Concerns with pitting after a year of treatment

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
1

Hello all, lately I have had quite a few concerns about pitting and scarring. Let me give you a bit of a background on me to start with.

I started electrolysis almost about a full year back; I have very thick and dark hair. The guy I do electrolysis with is fully certified and says he’s been doing it for over 10 years. He even attends classes in our state capital once a year to keep up with the latest stuff as far as certification goes. I was referred to him by a doctor friend of mine so I had a lot of confidence in him because the work he did on her turned out really well.

I am not sure if what I have is permanent pitting or just a natural reaction to electrolysis. I have been doing electrolysis on a weekly basis for one hour sessions, I don’t do more then this before from what I have heard any more then once per week risks scarring.

I first noticed the ‘pitting’ when I took a few weeks break as a result of having to go out of town. There were these tiny needle sized dot depressions in my skin. Since then it has been bugging me a lot. I talked to my electrologist about it and he said it was perfectly normal on some people and will be gone a few months following treatment. He reassured me that I will have perfectly smooth skin when he is through with me.

Where the concern comes in is from what I have read on sites about the subject is that electrolysis should never result in any pitting, and that any pitting received is most likely going to be there to stay. So after lots of attempted photos with a poor quality digital camera, I finally got one that is clear enough to show a little of what I am talking about.

A few notes about this photo, it is 2 days after a treatment, there are lots of little red marks from the treatment. What I would like you all to take a look at is the depressions in the skin that aren’t red from treatment. Also since I have incredibly sensitive skin my electrologist has advised me not to shave for three days after treatment so I can be fully healed by the next week. So that is why there is a lot of hair in patches that we are still working on clearing.

Anyways photo is here – http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=14sjotk&s=4

I don’t know much about uploading images so I hope I did it right and that link works.

My electrologist is a really nice guy and seems to know what he’s talking about. It’s just I still have that little bit of doubt left in me that I want cleared up so I can continue with confidence, or if worst is worst I can at least start looking at other electrologists.

I mean I know the ‘pitting’ that is there is super small, but he estimates I still have 2 years left of treatment to go. If they are permanent like I fear then two years down the road I would most likely have enough of them to make my face look shadowed and defeat the purpose of electrolysis in the first place.

To me that’s a very unnerving thought and part of the reason why I feel I need to get someone else’s input on it before I continue further. I mean this is my face and my first impression to everyone I meet daily, I really don’t want to screw this up.

By the way if you took the time to read all that over thank you in advance for any reply you might have.

One final piece of info, the technique he uses is shortwave electrolysis.

2

Do you have a before pictures of what your face looked like before starting treatment? Are you getting MicroFlash thermolysis? I know you said shortwave, but can you tell me if the probe is in the follicle longer than 1 second?

Large hairs occupy space and it can take a while for the skin to restructure itself after hairs are treated and lifted out. Do you typically heal well within a week? I actually think you look very acceptable two days after treatment. I see those little depressions you are talking about, but it is hard to say anything definite because you are still getting treatment and the hairs that are being treated are probably pretty thick and require more energy.

How old is the epilator? Brand name? Do you know the size of probe being used? What is your aftercare regime like? Gosh, there are so many things to consider. Any detail you can add would be helpful. Can you take a picture after a week of healing?

I have more questions for you than words of caution at this point.

Dee

3

Thank you for the response, I wish I had more details to give to be honest, infact I wish I would have asked him more questions before we got started. Being from the Midwest my local selections of hair removal are limited to this guy or laser, so I didn’t question him as extensively as I should have knowing there was no competition.

The probe isn’t in the follicle longer than 1 second; he works very swiftly tackling about 1 hair every 7 to 8 seconds. At this point after reading a bit more I am starting to wonder if he was maybe working to swiftly that it won’t be as effective or that might be a reason for scarring.

Then again maybe it’s a case of having read too much about cases where people have permanent scarring that has be a little paranoid.

Another thing that has me a bit worried and part of what sparked further worry about the pitting is that he says I have about 2 years left, that means a whole lot of regrowth if it takes 3 years total (156 hours) but then again that might just be a reality of it I need to accept.

It does give me a lot of confidence that you say that it looks good for two days after a treatment. I am very young (21), athletic and maintain a healthy diet with minimal trans fat and junk food so that is hopefully helping with my healing.

After a week of healing the bulk of my face is completely healed in terms of redness being gone, but the “pitting” seems to always remain even during that three week break. For my upper lip that can sometimes take a week and a half for the redness to vanish completely.

My after treatment is a cream called Kree Formula 4 used daily or twice a day sometimes, it is his recomended brand. I think Kree might be the school he did his training through, remember seeing that on the certificates on his wall. Anyways it is an aloe based cream, he always seems very profession as far as wearing gloves and all that goes.

For the epilator it looks pretty old, it has two gauges, one for duration and one for heat applied. I think they are both on a scale of 1-10 or 1-12, he uses a 6 for the heat and just under a 2 for the duration using a foot pedal to trigger it.

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Based on that picture, and your description, I would say that you are doing quite well considering the age of the equipment you are having work done with. If he can get that result with an old sparky, then he would have you looking like nothing happened if he would upgrade his electrolysis machine.

The important thing is you seem to be doing fine. It takes 3 months for the skin to get anywhere near the point where you want it to be, so until you can go 3 months without treatment, you won’t see what you want to be seeing as far as your skin smoothing out, and the pores tightening and filling in.

I would like it if you used Tea Tree Oil overnight after your treatments, and perhaps the next two nights as well.

The only reason I can see this taking 2 more years is that with the machine you are using, it would not be wise to do more hours closer together, in order to get full clearances earlier, so that you could finish faster.

5

Are you sure he works swiftly? You said he tackles one hair every 7-8 seconds, which is not fast by today’s standards. I don’t think that’s what you meant. Could you clarify.

I think your electrologist sounds like he is skilled and knowledgible. I can only imagine the bounds he could leap if he would invest in newer epilator. The age of computerization for electrolysis has turned permanent hair removal into a world never seen before. It would not take you 2 more years to complete if he could do longer than one hour a week, which by the way, really makes him look great when he understands his limitationss with his older epilator. If he had better tools, your skin outcome would be fabulous. Your comfort level would increase, not to mention, your electrologist would be kicking himself in the head for not upgrading to a better epilator technology sooner.

Now, you can proceed with him or you can look into finding someone that has better equipment that will give you longer sessions. We always advise consumers to check out as many electrolgists as posssible to compare.

I am a true convert when it comes to good equipment. All I can say is this: It is a fact that facial hair on men can be removed for hours at a time, with good comfort, good skin outcome in a good time frame. Any electrologist who already has the skill to make a proper insertions with the correct probe, insulated or gold, can make this better for his/her clients. It only takes effort and an investment up front. The extra thousands of dollars that is needed for an electrologist to set themself up for success will come back to them rather quickly if they already have a good client base, which I suspect your electrologist does. Purchasing a better brand computerized epilator is well worth the money, trust me!!!

Meanwhile, you have to deal with what you have, so don’t go longer than an hour with your electrologist if he is using older equipment and in the mean time, see if there is someone near you that has better equipment and compare.

I agree with James. Tea tree oil at bedtime. Kree lotion is fine. I ask my clients to use cold aloe vera gel, witch hazel and tea tree oil for a minimum of three days, but there are other support remedies that are fine.

Again, I am not alarmed at what I see, but would only suggest that you may want to compare treatment with someone that has advanced equipment, just for the heck of it.

Dee

6

Thanks for all the wonderful replies so far.

The reason I think the 7-8 seconds per hair is very fast is I have read about other people sometimes taking as long as 30-40 seconds a hair. I am not sure how accurate this information was, but I could imagine it would take about 10 years of that pace if it is going to take three years at this one.

Unfortunately I think the chances of him getting a computerized epilator are slim to none since I still haven’t convinced him to learn how to use a PC (Desktop Computer). At my current location it would be about a several hour drive to get to someone else who can do electrolysis.

On the plus side I might be moving in a few months to a location on the east coast that has 5 electrolysis places within a 1 hour drive, along with dozens more if you look at 3-5 hours away. The main issue of course would be leaving behind an electrolygist I already know and am comfortable with. So as of that point it left me wondering if he really was as good as I first thought he was when I first found him, and it seems that he might be.

Based on what you all are saying the move to a location with more electrolygists might be a good thing rather then a bad when it comes to leaving my old one. It would give me more of a chance to find someone with more modern equipment if equipment truly makes that much of a difference in getting this done as fast as possible without risking permanent damage.

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One hair every 7-8 seconds is not fast by today’s standards. Will you get permanent hair removal? Yes, indeed, but would you rather get the hair off faster, still damaging the hair growth tissue? Many electrologists who have upgraded to 21st century epilators and techniques can easily move along in tick tock fashion removing between 6 and 13 hairs per MINUTE depending on the difficulty of the area. Some can even go faster than that, still making perfect insertions. There is no risk of permanent damage to the skin when all is done correctly. In fact, pinkness/redness and swelling disappear within minutes to hours. It’s just that good. By the way, one needs quality vision equipment to compliment a quality epilator.

Equipment truly makes a difference. I’m telling you that fair and square. Please remember that you will still get permanent hair removal, via electrolysis, with older machines and skilled practitioners, but this brave new world of electrology care is something to investigate if you have the opportunity. Your time is valuable, your money is hard earned and a modern, skilled electrologist can speed this up while still affecting hair and don’t let anyone tell you differently!

I really came back on this thread to make another point about your age. Being that you are 21, you will develop new hairs as you age, so you will have to keep up with your hair removal as any new hairs make their debut. Not all hair that you are destined to have is present at one time only in your life cycle. They keep coming and coming and then eventually slow down, but by that time, the hair growth on the ears is ready to take off for men. Seems like you just can’t win with hair, but then again, if you stay close to a good electrologist, she/he will help you win.

Dee