I am a male to female TS in my early 40s in England.
I have had approximately 4 years of electrolysis on my face. Most of which has been done by a mobile beauty therapist with basic equipment and the latter by a more professional electrolysist using high tech equipment.
I have been on female hormones for about 2 years now. I have noticed recently though, that the area of skin around the sides of my mouth, going down towards the chin, and the chin itself, are pitted. I can best describe it as looking like ‘orange peel skin’. Sometimes it is not noticeable, but in some lights it is very noticeable and looks bad.
I would like to know how common ‘pitting’ and ‘scarring’ is amongst electrolysist clients and if there is any proven safe method to remedy it.
I would be grateful for any advice and information.
Since you have had extensive electrolysis and this is the only area you are seeing some pitting, are you sure this is a direct cause and effect of electrolysis?
From what I have observed, the condition of the skin improves after electrolysis is complete.
Have you asked those who were treating you? What did they say?
Have you spoken with any skin care professionals?
Since the area is so close to the lips, ask about the advantages of plumping up the area or filling in the pits over chemical peeling or dermabrasion.
I agree with what Arlene said in that you may want to consider
a microdermabrasion treatment or the equivalent to remove the top layer of skin and even it out somewhat.
I’ve also had a lot of facial work done and found it helped.
Pitting and scarring is very rare when proper electrolysis is performed by a skilled, professional electrologist. A mobile beauty therapist? What does that mean exactly? I guess my other question would be, how well did you heal after your treatments? Were you back to normal within a couple days to a week? Repeated over treatment of skin will most likely produce tell-tale signs somewhere down the road, kind of where you are at now. The above mentioned treatments are worth exploring. To all trans women and others that read this, just know that you have to choose your electrologist wisely and be vigilant in regard to how well and soon you heal after a treatment. A mobile beauty therapist? So how did that work? Not saying that the second person didn’t cause problems, but I’m a little suspicious about the first ones set up.
When I mentioned about the pitting to the person I’m having electrolysis from now, they said it was probably done by the previous electrolysist. I’m not totally sure though. There is no way of knowing really.
Thank you for your advice. A chemical peel might be the way in the future.
I appreciate your feedback. A mobile beauty therapist is a mobile electrolysist who comes round to your house and also does other ‘beauty’ treatments. She had a basic qualification from college but the equipment was not very high tech.
It’s difficult to know how my pitting/scarring occurred. I suppose the skin around the mouth is very flexible and maybe more prone to pitting?
I think the options for treatment mentioned previously sound promising. I think I might start with microdermabrasion and see how that goes… I know that dermabrasion proper is quite drastic.
Maybe the skin will heal on it’s own, but I suppose that will be a very, very slow process.
I think that with TS women the electrolysis sometimes
involves too much work in a concentrated area in a single session, which can be very hard on the skin.
I think that we have to give feedback to the electrologist on how our skin reacted to the treatment and they have to be careful
not to overtreat an area or use too high a setting, especially
at the beginning when the hair is at it’s strongest and the hair
more densely concentrated.
Aftercare is also important in the healing process.
I have had a treatment which is similar to microdermabrasion
and called a diamond tome skin resurfacing. The amount of skin removed is not that much and healing time is very quick.
At worst your skin will be red for a day or two.
It basically removes the top layer of skin, which is mostly
dead and flaking skin, and evens out the surface.
I think it has helped me. I’ve had two so far and will get
it done again.
I guess not many “Mobile Beauty Therapists” are carrying around Haliburton Cases filled with top of the line equipment. The lesser stuff is so much easier to pack and move. One also has less fear of problems due to jostling dropping, or loss of the items. Of course, when working around the mouth, sometimes the client moves, thus unexpectedly forcing you to try to hit a moving target. I have a couple clients who just won’t stop talking during their treatments, either to me, or on their cell phones, and one who even sings along with the radio, music video on the TV or what ever. That kind of thing can cause a misfire leading to a bleeding episode, or in the worst case, a scar or pit.
One of my clients was all done except for the area around the mouth, and could not understand why that area was not getting cleared. The amount of time that I spent in the last days sitting with my hands at the side of my face in the stick-em up pose never clued this person in that it was time to stop talking already so I could remove the last hairs on the face to remove. (Yes, I had repeatedly said, “I need you to be quiet so I can work the area around your mouth. If you talk while I am doing this, I could miss, poke you, scratch you, scar you, pit you or just cause an ingrown hair. Since I would rather do nothing at all than risk that, I won’t be stabbing at a moving target while you talk. It’s your time, you paid for it, and you can use it any way you like.” This client and a few others stubbornly chose to pay me to listen to them talk instead of getting hairs removed time after time.)
The term “orange peel skin” is often used to describe the oily and thicker skin that is seen on men, in some ethnic groups and on some women. Pitting from electrolysis would appear more like acne-scarred skin, in my opinion.
The thing about the appearance of your skin now is that previous to the treatments, you had hairs growing from the follicles - probably very large diameter hairs. Now, you have hair free skin, but the follicles are still there, albeit disabled from growing hair. While many things have changed for you such as your hormone levels and possibly your facial structure, your skin texture has probably not changed much, but now there are no hairs disguising it. Another thing to keep in mind is the aging process. Even with good care, our skin loses it’s elasticity with time. Middle-aged skin just doesn’t look like it did 20 years ago!
That reminds me of the clients with hairs as thick as boars hair brush bristles, who come back and complain that their electrolysis left them with “enlarged pores.” They have totally missed the point that it is the difference between a golf hole with or without the flag sticking out of it.
The follicle was there while you were in-utero. As a hair grew in, the follicle expanded to accommodate the hair. Your genetics determine the rest. The follicle did NOT get bigger. It is now more obvious. There is a difference between a follicle and a pore. Hair and sebum come from follicles. Sweat comes from pores.
Without seeing it I do not want to answer directly, however, it is possible some of both are there. You would have to do biopsies to determine if there is scar tissue RISING UP THE FOLLICLE WALL. Electrolysis has to DESTROY TISSUE TO SUCCEED. This means there will be healing. Healing will be SCAR tissue. Scar tissue has no follicles and no sweat glands. If you ever noticed someone who was scalded or burned over a large area the skin looks shiny, lighter in color, and BALD. The scars look as though they were trying to pull inwards from side to side and this is what can happen on the follicle wall. However, as a male you had a lot of male hormone and that has an effect on the hair growth as does genetics. There are so many variables here that it is impossible to determine if what you think is a scar is really a more obvious follicle opening after the hair was removed and that is due to genetics plus the fact that hair on the male face is much thicker in diameter than on a female, consequently, the space that was vacated by hair that was removed is more obvious.
In Boston we have a mobile lawyer and doctors used to make HOUSE CALLS. I do not think it makes a difference if she was mobile or not. The question is whether or not she does good work. She saw a need and filled it. There are plenty of handicapped patients that feel better when they have a treatment of anything, therefore, if she is able and willing to come to your home she fills a need. The equipment does not have to impress anyone. All she has to do is get the job done. Actually the equipment is very simple. Dials and meters are not needed but they impress electrologists as much as they impress patients. Patient like boxes that humm and buzz.
Manufacturers of our machines want to increase sales. One way to do this is to make new models of machines. Usually they are merely cosmetic changes that have no effect on the performance. Whether or not it works at 13.5 mega hertz or 27mh is nonsense because FCC controls this. Electrologists that believe this buy a new machine for a lot of money. I do not believe anything they say about these machines and they can not PROOVE what they do say. I believe there is grounds for a law suit because these machines do not work any better or do anything different than those that work at 13.5 megahertz.
What if every electrologist made house calls and charged the same price as if they were stationed at one location. Doctors making house calls have been destroyed by government intervention, like so many other things. Oh, why am I even responding to Harvey. I don’t even understand why he made that comment. :crazy: :whistle:
To be honest, I have talked while being treated around the mouth. It just never occurred to me that this could cause damage. I assumed that my electrolysist would warn me to keep quiet when treating the skin around my mouth. It’s too late for the pitting I’ve got now, but at least I know for the future.
Thanks for your advice. It was quite entertaining. Clients talking on cell phones whilst being treated!!! Are they mad?
It is very easy to talk about your problems with your electrolysist I must admit though.
Thanks for your reply. To be honest, your comments did strike a chord. I think what you say is completely true. The absence of hair is now exposing the skin more, allowing for the imperfections to be seen more easily.
The skin may have been damaged before. The aging thing I’m sure has a lot to do with it. I’m going to try to not get too hung up about it, but Oscar Wilde was right when he said ‘’ youth is wasted on the young’’.
I’ve heard that infra red light can increase elasticity in the skin. That’s something I will investigate.
All I can say is that the electrolysis I had with my old electrolysist hurt more than with the new higher tech equipment. With the new equipment there is a very quick pulse which is not as bad as before, but I understand what you’re saying…
Also my old electrolysist never told me about the different growth phases of hair like the new one. Maybe she was not trained as well.?
Anyway, I look forward to the day when I don’t need anymore electrolysis. I hope that day comes soon.
