In questioning the recent caller, I found out she was quite familiar with the internet, e-mail, but it had never occurred to her to visit IHR’s website where she could find all the research material she was asking for (and then some), with just a quick click on the site’s “Subscriber Only” button. This is a “value added feature” for our subscribers, and it is our hope that everyone will take full advantage of the system. Such advantages were impossible to imagine in those days before computers and the internet.

Once the domain of large business for accounting and word processing, computerization now affects everyone’s daily life. From bank machines and debit cards, to microprocessors in our cars and epilators, almost every aspect of our lives interacts with computers.

The most dramatic impact computerization has had on our society is in the use of the internet. Segregated into the World Wide Web (www) and e-mail, the number of people who access the internet on a regular basis is staggering. Usage has dramatically increased from fewer than 90,000 in 1993, to more than 304 million today. Two independent studies recently showed that the number of unique indexable web pages grew from 1 billion in January 2000, to more than 2 billion by June of that same year. Seventy-eight percent of all web sites and 96 percent of e-commerce sites are in English.

Today, over half the U.S. adult population is accessing the internet with computers, cell phones, palm pilots, and even pagers. And in terms of user value, the most significant impact has been in the dissemination of information. In our own field, for example; never in history has there been such a great proliferation of hair removal information available to the general public. No longer is superfluous hair and its causes talked about in whispers. Electrolysis is as far out of the closet as it can get.

The volume of information available has now reached almost ridiculous proportions. A search on the web for “hair” directs us to 3,750,000 web pages that contain that word; restrict the search to “hair removal” and there are still 131,000 web pages to contend with. A search for “electrolysis” further reduces the count to about 99,700 pages.

However, reduced to a handful of carefully selected sites (that sift out only information that is germane to our specialty interest), the web can provide us with not just a research tool, but a rich resource of practical information and services for small, independent businesses such as our own. These sites might include local and/or national professional associations, reputable medical sites for dermatology and endocrinology, printing services, manufacturers of electrolysis equipment and office supplies, online banking, and of course, the Hair Route.

The benefit to using a web site like Hair Route’s is that it is similar to the print magazine, presenting only filtered information specific to the electrolysis profession. Subscribers can research back issues for how-to articles, the IHR Drug Chart© is available for downloading, and the latest news affecting our industry is constantly being updated. You can buy or sell used equipment or an electrology business through IHR’s online Classified Advertising, look up all the certification requirements for each state, or review the Schools of Electrology that are listed online. The events calendar is available for all associations to post their upcoming events and meetings, free of charge, and links to useful sites for electrologists are also available. In addition, you are now able to renew your Hair Route subscription online, purchase books from our reference library, submit letters to the editors for publication or pose questions to our columnists.

Electrologists can take advantage of the referral directory www.wrope.com (much like the Yellow Pages) and any state association can now have its own web page or site developed as a cost effective way to keep its membership informed, as well as provide facts about electrolysis and hair removal to the public and local media.

What does the future hold for electrologists on the internet? The possibilities are endless. But we all should grasp the opportunities that are available to us now.