I’m starting a new thread for my electrolysis progress because I think it might be easier to follow that way. Here is the link to my experiences so far:
Today is officially 5 days after my first thermolysis treatment with a great electrologist. My skin is almost back to normal. I had teeny little scabs that only I could feel and they are almost gone. I can feel some bumpiness, but with make-up it is not noticible at all. I have some new growth coming through that is making me crazy. My electrologist says the first few weeks are the toughest because your skin is not so great AND you still have hair growth. I am mentally prepared though and staying the course. And I have to say I am totally anal about the aftercare. I am very lucky that I don’t keep normal 9-5 hours and can be off work for 3 days after each treatment, allowing my skin to heal with tea tree oil and aloe vera gel and no make-up. I also want to recommend a fabu cleanser I found at Whole Foods: Home Health Facial Cleansing Gel-specially formulated for sensitive skin. It contains no soap or preservatives and there is aloe vera gel and tea tree oil in it! It’s awesome, I think it has helped a lot so I wanted to share that with everybody. I’ll post more after my treatment this Monday.
Had my second appt. today for about 40 min. She pretty much cleared the area and said that I should wait 2 weeks till my next appt. instead of only one. That will give my skin a good break and allow more hair to grow in. I am so relieved to have found this electrologist. She is awesome. I felt little pricks with each insertion, but absolutely no plucking. It was a little more painful this time even though the settings were the same (No, I did not drink caffeine, James!-I think it might be period related) For some reason, there always seens to be tons more hair on my left side then the right. I did the usual routine when I got home, ice & neosporin cream. Tonight I will apply tea tree oil and no make-up for 48 hours. I seem to be on the road to recovery, hair-wise and mentally. This has been quite a stressful journey.
I guess I don’t harp on mestruation as much as factors one can control, but, yes, most women are more sensitive, and experience more irritation during mensies. Although, I did have one upside down client who we came to find had the reverse situation, and so, we only worked her upper lip during her time of the month. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />
Everyone is different, and every thing that changes in your body effects this treatment experience. That is why your electrologist will end up sounding like your nagging mother telling you to drink more water, eat right, quit smoking, cut out the caffeine, rid your life of stress, get proper sleep, get married and make me some grandkids… Oh, perhaps, I have gone too far with that analogy. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
I’m having a hrad day with the situation. My skin is not healing as well this time. It’s not bad, but there are little dots that are driving me nuts. I wonder why, because the settings were the same. And, my next appt. isn’t for another week because my electrologist wanted to get more growth in between and give my skin a 2 week break. The few hairs that I have coming through (she was right-not enough for my nornal 30 min.) are driving me nuts too. She warned me about the first couple of times being hard becuase of skin disruptions and still more hair. I just wish this was over. I hope to post again with more positive news soon. I’m sorry, I just had to vent. I still believe I am doing the right thing and really trust my electrologist. . . it’s just that seeing it through is a process and I have already been through so much with the laser.
Stay on the train. This will get better. If you are post 24-48 hours after a treatment, you can then use some medicated makeup to hide those little dots until they finish healing, that is if they are still bothering you alot. All sounds like things are falling under acceptible guidelines for electrolysis healing, laserhater. Keep communicating with your electrologist when you feel discouraged or puzzled about this process. This is your last resort for permanent hair removal and it will happen for you if you see it through to the end and your electrologist is competent and careful, which it sounds like she is.
Today’s appointment was kind of rushed. There was too much hair growth to reach full clearance on both sides of my face. We have decided to only go one week in between treatments again. My skin was totally healed from the last appt. (2 weeks ago) but it was too much hair! Even though they are not coarse, they are brown and I hate them and want them gone for good. I am so determined to see this through. It is worth the pain to have the hair gone. Sometimes during the treatment if it hurts really bad I will think to myself this is my punishment for not accepting myself with the teeny sideburns I had before laser and not doing thorough enough research before I did laser to see that you could get bad results like mine on here. I hope that doesn’t make me sound psycho, I am just really down on myself for trusting the dermatology office I went to for laser. The possible risk of triggered adjacent growth should be on the release form!
I went to my ob/gyn today and brought along a copy of the post under pain relief by the person who said ultracet helped the pain during electrolysis. I explained to her the laser induced hair growth and brought the article from Skin & Allergy News documenting such. She said “Yeah, there are always those people who take tylenol and think they then GET a headache from it.” I was in shock! Sometimes I feel like I am living in a paralell hair universe!
Geez, that was an odd comment she made. Does she has an interest in laser by any chance? Okay, I’ve been sitting here tapping my fingers and I just can’t figure out what “living in a paralell hair universe” means. I’m clueless on a lot of things,but I’m really clueless on that one. What does it mean?
I’m more convinced than ever that doctor’s really don’t care about unwanted hair after that comment… and from a woman physician, too! So I assume she did not perscribe the ultracet? Please be very careful about taking medication’s that can impair you. Do you think your electrologist can adjust her settings or use a different modality to help you on the discomfort issues?
I just meant that sometimes people don’t understand hair issues and it’s very frustrating because I feel so isolated sometimes. Sorry I didn’t make sense! She did not prescribe ultracet, but lorcet. Looking back, I think she misunderstood me and thought I was in pain right now because of the red dots. It doesn’t make sense to take a narcotic instead of an anti-inflammatory before electrology, or does it? I don’t know, so I think I will just try a couple of motrin. I think I may ask her to turn it down a bit next time. I also had more hair this time, though. Thanks for your input Dee, you are awesome.
It is of some value to take an anti-inflammatory an hour before electrolysis to reduce the amount of swelling, if you are having any problem with swelling. Some have also reported good results with anti-histamines helping to reduce swelling after electrolysis as well.
As far as her comment, since LASER companies are advertising LASER hair growth processes, it is hard to argue that increased hair growth is one of the possible outcomes of the procedure.
I had a 30 min. appt. today. It was discouraging because of all the growth. I couldn’t get cleared. My electrologist was very surprised at how much was coming in. She said she did not expect to see this much. It is probably from the one time I got threaded about 6 weeks ago. Also, my skin is having a hard time clearing up from last week’s appt. so it was a one-two punch today. I did ask her to lower the settings a bit and she agreed and it was much more tolerable. She said the hairs look innocent because they are fine, but are surprisingly deep and strong with large roots. I wonder if this is typical with laser induced growth. So, another appt. down but it is taking me much longer to get on top of this than my electrologist and I had hoped. It just seems like everything is going worst case scenario. I will stick with it and just try to get through this rough patch. I can’t wait to turn the corner! I really trust my electrologist so now all I can do is stick to the plan.
Hey Everybody,
I am happy to report that my tretment yesterday went very well. We stuck with the lower setting and I hardly felt pain. It didn’t feel good, but it wasn’t unbearable. No plucking, and my skin reacted a lot less. She said there was much less hair this time! We are making progress! I am so happy. I think one of the reasons I get so upset sometimes is because I have been in the “permanent” hair removal process for almost 2 years. I think we are going to stick with the stainless needles. I asked her about the gold and she said the insertion was not the same but she would be happy to use and has some if I want them. I would rather go with what she is more comfortable with, especially now that I may have turned the corner. I have an appt. next week, so let’s see how much growth I have then. I’m afraid to get too happy because I don’t know what’s next. My skin looks a lot better this time.
I had an appointment yesterday for another 30 minutes. She tried an insulated needle this time and it didn’t do so well. She said she had to turn the current up too high for it to work as well as the regular stainless. It made my skin much puffier at the insertion sites. My skin looks very bumpy and red today. I had several people at work ask me about it and I had to say I had a reaction to microdermabrasion to cover up! I am tired of being on a roller coaster of emotions over this. I have an appt. next wed. and will post then. Hopefully, I will not have too much hair then.
I am a little curious as to why you are going for such short sessions, unless you are getting a full clearance each session? The sooner you get full clearance, the sooner the hair will be gone for good.
I am going every 2 weeks for a 2 hour session each time.
I apply Emla to my face beforehand, and take some tylenol 3’s for pain relief. Right now I am at over 100 hours of electrolysis, which came after 9 laser sessions. I found every week was too hard on my skin, and I like the 2 weeks for healing in between.
Your aftercare routine sounds very good.
Hopefully your electrolygist can find the right combination of needles and settings which work best on you. It sounds like they are still trying to figure that out.
I’m still thinking that it would be very nice if she could try a Ballet gold probe for you. Insulated probes are nice, but usually the intensity levels need to be adjusted downwards and insertion depth must deep at the bottom of the follicle. Gold probes leave the skin looking very calm after a treatment PROVIDED the correct levels of intensity and time are used. I’d be glad to mail you a gold probe so she could try it out, but I would need to know what size she uses. The probe should closely match the diameter of your hair. Private message me if your interested.
My electrologist seems to think that anything over 30 min. is too much for my skin. My cheeks are getting almost cleared in that amount of time. There are some hairs left, but it’s kind of hard to tell because my skin is tore up for a couple of days so I try to stay away from mirrors, especially up close, because I will just end up in a panic attack. Also, we haven’t even started on upper lip and she said she can do even less time per treatmenet there because reactions are so bad. I did specifically ask her about the ballet gold probe and she said the insertion was not the same and preferred stainless. I don’t care about pain. I just want the minimized skin reaction with lower settings so I don’t look like I’ve been in a catfight. Pain isn’t fun, but it’s just something I deal with to get to the finished product. It’s kind of like the 3 inch heels I insist on wearing-sometimes beauty is painful! Hahahahaha!
I actually find the insertion of a ballet gold probe much better. One prominent electrologist in the northeast call them “gliders” because the insertion into the follicle is so smooth and effortless. With that said, she (your electrologist) has to do what is comfortable and familiar for her.
Edited add on: I forgot to mention that some people are alergic to the nickel in the stainless steel probes and so there is another advantage to trying out the gold probes so you can compare. I mention this information and the above information to share something that may be helpful for you,laserhater and I hope this doesn’t cause problems between your and your practitioner.
I left a message for my electrologist today and am still waiting to hear back regarding the diameter of the probe. It sounds like the gold probes are the way to go for me. My face is soooo itchy today. This is a first for me in my healing experiences so far. The scabs are worse, that is my guess why. Those insulated probes did a number on me! I am going to put some aloe cortisone on it tonight. I really don’t want to scar. . . that is the only thing keeping me from clawing my face off right now.