Hi there,
I’ve been lurking on the HairTell forums awhile, trying to educate myself about the process of electrolysis as much as possible and overall just getting familiar with the community. There is of course no shortage of literature out there regarding the risk of permanent scarring as a CONSEQUENCE of electrolysis, but what I’m actually interested in is the effectiveness of treating skin with pre-existing scars.
A bit of background: I suffer from trichotillomania (compulsive hair-pulling) that is directed exclusively at my facial hair. It started about five years ago. My behavior is extremely aggressive to the point of poking around and digging with a needle and tweezers to extract the hairs. “Distorted” does not begin to describe the state of my follicles. Ingrown hairs, once an exception and byproduct of my own warped perception, have now become the rule due to my “remediation” attempts. It’s a never-ending cycle and daily battle. I’ve got scars on top of scars, with hairs growing sideways under the skin and unable to surface through the tough exterior.
I’ve been in and out of therapy over the years, and suffice to say, it doesn’t work. It is exorbitantly expensive without enough bang for the buck. More importantly, it cannot address the very legitimate (albeit exacerbated by my behavior) physical/cosmetic issue that ISN’T a subjective “thinking problem.” Without addressing the matter of the hair itself, I feel I’ll never be free from this disorder.
Ideally, I’d like to be a person who is OK with my facial hair growing however it grows. But I liken it to an alcoholic waking up every morning to a drink sitting on his nightstand. Having to constantly, directly engage with the temptation is a recipe for disaster. I’m at the point where I’m done with it. My facial hair, all of it. I want it gone. Even the areas I don’t fuss with. I just want my life back.
Talking about and owning up to this is not easy. Trich is an embarrassing, poorly understood, highly visible and stigmatizing disorder. But it is what it is. In some ways, I’m “lucky” in that I only pull from my face. It makes the nuclear option of getting rid of the hair more tolerable than those who pull from their head. Permanently removing my head hair would be pretty impractical and unappealing; total non-starter. But facial hair? Again, not my preferred solution, but eh, whatever. I can live with(out) it. It’s certainly a better quality of life than my current standard of looking like a Batman villain.
I actually had seven rounds of laser over my entire face and neck earlier this year. Having mostly coarse, dark hair, I was said to be an ideal candidate. Surprise, it was a bust. The hair would shed, I’d get about a week or two of relief, and the next wave would come in. Then later I noticed what was pretty obvious regrowth from previous treatments. Not to mention the laser being totally ineffective on lighter hair, regardless of texture. I realized I could literally be at it forever playing whack-a-mole with laser. Today, it looks as if I had no treatment whatsoever. Pretty classic story for male facial hair, but y’know… confirmation bias and all.
I am now seriously considering electrolysis, though I have a lot of trepidation. One is lack of recommended practitioners in my area (Richmond, VA). I really, really am hesitant to start treatment with someone only to learn three months in that they are undertreating (such being the nature of electrolysis). Not to mention that I present a rather atypical case (I think).
I don’t even really care about the further damage that could be caused by electrolysis. My jawline and much of the left side of my face are already a disaster and my neck is headed down that path. I feel like scar revision is probably in my future anyway, but there’s no point to that unless the hair problem is eradicated first. My sideburns and chin/mustache area would likely be the easiest to treat, ironically, as I’m not really bothered by the hair in those areas. They exhibit normal growth. Nevertheless, better safe than sorry. It’s all gotta go.
Now, I understand that electrolysis works for all skin types and hairs at any stage of growth. I imagine this technically would hold true for heavily scarred skin as well, provided the follicle is at least accessible. In practice, however, I can see this inviting a lot of complications and slow, tedious work for the practitioner. I’m just wondering if it would even be worth pursuing. To the professionals out there, how do you feel about treating already-damaged skin and loads of severely distorted follicles? Have you worked on patients with circumstances similar to mine, and if so, what was your experience? ASSUMING (and this is the real gut check) I am able to leave everything alone between treatments so that hair is present to treat, is there any hope?
Sorry for the long post. This condition has utterly consumed me, inside and out, and I’m at the end of my rope. Thanks in advance for any replies.