What can I do? My electrologist told me she won’t be able to remove hairs from my mole unless I get a letter from a doctor approving it. I called and sent a message to my doctor asking for a letter, and her office called me back and said that my doctor refused as it’s against Kaiser policy.
Both your doctor and your electrolysist are playing “The I am not going to be lawfully liable game.” This is what Lawyers have done to the world.
Treating hair in moles usually causes the moles to reduce in size, or disappear entirely. There is a slight possibility that the mole is cancerous, and that the introduction of the treatment would cause the cancer to spread faster than it would otherwise. This is the one in a million probability that everyone is trying to avoid.
I can only say that if you work with your electrolysis provider long enough that she doesn’t believe that you are out to find an excuse to sue her to recover all the money you have spent with her, she may remove those mole hairs some day, if you let her know that you are also not adverse to the idea that the mole may lose both size and color as a result of the treatments.
Thanks for the explanation. I ended up calling different electrologists in my area and found one who does do moles because she’s from a medical background and feels comfortable telling healthy from cancerous moles.
I went in for a consult today and she had a hard time getting the hairs out. She tried to get two thick coarse black hairs out but finally said that she was afraid to zap them anymore and was just going to pull them out and see what was going on with them. A third was was finer and she said she got that one out successfully. She said there was some lymph fluid coming out from where she zapped the 2 thick hairs but said it won’t scar as long as I don’t pick at it.
I’m worried because from what she says, she seems knowledgable, but she’s old and her hands seem kind of shaky to me (when I was watching her work on my foot). And the only online review I found says that one of the two electrologists there left the reviewer with a bunch of scabs. Also, I’m getting my feet and nipples done there too since it seemed stupid to pay $20/10 min. just for my mole. On the test hairs she kept saying that they were old and would have fallen out in a few days. (It’s been 2-3 months since I last plucked/threaded). The earliest appointment I could make was this Saturday. Are these hairs too old to kill? She said that all the hairs she removed were permanently killed and would never come back.
Thanks so much for any advice. On the plus side, she said I would only have to come in every 6-8 weeks, so that saves money, although she said I would finish faster if I came in every month. Is that because hairs are more likely to be killed when they’re younger?
Oh and she also says that probes weren’t even required to be sterilized until recently because the electricity kills viruses (she provides disposible probes upon request).
ARE THERE OTHER ELECTROLOGISTS IN YOUR AREA?
Your last sentence scares me.
Shakey hands? Not good. Electrologists perform microsurgery.
No electrologist can say for sure that the hairs they treated in a session have been permanently eliminated. We see clues that this may be true, but only time will tell if all the hair germ cells have been affected.
For mole hair, I do need a prescription from my clients under Ohio law. It is not a problem to obtain one. I don’t know what Kaiser is thinking about or if what you were told is even the truth or just a blow off. I use Blend electrolysis for these deep, sturdy hairs, in most cases, and it works great, but recently have adopted a new thermolysis modality that works just as good (Synchro on the Apilus Platinum.
A modern electrologiost that continues her/his education is what you should seriously consider. Hopefully, you will find one.
Redundant Hint of the day: YOU MIGHT WANT TO CHECK OUT OTHER
ELECTROLOGISTS IN YOUR AREA.
Dee
Be SURE to to always request and WATCH her open the new needle, if you go back to her. She is wrong about the electricity killing germs. It’s hot, but it ain’t THAT hot!
It’s not even hot.
When you shoot the probe into the air, there is nothing heating up around it. Furthermore, even in the follicle, it is the surrounding tissue that is heating up, NOT the probe. Any heat the probe attains is from absorbed heat from the surrounding tissue, not the other way around.
This heat the probe absorbs is also happening and dissipating in fractions of a second. Sterilization requires more than an hour of sustained heat, unless added pressure and a vacuum seal is employed.
I always tell clients in my consultation that people who tell you to take your probe home and bring it back, or that they will set your probe aside and reuse it on you are just like you going to a restaurant and the waiter coming over at the end of your meal and saying, “Would you lick that spoon off really good for me? Now, you are the only one who has used this spoon, so I am going to put it in this zip lock bag, and next time when you come back, we will just open it up and you can use it again.”
Get the point.
Now don’t get me wrong, it is perfectly possible to resterilize probes that have been designed to be permanent. However, since you can’t see that process happening (as it takes a long time) use of disposable probes just leaves one less thing you have to trust your practitioner to do. IF YOU HAVE A RARE PRACTITIONER WHO USES PERMANENT PROBES AND RESTERILIZES THEM IN AN AUTOCLAVE OR DRY HEAT STERILIZER, THAT IS GREAT… if you are sure that you can trust that person not to cut corners.
I would recommend for you to check out 3-4 electrologists before you settle on any one. Hopefully you can find others to treat the mole since this one doesn’t sound amazing in terms of experience.
Do you know what machine she is using and what method of electrolysis? That’s important. Scabbing is not necessarily bad unless the scabs don’t fall off within a few days and they electrologist refuses to adjust the settings to try to minimize them next time.
Thanks everyone for your replies.
She uses a Clareblend, and does both blend and thermolysis. She tried both on me and asked which one hurt less, and I told her the 2nd one, but I don’t know which method that was.
I wish my regular electrologist would treat the mole since she is really good and fast. I guess I could ask her if she’s ever had a client who was able to get a letter from Kaiser to see if the whole “against policy” thing is true.
Also, my regular electrologist is a CPE, and this one is an “RE”–registered electrologist?
Blend is slower and you usually hold a metal rod.
I think she used blend then, and my regular electrologist must, too, because she always puts the rod on my neck.
Just a butt in time here: The rod, or more correctly called, the indifferent electrode, can also be placed in your hand if the electrologist is using the auto sensor function on her epilator ( meaning no footswitch). I’ll place my bet and say she was using blend??
I just noticed that I have blood colored scabs on my feet. Most are pin prick size, but one is much bigger. I guess the small ones are normal for work on the body?
Body work, especially body work on lower extremities, results in scabbing for most people. It will heal and fade away. Use a little dab of tree tea oil to the area. DO not worry, just take good care of it. Tell your electrologist.
I have see far less scabbing on the body since I switched to the Apilus PLatinum, but it still can occur and is really an expected temporary side effect.
Can you put the areas you are doing electrolysis on in your signature? Last I heard we were discussing moles, not feet. Are you a diabetic? Doing electrolysis on a diabetic’s feet is very risky.
Dee
Scabs and any signs of them should go away within a week. You should be using tea tree oil at night and witch hazel during the day to help them heal. If it lasts longer than a week, they need to adjust settings.
Are you doing electrolysis on your feet?
I wanted to, but so far I’ve just had the test patch done there. That’s where the scabs are from.
That’s good to know. Does it scar so much more because the pores on the body are smaller?
I’m not a diabetic, thank goodness, but it runs in my family.
Well, maybe. If the electrologist has trouble inserting properly and performs too many shallow insertions, then the area may scab. More likely, the area takes longer to heal because the circulation (blood flow) is not as good to the lower extremities as it is to the areas closer to the heart.
Thank you candela for that information in your signature. Saves us time so we can help answer your questions better along the way. Please keep it updated, 'kay?
Dee
Last session my electrologist read me a letter from the doctor of someone with another health plan that said something like, “I certify that so and so is fully aware of the risks involved in getting electrolysis performed on her mole”. However, I called member services today and asked about the possibility of getting that kind of letter and they confirmed that it’s against Kaiser policy because they don’t want to be liable for anything that could happen. So I guess the only thing to do would be to get the mole removed before I could treat the hairs, unless I find someone who’s willing to treat it without a letter.
What a bunch of crap. Let’s all applaud the legal system that has made this so and the institutions that roll over for such nonsense. If you get the mole removed, you will have a scar. Not worth it in order to get the hair removed. Can you go to the doctor who wrote the letter that the electrologist cited?
The truth is that in most cases, if you just get the hair removed, the mole shrinks, flattens, and or disappears.
Just because of the one in a million chance that the mole could be cancerous, all this garbage ensues.
All you really need is to either get a letter from a doctor who isn’t looking to charge you to take the mole off himself, or find an electrolysis provider who might be willing to just take out the hair with no more than a waiver signed by you.