments anymore. From my first interactions with her I could tell she had excellent education and expertise about electrolysis and other medical skin conditions above and beyond the other electrologists' knowledge base. She's also fast--we're covering much more area than I did with my previous electrologist (we only had time to tackle my chin during our 1-hr sessions, but with Donna I'm getting my chin, under chin, and sides treated in 1-hr). Donna's also meticulous about keeping things hygienic, even switching out probes multiple times during a session if she feels it's getting dull. She works exactly an hour (she pauses the timer whenever she needs to switch probes or clean). Because of her thoroughness, our appointments are rarely exactly an hour long, so make sure to budget that in. However, if she doesn't have a client after you and you want to get some more work done she's always willing to keep going as long as there's no problems with your skin. Sometimes she is late getting you on the table because her session with the client before you may run over, but she always does her best to not let that happen and will give you your full time. Donna's also been flexible with scheduling. I do my best to never miss an appointment, but there were two instances that I had emergencies arise. She was either able to see me later that day, or rescheduled me for that same week--I very much appreciated that because I didn't want to get off my schedule. I also appreciate the day-before text reminder that she sends and her evening availability (I believe she works Monday, Wednesday, Fridays). She does use an older machine, but don't let that deter you. The truth of the matter is is that the machine doesn't matter--it's the precision and accuracy of the insertions that the electrologist makes that is the difference. In fact, her machine allows her more precision to match my skin and hair needs for that appointment (sometimes my skin is more sensitive than other days) instead of going by a predetermined settings on the newer computer machines.
Her office is very nice too and there is attached parking garage, although the entrance is a bit hard to see. All in all, she's a great find--great skill level, efficient, and personable! I do not at all mind driving the 40 miles roundtrip to see her and as a full-time student I really appreciate that I can afford her prices. I hope she never retires...I may want to start working on other areas too!