Exercise after electrolysis

Hi, just wanted to know if it’s alright to play sport the day after I have electro, so 24hrs after, I having it mostly on my face tomorrow and I’m goin to play touch rugby which involves lot of running and sweating. Thanks

It is best to avoid any physical activity that can cause sweating for at least 24 to 48hrs after treatment.
Sweating after electrolysis can cause pustules or folliculitis or even sometimes serious infections.

I advise my clients same as Sahar, however, nobody listens to me. You can choose to do what you want, but don’t blame the process or the electrologist if you get pustules or your healing time takes longer.

I suggest to my athletes who exercise after treatment to at least wash the area with soap and water and then apply witch hazel immediately after exercise. If they poo-poo that idea, then they take the consequences and they are fine with that. Moving and doing is a powerful instinct for some people and it is hard for them to accept a NO EXERCISE directive.

Although we never think about it, our skin is a battlefield. That miracle called the epidermis (less than the thickness of a sheet of paper) is what stands between us and a jungle of microscopic monsters waiting to attack (millions of the things). Now, about sweating.

The pores and wrinkles of the body are loaded with microorganisms. All kinds of “enemies” even live in the “sweat” openings of the skin. These are kept at bay by a constant war our immune system wages ever second we are alive. (When we die, those microorganisms take over immediately and we start to decompose. We become their food. Yuck!)

When you sweat, you are dislodging (washing out) the “resident” and “naughty” microorganisms that have taken-up house-keeping in the skin’s openings. Sweating dislodges these “meanies” and floods the skin with “bacteria” from your own body. And, that’s just from you … forget about the other stuff you are getting from the environment.

If you are wearing athletic clothing, the residue detergent softens your skin and allows the clothing to easily abrade your skin. (For an experiment some time, put freshly laundered and dry clothing back in your washer with water only … just watch the detergent foam up! We never get all the detergent out of our clothing, and we all use too much detergent … the cause of many cases of dermatitis.) But I digress …

So, now you have sweaty, sticky skin … flooded with bacteria and dirt and the potential of abraded skin. Oh and don’t forget the “open” follicles from electrolysis injury. I remember one basketball player that, after electrolysis and playing a game afterward, had a perfect “outline” of pustules exactly delineating where his shirt had been. Classic!

The basic directive, given by the Hairtell folks: don’t exercise right after electrolysis! Yes, it’s certainly correct. 24 hours afterward? Probably okay, but I would wait a couple days; especially if playing football. Seriously, you won’t die or go out-of-shape if you miss one day of exercise. Bottom line: LISTEN TO DEE, damn it!

In my experience, I am OK to exercise within 16 hours or so.

Since I DIY, after I have cleared an area I will often do electrolysis at night on whatever hairs have emerged, so maybe 12-1am. Then I go running most days around 5pm. No problems in that scenario.

However, a couple of times I made the mistake of doing electrolysis in the afternoon, and then went running only a few hours later… numerous infected spots, not fun.

That said, given that you are talking about a sport where you may be in contact with other people, I would wait longer… maybe 48 hrs.

Also I should note, I definitely would not recommend exercise within 24 hrs if you have scabbing or other adverse skin reaction following the electrolysis.

Thanks for the input guys, i think im going to take your advice and a have break for a couple of days.

I read this awhile back and pretty much lost my workout addiction because of it…I wanted to double check before trying to get my addiction back, but I read somewhere (maybe this site?) that it was ok to workout afterwards as long as you’re constantly washing the sweat off your skin. I also read somewhere that it’s ok to sweat as long as the treatments were above the shoulders.
My treatments are only on my face and I want to double check with this. I am going to probably start going twice a week for short treatments but I don’t want to stop working out because my face is constantly healing.

I will note that I still workout but instead of the 6-7 days a week prior to electrolysis, it is only 3-4 days a week because of healing time.