Important-Keratosis Pilaris

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
#1

I don’t even know if this is the right forum to be posting this but it’s important and kind of does have to do with electrolysis.

From www.keratosispilaris.org:
“Keratosis Pilaris is a very common genetic follicular disease manifested by the appearance of rough bumps on the skin. Primarily, it appears on the back and outer sides of the upper arms, but can also occur on thighs and buttocks or any body part except palms or soles. There are several different types of keratosis pilaris, including keratosis pilaris rubra (red, inflamed bumps), alba (rough, bumpy skin with no irritation), rubra faceii (reddish rash on the cheeks) and related disorders.”

From Yahoo Health:
"The characteristic rash is caused by firm little plugs forming in the hair follicles. The plugs themselves are made of bits of keratin, the main protein found in the outermost protective layer of skin (thus the name keratosis). These plugged follicles give the skin a raised, stippled appearance – usually called goosebumps. The bumps are usually skin color or slightly pinker, and do not itch. The rash is often not noticeable to others, except on close inspection. "

I’m almost positive there are people here that suffer from this since I’m guessing the root cause of it is hair. All websites on it basically say that there is NO cure. It is hereditary and that it goes away with age. However, if you go to the KP support community there are people that are over 40 who are still suffering from this. I wonder if electrolysis is the answer. If the hair is destroyed then shouldn’t the bumps go away as well? If anyone has any experience with electrolysis being performed on someone with KP, please do share the results. If you are a KP sufferer i urge you to visit the support community- www.keratosispilaris.org.

If you are suffering from this condition or even if you are not…please sign this petition to find a cure for Keratosis Pilaris. There is not enough information on it which leads to no real cures out there.

http://www.petitiononline.com/kp1/petition.html

I hope this is all related to hairtell.com in some way.

thanks for reading! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

#2

Thanks for sharing. We are always interested in information here.

#3

rani, yes, thank you for posting your KP info on hairtell. I can share some things with you, but can’t bring any conclusions to the table just yet.

I am presently working on a client who presents with keratosis pilaris on her arms, mainly the upper back part, but it does spread down to the upper forearms. We have forged through very fast to clear a very dense layer of hair. I would estimate that she is 95% cleared using thermolysis (microflash). She shaves before treatments, which is excellent, so I can identify the active hairs. We are in the maintenance phase now as the biggest part of removal is behind us.

We are both curious, too, as to whether destroying the hair will settle her KP problem. I searched and searched before we began electrolysis for information regarding whether or not electrolysis was contraindicated for persons with KP, but found no information. Having discussed this unknown with her before we began, we just started the treatments and we both have observed the treated areas closely over the last couple months. So far, there appears to be no difference. She has commented that she feels electrolysis is not aggravating her KP.

I haven’t worked on her arms for several weeks, but she actually returns tomorrow afternoon, so I will take a really good look at her KP and ask her for her observations so far as to whether she feels the KP is better, the same or worse.

I’ll follow up and let you know, or better yet, I’ll ask her if she could post here or at least PM you??

Thanks again for your information complete with helpful websites for those that suffer with KP.

Dee

#4

Greetings! I am the client Dee was referring to with KP.

This nasty condition (in my case-keratosis pilaris rubra) has been passed down on my father’s side of the family for generations. My personal experience has been that the only area to “go away with age” was on my cheeks and my father (who is 50) continues to show signs on his arms and legs. Not very encouraging. My upper thighs, upper arms and forearms have had the redness and inflamed bumps for years and nothing that has been recommended has seemed to help get rid of the problem. I, like you, was very curious to see if electrolysis would help.

Currently, my forearms are being treated with electrolysis and I have definitely had fewer bumps and less redness over time in that area. The skin on my arms will take some time to fully heal so I’m not sure at this point if the problem will be completely eliminated but progress has been made.

The true test will be when we begin to treat my upper arms because that area has always had more bumps and redness than any other area on my body. Dee or I will definitely keep you updated on our progress. Keep your fingers crossed <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Wouldn’t it be great to find something that helped to minimize or eliminate KP?!?

#5

hey guys. sorry for the delayed response, it’s hard to get on the internet for long periods of time. anyway, thank you so much to james, Dee, and the client. you were all extremely supportive/helpful.

client1-i wish you luck and i’m very optimistic that you’re going to get good results. i mean i look at my arms and each of the so called “goose bump” has a hair growing out of it. the areas where it’s not bumpy, have no hair. although then there are other parts of my body that have no hair but yet no bumps. so it’s really complicated. it’s just so silly to me because, there’s so little research on KP that even the sites that have information on it, have no idea what they’re talking about. you are right, it does not go away with age. i mean maybe if you are 90 it might go away, but then who really cares what your skin looks like by then? lol. i also don’t think most people who have it even realize they have this skin problem. they just brush it off…which is sad because there would be more support if more people realized it effects them. currently i’m experimenting with different body scrubs because it has helped various people…i’ll let you know if it helps at all. Hopefully you will updating on th electrolysis too! thanks alot!

#6

Rani,

I’ll be sure to think of you and post on this thread as client1 and I progress further. The area that had KP on the upper lower arm did feel smoother than the back of the arms where we haven’t started yet. I guess we are conducting our own little clinical study here since there is nothing else we can draw upon for information. Check back to this thread on hairtell over the next several months for updates either from from me or client1.

Dee

#7

Hello! It’s been a while. I am wondering how the both of you are progressing in this little experiment haha. I hope it’s going alright. I’m thinking of testing out a bit of my arm with my electrolgoist as well just to see what results she can get. Update me, I’d love to know <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

#8

Hi rani,

Client1 had to take a break for personal reasons. I haven’t seen her but 2 times in the last 4 months, so we have been in a stall compared to the begining treatments last spring. I did work on her in September and the areas of KP on the upper lower arm were much improved and she verbalized that she definitely is happy with the smoothness. She is scheduled to come in this Tuesday, Nov. 2, and she wants to begin treatment on her upper arms where the KP is denser and more noticable.

I think electrolysis has helped her condition, too, but the true test will be the upper arms. When I actually treat a hair, it is amazing how different the root structures are in these affected areas. I can definitely see a good amount of white hard tissue surrounding the hair at the bottom as I lift it out. There is some resistence felt when I lift the hair out,too, but it is definitely not a tweeze feeling.

This is all I can report at this time, and I haven’t forgotten about this thread, just not much to report because of her scarce appointments. I do promise to follow through and I think I like your idea to get a test patch on yourself. I mean, why not! If you do, please share your response with us.

Dee

#9

Dee,

I have the same condition on my upper arms, as I discussed in my post about laser-induced hair growth. My theory is that if the hair is not growing in the follicle, it may be less likely to plug up with keratin. Please keep us updated.

I want the dark (triggered) hair removed from my upper arms, but there is a lot of light, fine hair that I am not worried about unless zapping it will improve the keratosis pilaris.

Best regards,

htky

#10

I just saw my KP client and did some maintenance on both of her arms. Actually, I have seen her twice in a period of a week. I’ve got to say her arms look great. She had LOTS of hair from her hands to her elbows and now she is so smooth and clear. She shaves between appointments, but there isn’t nearly the amount of hair to deal with as when we started in February '05. The hair was so dense that it would take me almost two hours to clear a 1- 2 inch band around her arm in the beginning! Now I whiz through both of her arms to get stragglers in that time frame. The KP bumps have not returned on the areas where the hair has been removed, thus the smooth skin texture. She’s in great control and is very proud to display her arms.

After the maintenance session cleared the lower arms of the stragglers, we moved on to the upper arm were she has very little hair. I do see follicles where there is a light red, raised bump with no hair present. Not sure how to proceed with this dilemma yet, however, the bumps with hair are amazing sometimes. The root structures comes with the whitish hard stuff surrounding the hair and just kind of pops out. Sometimes there is a liquidy milky substance present. I have raised my intensity a tiny bit more and will be interested to see how it heals and if the bumps return minus the hair, over time.

So I’ll keep checking in. I won’t be seeing her until Jan. of 2006 now, so keep the patience alive. I am so impressed with what has been accomplishd so far and so is she. I would say she is 90% hair free on her arms - permanently gone. She really has done this correctly and has been very faithful to put in the time since January 2005. I might add that we have also worked on her upper lip, chin and abdomen. I have been using microflash thermolysis.

Dee

#11

Thanks D! All your information is really very helpful and january is not too far away! I’m cheering on you and your client lol. I have a question…Would you mind if I posted this thread on the Keratosispilaris forum? All the people there are always looking for new treatments and experiments so they might feel like there is hope. Right now I’m pretty optimistic about your client and am probably goign to start on my arms next year since right now i’m working on my face. Thanks again!

#12

I guess the question about posting on another forum is up to Andrea. I would defer to her. I’m not against it, but Andrea may have some good reasons not to or she may not care at all if you do that.

There maybe some hope here for the bumpy people of the world, but it’s too early to draw definite conclusions about Client 1’s final results. We all know that the body has tremendous abilities to mend itself over time. I’m still impressed with the results so far on the smaller areas of concentration on the forearms and I’m itching to get more involved with her upper arms in January.

The upper arm area may dampen our enthusiam about all this. The reason being, I’m licensed to treat unwanted hair. If the unwanted hair happens to be in a KP follicle, then fine,I can treat it. However, I see KP spots with no hair on the upper arms,unlike the forearms, so, technically, I cannot treat those hairless spots because that extends beyond what I’m licensed to do. I treat hairs not hairless bumps. I suppose a dermatologist would be the one to use electrosurgery if they so deemed it would help the hairless KP spots. There was no problem treating the KP spots on the lower arm areas because there was so much hair. The upper arm hair being much sparser will limit what I can treat. Or if htky’s above theory is correct, perhaps those supposedly “hairless” bumps really contain a trapped thin hair with all that white KP stuff??? Sorry for getting so wordsy about this. Just thought I’d pass these thoughts on to you as I have been thinking about all this recently.

I’ll check in later.

Dee

#13

I know that no one would object to a link to this post string being put in your other forum. That may also be a better thing, in that it would always show the up to date post string, instead of just a snap shot of a particular day. Besides, it would increase our HairTell membership, and that is always a good thing.

Spread the good news.

#14

Dee,

Thanks for your cautious optimism. I didn’t mean to imply that I thought that all KP spots had trapped hairs, merely that I think the existence of a hair in a follicle makes it more likely to develop a KP spot, so electrolysis has the potential to improve the condition.

Best regards,

htky

#15

Thank you. I understand what you’re saying.

Dee

#16

thanks james! i will go ahead and let the KP people know about this thread <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

D-i understand what you’re saying. maybe, the hair eventually will poke out of the bump…perhaps it needs help like using microdermabrasion or just any kind of extreme exfoliation to open up the pore in the bump? i realize that electrologists can’t do anything if there is no hair there…i don’t think dermatologists would use electrosurgery on KP. From what i have read, most dermatologists do not take KP seriously or tell you to use expensive, inaffective lotions. However, if electrolysis can even get rid of 50% of the bumps i think it is worth it! Thanks so much for all your valuable information and opinions.

#17

You may have something helpful with the exfoliation and micro thoughts. Anyway, I’ll check back when I have something useful to say about client 1. In the meantime, I’m checking out for a Thanksgiving holiday in Chicago!

Dee

#18

Recap: One of my clients underwent electrolysis treatment on her lower arms last year to reduce the amount of hair and we wondered together if electrolysis would also help and resolve the keratosis pilaris. I haven’t seen her since late last fall and decided to contact her for some feedback about how her arms look now as far as the KP goes.

I e-mailed Client 1 to ask her for feedback and her personal observations about the keratosis pilaris on her arms and this was her response:

"Hi Dee,

It was good to hear from you. It was just the kick in the pants I
needed to make another appt.

Regarding the KP…I’d say the area on my forearms is definitely less
lumpy so I guess that’s something to share. I’d even say there is less
redness. The true test will really be my upper arms because that is
where the KP is the worst. Hopefully, following my next couple of
appointments, we will be able to share more info." …

I will be seeing her at the end of the month to resume mantainence treatments on her forearms and to start work on the upper arms. Will keep everyone posted.

Dee

#19

I posted on another thread regarding KP, but I’ll repeat it here if that helps anybody.

I have tried everything…prescription lotions, etc. The best and most effective “treatment” for me and I have moderate KP on my arms is an exfoliating scrub called “Bliss Hot Sea Salt” applied to dry arms and massaged for a few moments then rinsed off in the shower.

After I dry off, I apply a salicylic acid based acne gel (over the counter) called “Clean and Clear”. So far and I have been doing this for about 2 years it keeps my arms really clear. You must be consistant.

#20

I just wrote down the products you use and will pass this onto my clients who are pestered with KP.

Thanks for the information, Lilly.

Dee