ok. here is goes. I have been reading posts on this website for months and i am now finally ready to share my thoughts and experience and also some questions. I am a 24 year old girl who has always been considered very attractive. I am only typing this to give the reader a clear picture, i promise i am not in ANY way feeling this.
I began to notice a slow but steady increase in the length of my facial hair and i mean everywhere on my face including down my neck, a few years ago. It’s not really dark at all except near my side burns where the hair is also VERY long about half an inch and i bleach this area. It just slowly became more and more noticable to me and i even got a few comments from people. This terrified me and i began to obsess of course. I was devastated to find out that retin-A could have caused this because i have been using it for 5 years with the obaji program. I did stop for 2 pregnancies during this time though but iused it DAILY otherwise. I don’t know if this is for sure the reason for the hair growth, but i AM NOT a hairy person at all anywhere else. This has been such a scary and sad thing for me because its my whole face! And i have never been one to wear a lot of makeup or someone who really paid much attention to my looks because i always felt i looked fine. Now, i know that most people are not staring and this hair when they look at me, but it is surely there and i do not see this on other people. I have gone through some really hard days about this. I decided to turn to electrolysis to help this issue. I went to a lady in my area and she used an older clare blend machine on the blend modality and she started with the area right next to my mouth because i had once waxed that area 6 weeks prior for the first time out of desperate measures to feel a little less hairy and people sometimes look by your mouth when they talk to you, so i thought this would be the place to start. i broke out so bad from the waxing and thats when i knew i could not continue to wax this area repeatedly and that led to electolysis. anyway, the treatment did hurt pretty bad even though i handled in fine and the healing was pretty aweful with whiteheads and scabs and itchyness. She worked one hour on each side and did a pretty small area. I have to add that It is now four months later and i still literally have little purplish dip marks all over where she treated. It is more noticable when you stretch the skin but still looks like a purplish hue in that area and i have to put concealer on it daily. Needless to say i felt in my heart i should try someone else and about one week after my apt with her, i confessed to a good friend of mine what i was going through and told her why my face was all jacked up and she told me her mom was an electrolygist. I could not believe the irony! I had not shared this with anyone besides my husband and to share it with someone whose mom was an electro! I felt it was God leading me to her. I did know her mom, but now too well. I knew she was a very nice lady. She contacted me after talking to her daughter about my situationa and we set an appointment and i have been going to her ever since. We have had about 11 one hour treatments and they have gone very well. but i do have some questions. She has been doing this for 25 years and she uses her original machine which is the proteus ep-2000. I know others have asked about this machine on this forom before. When she works on me I DO NOT feel plucking and it does not hurt. I can almost fall asleep. She seems to have great technique and she is SoO sweet and cares about me and my situation so much. I feel SO comfortable with her and have asked her many questions about her machine. She says that she is happy with its results and that she doesn’t see the need right now to buy another one. I know that you guys are BIG advocates of having newer equipment and good lighting, which i have to admit that she really doesn’t have these things, but at the same time, she is able to get rid of and thin out the hairs. She also does massage and reflexoigy and is an accountant and if you knew here that is how she is, sort of all over the board. I should mention that we have only worked mostly on the front of my face and some on my chin that are “wild hairs” that stick out and a few course ones and also up my cheek bone and by my eyes where there were actuallly darker hairs. And just a little right along my jaw line So basicly she is leaving a lot of hair on my face that looks like normal vellus hairs. Which i am happy with this plan. Every week when i go in she has pleny on regrowth to keep her busy. It does seem like it is always coming in. I dont feel like it is embarrasing regrowth because we get it so quickly and it is not course even thought some of these regrowth hairs are darker. The healing process with her has not been completely aweful, but the more annoying thing is that even though i use tea tree oil and whitch hazel and aloe, (not all at once, but i do use these for after care and choose according to severity of skin conditiion) I am getting zits in the treated area which is most of my face (cheeks and chin)! I guess i am used to having perfect skin from the retin-A so this has been not cool to be all zitty. But of course I am only getting a few zits, like maybe 6 per side of my face. but that’s alot to me. But i know MANY insertions were made that are not causing zits. I am generally happy with everything so far, and urge anyone who is reading this to start electrolysis RIGHT AWAY if you are having hair issues! I feel SO much better about myself even though we haven’t begun to work on the long hairs on the side of my face. When you start electrolysis your life changes, even though i have the bad skin reactions with the zits, i know it will be worth it in the end. So, do you guys think that I should go ahead and not worry about the old machine? I forgot to mention that i went to two other electros in my area (there are NOT many) and one had a newer machine but her place was so dirty that i wanted to RUN out of there and i ended up declining treatment after the consult and the other one was just not friendly enough. I really needed someone to listen to me and hear my issues about my face and that is what this lady does. She is so awesome. But am i prolonging my treatment time because i am going to someone with an older machine? If so, big time of just a little. It may be worth it to me becuase she is so in tune with my needs. Does this machine truly work well if used by a skilled electro? I do beleive she is skilled. I am a pretty sharp girl and i feel like i would sence if she wasn’t. I am only concerned about the machine she is using. ALso, does some zits because of open pores sound normal? The treatment area looks fine, maybe just a little swollen at first then a little red then the insertions look like tiny little prick scabs, almost like freckles. Those dont bother me just the zits. I am so thankful for anyone who is reading this and hearing my story. This has been a long and emotional road, but i hope i am just making progress in spite of an old machine. If this post seems scattered and sloppy I AM SO SORRY, I am trying to finnish before my little ones wake up. Any responses would be appreciated. Again I am so thankful for this site. So much hope has been given and recieved here.
thanx
heather
Probably on not the Platinum machines though since they are new (a real shame, they are sooooo comfortable!)
