72 hours after treatment - normal or cause for concern?

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
#1

Hi, I’m posting because I’m concerned about how badly my face seems to be reacting to thermolysis. I’ve had monthly sessions for around 5 months, with similar reactions each time. I’m worried that I’m being overtreated, and I’m pretty sure that my upper lip area is consistently more red than it was before I started these treatments.

These are pictures taken today, just over 72 hours after I had a 90 minute session on my upper lip, sides of mouth and chin area. You can also see some persisting redness on my neck, from my last appointment on November 7th.

Any advice would be appreciated, thank you :slight_smile:

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#2

look overtreated to me & will definitely end up with permanent pitted scars

Highly recommend to apply thin layer of hydrogel and cover it with super clean reusable silicone sheet from chemist.

wound-gel-hydrogel

silicone-sheets-for-scar-treatment

1 Like
#3
#4

Can I ask what your electrologist has said when you’ve brought up your concerns?

I don’t like how much scabbing you are experiencing after your treatments. While I don’t personally think will “definitely” end up with pitted scarring as someone else stated, I do think the healing will be slow and you will likely see texture and pigment changes in the skin for quite a while.

That being said if you continue to see this electrologist and they don’t change how they are working/they continue to give you these healing results, you will end up with poor skin condition that could include scarring IMO

Also what date was you last treatment? You said 72 hrs ago, were you treated on Thanksgiving Thursday?

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#5

When we discussed it, my electrologist seemed to think that it can’t really be helped due to how coarse a lot of my hairs are. They regularly comment things like “you have some of the biggest roots I’ve ever dealt with”. I also brought up the pink/redness that I’d started noticing on my upper lip, and they claimed that they hadn’t noticed a difference. I… don’t really know what to make of this, but it doesn’t feel particularly reassuring.

It normally takes me 3-4 weeks to just feel like my skin is getting back to normal, but even then, some redness persists. I sometimes notice a crackling sound when I’m being treated, and I usually end up with what seems to be some plasma leakage, from what I’ve seen on other posts.

Yes, my treatment was on Thursday. I’m in the UK, so we don’t have a holiday that day!

#6

Thank you for the info. I’d recommend discontinuing treatment with your current tech and allowing skin to fully heal or at least heal for a month before trying to connect with a different provider.

I definitely think you can get great results with less skin reaction and it makes me sad that your electrologist says that’s not possible. I don’t want to assume what they are thinking but it makes me question their skills and knowledge for sure.

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#7

Thank you very much for the advice. I’ll give my face some time to heal and then look for a provider that can give me results without being as harsh on my skin.

2 Likes
#8

that redness looks pretty intense. Definitely sounds like you might be overtreated. I’d strongly suggest talking to your aesthetician ASAP and showing them these pictures. Maybe try a longer break between sessions, or even a different treatment altogether if this keeps happening.
Try Suprastin in the mean time, but ask your doctor.

#9

Five months is a while to be dealing with that kind of reaction. I’d definitely suggest talking to your electrologist ASAP. Maybe they need to adjust the settings or the treatment time. Persistent redness isn’t normal

#10

I am so sorry you had this happen, definitely were over treated and it will take weeks to heal. Will it scar, probably. I have worked as an Electrologist since 1991, and I am shocked by what is called normal. In my training, the scabbing I see on this website that is called normal was totally unacceptable. I have shown my clients pictures of what is called normal and all said they would not do Electrolysis if they had to walk around with their faces all scabbed up.Wound healing does take time, up to a year, but the skin on a scar no matter how small, is fibrous and does not produce melanin in the same way. If you have a pin dot scab here and there, it will probably be undetectable but you have hundreds of them next to each other, they are quite visible. I have pictures of clients who have been over treated over the years, not by me, and it is very obvious. I take the pictures to protect me from being blamed for the skin damage.
Before laser, I did underarms, bikini and legs and was able to do it with little to no scabbing.
Electrolysis without scabbing is possible, no matter how thick the hair is. Been doing it since 1991.
For your face, let it heal. A light coating of Vaseline will act as a band aide and keep it moist. The silicon pads at night is a good idea. You might consider seeing a dermatologist if you feel it is not healing or is infected.
Do not pick, wash with a gentle soap, no rubbing and use sun screen.

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#11

THANK YOU Joyce for your kind and reassuring words once again. I too find it completely bizarre, what professionals in this site call “normal” or “acceptable” redness and scabbing and when I see videos by people like Josefa, who has treated some very coarse thick hairs with absolutely no reaction, it makes me wonder what’s really going on here. I so appreciate professionals like yourself who are compassionate and take the time to assuage peoples fears. :heart::heart::heart:

As for the original poster, I am a fellow electrolysis client with VERY sensitive skin and what I have been told are super course, strong hairs which take a lot of current to get rid of. My first electrologist used thermolysis method and left me with what I felt were large scabs which led to some pitting while it healed. My second electrologist uses the blend method and still has to go high with the treatment but I don’t get the large scabs I did with thermolysis and for that reason I don’t seem to get pitting either. My skin does take a long time to stop being red but I find that gentle aloe, kept in the freezer as well as putting a cold pack on my face for the first 3 days after treatment really helps and only washing my face with cold water for as long as possible after treatment. Don’t give up hope but, I would give up going to this particular electrologist as I think you were right about the plasma leakage especially under your chin. From what I see of the mustache area, it seems to be similar to what I have had in the past and mine has healed in 2 years :slight_smile: I found that going less often gave my skin a chance to recover so no more frequently than 4 weeks apart, sometimes 6. While trimming in between sessions is a pain, it’s better than the pain of worrying that you’ve ruined your skin :heart:

#12

Why are we inserting unrelated commentary about the industry and other professionals here into this thread? The consensus is that this treatment was too aggressive and produced poor results. I don’t think any professionals on this forum would call this an acceptable outcome.

It is ideal to avoid scabbing, but scabbing will not inherently lead to scarring. All electrolysis produces scar tissue within the follicle. All electrolysis produces a crust or scab in the follicle opening. When done well, this crust is not visible. The concern with scabbing is that large and/or interconnected scabs often indicate scarring.

HTcae has been given some good advice already, but I’m more optimistic that with proper aftercare and enough time to allow your skin to heal, you will reach a point where there is either no scarring or at least no noticeable scarring. I hope if you decide to return to electrolysis at some point that you can find an electrologist who will operate more carefully, but it’s important to not continue treatments until your skin is healed.

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#13

I agree with you especially when the scabbing is “not visible”. The Electrologist that did this treatment thought this was normal. And… there are many Electrologists who think the rash like scabbing on the face that will take weeks to heal is ok. We are doing a cosmetic procedure on this people who are trusting us to improve their concerns. The fact that they have to write into this forum with their pictures of red scabs and damaged skin does not say well about our profession. We are also not doing surgery that should take a year to heal. Most of my clients are professionals who face the public on a daily basis. The red pin dot scabs are not acceptable for them.
My one trans female saw 5 Electrologists who were unable to remove her thick, red beard without severe scabbing. She is in sales. I love working on her!
So no, a full face of scabbing is unacceptable! I am a Blend specialist and yes, I can do Thermolysis but will not do it on the face. Busy as hell!!
Just one more thing… Given that laceration wounds are well perfused with blood, they tend to heal well. However, in burns, the blood vessels are cauterized, preventing blood from entering the wound bed and slowing down the healing process. Isn’t what we are doing is cautery? So yes, there is a definite chance of scarring.

#14

This is a clear case of overtreatment (too much energy). When overtreatment happens it compromises the skin surface which can result in blisters, excessive scabbing, etc. My advice is to find another electrologist.

#15

“Why are we inserting unrelated commentary about the industry and other professionals here into this thread? The consensus is that this treatment was too aggressive and produced poor results. I don’t think any professionals on this forum would call this an acceptable outcome.”

Why Indeed. In fact Chinychinchin has been warned about this with every single post thy have made here to date.Do it again and the account will be silenced. Not every single thread needs you communicating poorly and defamitorily against every electrologist you can think of.Stop spreading paranoia this is your final warning.If youhave something youwant to talk about, DO IT IN YOUR OWN POST. Stop piggybacking and disrupting the flow of every other poster here. It derails the thread and is counterproductive to the process of helping consumers here.

Further , Joyce, you were in contact with me recently. You were told the same thing that thermo said above. There are no modality wars here and I aM NOT going to permit one here either.If youchoose to use a single modality on face, that’s up to you because that is themodalityyou felt you could deliver the best and most efficient result… It is no different whether it be thermolysis or blend or galvanic.They are a means to an end, and they all deliver beautiful results. After my time as an electrologist, I can definitely tell you I have the proof of that. So PLEASE stop pushing your chosen modality. Such is defamitory to the entire industry and damages the confidence in electrolysis that hairtell has worked so hard to establish.

#16