I am new here, but I have been an admirer to this website for a while. I had an inquiry. I was wondering why after electrolysis does it look like the follicle is showing. I hope this makes sense, but its hard to explain, its like you can see the whole where the hair use to be. Will this disappear with time, or is it permanent?
I also am wondering for myself if clearing the stomach area can be done in less than 10 hours, I am female, and have worked on the stomach area for 2 hours last week, but not much was covered. So this is the reason for my skepticism.
Sorry for the long post! this is my first post though! =)
Follicle openings do not disappear.
We need pictures to get a better idea of your situation.
Your electrologist sees your skin and hair and its changes.
Did you discuss this with your electrologist?
What did he/she say?
Are these the pores I’m seeing then? I’m wondering if the “hole” type things will close, so it doesn’t appear to look like a hair use to live there lol
Clearing an area totally depends on the amount of hair and the speed of the electrologist. A thousand hairs will take 10 times longer than 100 hairs…since everyone is different, it is impossible for us to tell you if you will be done in 10 hours.
We are born with a finite number of follicles. (Colleagues will tell me if that fact has changed, right?) Certain types of skin will be more translucent than others. The follicles on my skin are visible in areas where I have not had any electrolysis - but I don’t think other people would notice that, unless I pointed it out. Right after electrolysis, the follicle has been irritated and there can be some redness IN the follicle that makes them seem more noticeable. Follicles have a sebaceous gland attached - they don’t really open and close - but they do not go away, either. Pores and follicle openings are basically the same.
Lol I guess what I am trying to get at, is in your professional experience, have you seen these diminish- as in the appearance of them becomes less noticeable?
I know this will be a daunting task, but I hopefully have found a good electrologist. The only thing is she works on clearing one specific section of my stomach, and every hair in that section is gone. However, it was so tender to the touch that I think i’d prefer a overall thinning of the area and eventually clear the rest step-by-step. Would this be better?
We do not know enough to judge definitely, but it might be possible that You observe wound contraction which leads to a temporary slight depression surrounded by a very slight (usually invisible) raise of the surrounding area of the skin.
Although not really necessary, since it is temporary effect causes by the healing process itself and thus will disappear, I usually try to adjust my settings if i observe this - even if the client does not seem to recognize it.
If a client prefers gradual thinning instead of full succesive clearance of adjacent areas, i usually will follow this wish. Why shouldn’t i?
Sometimes I wonder if clients even bother to discuss their concerns with their techs.
I suspect it would answer so many questions and ameliorate the worries.
I would love for clients to ask the same questions to their electrologists, come back here and ask us what we think. I would love to see those electrologists engage here and then we can all troubleshoot together. Photos would be helpful too.
Well, some clients do bother asking their electrologist about such things, and are often met with a “that’s just the way it is” response. They feel they know everything that is necessary to know, and they are suspicious and/or reluctant to embrace new treatment ideas.
And yes, some of those electrologists are perfectly aware of this site (but don’t post.)
As for the OP and the follicles question, if you mean those who used to have very big hair, yes they do eventually shrink, at least they did for me. While they aren’t invisible, they aren’t noticeable either.
If you mean the slightly raised dots that generally goes away too. Depending on the intensity used it might need 3 months or more.
"So what happens to the hair follicle. The follicle is a collection of cells that grow, make hair, and then shrink to nothing. This means the cells go away, except for a few cells that sort of hide among the cells of the dermis. Then when stimulated they start to grow again and form a fully functioning follicle to make more hair.
If the energy of the laser (or electrolysis) is sufficient, then those special cells are destroyed and the follicle goes away, never to come back again. This is the permanent part of laser hair removal (or electrolysis). It also explains why it can be hard to kill a hair, because you have to target the cells at the base of the follicle.
So what happens to the space. Basically the space is what is called a potential space. There really is no space there. Instead, the hair follicle and shaft push out against the surrounding cells and create a space around themselves. When they go away, the space disappears.
Think about the space your body occupies when you are in pool. When you get out of the pool, the space is gone. That is what happens in the skin, except it doesn’t happen as quickly as it does in a pool. Or as fluidly."- sslhr
This poster, sslhr, is an awesome poster that use to post here on HairTell. He is highly qualified to make those statements about the follicle. Thanks for digging for that information M-girl, but it is more detail than needed for most here. Nevertheless, I like detail.