About a year ago u started getting electrolysis on my upper lip. I chose a local place that said they welcomed transgender clients and was placed on a waiting list. When I went in for my first appointment the process was expsined to me that an electrode would be inserted into each hair folicle and chemical solution creating a lye burn and then pluck each hair out. Usually I’d do in for an hour session and hey my entire upper lip done and simetimes id only scheduled a half hour and get one side done. There were periods of time where I went a month or two without treatment. Prior to electrolysis I’d tweeze my facial hair so I wouldn’t have stubbke but since stsrting I shave every day. Id have to let my hair grow out for a few days before each appointment so depending on my schedule and what I was doing the dats prior would determine when I could go because I don’t like going out and about with facial hair. I’ve had good results with electrolysis, the hair on my upper lip is finer and grows back slower and is more sparse. For me, the reciovery time was minimal. Id usually schedule my appointments later in the evenings and everything was fine the next day. No redness, scabs or marks. Last month my appointment was canceled because the electrolysis machine broke and so I had rescheduled an appointment for the begging of July. I was told that they had a new machine and that the old one was in Pennsylvania getting looked at to see if it can be fixed. I was also informed that the old machine had been around for decades and wasn’t sure how old it had been dying for. Anyways, I wondered the new machine hurt a little bit more but it seemed normal i had an hour appointment but my entire upper lip was done in a half hour and she commented and how easy the hairs were to tweeze out. About an hour after my appointment I noticed what seemed to look like spots where skin had been gouged out but I hadn’t I hadn’t felt it during the tweezing part. Then i noticed yellow fluid sll over my upper lip in little drops that was started to dry up and my skin was very red and swollen. By the end of the day my entire upper lip and top lip were very swollen. I applied ice and aloe and went to bed. When i woke up in the morning my face was severly deformed. My upper lip was very hard and puffy, my top lip was huge and felt like it was going to top and on the inside bottom of my lip looked like a blister full of fluid. I messaged the spa where I had it done and was told to take a benadryl, icepack and drink lots of water, and that she had another personn reach out as well. She said she would make a note on my card and was contacting the company where she got the new machine to ask about the settings. My upper lip and lip didn’t hurt but i wanted to cry when I looked in the mirror and felt like a monster. I kept looking online and didn’t find any photos of anything remotely similar to what i had going on except anaphylaxis so i went to the walk in clinic. They told me it was a my bodys reaction to getting the electrolysis and gave me a steroid injection and prescribed me an oral steroid for 5 days. The swelling is stsrting to go down but there are are holes in my upper lip, and under the skin it feels hard to the touch and the skin in purple and red. I’m so worried that I’m going to be permanently scared and I knew there were risk jnvoled but I didn’t know this could happen. I’ll never get electrolysis again.
This one kinda shows some of the pitting in the skin the dat after. The swelling started to go down after the hospital visit and the shot of steroids.
Heres two days after, the swelling has gone down a lot but the skin is hard underneath and starting to turn purple.
Massive overtreatment. It was plain irresponsible for the electrologist to continue and cause this level of damage. I’m really sorry this happened to you.
I cant tellthe extent of the damage at this stage, but a dermatologist should be consulted…
Dont panic. It may not be as bad as it seems right now, but I do expect some complications in healing. Please do not go back to this electrologist.
It is the person performing the treatment, not the procedure itself that is the problem. You were overtreated (too much energy). Perhaps the electrologist was not as familiar with the new machine. I recommend you find another electrologist.