I had my first full beard clearing back 3 weeks ago and am curious what other people’s reactions are to this and if mine are normal?
Was this by LHR?
I am assuming you are referring to an electrolysis session since you posted in the electrolysis forum?
If this is your face reaction after electrolysis, Hip! Hip! Hurray!
Looks normal. Looks fine! It is healing. For clearings, especially for thick beard hair, more energy needs to be used, so expect redness that lasts longer than if sporadic hairs or tiny hairs were treated.
What are you concerned about?
Thanks for the reply Dee,
No real direct concern other than the redness seems to not be going away as fast as I like. It is still a bit raised and looks like razor rash.
This being the first full clearing I wasn’t sure what to expect and just wanted to make sure everything was normal.
Thanks for the reassurance! 
I’m learning something new as well. I wasn’t aware that persistent redness for over 3 weeks on beard area is normal healing.
Fenix, it is all a matter of how many hairs, how close together, and how much treatment energy is needed to treat those hairs that dictates the post treatment situation.
In future, the post treatment healing would tend to be less and less time to normal, eventually getting to the point where it would only take hours to get back to normal, as the number of hairs, and the distance apart changes for the better.
Of course, there is a large span of what all qualifies as normal in this business.
I am starting to get seriously worried here, it has now been 4 weeks and I look the same as the pictures posted here. Will these red blotches hyperpigment? Needless to say I will avoid another treatments until this gets settled out or faded.
I avoided sun, used SPF60, tea tree oil as recommended. Any other recommendations here would be great.
I like aloe vera and/or aquaphor. Those worked well for me. If I remember correctly, my neck usually stayed red quite a bit longer than the rest of my face
Of pimples, scabs, redness, bumps, brown spots and other “thing-a-ma-jigs.” I see that, for clients, this discussion will go on in perpetuity.
The key questions should not be “what do I do to get rid of this ‘do-dad’ (?) … But what is the thing in the first place?
Once you understand what the thing actually is, I think your anxiety will subside and you might start “embracing” the healing process.
I’ve talked about these “manifestations” for the last couple years here on Hairtell, but we only get back to ground zero again: the belief that every “boo boo” is a result of “overtreatment” or something bad that happened.
Somehow, the rank-and-file zapperettes in the field aren’t doing a good job of explaining all this to clients; hence the eternal questions on this subject?
A PIMPLE? Before trying to get rid of the thing, or question what the electrologist did, could you perhaps ask what the thing is. Once you know what it is, your course of action is pretty simple.
I need to write something for clients that can be downloaded and handed out (by our reluctant zapperettes). I’ll get to it now that I’m beginning to learn (again) Illustrator (I only have another 800 pages to go!). This will be, of course, free and might actually be helpful.
Just remember: red and brown always goes away.
For example, electrologists should know, and be fully able to explain, when erythema subsides and angiogenesis “takes over,” AND on which skin-types this will be more noticeable. Sometimes the average electrologist gets just as panicked as the client. Why is this?
An explanation would only take a couple minutes and yet most patients have never heard about this. It makes my toupee fly off my head and stick to the ceiling! (It’s fun to watch too.)
Just posting a 5 week update. There has been little change but it appears a bit more brown now on my face where it was previously red, darker than the skin around it.
I don’t know if its the lighting in these newer pictures or not, but your skin looks redder and bumpier than the original postings. Are you putting anything on your face? Are you shaving everyday? Blade or electric?
Ok I figured I should reply on here with what has been going on. I was doing several things wrong and took advice from James Walker as well as Dee and things are much better now.
- I bought and started used an electric razor.
- I started taking vitamin C
- I stopped stressing over it knowing it would just take time to fade.
Switching to the electric razor I saw the redness disappear within 3 days. It was still a bit patchy but more brownish, within a week it started to fade, now a month later it is almost unnoticeable and I am positive that will fade within the next few weeks.
Being my first clearing I did so many things wrong to exacerbate the issue, I am glad this is behind me and am now looking to do a second clearing. This time with a little more experience and knowing what to expect.
Thank you to those who tried to ease my anxiety and give me advice.
With each clearing, there will be less hair to target and the hairs may not be so close together. That first four to six months is the hardest and then the skin calms down and subsequent sessions are much better.
Thanks for checking in. We really appreciate your follow up as it reassures so many silent onlookers who depend on other consumers giving feedback, with pictures.
Thought I would post the healing process so far. I am getting more work on my face but the neck is untouched and looking much better.
Looking better!