Letters to the Editors
(June 2003)
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YOU WIN SOME —
Dear Editors:
Thanks for the notice to re-subscribe; I am very happy to do so. Five years ago
I went back to school to study homeopathy (a marvelous healing art), and during
that period I had no time to read anything except homeopathy books. Now that
graduation is nearing, I will have some time to become re-acquainted with the
Hair Route.
It would be interesting to see an article on homeopathy in your magazine, since
there are those unfortunate people with so very much superfluous hair especially
due to hormonal triggers. Homeopathy can be of significant help, emotionally as
well as hormonally. It is a form of energetic healing that fine-tunes the body,
and it is safe for people and pets of all ages.
I look forward to receiving Hair Route again.
— Marilyn Hirsekorn
South Surrey, British Columbia
Editors’ Note:
Thanks for your renewal subscription, and for your thoughts on a homeopathy
article. We are giving the idea serious consideration. For five years, beginning
in November 1983, Hair Route ran a regular column called “Think Professional,”
authored by homeopath/electrologist Arlene Winters, of Highland, Illinois.
Though the column was not always about the practical aspects of electrology it
was very popular with our readers and would still be running today if Mrs.
Winters had not retired and moved to Arizona.
YOU LOSE SOME —
Dear International Hair Route:
I am writing to you just a little note to tell you that I will not be renewing
my subscription to your very good magazine, simply because I retired from
the profession. I was practicing in Quebec, where I was really enjoying reading
your magazine — full of professional and accurate articles.
All the time I worked in the field, I was in need of you. Nothing could have
helped me more, when I was in doubt.
So, I thank you for having been there with me on the way of my profession.
— Louise Brunet
Vancouver, British Columbia
Dear Hair Route:
Thanks for the reminder. I am dropping my subscription as I am now retired and
reading garden and recipe books! I have loved every issue of IHR and still have
them all!
— Phyllis Auerbach
Portland, Oregon
YOU GAIN SOME —
Dear Editors:
Continue with Your Great Magazine! I always enjoy reading the issues as soon as
they come into the office. Thank you very much.
—Judith Krochmal
Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey
YOU FAIL SOME —
Dear Editor:
I have been a supporter of International Hair Route for 20 years and have
all but two issues of the publication in my collection. I share the sentiments
expressed by other readers of the Magazine that you have a bias against the
International Guild, its president, Trudy Brown, and those electrologists who
have involved laser service in their electrolysis practice. This does not seem
to be the case if they include temporary methods of hair removal when they are
esthetician/electrologists.
I refer to your Editorial in the December, 2002 Hair Route, where the
International Guild is mentioned in a way as to mislead your readers and to
impart lack of respect and support to that organization. I quote: “In addition
to all the economic woes following us into 2002, the electrolysis community
suffered a further blow in April, when another of our national associations was
lost to compromise.” And further state that the International Guild of
Professional Electrologists (IGPE), “no longer representing ‘electrologists
only,’ renamed itself to become a guild of ‘hair removal specialists (IGHRS).’
Meanwhile, regional associations suffered from very low attendances and a big
show of apathy at their meetings and seminars.”
May I suggest that the electrologist community was not “lost to compromise,” and
that every member of the IGHRS is an electrologist — as are all the
members of all other provincial and state organizations. The economic woes and
lack of attendance were caused by greater powers than a few electrologists
practicing laser hair removal. It is also my belief that all members of all
electrolysis organizations are trained electrologists and some are also nurses,
laser technicians and estheticians and doctors.
Laser is not limited to the medical profession, so why should electrologists be
prohibited from supplying this service? It is unconstitutional to restrict a
person’s right to earn a living. And it is unprofessional to discriminate
against those who would seek success. Effective laser should be viewed as a
complementary/supplementary service to electrolysis.
Just as with any other service or product in the market place, the consumer must
be protected from unscrupulous and misleading advertisers. I think that it was
with great foresight and prudence that the International Guild (which brings
educational information to our profession, and has done so for many years)
recognized the worth of new-technology laser and have made necessary change.
“Change” which is constant, whether we like it or not.
As a reader, I appreciate your publication and will continue subscribing for as
long as I am an active electrologist.
— Hazel Glusman
Kamloops, British Columbia
The Editors respond:
International Hair Route’s stand (bias?) on laser hair removal has been
well aired, clearly defined, and loudly trumpeted since 1995. IHR doesn’t
like laser hair removal because, unlike electronic tweezer epilation and the
hundreds of other methods of temporary hair removal that have brought
electrologists together defensively against a common threat, laser hair removal
(with a great deal of help from the manufacturers of laser devices) drove a
massive wedge between electrologists. Practitioners of electrology were divided
into different camps: those who believed laser would be the hair removal method
of the future, those who thought the laser idea unfeasible and improper for
electrologists, and those who hoped that the two systems could live and thrive
together under one roof.
Hair Route has friends in all three camps, but it was never possible for it to
encompass laser or accept advertising for laser hair removal, because the vast
majority of its subscribers are needle-type electrologists — and laser hair
removal has been very hurtful to a great many of them.
The devastating effect that laser has had on all the manufacturing and supply
companies in the electrology field during the last eight years, and the
consequent damaging effect this has had on Hair Route’s advertising revenues, is
yet another reason for our bias. But the worst damage to the profession was the
near decimation of our schools of electrology: where Hair Route once listed
40-50 schools in the U.S., it now lists only about a third of that number. The
list of schools surviving in Canada and overseas is similarly reduced.
Yes, we’ll admit to being a bit prejudiced on this subject.
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