Introduction: Is this a Joke?

I found a rather amusing website surfing the “Net” regarding electrolysis and laser hair removal. When you are in a business, naturally you take a look at what your colleagues are doing. There are plenty of earnest websites out there that feature qualified practitioners developing their practices with professional and personal integrity. And then there are the websites that would make any reader want to pull her or his wanted hair. Some sites leave even the trusting wary of the services offered, the qualifications of the providers and, in the worst circumstances, uneasy at something that is difficult to put one’s finger on. Of all the spurious sites, that ascribed to Andrea James and scribed by James Walker The VII, takes the cake; and with their unabashed encouragement and promotion of uneducated non-licensed electrologists, one has the feeling that both Miss James and Mr. Walker are busy eating their cake too at the cost of their clients.

When I first logged on to Hairtell.com, I truly had to do a double take. At first I thought I had stumbled on to a joke website, after all, for people who don’t deal with unwanted hair problems, the whole topic of hair removal seems to be good fodder for jokes and with endorsements like “Hairtell Pro Top Ten Contributor”, one has flashbacks to the Tonight Show and the Daily Ten. Though a dubious claim to excellence, the first place in this countdown to classless incompetence is deserved. James W. Walker VII, CPE (Certified Professional Electrologist) ranks as the Hairtell.com number one “HairTell Pro Top Ten Contributor” a.k.a. “So Easy A Neanderthal Electrologist Could Do It.” To read through his featured articles or, worse, to view his educational video, one can only conclude that the Mr. Walker either doesn’t take himself seriously or doesn’t take his topic seriously; he certainly doesn’t take his clients seriously. Given the effusion of technical errors, lack of professional language, questionable training background, deplorable belittling comments about women both as clients and professionals, one hardly knows whether to laugh or cry. If we were in junior high school and not adults debating where to bring our money for professional services, we might be tempted to join James W. Walker VII, CPE (Certified Professional Electrologist) in his incessant puerile giggling as he sits behind the objectified woman who models as his client and takes the brunt of his bad demonstration and jokes. However, as adults we have choices to better serve ourselves and to demand more from representatives of the hair removal profession. So together, let’s look more closely at “Hairtell Pro Top Ten Contributor’s Profile” and understand that uneasy feeling that overrides our will to confidence.