Nightmare ingrowns after electrolysis + Keratosis

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
#1

Hello! This is my first post on this forum (although have been reading HairTell posts for quite a few months!) so I apologize if I’m not posting at the right place or the right way!

Although I did find a lot of information on this site about my problem, I have a few questions that still need answering.

Background: 35 y.o. female, type II skin. Light brown hair, dark-blond to brown body hair, growing in all directions. Keratosis pilosis on arms and bum. Never been pregnant, not overweight, nothing similar to affect hormones. In recent years I’ve developed darker hairs and a male growing pattern (nipples, belly, legs and bum) after a medical error that, without getting into details, disturbed my hormones. I do not have PCOS. Still waiting for more tests but I think I’ve got my hormones under control naturally now. Boyfriend is relieved! haha!

Over the past few years I did:

-Laser (diode): Of course it failed, as I have light-ish hair and pale reddish skin, but 6 years ago I just trusted their recommendations blindly…

-IPL: 3 treatments and tech still could not see a single hair react. IPL had been recommended to me by a dermatologist - and she was supervising the work!

-Electrolysis: Several treatments and clearings over the course of 6 months. I had Thermolysis as tech said Blend would take forever on my legs to see a clearing and well, don’t think she was very patient anyway. Problem is, whenever I didn’t go every 2-3 weeks for touch ups (I was travelling a lot so not always possible) I would get an attack of ingrown hairs (hundreds at a time - and yes I’ve tried TendSkin and all these, exfoliants, moisturisers, etc.). I got scarring from treatment and from removing ingrowns. I had to stop as I moved to the UK a year ago. Since then, skin has recovered, but hairs are still there in similar quantity, and anything I do (shaving, etc.) now creates ingrown hairs like crazy. It seems hairs have gone slightly finer (not that much) and because of that cannot pierce the skin. Even electrolysis on my nipples/belly causes ingrowns now. I also have hairs on my bum (and yes, I sit on it quite a lot during the day for work!) that are beyond ingrown and just make a huge bump without anything I could pluck or even a pore I could “dig out”. I showed the doctor (some actually look like black/purple moles now, 5-6mm wide!) and he confirmed they were hairs, and said they would never come out?!???

So my questions are as follows:

  1. What type of electrolysis would have the best results to destroy fine hairs in the least number of treatments possible in order to avoid these ingrown “attacks”? I’m assuming that in this case it would be better to go slower and clear less area at once, but that the patches cleared would be cleared for good?

  2. What machine would be most appropriate, if any? Any ideas on what I should specify to my future electrologist in terms of settings, needles, etc?

  3. I’m assuming these black “moles” of ingrown hair (are those tombstones?) are caused by my fine ingrowns combined with keratosis pilosis on my bum. Anything that could zap them even faster/forever? Galvanic!?!??

  4. Will these ingrown hairs my doc said would be there forever, really be there forever? I don’t trust doctors anymore! It seems I can even feel the hair there and it’s swollen, but it’s been over a year now and nothing seems to want to come out.

  5. A few months back I stumbled on a clinic website mentioning an FDA approved topical product used in combination with laser hair removal or IPL that, once applied to the skin, darkened the hair pigment inside the skin to make it possible to zap light hair. Did I dream this, I can no longer find the link!? I cannot seem to find any reference to it anywhere, although the AAD.org mentions on their Laser Hair Removal page : “Lighter-colored hair is least responsive, but topical medications can be used in an effort to increase effectiveness.”

Any ideas are appreciated. I’ve spent thousands of dollars on hair removal, I haven’t worn a skirt or shorts in almost 7 years now, let alone this hair everywhere is seriously affecting my confidence and to a certain extent my relationship! I need to find a solution (that works!) and stick to it so I can hopefully spend a summer wearing something else than jeans!

Truly sorry, I tried to keep it short but obviously failed…!!! Thanking you in advance for any replies. If anyone happens to know a good electrologist in Exeter, Devon, please let me know!

#2

Is this the condition you are talking about?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002433/

Will comment on this: “Problem is, whenever I didn’t go every 2-3 weeks for touch ups (I was travelling a lot so not always possible) I would get an attack of ingrown hairs (hundreds at a time - and yes I’ve tried TendSkin and all these, exfoliants, moisturisers, etc.). I got scarring from treatment and from removing ingrowns.”

After a few months of electrolysis treatments, there should not be any ingrown hairs occurring. Ingrown hairs are usually from two things. Mechanical epilation (tweezing or waxing) or from improper electrolysis. Both of these occur because the hairs are broken off during extraction. Once I have begun treatments and am sure that a client is complying with instructions and I see an ingrown hair, then I am pretty sure that I caused it. That makes me evaluate what I’ve been doing so that it is avoided. Sometimes we break a hair off in the skin, but it shouldn’t be chronic. A third cause of ingrown hair would be when multiple hair follicles exist close together and then grow in unsynchronized cycles. Treating one of those hairs while another hair has not emerged could cause that smaller hair curl up under the healing skin. Most electrologists have seen this occur and a slight scraping of the skin with our tweezer/forceps will release these hair. If yours are deep, then you might have something else going on.

It is fairly difficult to cause visible scarring on the legs from electrolysis - but it could occur from digging the hairs out.

Regarding all the things you’ve tried, I wonder if a glycolic acid product might help. You might consider consulting with an esthetician about the bumps you are seeing and feeling. They may be able to relieve your ingrowns.

Permanent hair removal techniques and modalities are only as good as the technician performing them. Telling you a setting or a needle type would not be wise, because equipment varies so greatly.

#3

Thank you for your quick reply Barbara! I really appreciate.

Yes the condition is what you mentioned, keratosis pilaris. I used the wrong term, sorry. I’m getting confused in a few languages here :slight_smile:

I have watched my electrologist do her work and always noticed the hairs came out quite well, sometimes with a black end, or with the “bulb” (pardon my terminology). She always pulled gently on the hair, and if it didn’t come out she would zap it another time, although most of the time it came out easily the first time around. But that’s just my impression.

I do notice as you mention several hairs growing from the same pore. My hair is not dense but sometimes 2-3 hairs appear at the same spot if I let it grow. Maybe I’m a mutant :slight_smile: I guess it could be one cause…

The ingrowns are 50/50: some can be removed with a slight scraping as you say, but many are quite deep and require a bit more work, and obviously I can’t do it myself as it often happens behind the leg… I’m not that flexible yet! hehe… As for scarring, I do have reddish, rather “thin” skin so perhaps that’s why it shows more. So too thick for hairs perhaps, yet too thin and causing scars. Ugh!

Funny that you mention glycolic acid: I have tried many creams for the keratosis bumps (urea creams and anything else of the sort from the pharmacy) and what worked best was an AHA face cream “leftover” my mother gave me (a high end cosmetic brand) that I used for a week. I was overwhelmed by the results but at $90 for 50ml… not within my budget! I believe I have tried others following that experiment but without success (not sure which ones anymore, tried so many since I was 15 y.o.) but will have another go, perhaps with a more powerful one if I can find one here in the UK.

Will give the glycolic acid a try for a good week or two before starting more electrolysis. Might make it a bit easier. Will post here again with results, if ever that can help anyone else!

Thanks again!

#4

Ah, it seems that we have exactly the same problem! Mine hair after electrolysis became finer as well! I have a lot of ingrown hairs which I squeeze out with my nails because there are no other ways to take it out. I know that James offered to treat them with blend or galvanic. But I do not see how it is possible. To see a hint in which direction hair became ingrown, I need to piece a top layer of the skin, but then it means to put a current into open wound, I do think that it is extremely dangerous. Frankly I do not see any solution. Just pray that someday hairs will stop grow inside the skin!

#5

Blend has a good chance of straightening the follicle, thus ending the ingrown problem in many cases.

#6

Thanks for your replies.

Ekade: I will try to be positive :slight_smile: I do also have to “pinch” some hairs out as you mention. Feels almost like pinching a blackhead (I’ve never even had acne or blackheads in my life!), but there is always a long hair inside.

James: Thank you for the tip. I will try to insist on blend instead of thermolysis.

It has been a long time since my last treatment so hairs have grown back and I got rid of most ingrowns (except the massive ones), and as long as I don’t shave or do anything else to them, they appear less often (but I feel like a monkey). I will try to get blend where there are no ingrowns, and when there are I’m sure we’ll wait for it to be healed before zapping again…

I will try and keep you updated. I started applying Urea cream 10% again as I could not find any glycolic acid cream here in the UK at a decent price :frowning: I will get some in Canada when I go for the xmas holidays.

#7

bump

I’ve been looking online for information on ingrown hairs and electrolysis

so is this a permanent side effect?

i thought electrolysis could TREAT ingrown hairs, not CAUSE them!

1 Like
#8

I get some awful ingrown hairs with KP. Even with shaving! Maybe it makes it worse somehow? I’m not wise enough to know.

I just wanted to add a little something here, I recently got a few ingrown nasties after electrolysis under my chin/neck (not overly concerned about my treatment just yet, i’ve only had about 3x30 mins done but i might switch if this continues for more than a few months) and had another electrologist at the clinic check on my skin. (I do apologize if product recommendation is frowned upon here!) She gave me a tester for a product called ‘Tend skin’ and it has been FANTASTIC for me so far. It sorted out the issue near completely for me.I don’t know if it would be ideal for large areas or particularly sensitive skin, but it’s just an idea that worked for me in particular.
I noticed from your other thread that this was a real issue for you, LDLD. I hope everything works out!

#9

this is odd

thanks for the response Dragons

but I find it strange that no one on the forum has had ingrowns treated with electrolysis

#10

Probably. But i am not sure. Similarly to Barbara i account ingrowns to a failure in my treatment and try to improve what i am doing. Which in most cases means optimising the position in order to ease insertions. In my beginnings i produced ingrowns mostly in the throat / neck area of facial treatments which is not always easy to reach. Two clients were there were “more than a few” but never “hundreds” and usually just occasionally one or the other. Both sessions in positions where the hairs were really hard to reach and i was not consequent enough to find the optimal treatment position.

Well, in order to avoid permanent or long lasting scarring i digged out the ingrowns only when they were not too deep.
I did not notice that ingrowns would return after a thorough treatment of these spots - the problem went away with successful epilation of such a hair.

i thought electrolysis could TREAT ingrown hairs, not CAUSE them!

correct electrolysis will treat ingrowns. But if done incorrectly chances are good that ingrowns will occur. These usually can be safely corrected by thorough epilation.

If an Electrologist caused “hundreds” of ingrowns it might be an option to look for a better one. “Hundreds” of ingrowns may not occur and usually won’t.

#11

Like Beate’s response.

#12

Electrolysis can treat ingrown hairs effectively and brilliantly well. Yes, yes, yes, yes it can. Accurate insertions must be made. The right amount of energy must be used. It’s just that simple.