i had been having electrolysis (blend) for a month now. the effects were disastrous for skin. people here say that they only get scabs, redness that goes away in few days. but my skin reacts in a way that even electrologist says he has never seen in his 12 years experience (if we assume he is not lying to me). immediately after treatment i develop white head zits, after a couple of days they are gone, and what remains is a big red spot, of 1 cm diameter, the skin looks hollow, but i wouldnt say it is a scar. just a big red hollow circle spot around the insertion point. as the upper layer of skin is destroyed there.
i cant decide if that kind of reaction has to do with electrologist’s skill. could it be that he misses completely the follicle and causes such damage on my skin? i must say the hair slides easily and it doesnt feel at all like tweezed. or could it be that electrolysis does not suit my skin type? please help!
Vanessa,
This is very similar to a question I raised earlier and sadly nobody really felt like explaining. Hopefully everybody was too busy and could not get to it. Mine was just the result of a trial consultation so for now I am hesitant to even begin electrolysis if this is what is going to happen to my skin. Obviously this does not happen that often because there is no way it would be consistently practiced for so long if this were the case. However, I do relate to what you are saying and I hope someone can explain soon. The spots I had have largely subsided although there are two or three places where you can still see the insertion point. And the area is not “pinpoint.” I doubt this is a pigment change because it is still reddish in color. One of the spots developed into a small freckle-like spot and two or three days later it disappeared. I have been cleaning the area daily with hydrogen peroxide and applying aloe vera gel afterward. Hopefully it continues to improve so that this will not be a problem in the future. By the way, do you have acne? I am currently treating my acne with antibiotics and I think these spots might be the result of the acne, which in my case is similar to a skin infection. Let me know.
no i dont have any acne at all. mine is not just red spots, are big red blotchmarks surroundin the point the probe was inserted.
Sounds like your electrologist is either unhygienic or doesn’t really know what he/she’s doing.
You’ll have some marking if you’ve got light/ sensitive skin, but that should fade in 2/3 weeks.
I would recommend looking for another practitioner, ask if you can see any of their results on other patients (testimonials etc) and get him to do a test patch on your skin for reaction purposes, preferably somewhere that’s not as noticeable as the middle of your face.
If you’re skin is very badly damaged, then seek advice from a dermatologist, he might be able to recommend some light peels or microdermabration for scarring.
I have not seen anything like what you two describe in my practice, and I have not seen pictures of your skin, so I can’t really judge it. I will say that it does sound like you should be checking out other practitioners in your area to better find what the best result you can get in your area could be.
I can only say that my clients don’t report, nor have I ever noticed any such after effect.
1 cm in diameter??? that is HUGE.
and if it really is that big (and even if it’s not) you should really go to a dermatologist and see what he says. maybe she used an old needle and you have an allergic reaction to something that she cleans the skin or the equipment with… who knows. a dermatologist might be able to tell you. get the name of all the products she used on you and take them to the dermathologist to see if he thinks any of them can cause such lesions.
i really wish you could post pictures on this forum so that the professionals can see what you two are talking about. i would have offered to host it on my site but temporarily i’m down.
PS: does anyone know how to work the spell checker???
Ok ya one centimeter in diameter is most definitely way bigger than what I had described. In the future let’s refrain from saying “you two” or “the two of you.” <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Mine isnt that bad its just that I still have several small red spots that havent cleared up a month after my test treatment. I will say that the area most definitely looks way better than before but I doubt this is something entirely too normal. Like I mentioned before, it just makes me a bit hesitant to begin the entire process if this is what I could get everytime. I am going to try with a different electrologist and see what happens there. Some on here have mentioned that in their initial stages of treatment there skin reaction was a bit worse than what it is as the procedure progresses and the hair dissappears. Maybe that is the case. Thanks for the response though guys.
if i were you i would DEFINITELY look for another electrologist. one thing that you might consider is looking for is someone who uses gold-plated probes or would use them if you bought them. i have heard people say that sometimes people have bad reactions to the metal (i think it’s the nickel) in the regular probes and then react fine to the gold-plated ones. so if you have very sensitive skin, then that might be an option. i see two electrologists and one uses gold-plated and one doesn’t. i personally don’t notice a difference. my skin reacts relatively well but i will say that there probably is some redness that doesn’t fade now and again like slight red spots. it’s hard to say with me bcs i have minor scarring from acne and all the plucking i had been doing so i don’t really notice every little thing on my face bcs sadly it all blends in. what i planned to do is get my face to where it stays clear for at least a month or so at a time and then invest in some microdermabrasion for the scars i already have and any that might have developed.
It occurs to me that a possible reason for what you are experiencing would be either a shallow insertion, or a high frequency blowout. Either would cause a bubbling of the skin, and the dome on top of the treated area would be a white, empty bubble untill the healing process, or the infection process takes over.
If this is true, you should treat the skin as if you have suffered a burn. Aloe Vera, Tea Tree Oil, or your favorite treatment. One can also take L-Glutamine amino-acid vitamin suppliments that aide in the skin healing from a burn. Take 500mg, to 1.6 grams a day for one to 3 days. One may take 500mg on a daily basis if one wants, but the higher dose of 1.6 should not be done for more than a week.
James, I was going to suggest the same thing.
I had a lot of arcing, where the current was still on as the probe got near my skin … there was a spark, and a localised burn.
I had a similar effect when the current was still on as they pulled the probe out, causing a surface burn.
The effect was for weeping spots, then scabs, and finally little dimples about 1mm in diameter where the surface of the skin seemed to ‘collapse’ back into the follicle.
Longer term, I seemed to have lost a lot of the collagen and elasticity. This made the treated area of my face look a bit older than the rest of my face.
The good news, was that after several months it all seems to have recovered pretty much OK. (I know it’s there, but even a dermatologist had trouble seeing anything wrong, so I’m not that bothered about it anymore.)
In my case, the root cause was a machine malfunction and an electrolysist who didn’t know to stop the treatment when she saw this happening.
In my opinion, if you have any reaction that lasts for more than 2 or 3 days, you should try a different electrologist. I wish I’d done that - I’d have saved myself a lot of worry.