I had thermolysis done on my lower back exactly a month ago. I had extreme redness, pustule formation, and pin point scabbing. Although most of those side effects have subsided, the area is still quite pink and now new pustules are forming. Have I encountered an infection? These started popping up over a week after the initial pustules had completely resolved. And apart from the pustules, why is the area still pink a MONTH after treatment? Were the settings too high? I’m so distraught. This is not the first time I have gone to get a treatment done to overcome an insecurity, only to have the situation worsened.
The fault is perhaps with your electrologist who is not telling you explicitly what post-treatment electrolysis (a wound) looks like. The 30-day pustules are not pustules, but remnants of dead follicles emerging from the skin: normal and a good thing. Being pink means there is fresh blood in the area that is healing the skin: normal and a good thing. Your “insecurity” is unnecessary.
All of my clients go through many post-treatment manifestations without any insecurity, nail-biting or the need to ask strangers on a website. I predict the skin’s healing appearance before it takes place so patients expect and welcome normal healing.
Indeed, nearly all the comments, here on Hairtell, deal with clients and some sort of post-treatment “boo-boo.” I seriously wonder what is being told to these patients? Then again, in rare cases, there is simply no way to mollify the innate fears of a client: usually the PIH client.
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What’s being told to clients? Have you seen the generic post treatment care cards that tell clients to expect 10-14 days of redness and then everything will heal? When redness, scabbing, PIH, soreness persists for weeks and months, panic sets in.
I have not seen these generic cards …
My own approach is to paint a much more dismal picture of what could happen (and never does). I don’t think we should stress the down-side; but should also not make clients think this is a simple La-de-da process.
I seriously don’t know how electrologists can perform work on very sensitive areas without talking about the potential negative, albeit temporary, effects.
The amount of questioning and stress expressed on this site is proof to me that not enough “real talk” is being done. I find it extremely difficult to continually answer the same questions over-and-over … when the therapist herself should be dealing with her own patients in a matter-of-fact way. I simply don’t get it!
I agree y’all to your therapist so they can alter the settings amd try to mak this experience better. Honestly, though, you get to be potentially hair free with no regrowth if all goes well. Slap some body make up on and go:)
The therapists themselves do not want to answer these questions either. They express it to be like a harassment. They want you to pay them and go home and deal with all the surprise manifestations that occur on our own. They don’t want phone calls or texts. They don’t want you to call them period. It’s a mess for clients. Forums like this are what help us deal with these nightmare skin changes. People want to be hair free but they don’t want to be scarred or walk around looking like a freak of nature. If there is a way to avoid that then we want to know what to do. Also on every single website and with every electrologist I’ve spoken to each one said you never get scabbing on the face, only the body. I got Electrolysis done from 5 different practitioners and each one caused scabbing allllllll over my face. There are so many bad sources out there. It’s nice to have a place to get our questions answered and not be told lies. Hope you understand this side of the table.
What a minefield of statements!
You cannot sensibly castigate “all therapists” because you have not seen “all therapists.” There is no, “They ALL …”
What I will reluctantly corroborate is the lack of understanding, and thus poor pre-treatment instructions, therapists sometimes exhibit … much to the psychological detriment of their client. Unlike those non-communicative therapists you have encountered, most clients are fully informed of everything: good, bad and ugly. Bottom line, some therapists get just as “freaked out” as you do … it’s all about THEIR lack of understanding (and shitty education).
In many areas of the world, electrologists are ostensibly “glorified beauticians.” Furthermore, a good percentage of electrologists don’t want to discuss “skin damage” and approach the subject with more terror than their clients. Electrology is, in many regions, a fear-based profession.
What I’ve discovered 100% is that if the client fully expects something to happen … they have no “angst” about what we have stated WILL HAPPEN! If, however, they “go nuts on me” (very rare), I won’t continue working with them … it’s just that simple. They don’t want to suffer … and neither do I! I will not take a “you are going to make my life miserable” client. Mercifully, very rare.
Some time ago we had a “French Son-of-a-B…” that had perfect treatment but decided to excoriate one of our best practitioners to the MAX! Nobody needs that sort of whack-job “mental” treatment. We remove hairs, not mental illness. Our favorite electrologist is still suffering from this hideous encounter!
Face scabbing is a perpetually annoying issue for me. Electrologists often feed-into the client’s anxiety about “face damage” (always called “SCARS”), and consequently under-treat large hairs (think beard) on the face. The “save the skin” mantra can equate to years of endless “professional plucking.” And it does! At issue is the SIZE of the offending hairs and the SIZE of the aberrant scab. If you have gigantic beard hairs, you should expect some transient scabbing and post treatment signs of healing.
An experienced electrologist can look at post-treatment marks and tell you unequivocally if there is no problem. Actually, there is no guesswork. If you went to “5 different practitioners and each one caused scabbing alllllll [sic] over my face” it’s probably something you should expect: SCABBING. Five out of five is a pretty good average. Sounds like you have big fat hairs … and I’m going to cause scabs on you too! You need to “get over it.” It’s not a “nightmare” it’s normal healing!
Reading omnipresent client’s posts on Hairtell, I think they want the impossible: immediate results, no pain, and no marks of any kind. I’d like that too … but it’s not possible, and they have to start looking at treatments with realistic eyes.
Michael has provided a lot of good information here, but I would also like to add one more aspect.
For every client I have ( andI think this is true for most electrologists) I do a consultation. I do my utmost best during this time ( I use an hour for consult, and often it isnt enough!) that I provide free of aany charge, to convey concepts about the process, how long how many treatments and of what length , I cover hair cycles, I cover infection control, answer questions the client might have. In 99% of the cases, my efforts are wasted. Why? because clients absorb what they want to. I nd I know many others, end up re-explaining these concepts for MONTHS on end. People do not absorbb the information, and fall right back on their anxieties and insecurities, no matter how many times we go to great lengths to explain these concepts.
I consider myself fairly good explaining concepts. At this point my consults are pretty scripted. But people still dont hear what we say, and take only the bits and pieces they find relevant away. Michael is a prolific poster here, and was once a math teacher,that’s right, he is an EXPERT at teaching these concepts . But he would be the first to tell you, often he is wasting his time. It’s not that we dont communicate the information, its that the information is not absorbed by the consumer.
Now I will say, yes, I know of some electrologists who dont have the talent that Michael has, and some whom dont do a consultation at all. While the criticism that " those big meanie electrologists are holding out on the truly important bits" does have some credibility in some cases, they are by far the minority. Almost every electrologist I know goes OUT OF THEIR WAY to communicate everything they can about the process.
Seana
As my nephew calls me … “an asshole” … I have to chime in; this time on behalf of our clients?
See, right now, I’m going through three eye surgeries (had the first one on Monday). I complain that the surgeon didn’t explain it all to me … the bastard! Then again, I was sure to bring my nephew, Eric, with me for all my consultations (in case I missed something).
Eric told me that indeed, the surgeon did explain “this or that” to me, but my “freaked out” brain didn’t suck up the information.
A few things they didn’t explain, but being in the “patient’s shoes” sort of wipes out the ability to focus and remember. Still, the surgeons are bastards anyway! tee hee!
I always do a consultation to all my clients/patients.
I have learned from being a surgical dental assistant that indeed during a consultation people get bombarded with information, nerves can be a little edgy and they forget what they were told. NORMAL!
I give each client a consultation sheet that has point form info on the important consultation points. The next time they come in for a treatment, as I work on them I reiterate what I told them in the consultation. It works!
awesome tip!
He was a math teacher? I thought he just taught history and special ed.
Yes, I taught history and special education (at separate times). I’m thinking (mind you) of doing a little stint at our local community college (Political Science) since a few students have suggested I do that in my “twilight years.”
Sorry apparently it was history not math.
Hello! Sorry to jump on this post but this is exactly what I’ve got too. 30 day “pustules” - I’ve washed my face and the white head part came away and it oozed with yellow liquid and fresh blood. Is this okay? I wish my provider warned me about all of this!!
Without seeing the lesions, I cannot speculate.
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