Red Spots after Electrolysis

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
#1

Hi hairtell
I am a worried sister. My sister went for electrolysis starting a few months ago to an individual who recommended a lot of treatments. She feels he is good and pleasant but I am worried. I do not know if she got electrolysis or blend. Her skin was hyperpigmented before because of tweezing and waxing but never this bad. She has bled and scabbed often during treatment. She was recommended treatment multiple times a week in some instances from 1 - 2 hours. Her electrologist and doctor said she could keep using benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid during treatment. She was prescribed a retinoid but she was worried it would be too harsh. I am worried that her skin has been through too much regardless. She has decided to take a break from treatment right now. I had asked to take pictures of her face throughout as a diary as I was noticing changes early on.

Here they are

  1. Sometime in March. Early days of treatment. Hyperpigmentation present but not as marked.
  2. After a session with bleeding. She was quite swollen after.
  3. After taking a break from electrolysis. Skin seems to have rebounded but still worse than Pic 1. She got a treatment the next day.
  4. 1 week break (now). Only shaving no tweezing. Skin looks more irritated despite mositurizing

Her electrologist just tells her to keep coming in but again… I am just worried she won’t heal and worried at the change. I am a nurse myself and very careful with skin so this has me a bit scared. Help welcome. Please be kind. I asked her to post here herself but she has been reading the threads for a long time and was scared that people would just blame her. She has done everything she can and was following the advice of the person caring for her skin.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7n31rr_jSwMYTFaOTdKZkNHVW8/view?usp=drivesdk
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7n31rr_jSwMV01MdjdaN2YxVVE/view?usp=drivesdk
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7n31rr_jSwMWENQcEh4U25DdVE/view?usp=drivesdk
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7n31rr_jSwMQUl3ZzVVQW1HdUk/view?usp=drivesdk

#2

Have also looked at the pictures in depth and noted that the darkest ones are the ones where there is hair growing back in the follicles. That being said looking at the pictures where she is bleeding and cannot go to class or her part-time job because her face looks so red or so bloody or so scabbed, it isn’t any better.

#3

The photo a week after a treatment shows what is going on:

the actual target of electrolysis is below the skin. It is there where the tissue is destroyed (that’s just another word for “hair has been killed”), and of course the treatment leaves a wound in the place of the former hair. Inevitably - that’s again just another, more drastic, wording for “the follicle has been destroyed”.

And what You see and show us is just the wound healing process. The scabbing mainly occurs a few mm below the skin, and it will come out from there when the skin recovers. The scabbing is just the rest of the treatment - dead material which remains there because we just take the hair out and do not even try the remainders of its surrounding.

The scabs are narrow - that’s good. And the red surrounding is just a sign of the ongoing healing process: the body needs to transport material to build up new skin in order to fill the gap left by the hair. That means increased blood flow near the wound which is visible from the outside as redness and also as swelling.

Again: that surrounding is our main target - it contains the stem cells which need to be destroyed to disable the hair. Not the hair itself: a hair is nothing but a string of accumulated dead ceratinized cells. For us just a marker for its hair producing surrounding.

BTW: hyperpigmentation is also a normal effect during wound healing. It will take its time to fade away, but it will do.

Nothing to worry about, IMHO.

#4

Beate is 100% spot on.

It’s always predictably amusing the way clients describe their post-treatment condition: you would think they were mortally wounded. The photos show the real, and normal, situation.

I just spent the last few days caring for a post-surgery (face lift) patient. Everything went well, but the patient was freaked out because of the swelling and bruising. The patient wanted to know if all the bruising and swelling would be gone IN TWO DAYS!

The patient had a “z-plasty” (muscular neck lift), liposuction for facial fat, and full face lift (with extensive “fat pad” re-positioning) … Now seriously, to expect to be out “dancing” in two days is a bit much!

In my own practice, I’m brutal when I explain what the client will look like after electrolysis. I use the terms “horror story” and “a total mess.” Thus they expect the worst and are pleasantly happy when they look “just fine!” I exceed their expectations and never use “soft soap.”

Somehow clients are greatly comforted when you can totally predict what they are going to experience the first day, the next day, the next week … and so on. If electrologists did this, we would have very few “panicking” clients on Hairtell. Just be straight with your clients.

#5

Additionally, if I get to speak to the patient before facial surgery, I tell them they will look like they were in a car accident, and their face hit the windshield. (Actually, they look much worse.) No matter what … they are always freaked out because they look like monsters right after surgery.

What I mostly do, as I look for hematomas, etc., is calm their nerves and reassure them … and then an occasional “Ativan” or “Valium,” if I can’t stand listening to them … he he he

“better living through drugs!”

#6

I’d like to add my two cent here, treatment looks spot on to me. Absolutely nothing to worry about. The healing process of the skin is going to leave your sister with a beautiful result.

Michael has held out on the healing skin video series he has on his channel, which is a perfectly applicable resource to be suggested to you, so here it is:

Seeing the amount of regrowth on your sisters chin, and knowing tat is only in a week tells me that in all likelyhood your sister was a plucking case. That being the situation, as an electrologist I would recommend frequent treatments as well. Over time, the skin will not react as harshly to the treatment. The electrologist is using “Enough energy in the right places to get the job done” as beate described. Too often we hear of electrologists using too little energy and plucking, its nice to see results where its done exactly right.

Seana

#7

Thank you to everybody so much <33 the explanations are very helpful as I am sure you can imagine it is scary to be on this end. I have attached two other pictures of things that happened.

Picture 5 is a cut that was made on her skin. She was told that there may be a trapped hair and it ended up being a red inflamed painful 1 cm wound. Luckily it healed well because I helped with wound care but if I am not around, again, I don’t want her to go through that alone. It was one cm long, 0.3 cm wide and right beside her nose.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7n31rr_jSwMNndMXzZiRGNhSEE/view?usp=drivesdk

The other one is an infected spot. This was also 1 cm, hard and firm. I had to help her get it to drain. Was worried she would have an abscess because this was under her neck and the lymph nodes beside were so swollen. Eventfully did heal up with antibiotic dressings and benzoyl peroxide. The person who did the treatment had exposed some skin and given her a vaseline cream with some added materials in for healing and she had a horrible reaction and got more infected spots like this everywhere she had treatment. Most certainly not a pimple because again the mass was so firm and I could clearly feel lymph node underneath. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7n31rr_jSwMcWZnVHdBeGdUZkE/view?usp=drivesdk

My other question is also with response to regrowth. The hair she has in Picture 4 is 1 week post treatment but she literally shaved that morning and had the fuzz grow back. Now I know electrolysis for this type of hair can take tons of time because the hair is so coarse and hard to treat. I am not surprised it takes so long, I just don’t understand / agree with some of the infection control and aggressive picking that has happened in the past seen in the pictures I attached to this post. If you guys think the earlier treatments looked good, that is super reassuring! I see what you mean - it seems the hair is really what is contributing to the hyperpigmentation and generally the skin heals wonderfully. However I find that’s usually corresponding to appts where our mom or a friend goes in as well, and they advocate for keeping the skin intact and prepping her skin before etc. Without their insistence every time, this does not happen and some pain has come about. Hen we have tried to speak to the electrologist to implement this full time, there is resistance. It’s hard to understand why somebody won’t use good infection control measures or will hear the skin. In everything I’ve read here, those are the warning signs, as well as a sense of blaming the client. We have thought about getting a different person when she moves in a few months but am not sure what to do in the meantime for the hair. Should we just shave and use makeup for coverage since removing hair at the root could just aggravate the hyperpigmentation?

#8

And again I am not sure the man is a bad guy, he just seems very strong minded on some things and unwilling to listen unless my mom or my sister’s friends are there at the appts

#9

As I’m reading this, I don’t know what has caused the cut and the pimple. Suffice that to say, it will heal in time. If you are doubtful and not happy with the services provided by this practitioner, then stop and move on, when you can. I would give him feedback, regardless of whether he is defensive or whatever. I think it helpful for most practitioners get feedback, in a polite, helpful approach, of course.

What to do about the hair until a better situation comes along? Most females don’t like to shave, so the options for disguising the hair are limited, if the goal is not to pull the hair out. So, that leaves clipping with cuticle scissors or depilatories that “melt” the hair away on the surface. I would choose clipping. If you do want to shave though, I would use a battery powered or rechargerable feminine electric shave that works good for thinner hairs.