Electrolysis

After having extra hair growth from having laser done on my face I have finally gone for electrolysis. Areas to treat sides of face, chin, upper and lower lip. (sides of face annoying me the most). I am from the UK, meditarian skin type. I have been able to find a therapist who uses the Apilus machine with Microflash. She first did a test patch which was fine, then a few days later did a 25 min first session to see how my skin reacted. My skin reacted great by three hours later there was no sign that I had had the treatment. I then went back for a 2nd session four days after my first treatment. This session lasted 35 minutes - this time I am left with tiny marks and its been two days since my treatment. I have used Aloe Vera gel but after reading on this site I will buy some Tree Tea Oil to see if this helps. She treated the sides of my face only as this is where the hair is bothering me the most. Was the 35 mins too long? She probably spent 20 mins on the left side of face and 15 mins on the other. the first session hurt less but on that session I had drunk loads of water before-hand. Or could my skin have reacted more on the second session due to only waiting 4 days from the first session. My third session is not booked in until the new year now. Any comments would be appreciated.

Treatments for the same area should be spaced at least a week apart so as to give the skin time to heal. Always tell your electrologist about your healing even if she doesn’t ask.

I work much longer than 15, 30, 35 minutes on new cases. In fact, I do hours at a time for those new cases with a lot of hair and there is very little reaction. For some, they will have to trade off between swelling for a couple days or taking longer to get to a first full clearance by breaking up the time needed into smaller treatments. A skilled electrologist with good equipment like your practitioner’s, could work on you for hours if the both of you wanted, so time spent per session is not a problem with the better forms of thermolysis.

Do get the tree tea oil and use it sparenly. Ask her if she did anything different from the first time to give you this reaction and analyze your aftercare as well. Please hold off on makeup or extreme exercise for 1 day if possible after your treatment.

Tiny little marks are okay as long as they heal within a week, but maybe she can do some tweaking of power and timing. Just ask and be thankful you found someone that can do microflash for all those laser induced hairs, if indeed that’s what happened.

Dee

thanks Dee for your comments - I feel confident with my new practioioner (as finding some1 in uk to use an apilus is like gold dust in the UK and she lives in my area too), this lady has over 20 years experience and she has asked me all the right questions so far i.e how was my skin after the first treatment and she stopped the treatment once my skin looked too red or bumpy. So I will ask her if she did anything different the second time when I go back in the new year and make sure I drink lots of water before I go in - I know its a long process with electrolysis before I see some results, but I will keep you posted. And in the future I will also ensure to give my skin 1 week break until the next treatment.
thanks again for your help.
p.s. I am soon hoping to start laser on my bikini area, I had a test patch done with the Alexandrite machine. She tested three areas with a setting of 17, 18 and 19 joules - are these high enough settings? At 19 joules it was very painful and here in the uk we dont get any creams to use before hand to numb out pain so I know it will be very painful :frowning: , will keep you posted

yep, those levels sound good.

Sounds like you are in good hands with both modalities!

Dee

Just to catch up - I am treating my face (sides, upper and lower lip, chin and neck area with electrolysis) Well I had my 3rd treatment of electrolysis two days ago - 1 hours worth on both sides of face (not got full clearence yet). I drank lots of water before hand too. again I have very tiny scabs all over my face, but not as bad as last time. After treatment my skin is very red and bumpy but I know this is pretty normal. The 2nd treatment of electrolysis healed up within a week (as Dee said it should), so I am sure it will again, its just awful having to go in public with awful skin for a few days till it heals. I have also used Tea Tree Oil and didnt wear makeup until the 2nd day. I asked my practisioner if she did anything different from my first treatment as I had no reaction then, but she said it was probably due to the length of time she spent on my skin - the first session 20 mins and the second 40 mins. But I am not going to moan too much as I would rather the hair be gone! And she seems very confident with her machine and the way she uses it. How long should I wait before I exfoliate my skin after treatment? Should I wait till all the scabs are gone? Thats it for now, I am booked in for another treatment in 1 week - keep you posted :slight_smile:

Do your tea tree oil overnight every night until the scabs are gone. You can GENTLY exfoliate at that point. Nothing harsh. Don’t go at your face with a lofa as if you were scrubbing pots and pans with burnt milk on the bottom.

Had my 4th treatment of 1 hour on Saturday. she did sides of face and neck area. I dont have full clearence but just left with finer ones on sides of face and some courser hairs on neck. I think I should have full clearence on those areas by my next visit- Im booked in again in 10 days. My skin reacted really well to it as well, just a few very small scabs. Also my pratitioner commented on how well the treatment was working as its been 3 weeks since my last treatment (as I had started a new job and we couldnt get an appointment earlier) and there wasnt much hair on the sides of face, in comparison to when she first got her hands on me - but Im not going to get too excited as I know this is a long process. I’ll keep you posted. see ya all soon. Oh yes and drinking lots of water before I visit her and using tee tree oil at night. :slight_smile:

Good for you, ms. leo. I liked that you verbalized that this is a long process. By long process, I’m assuming that you mean 9-18 months?? When you think about it, that really isn’t so long in the scheme of a lifetime to achieve permanence. It takes that long for laser hair reduction, too, and you still may need some extra help with electrolysis after you complete your laser treatments. I have never had a client need me for longer than 18 months for one area. That is, unless they didn’t adhere to a regularly spaced schedule as advised. So be true to a schedule and your reward will come within 9-18 months, but you will look finished well before that time. Keep us updated, okay???

If you are happy with your practitioner, would you like to share her name with the other UK’ers here on hairtell?

Dee

My practitioner is based in the North of the UK - in the Rotherham area (South Yorkshire) - if anyone would like her details I am happy to recommend her.

Please keep us updated on your progress. Im hoping to get the same areas done, and will be watching your posts closely.Do you mind sharing any pictures of your progress?If not I understand.

eeks I never took any before pictures Jezebel, should have done really to compare. The laser has done a good job on upper lip, sideburns and in middle of eyebrow, but defo caused extra growth on sides of face and neck area - the hair was obviously not course enought there for the laser. But I will defo keep you posted.

Hi every1 went in for my 5th session today 1 hour, she did sides of face and neck area. I would say just about full clearance on sides, she just needs to tidy neck area and then she can move on to those few stray finer hairs on upper lip which the laser couldn’t shift. so far so good. really feeling very confident about my therapist, she just gets on with it confidently.

just a catch up been 2 days since treatment - got quite a few scabs on neck area but normally clear up within 5 days - is it normal to get these scabs?

Yes, but we try to do everthing possible to avoid scabbing. Tell her about it. Think if you did something to cause this. Sweating from exercise can cause this. Clothes rubbing against the area can irritate the tissue, exfoliating and nubby wash cloths can be too much for a healing area in the first three days. Avoid these things. Use good aftercare and they will go away faster most probaly. Try dabs of tea tree oil, aloe vera gel and witch hazel. Keep it simple and inexpensive.

Never, ever pick off a scab! Let the tiny wound heal from the bottom up and then the scab will fall off on its own.

Dee

Hi dee
I do everything you say with the aftercare. So really its down to the treatment. Does it mean she is not targeting the hair properly (hope not!), but these scabs do usually go within 5 days after treatment - they are just very tiny scabs.

Oh, you are fine then! Do not worry about this. Anything that goes away with a week is perfectly normal.

had my 6th session yesterday of 1 hour. It was less than a week from my last treatment and my therapist noticed the tiny scabs (as there were some left on my neck)which were from the last treatment, anyway she made a comment and carried on with the treatment. She probably spent about 10 mins on each side of cheeks and the rest of time was spent on neck area, chin and little time on sides of upper lip. well by the time I had got home the redness had nearly gone. By morning I noticed I had no marks on my face. just some very slight red pin marks on neck area but nothing on my cheeks or lip. It still hurt when she treated me and I didnt feel the hairs being pulled out - so I am assuming she tweeked the machine settings and thats why my skin looks better, as every other treatment has left me with scabs the next day. I will ask her next week if she changed anything - I go back again on Monday. I have to say I am really pleased with the results so far. I can see very few hairs left under my neck. I would say complete clearence on sides of face. I just need her to spend a little time on monday on my upper lip to get the finer hairs that laser left behind plus neck area. I am hoping for full clearence on neck and face next treatment although I am only booked in for 45 minutes. But wow, I cant believe how quickly the treatment has took to get to this stage. In total I would say 5 hours have been spent on my face so far - maybe that is a long time but when I first went there seemed like alot of hair and I thought it would take forever. Im hoping after I get full clearence I will only need to go every three to four weeks. Keep you posted :slight_smile:

I am not an electrologist but I’ve been getting clearance for a while now and I still go every week. wanna kill it all ASAP…

What does “for awhile now” mean? Two months? Four months? Eight months? Two years?

and there I was being optimistic! Oh well all I can do is hope :frowning: