If you’ve ever had to deal with unwanted hair, you may have heard of a hair removal process called electrolysis. Electrolysis is a popular method for permanently stopping hair growth, but it also has a wide variety of industrial applications and is an important part of our modern lives.
With your curiosity now piqued, let’s take a closer look at electrolysis. We’ll go over what electrolysis is, how it works, and its many uses — hair-related and otherwise!
What Is Electrolysis?
First off, let’s define our term. Electrolysis refers to the use of an electric current to produce a chemical reaction in something. This is a broad definition because the different uses of electrolysis are also broad.
But while it may be an intimidating five-syllable word, you don’t need a science degree to understand what electrolysis is: It’s using electricity to cause a chemical change.
Let’s Get Current on Electric Current
Now that we understand what electrolysis is, we can look closer at how electrolysis works. As we already learned, electrolysis produces a chemical reaction by running an electric current through something, so let’s first focus on electric currents.
Who Discovered Electrolysis?
You may be surprised to learn that electrolysis was discovered more than 200 years ago! In 1789, two scientists named Jan Rudolph Deiman and Adriaan Paets van Troostwijk used a device called an electrostatic generator to push current through water, and are credited as the first people to perform electrolysis.
Eleven years later in 1800, another pair of scientists named William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle used the electrical energy from a device called a voltaic pile to observe the electrolysis of water, and noted bubbles of hydrogen gas and oxygen gas forming in the water.
What Is the Electrolysis Process?
Let’s look at the electrolysis process in a bit more detail. For electrolysis to occur, three things are necessary: a power source (like a fuel cell), an electrolyte (a chemical substance that, when dissolved in water, can conduct electricity), and electrodes (either end of an AA battery, for example).
Electrical current generated by the power source moves through the electrolyte, and in so doing produces chemical changes of the electrodes.
There’s a lot more to this process — anodes, cathodes, ions and electrons, electrolytes and exchange membranes (oh my!) — but for our purposes, it’s enough to know that electrolysis uses electric current to create chemical change.
For this reason, we can think of electrolysis as an electrochemical process, and this electrochemistry has a lot of valuable uses that we’ll go into later.
What Type of Electrical Current Is Required for Electrolysis?
The electric current needed for electrolysis is called direct current. There are two types of electrical current: alternating current and electric current. In order for electrolysis to achieve its electrochemical results, direct current is needed.
Does Electrolysis Use Current or Voltage?
Let’s quickly go over the difference between current and voltage. Current, measured in amps, describes the rate at which electrons are moving through a circuit. Voltage, measured in volts, is the electrical force that moves these electrons between two points.
(If you’re interested in learning more about current and voltage, you can read our guide to electricity here.)
Electrolysis uses direct current, flowing through an electrolyte, to produce chemical changes of electrodes (cathodes and anodes). Without voltage, the electric current wouldn’t have the electrical energy to create these chemical changes, so in truth, both voltage and current are necessary for electrolysis.
How Are Electrolytes Related to Electric Current?
When most of us hear the word electrolyte, we think of sports drink advertisem*nts that talk about replenishing our body with them.
Electrolytes are important for the healthy functioning of our bodies because they conduct electric current. This is because electrolytes have a natural electric charge, and when dissolved in water they can conduct electrical energy.
Examples of electrolytes include calcium, chloride, magnesium, phosphate, potassium, and sodium.
What Are the Uses of Electrolysis?
Now that we’ve gotten our science lesson out of the way, we can get to the fun part: what electrolysis is used for.
We can break down the uses of electrolysis into two categories: industrial applications and permanent hair removal. We’ll take each category in turn.
How Is Electrolysis Used in Manufacturing?
Electrolysis is used by industrial manufacturers for far too many applications to list here, but we’ll run through the most common applications of this electrochemical process.
Metal Extraction
Electrolysis can be used to extract metals like aluminum and zinc from ore. These extracted metals can then be used as raw material for another industrial application.
Chemical Production
Manufacturers also use electrolysis to produce certain chemicals that can be used in other products. One of the most common examples of this is the electrolysis of water, specifically saltwater.
When this occurs, hydrogen, chlorine, and sodium hydroxide are created. These chemicals can then be used in other applications like plastics, textiles, and soaps.
Electrolysis’s hydrogen production is also useful for renewable energy reasons. Hydrogen is being developed to be used as a renewable fuel, and the electrolysis of water is one of the ways hydrogen production is scaling up to meet this need.
Cleaning
Electrolysis can also be used to clean, which can be as helpful to a homeowner as it can be to a large manufacturer. The most common use of electrolytic cleaning is for removing rust.
Rust is the product of the oxidation of metal, but electrolysis can convert this oxidation (which can be an eyesore) into iron oxide, which can be wiped away easily.
Refining
Electrolysis can also be used to refine metals in a process called electrolytic refining or electrorefining. This is helpful for industry because it can help remove impurities from metals, and these refined metals can go on to be used in other applications.
Electroplating
Finally, electrolysis can be used to cover metals with a thin layer of another metal, in a process called electroplating.
Most often this is done with silver or copper, and it can give a metal object (a fork or spoon, for example) the appearance of being pure silver, when in fact it’s just covered with an exterior layer of silver.
How Is Electrolysis Used in Permanent Hair Removal?
Electrolysis isn’t only useful for heavy industry though. It’s also a great tool for people who are struggling with unwanted hair.
This is because electrolysis can be used to permanently kill hair follicles and prevent future hair growth.
This is done by a qualified expert called an electrologist who will insert a small needle into a hair follicle. Electric current is then passed through the needle, killing the hair follicle and preventing hair growth.
Are There Different Types of Electrolysis for Hair Removal?
Yes, there are two different approaches to using electrolysis to remove unwanted hair. Galvanic electrolysis treatments use the kind of electrolysis described throughout this article to produce a chemical change in the hair follicle, killing it and preventing future hair growth.
Thermolysis achieves the same goal of removing unwanted hair by heating the hair follicle to destroy the cells that generate hair growth.
It’s common for electrologists to combine these two types of hair removal electrolysis processes when working with a patient.
How Painful Is Facial Electrolysis?
Pain is experienced differently from person to person, but it’s generally agreed that electrolysis can produce small amounts of pain to patients undergoing this process for hair removal.
Electrologists will point out that nearly every kind of hair removal process involves some amount of pain — whether that’s plucking, threading, waxing, electrolysis, or laser hair removal — but electrolysis typically generates a considerable amount of pain, relative to these other hair removal options.
Does Electrolysis Remove Hair Permanently?
The biggest benefit of electrolysis is the fact that it kills the hair follicle, which means permanent hair removal. This makes it a good option for people who are dealing with unwanted hair and are tired of having to remove this hair growth on their own.
Does the FDA Approve Electrolysis for Hair Removal?
Yes, the FDA does recognize electrolysis as a safe process for hair removal. In fact, electrology centers will be quick to inform you that electrolysis is the only hair removal method that is FDA-approved (laser hair removal is not).
Is Electrolysis Expensive?
The price you’ll pay for electrolysis can range widely, depending on where you live and the size of the area you’d like treated.
The average price for electrolysis treatment is somewhere around $500, though it can go as high as $10,000.
Unfortunately, electrolysis — like most hair-removal treatment options — most likely won’t be covered under your insurance. This means that most people will have to pay out-of-pocket for their electrolysis permanent hair removal treatments.
Does Electrolysis Have Side Effects?
The most common side effects of electrolysis are swelling or redness, though these can generally be managed at home with your normal skin care routine and the use of soothing creams.
Enjoy Your Electrolysis Expertise
To recap, we’ve determined what electrolysis is, how electrolysis works, and how electric current is used to create electrochemical changes.
We’ve also seen a smattering of applications for electrolysis, including a variety of important industrial uses for this important electrochemistry process.
Finally, we’ve seen how electrolysis is being used to permanently kill hair follicles and help people manage their unwanted hair, and answered all of your FAQs about this hair removal method.
If you’d like to learn more about topics like this one, the Tara Energy blog is regularly updated with informative articles. Bookmark it today and show up to your next dinner party ready to talk about anything energy-related.
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