Just had electrolysis - Reassure or warn me!

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
#1

I am MTF, and I just had two hours of electrolysis on my face (chin area). I have been going to this electrologist for about 2.5 months for body hair work (with no problems that I have noticed). I had laser treatment on my face before this (last treatment about 8.5 weeks earlier). The lasers got rid of about 90% of the pre-existing hair.

Anyway, my face is still swollen about 3 hours later (though it isn’t red at all), and a few small pustules have developed (I think I might have hit it with the hydrocortisone cream a little too early and blocked some pores). During the treatment, I heard a few small sizzle sounds, but it was always right after she put antiseptic on me, so I am hoping that it is just the antiseptic boiling off and not my face boiling off. I barely felt most of the treatment. I would say that I found maybe 30 out of 1200 zaps to be painful, less painful than body work or laser treatments, neither of which I thought were particularly painful either (she did say that she used a lower setting for faces than body).

I have another appointment in a couple of days to get my upper lip done. Should I be worried or does everything seem to be going OK? I attached a picture (sorry for the relatively low quality of the pic, though I guess it is a good thing that nothing on my face is visible enough to show up well on the webcam).

I apologize if I sound like I am overreacting, but this is the first time I have gone on the face, and I am very nervous.

qwerty Attachments

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#2

Sounds and looks like very good treatment, hearing the occasional sizzle is ok it’s just the heat reacting with moisture in the skin.

I’m sure you are already aware and your electrologist has explained about more hair growth coming through in the next few months from the previous laser treatments, it can take 6-9 months for laser treated hair to become apparent. Post laser regrowth particularly on the face can be in unpredictable only time will tell how successful it was. Looking forward to your updates.

#3

Wet skin:

Just a note about “hearing an HF pop just after the therapist applied antiseptic.”

Both DC and HF will “take the shortest route,” like any electrical current. It’s called a “short circuit” with emphasis on the “short.”

If your skin is wet, the current will be “short circuited” into the outer-most layer of your skin. In most cases you can’t even get a good “hair release,” because little current is getting down into the follicle, where it should be going (it’s dispersing on the epidermis).

Hearing a pop, after getting the skin wet would not be something I’d be happy hearing for several reasons.

Always be certain that the skin is dry before starting your electrolysis session. You can soak up the “wet” with cotton, wait a few seconds for evaporation, or blow it off with your air “desensitizer.”

But, don’t work on “wet skin.”

#4

It is now the morning after. I am still swollen, although noticeably less so. My post-treatment regimen that seemed to work pretty well for body work was

Neomycin, Polymyxin B, Pramoxine HcL cream and hydrocortizone for the first few days.

Sunscreen with a very high amount of zinc oxide after that.

Anyone think that is a bad idea?

Re wet skin:

Should I just ask her to pause for a few seconds longer between the antiseptic application and restarting? The skin was “dry” prior to the session as a whole (that had a lot of time to evaporate, because she put the antiseptic on my face and then changed some settings with the machine). It got wet again because she put reapplied antiseptic every once in a while.

If the bad thing about the popping sound after the antiseptic is just that that particular hair might not get well-zapped, then that doesn’t worry me TOO much. I mostly just don’t want scars.

#5

Your skin reaction looks good in the photo. Working on such a small area and I am assuming the density of the hair on your chin would have been similar to your upper lip this would have caused the swelling and tenderness to be more obvious.Do not worry about the swelling . swelling is the natural inflammatory reaction of the body when injured. Your immune system just doing its job.

#6

DLH

Yep, have her wait until the antiseptic evaporates. I don’t know why you are putting all that “stuff” on your skin afterward?

#7

It’s only really two “stuffs” right at the moment. The Neomycin/Polymyxin/Pramoxine is all in the same cream. For body stuff, it seems to cause the skin to go back to normal faster. I tried going without it after one of my body sessions and the skin seemed to take twice as long to heal. I had originally started using it because I was paranoid about skin infections.

This is the first time I’ve tried hydrocortizone. The electrologist said it would help keep any inflammation down, though she also recommended just trying ice packs. I don’t think the hydrocortizone is helping all that much. I think I’m just gonna try ice from now on.

The sunscreen I use because

  1. Staying out of the sun is universally recommended, and it seems like a good idea to have it on for the (rather small) periods of time that I need to be out.
  2. I have an MtF cousin who got all of her facial hair removed a couple of years ago. Her skin looks awesome, and she has told me that zinc oxide sunscreen was the only thing that her electrologist insisted that she use.

The density on my chin was significantly higher than my upper lip. While the lasering seemed to work pretty great on me (I have pale skin and black facial hair), there are four patches where it didn’t seem to remove any hair, and the two bigger patches were on my chin.

Still swollen 24 hours later, but it is going down. I now have the chin of Bruce Campbell instead of the chin of Robert Z’dar :slight_smile:

#8

Usually it is, as you say, “paranoia about skin infections” (and worry about inflammation) that causes patients to excessively over-medicate.

Consider this: Imagine that somebody joins a gym. She knows that there is a risk of getting an infection from the many people at the guy. So, she starts taking anti-biotics to prevent “infection.” Would that be a good idea?

Getting an infection from electrolysis is about a million times less likely than getting something from the gym. But, I would guess few people take anti-biotics before they go to the gym?

Your chances of getting an infection from electrolysis are close to zero. If you have a normal immune system, you need do nothing to your skin: just plain soap and water … and mostly “hands off.”

The medications you are using are designed for diagnosed skin conditions such as dermatitis and actual infections. Overall, using unnecessary medication is not recommended and might cause further skin issues.

Inflammation, while not exactly pleasant, IS THE ACTUAL HEALING MECHANISM ITSELF! If you could stop the inflammation process completely, your skin would not heal. Unless you have excessive inflammation, you should not use hydrocortisone creams.

I only recommend sunscreen products if the person is actually going to be exposed to lots of sunlight. Normally, such products are also not necessary. I mean, walking out to your car and getting a bit of sun is not going to cause your face to “heal improperly.” Simple normal sunlight avoidance and clothing is better than a products that might cause more problems.

Still, I know from 40-years of experience, that you will not listen to a word I’ve said. And, that’s fine, your skin will be, most likely, just fine whatever you may decide to do to it to “help the healing.” Remember though: it’s “not nice to fight Mother Nature.” Human skin “knows” what to do with a simple burn wound … especially a controlled wound that was administered under sterile conditions.

My patients “don’t use nuttin’!” In 40 years only one of my patients developed an infection, and he was a chronic “self-medicator.” (In this case all types of prescription meds AND "natural products.)

Some independent reading might be interesting to a few readers on Hairtell:

http://www.woundbegone.com/heal_wounds_faster.html

(Note: I wouldn’t use “woundbegone” either!)

#9

Having had “marathon” facial work (10 hours over a couple of days), I managed just fine with a regime of ‘less is more’. This was my third such session of facial work. Every time we did essentially the same things and I’ve never had issues with skin healing or in the long term condition of my skin - if anything it’s improved.

From my electrologist’s end, she made sure everything she did was as clean/sterile as possible. My face was thoroughly cleaned with surgical soap and water by her before commencing treatment and immediately after completing an area. The only product we applied after treatment was aloe vera gel. I did use ice-packs if necessary. In the days during treatment and the following few days, I avoided touching my face (it was too sore anyway). I also avoided the sun and did not use any sun protection. I would just wash it once in the morning and once at night with surgical soap. When I was back home and a few days since my last session had elapsed, and my face was no longer noticeably swollen, I went back to my normal skincare regime which includes a spf moisturiser.

Finally, products that dry the skin out should be avoided! I wonder if that antiseptic is also a bit drying? I don’t think it’s necessary if the skin and thoroughly clean.

#10

All right. I’ll keep that in mind and cut back on what I put on it. I tried just washing it last night, and actually, it feels pretty good.

Anywho, the swelling is 95% gone. It looks like this now.

Sorry again for the webcam. I have a few scabs, but they are pretty hard to see.

qwerty Attachments

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#11

Oh, that picture makes me dizzy.

A few small scabs are fine. I am in agreement about ditching that antibiotic junk. You don’t need it. Yes, to soap and water! For some skin types, I really like dabs of tea tree oil (it’s a natural product, so Mother Nature would give her nod of approval). Right over those dabs of tea tree oil, I apply the purest aloe vera gel I can buy, cold from the refrigerator. Applied right after a session, you may not see any scabbing in 48 hours?

#12

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the tip! Hopefully I’m done with my facial work but it’s good to have that additional info. I don’t think I used it once my treatment stopped (contrary to slightly mixed wording in my previous post) but since I was having a few hours treatment everyday for about 4 days, we did need to keep my skin clean during that time so I was using it daily then.

#13

I had an hour and a half of work tonight on my upper lip. She didn’t quite get through the whole thing. I started swelling a little more than she anticipated, so she just move to the sideburn area for the rest of the appointment. Because of that, I have a small, asymmetric mustache (see Figure 1)! Oh well. She’ll knock it off when I go back in two weeks.

I’m going to try putting nothing on it tonight. If it gets unbearably uncomfortable, then I’ll slap some aloe on it (already took an NSAID).

Re: Michael, about my skin
Awww thanks :slight_smile:

qwerty Attachments

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#14

I have to say your post-treatment skin looks amazing. Whatever she’s doing … just keep doing it! No need to question anything she’s doing … just “go for it!” Beautiful work!

Be glad you aren’t doing this with me! Overall, my post-treament beard work looks like a “horror-story!” I think I’ll post a photo so everybody can “gasp!” I think I can post a photo of my beautiful, 19-year-old TG client (?)… I have three such clients at the moment.

After I’m done “obliterating their beards,” Dr. Chapple will do his wizardry: Adam’s apples, noses, foreheads, and a couple little “secrets” he has up his sleeve (“eyebrow lift” is something not to forget; and this one is super-easy and involves a “sugar cube.” A BIG change for very little effort).

I can’t wait until “Joanie” gets her new nose … I can already see it! At the moment she has a “honker!” Yep, I’m totally “into” this! For me it’s an art-form. Post-surgery, they stay with me so I can “mother the heck” out of them … I’m a GOOD mommy!

Oh, the aloe is excellent to use.
How are the NSAIDs working? Are you doing 800mg?

#15

The NSAIDs were working OK, but not great. I was taking 400mg of ibuprofen. I just threw on some aloe, so I haven’t really had a chance to judge that yet.

Actually, I think not putting anything on it for 24 hours is a good way to go. My upper lip feels like it is recovering faster than my chin (might also be because chin hair was denser and she got EVERYTHING off of it).

The scabs on my chin have shrunk even more (and they were small to begin with). Other than the goofy leftover mustache, I pretty much look back to normal. On Saturday I’m gonna get the courage to shave again, and then I’ll be back to myself :slight_smile: