RANSVESTIA

just right, but it frequently does not. If too much heat is applied more of the needle gets hot than should, and tends to cook the sides of the follicle too which can also result in the formation of small holes. It also tends to change the texture of the skin in two ways. A lot of the tiny but definitely enlarged pores give the skin an "orange peel" appearance. But the presence of hundreds of little blobs of cooked (coagulated like cooked egg white) tissue below the surface tends to give a certain "lumpiness" to the surface rather than the natural smoothness.

Then a man right here in Los Angeles invented a way of blending the high frequency thermolysis current with the ordinary galvanic current used in electrolysis killing. This current literally electrolyzes the tissue fluids which contain sodium chloride (ordinary salt) and in the process produce sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) at the site. This highly alkaline and corrosive material kills the cells in the immediate vicinity chemically rather than thermally. Combining the two types of current in one machine was intended to utilize the best features of both systems. It worked, because most of my beard was removed by use of the blend system. However the by product of this, that you are all very well aware of, is the pain. Certain areas are exceedingly tender, such as right under the nasal septum, right over the breast bone or sternum. I managed to survive the facial work by a kind of self hypnosis in which I would close my eyes and put myself someplace else and occupy my mind with some sort of problem or imagined activity. I reasoned that just as the phone rings but you don't have to answer it, so the phone lines of my pain nerves would "ring" in my head, but if I didn't answer, I didn't acknowledge the pain-because I was somewhere else (in my head) and didn't pay any attention to the incoming signals. Well, although I could do that pretty well, for most of my face, I had a heck of a time along the jaw line, but the few times I tried it on the chest, I just couldn't make it.

Then at a meeting one night I heard somebody talking about a new machine that worked by computer and it wasn't nearly so painful and it was more effective, etc., etc. I put the whole thing down and poo- pooed it as just some new gimmick that somebody was promoting. After all, how could a computer have anything to do with killing hairs. Ridiculous! Well, a couple of weeks later several people in the group were going over to see the man who had the machine to learn more about it. In spite of my skepticism, I went along in order to find out what kind of gimmickry was involved. The machine was

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