Is this normal? I have received electrolysis for 8 months now. I have been a bit swollen and red for a couple of days after, but nothing like this. Yesterday my electrolysist had a new machine and said it would be a bit stronger. I guess she was right. What can I do now, and will it scar?
This is blood plasma, and you can expect each treated follicle to scab within the next few days. Don’t pick at the scabs, they must be allowed to fall off on their own. Picking or rubbing them off would interfere with your skin’s healing process. Avoid any exfoliants (chemical or physical) in the area and avoid sun exposure. Once scabs form, you can clean the area gently with mild soap, water and a cloth.
You can expect to see some hyperpigmentation and uneven texture while your skin heals, and this may take over a year to resolve. It should resolve on its own, but you can explore cosmetic options after many months of healing. Since this was one very poor treatment, I don’t expect it will leave a noticeable scar or any scar at all.
Continue to take pictures and monitor this. Post them here if you want, and definitely send these pictures to your electrologist and be clear that you can’t do any more treatments until your skin has recovered. I wouldn’t do any more treatments with this electrologist.
If an electrologist buys a new machine, it is their responsibility to understand how to properly set the energy for each client and take a cautious approach at first. It is not professional to simply accept that the new machine is “a bit stronger” - all that is needed is to adjust the settings. On top of that, the skin gives immediate feedback when overtreatment happens. For your electrologist to continue treating and not recognise this is very unfortunate.
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Good advice from Thermo!
Anytime we bought new epilators, I would practice on myself (legs) to get the feel of the energy levels.
Never practice on a client first.
My other concern was if the probe (needle) was over worked and had much bacteria on it from repetitive in and out of follicles and perhaps didn’t clean off debris on the needle tip. It can cause follicle oozing in my opinion.
For an hour of my electrolysis work, I changed out the probe at least four times and cleaned it with alcohol to remove any debris. Of course all probes were disposable.
Oy. This should not be repeated. For a skin reaction like this, there must have been some reaction. If we see “angry” skin while working, that is a clue to stop and readjust the recipe for intensity and timing. It should heal fine. Don’t disturb that area until it is well healed. Please inform your electrologist, so she can learn and adjust.
dee i have the same problem i do get very easily blister when i perform galvanic or blend, i have tried finer probe and to lower the setting (as recommended by hinkel) but the probleme is that i seem to see the gas from blister way before the hair is succesfully treated (i m using 4 to 7 tenth for 10 to 15sec galv or 5 seconde blend with 4 to 7 tenth with very little therm) i tried to insert deeper or shallower it doesnt seem to change the outcome
the only 3 variable that come to my mind are
-maybe i am doing subpart insertion (but i really try to follow the anchor and i feel 0 pain when inserting)
-maybe the quality of my skin is thee probleme (i do get more of the blisters when working on soft upperarm than my hands)
-maybe it is because i am not stretching my skin thus the gases cant escape trhought the pore ?? (when doing higher intensities the blister form much much faster and i do se the foam bubbling inside them when i use 20x magnification)
i am really waiting for your suggestions as those blister prevent me for delivering more current to succesfully treat the hair
A finer probe can oftentimes make matters worse since it concentrates energy in a smaller area. I believe it’s your timing as well … it’s too long. This allows the heating pattern to ride up the probe and compromise the skin. Try shorter timing (3-5 seconds/fast blend) to see if that helps.
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i think i figured it out, it was the angle of insertion : i was going parallel with the hair shaft (last mm) but the hair is more curved under the skin, i found that when i angle the probe down from initial parallel insertion there was more foam so i kept that new angle and i got more kill rate and near zero blisters
is there any risk if the probe touch the skin as the angle is almost parallel to the skin ? (i use tiny amount of thermo 3%)