really need your advice guys!!

Hiya,

OK so i just thought i would update my situation and ask you for some help!! As ive described already i have laser stimulated hair growth on my chin, extending to my cheeks and down my neck. I tried a few electrolysists out and thought i had found the perfect lady but now I am not so sure. Ive been travelling 3 hours every 2 weeks to see her, spending a fortune and ruining my weekends! Ive had 4 total clearences with her now, every time i go we totally clear all the hair. She is optimistic it will be gone for good soon. I used to think i was the hairiest woman alive but after doing some reading on here i am realising there are people worse off than me. To give you an idea of the amount of hair, it takes 45 minutes to totally remove all of it.
The problem i am having is my skin. At first i accepted there would be disturbance and i would have to cope with it whilst i sort this problem out. However after reading on this site i dont think my skin reaction is right and am considering changing electrolysists. My lady uses the apilus x500, i think thats what it said on it anyway! She uses insulated probes and has been an electro for 20 yrs. She specialises in hirsutism and seems very knowledgable and i belived her to be one of the best in the UK.

However after each treatment my skin is very red, by the time i have returned home i have the white crusts developing, pretty much everywhere. After a day or two these turns into scabs that look like pin prick marks. These take ages to go, in fact some of them have developed into tiny holes, little pits.

When i brought this up with my electrolysist she said due to the amount of work we are doing i have to expect skin reaction like this. She said it will all go eventurlly when we are done. However i know my own skin and feel this is not right. 45 minutes of treatment is not that long really, we only remove about 8 hairs from my cheeks and i have like 8 scabs there. It definatly does not go in a week.

What should i do? I thought she was the best i could find!

Leo mentioned a clinic in rotherham which has apilus so i may try there.

Do you think the skin damage will clear up?? do these marks and tiny holes tend to fill themselves in in a few months like she says? I have had so much bad lick with hair removal to last a lifetime, i dont want pitted skin and i am worried this is where i will end up. She seems so knowledgable though and actually thinks my skin healing is on track. Do you think i should change practitioners??

I am sorry for the long post but i need help and advice. I wish i lived near any of the professionals on here! Dee and James do you fancy a holiday in england? haha Newcastles nice!

Also to just add in terms of aftercare, i dont apply make up for at least 24 hrs, i use witch hazel and tee tree and i aviod touching the area.

I really am at my wits end with all of this, to have stimulated hair growth was bad enough but now my skin looks awful aswell and im still hairy… my mum reckons its time i got some couselling, i think she may be right. I struggling to mangage at work and my job is stressful enough as it is!!

any advice would be great

bec xxxxxxx

If you are seeing this kind of skin reaction I have three thoughts.

Tell her your concerns and ask her to make adjustments in the intensity and timing. Maybe she needs to re-evaluate her insertions, too. Letting the energy release too close to the surface is not desirable and she knows that I’m sure. I don’t think you can be her instructor, but I’m saying that a good electrologist would probably think along those lines if a complaint from a client was registered about skin reaction.

The tea tree oil may be too much for you. Why don’t you experiment and see what witch hazel and cold aloe vera gel alone will do for you? Eliminate the the tea tree oil for now. I really love this stuff, but there are a few people that react to it if they use too much of it for too long. You can also try putting the tea tree oil on and then applying a coat of aloe vera gel to dilute it a bit. Keep everything very clean while doing this. Wash your hands and NO double dipping. Use a cotton swab once and pitch it. Grab a new one to continue.

If her magnification set up is inferior, then she may not see the skin reaction as she works. Quality magnification allows the electrologist to see the slightest change on the surface of the skin as she works. If she see’s angry skin, then she can immediately change her settings.

thanks dee, I will talk to her about all of this and stop with the tee tree oil.

I guess im concerned that she doesnt seem concerned if you see what i mean!! I didnt think at the beginning of this process i had enough hair to cause lots of skin damage.

She says it will all heal up in the end but i really dont know if i believe her.

When i was trying out lots of different electrolysists my skin never reacted this badly. The reason i decided against the other places was because they were just beauty salons that tried to talk me into IPL and they didnt wear gloves and had old equipment. My electro was the only one i found to take a more medical approch to it, wearing gloves and using the magnification mirror and taking photos etc. However i am sure something is going wrong here, i think her settings ae to high, they must be! Do you think shes right dee, is my skin likely to settle back to normal in 3 months after we are finished?? I dont understand why this is happening to me. It seems people get hours of electro and come out with nice skin at the end of it all. I dont think i will be so lucky but i dont have a choice. I cant live with the hair and laser obviously isnt an option.

im sick of all this now guys x

hey bec,

i’m no expert but this doesn’t sit right with me at all.

even ignoring the little pits, the skin reaction does sound extreme. 45 mins of treatment isn’t really that long!

your aftercare and everything sounds find. there seem to be shortcomings on her side. from my own personal experience and the way my electrologist works, her reaction doesn’t sound right. she should be doing what she can to minimise skin reactions.

if you read Pokka’s thread. she had some pin prick scabbing after her consultation, which she emailed her electrologist about. you can read the reply too… i feel that’s the approach yours should have too.

it might be time to give your skin a rest and then try somewhere new…

Hi Bec,

I’m so sorry about all this, I know this must be very tough on you and must also be spilling over into other aspects of your life. I just want to offer some advice my mum gave me. No looking in the mirror all the time, just when you are washing your face or apply anything to your face. When you want to know how things are healing ask your mum to take a look. Take pictures for yourself. It’s sort of helped me accept the hair that is there, rather than just wishing it wasn’t there at all.

I know how hard it is firstly to trust someone to carry out hair removal and then find it made it all worse, then find someone who can actually remove it Permanently but makes it all look worse whilst trying to get rid of it all.

All I can suggest, go get a test patch done elsewhere if you haven’t been able to compare yet. I’m sure you can find someone who will hear you when you say you are not happy with your skin reaction and healing time.

I wish I had time to train as an electrologist- I’d set up a mobile electrologist office =)

hugs and best wishes,

pokka

p.s. I’m writing via my phone so sorry for any silly mistakes, I just had to write straight away

hey,

stop it and pokka thanks so much for your responses.

I agree with stop it, this does not seem right to me. I am going to give my skin a break for a while and look for a different electrolysis. My electrolysis basically said it will be fine in the end and continued to zap me like normal, i feel she should have said ok this isnt good, lets change the settings!

i really dont know where eles i can go though, will have to have a good look on the internet. I hope my skin recovers, i used to like the way i looked before this mess.

My mum says that aswell pokka, im banned from mirrors in my house!! and the mirror in the car is even worse, really trying to aviod looking at that.

Why does this process seem so difficult for us, england really needs better electroysists!

any suggestions where to go guys? i dont mind having to travel, i need to fix this problem so i am willing to travel to find someone good

bec xxx

hiya,

you’re definitely doing the right thing.

i have no idea about electrologists in and around Newcastle but I will say that if you don’t find anyone in the BIAE directory, search on the net.

the electrologist that Pokka has decided to undergo treatment with isn’t registered but it doesn’t mean that she’s not experienced or lacking skill. i found her clinic by searching for Apilus electrolysis.

i know it’s hard but don’t let it get you down. just stay positive. things are usually much worse in our heads than in reality. xxx

have you checked out this place:

http://www.helenlloydbeautytherapy.co.uk/electrolysis.html

on another website, they had ‘new apilus electrolysis’ noted in the salon details.

thanks stop it i will ring them for a consultation i think but i will wait for a few weeks and see what my skin decides to do.

can i ask you how successful has your electro been? Just looking at your signiture it says some areas are complete, thats great, can u give me some more details. How much hair was present, how many goes till it all went and hows your skin? Ive asked if electrolysis works a million times but when i have these set backs its very difficlut to believe.

Thank you for your support, at least one good thing has come from this experience, i seem to be making good friends here

xx

another point i just want to add if anyone is reading this…i dont want to seem i am posting things that arent balanced or that are misleading to everyone!

I was very unfortuante to have laser stimulated hair, i am aware that for some it may work wonders. The problem for me was that i really just didnt have enough of it to warrent taking a laser to my face. I should have just electroysist it then but i was uneducated about the methods.

Secondly i do believe electro will work eventurlly and i also believe that it does not cause scarring if done right. Its just that i am getting such poor results/ bad luck all the time.

I just wanted to add that in case for anyone coming across my thread.

bec

good plan :slight_smile:

well, as you can see i’ve not had a great deal of electrolysis. just 13 hours in 18 months. i just have too much hair to be able to afford or have the time to have it all removed. so i made the decision that i would just go for a reduction, starting with the bits that caused me the most issue.

so basically, my facial hair pattern is exactly the same as a male. i had fine black hair all over my face, including sideburns down to my jaw and hair all over my neck. when i was 19 i discovered bleaching. my face is light enough and the hair fine enough for it to look okay (peach fuzzish). however, my sideburns, being coarse were still a problem, as were the increasing coarse chin hairs etc.

last year, from april-november, i spent those 6 hours on the lower half of my sideburns and chin, only removing coarse hairs, long hairs and hairs that didn’t take to bleaching. i still have hair on the lower part of my sideburns but it is short, fine and the same as the hair on the rest of my cheeks. i don’t really have treatment in that area in particular anymore as my electrologist targets the cheek area in general.
even though i’m still working on my chin to further reduce the hair, i haven’t felt or seen a coarse or long hair since the beginning of the year.
around my eyebrow area is also considerably tidied up and i don’t have treatment there anymore either.

Also this area.
This area, still requires the touch up of a hair or two every few weeks but those hairs are much finer.

basically, the more time you can put in, the more hair you can get rid of. someone seeing me for the first time might think i’ve never had anything done as i still have plenty of hair. only myself and those close to me know the difference electrolysis has made. i went from always making sure my hair was covering the sides of my face so people couldn’t see sideburns, to being able to wear it back with confidence.

as for my skin. i only have temporary redness for less than an hour. from my skin, you could not imagine i was having anything done. i remember in one of my sessions with my electro she said “you have really nice, clear skin, so let’s keep it that way”. after having acne up to the age of 21/22 and the scars taking years to fade, that was the nicest compliment anyone could give to me!

sorry for the low resolution of these pics. you can’t see all the peach fuzz! but you can see the difference in two areas:
sideburns
eyebrows

Hi Bec,

I did some searching and found a directory listing clinics and salons in your area. Each one states what they offer. I had a glance through and found Tao clinic but there was no other info available; so only call will reveal more I’m afraid.

With regards to the calls, I found them very difficult. Try to ask the important questions first (write them down so you don’t get sidetracked, then if you’re not sure tell them you’ll think about when is best to book a consultation and call back. That way you do not commit without having a chance to process your thoughts. I had an unpleasant conversation with a lady who, really, even if I did go to see would have been very difficult for me to talk to as she spoke as if she only knew anything. I was lucky to have found this forum beforehand, so didn’t feel like her arrogance was due to the fact that she was an amazing electrologist but rather that she would not be right for me. LAgirl has a very useful link in her signature that can help you form the list of Q’s if you’d like to do this.

Take your time in making a decision in what to do next. I know sometimes I get overexcited or impatient and consider things that after thinking on it seem unnecessary. Like I really wanted to ask the electrologist I am seeing to get as much clearance as possible, just for an instant fix… after thinking, really nothing is ever instant, it’s only as instant as its effect. I knew my skin would react, no matter how cautious we were just because, well, I know my skin. I had a 40min session and some parts of the treated areas are still feeling sore after two days. Although I know this isn’t normal, my skin is also not normal :wink:

We’ll get there in the end, don’t worry :slight_smile:

Nightx

The Tao Clinic and the helenlloydbeautytherapy have the same address and phone number so I guess it was a change of salon name. The website is under the helen lloyd name, so I linked that :slight_smile:

Ah! Lol, good work!

you guys are amazing, thank you so much for your advice. I will wait for as long as I can stand the hairs and then contact the clinic. Stop it your progress looks great and so does your skin, im really pleased for you.

I will update you on my skin over the next few weeks or so but for now i will keep my fingers crossed. After hearing from you stop it i agree that this reaction is not right.

Pokka thanks for your advice and help. I hope your skin settles soon from your last appointment, keep me updated and if i can ever help you guys with anything just ask!!

bec xx

hey guys,

Just to update you all. I had my electro done at the clinic pokka and stop it found on the internet. The lady was lovely, kinda made light of my situation and assured me although i think its bad it isnt that bad!! I still think im the hairiest women in the world but im sure we all feel like this. I have a couple of questions for dee and james and everyone if thats ok?
This place uses the apilus xs500. Is this a good machine? It took thirty minutes to reach full clearance which isnt to bad. My skin went very red but this went down in about 3 hours. I have no scabs like previous treatment just red pin prick marks. I am right in thinking these should fade in a week or so if all has been done correctly?
Also do you guys have any idea how long this is gonna take?? I need 30 minutes and get full clearance every time. I’ve had about 6 total clearances now. What do you think? thanks for your help

bec