Can you have electrolysis done while having acne breakout?

Hello

I have booked an appointment with a doctor who does electrolysis (as where I live only professional doctors are allowed to do it), it should be in a month but since I made that appointment I have had cystic acne breakout in the area I want to treat with electrolysis (chin hair due to PCOS) and I wanted to know if due to acne I won’t be able to go through before I manage to get my hormones back on track? For the record I’ve stopped birth control pill at the end of last year as I had too many side effects on it although it cleared almost all my acne, so going back on BC is a big no… and my GP refuses to prescribe me spiro and metformin, so I’ve been looking to have an appointment with an endocrinologist as well but that won’t happen before the electrolysis session that is due…

Should I cancel? I was really looking forward to finally start and see that facial hair go away…

Here’s a pic of what it looks like

EDIT: image removed by Seana at Original posters request

Luna_Luna where are you that only doctors can do electrolysis, are you in france?
If so I highly recommend talking to Adrein Sanchiz about this. He can give you a lot of advice about electrolysis in france, ( if it can even be described as such!!!) .
If this is indeed where you are,my best recommendation is NOT go to your appointment in your country. The “treatment” these physicians cannot really be considered such in my opinion, their methods crude and without care to possible scarring or disfigurement. They’re known in the industry as the “french pluckers” and I’ve watched videos of them pulling on rooted hairs so hard the skin tents outward with every pluck.There are fine electrologists in neibouring european countries such as spain germany and the UK and you would be better off in such a place to make arrangements to access one of them.
So it’s moot, I wouldnt keep the appointment in france . Do follow up with your endocrinologist to get spiro though it can help and does many of my PCOS clients. They can also order radiographs to confirm cysts on the ovaries that cause PCOS and do blood work to check for excess testosterone.PCOS clients generally need a LOT of electrolysis done so it’s important you can access someone competent. If you decide to try and message josepha, tell her Seana specifically suggested her as an option. Josepha has an excelelent reputation for acne treatments. Often, acne is a side effect of PCOS and hair development.You’ll want someone as strong as Josepha on your side if you have serious PCOS.

Seana

2 Likes

Hello,
Unfortunately yes I live in France and can not afford going to another country. It is either that or I keep plucking every single day and then get hairier and trigger my acne…
I have had blood tests and ultrasounds done already that confirmed my PCOS, and I was prescribed BC but as I said I went off it as it didn’t suit me aside from keeping my acne in check… my facial hair would still show up.
How many hours exactly are we talking about? If I let it grow completely as I tried a few weeks ago I have a full beard as if I were a man… then should I just try laser even if it means it will come back?

I just cannot deal with my facial hair anymore and unfortunately I am not in a financial situation where I can afford going overseas for that procedure… even after covid is over… :frowning:

it depends on if you seek treatment in france or elsewhere. Theres really only that one answer. There is 0% probability that the treatment you recieve in france will result in the destruction of a single hair follicle. It’s that bad. Don’t do it!!! Your treatment in france would be neverending and never resolve the problem.
BC is insufficient to resolve your problem. You need to be on spironolactone in my opinion but I’m not a doctor just speaking from experience from cases like yours. Birth control wont bring down the testosterone spironolactone will. Its the testosterone stimulating the hair growth and the acne.
Go elsewhere. Spain, somewhere around malaga, would be an excellent choice for electrolysis/ skin treatments.

Actually my free testosterone lowered while I was on BC it’s because the BC I was prescribed was Diane35, I went from 12 to 2 (last blood test done in December 2019) so it did the work wonderfully for my acne. As for the facial hair I guess it didn’t do much because I’ve been using tweezers every other day and then every day for over 10 years now.
But as I said the pill is no longer an option unless no other treatment works because I suffered from really bad migraines, pain in the chest, pain during my period + very heavy, and had blood clots.

After reading about it I’ll cancel my appointment for electrolysis… it means I’m going back to tweezers for the time being :s as I said sorry but I’m not in a financial situation where I can afford going abroad. So I’ll wait for the endo appointment to get meds to at least stabilize my hormones again…

Me again. So right now we can’t go abroad anyway with regulations and borders closed, after thinking about it I’ve chosen to cancel the appointment with the doctor for electrolysis… unfortunately as I said Spain is not an option as I live in north of France, not south, so traveling would be too expensive to get me treated by Adrien :frowning:

I think the “cheapest” way would be to find an electrologist in London, so that id only have to take a cheap bus to London then go to the clinic, maybe stay one night at worst and come back… do you have any recommandations for London?

start your search here: https://electrolysis.co.uk/
I cant believe I’m saying this about electrolysis, but it’s probably a good thing you cancelled that appointment :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Thank you, from my understanding the members of this association are 100% safe to go to? There won’t be any traction etc?

If anyone else has someone to specifically suggest to me (like you did for Adrien/Josepha) I would greatly appreciate it as that way I’ll be sure that there will be results. I’ll keep my daily plucking for now until I see endo to have further blood tests done and then try to let it grow fully again so I can go only every other month or so. I’m trying not to touch my mustache as it doesn’t bother me as much as my chin/neck hair

Hi :slightly_smiling_face:
Where in the North of France are you?

Im in Amsterdam and want to try one or all of these 3 places once the restrictions are over :sob:

  1. A bit out of London- https://electrolysis4hairremoval.co.uk/

  2. Germany- (if you’re in Lille for example it would be 3 hours drive from you)
    https://www.element-skin.de/

3)(As Iluv2zap suggsted) Adrien Sanchiz
Madrid- https://www.facebook.com/adrien.sanchiz.electrolysis/

I live not too far from Lille but don’t have a car/driving license.

Madrid is too far so too expensive to go… closest to me would be Belgium but it’s the same as France I think, only doctors can do it?

you might also try
Beate Ritzert in Manheim Germany
Mairi hawkes, Scotland.
Geri Panayotova 43 Belgrave Avenue
Romford, United Kingdom
June Adams Peterborough
June Howard-I’d have to look up her location, but shes in UK

I think I may have found someone that could be worth it, she offers a first testing session, uses thermolysis and magnifying googles and reassured me no traction should be felt, but said on coarse hair it could be trickier but still no traction in the sense that the ostium could be a bit too narrow, is that correct? If you’ve dealt with PCOS patients before was the hair more difficult to treat than on patients without a hormone imbalance?

more difficult to treat? no. Persistent and a lot of cycles of growth requiring long term electrolysis treatments is the norm however, and hairs of very course diameter that grow very deeply is also common, requiring significant amounts of electrolysis energy to be used. I know this sucks for you, but I urge you not to pluck these hairs. If you have to, shave them, however plucking will lead to many ingrown hairs and hairs requiring a greater difficulty of extraction, as well as to stimulate hairs to become even courser. You already have a hormonal hair stimulation working against you, you dont need the hair physically stimulated as well. Repeated plucking does exactly that , it stimulated the hair to grow courser and for the dermal papillae to rebuild itself from plucking damage larger, with a better blood supply, and often, mis-shapen leading to ingrown hairs. So continued plucking ( especially over long periods of time) will make the hair more difficult to treat. Shaving just cuts it off at the surface. I know this isnt a perfect solution, and do urge you to seek competent electrolysis help as soon and as thoroughly as you can manage. Expect a long haul of it, but PCOS can be beaten and the hair removed leaving you with a result that you can live with.

Best of luck to you.

Seana

I have decided to stop plucking and try cutting it with a very little electrical razor yes, or with scissors, maybe I could try bleaching so it’s not as visible?

Also seeing as you’ve already treated patients with PCOS what frequency to do the sessions would be best? I see some people go every week for the first two months, but others advising to go every 4 weeks being also fine (as long as there’s no plucking/waxing in between)
The hair I need to be treated is thankfully only upper lip and both sides of chin (lower area + some along jawline but not a lot there) never touched sideburns etc, I may have one coarse hair on one of my cheek that I cut also (never plucked it)

I tend to recommend 2 hour sessions weekly to start. This usually isnt enough to get all the hair growing in any given session so I start with the coarser ones and work towards finer hairs. I see regular growth Some women will have more significant issues than others, so this is generally just a guideline. I dont see that schedule dropping to monthly at least anytime in the first year unless they are doing very large clearances at once and even then the hair will grow back so quickly especially initially some PCOS diagnosed women will teat multiple times a week ( twice a wee) to keep an optimal experience. These would mostly however be women who have competent electrologists in their local markets. I treat a doctor from toronto ( 5 hours drive away) who now, over 18 months in, is STILL coming in for weekly sessions ( though 45 minutes to an hour over 2 areas instead of 2 hours on one area).
The progress is slow, and I tell most PCOS clients to not to expect a significant areduction in new growth for a MINIMUM of 6-8 months, then they will slowly see a decline in the returning hair. These are amoung the toughest cases we treat, and it requires a significant amount of electrolysis to overcome them. I also urge them to keep up with the medical side of the issue through their endocrnologists. This helps to shorten the process. I have some PCOS cases still coming to me 3-4 years later , because it took that long to get the medical help and for it to take effect.
Be patient. Do what can be done medically. Then do as much electrolysis as you can. As the hair comes off it gives you instant relief to yuour current appearance , and starts you toward the goal of reducing and then eliminating growth.
Being a transperson, and treating a lot of transpeople for hair removal, I have a good knowledge of the workings of the endocrine system. Some of my PCOS cases face the same challenges and on the same scale, and my most complex transgender beard removal. I’ve leveraged that knowledge .
Of the two most common antiandrogens, in use in my country, are cyproterone ( Brand name Androcur) and spironolactone. Cypro is not permitted in the US but MAY BE in france. Finestride is also sometimes used . These are designed to drop your testosterone to undetectable levels. That is exactly where you want to be from a PCOS standoint as well when you are doing hair removal. We need the testosterone to be in undetectable levels ( usually this is something less than 10 parts /pmol . Again, all of this is a non-medical advice. I am not a doctor and a medical professional is your best resource.

Edit: I cant stress this enough. Go to your doctor and make sure they address the free testosterone issue. If you arent taking birth control then there is NOTHING controlling the PCOS. Your hair growth will continue to be newly stimulated and become thicker and denser as time goes on. maing it that much tougher to address the problem from an electrology standpoint.
Harsh menstrual cycles lots of cramping, are also symptomatic of higher testosterone levels from PCOS.

Seana

As I said before I used to be on cypro (Diane35) and reacted very badly to it though I didn’t have acne anymore (lowered my T levels from 12 to 2) hence why I’m looking to taking spiro instead. And while on Diane I had horrible cramping while on my period whereas since I’ve stopped no pain at all and it comes every 4 weeks religiously

I’ve taken androcur,a nd here it was only available in 50 mg doses. Way too strong and i reacted horrifically to being on it. I wasnt myself emotonally , serious depression. So I now exactly what you mean about that.
I still take spiro, though I’ve reduced amounts as I’ve aged . It can have its own side effects , it spares potassium so bananas area no-no and causes you to have to use the washroom constantly at higher doses. It can cause leg cramping that can can become problematic. But it does as advertised and lowers testosterone in the bloodstream.You have to drink alot to stay hydrated or else you’ll urinate it all out. So every drug has its ups and downs.

Hi Seana I think something went wrong with your message, you edited it in mine instead of posting a reply haha :slight_smile:

I’ve emailed josefa I hope she will answer!

oh dear I’ll look at it tonight and fix it