I am a 28 year old black male. My profession requires that I shave every other day and over the last couple years, I have developed razor bumps, ingrown hairs and subsequent scarring. I have tried different forms of shaving, different creams, and anti-bump medications with little to no results. I was wondering if electrolysis would be a viable option. My problem areas are the sides of my face, and my neck area underneath my chin. If I were to choose to try electrolysis, how many sessions should I anticipate enduring before the process would be complete? Are there any other alternatives that could rid me of razor bumps and ingrown hairs?
Welcome to hairtell and thanks for a great question.
Electrolysis will permanently remove any color of hair, any thickness of hair on any color of skin. Your case is probably more challenging, but it can be done, WITH A SKILLED ELECTROLOGIST, and they do exist! How many sessions depends on how much hair you have, but don’t expect this to be resolved in less than one year of well-spaced appointments.
There maybe hope for you with the use of a correct laser (Yag) and a skilled laserologist. Laser used in conjunction to certain topical medications can be very helpful, as I recall. You can get more information if you scroll to the forum here on hairtell dedicated to those with PFB. http://www.hairtell.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/postlist/Board/19/page/1
Also, go to www.pubmed.com and search for the latest research. Here’s an example of one abstract, but there are more: Laser-assisted hair removal for darker skin types - PubMed Dr.Elliot Battle is a known researcher and it would be good to do a search on him as well.
There is website for clients with darker skin issues that you may want to peruse. I’ll see if I can find that one and report back to you.
Here it is : http://darkskinlaser.com/forums/
Dee
What you could do is thin out the hairs with electrolysis and see if this is enough to stop the irritation after shaving. I did this for one customer (who originally wanted the whole lot done) which took about 80 hours total. I just removed the sideburns and thinned out the rest of the beard.
This is a good situation for laser hair removal with a YAG laser only, and an experienced technician. You can read the laser section of this forum to find out more.
Hey DJ, don’t shave. There’s plenty of products on the market for African American facial hair clearing. Aveeno alone makes a few. Using those will be a lot more immediately gratifying and useful than undergoing electrology or laser sessions.
Mantaray
Thanks so much for your responses.
If electrolysis works for my shoulders and arms, I may just get my neck done to sparse up my neck hair. If I wanted to shave with a razor, I could not shave more than 3 times a week ever. I don’t know what the deal is, but if I could just remove half of it, or ween it down in thickness on my neck only, that would work.
There is a place in Texas that does facial work, usually on transgendered people, but they give you lidocaine injections for the pain, and evidently can get a entire clearance in a weekend but it is pricey. You might want to check that out since you are a professional. I would imagine it’d be a pain in the ass to go back to work with irritation from the electrolysis. Depending on how dark your skin is, the irritation might not stand out as much.
I know how you feel about the facial hair thing. In one of my previous jobs I had to bring a Dr’s note stating I could not shave every day and when I finally did bring it in, they still thought I was lying! Try it, can’t hurt.
Chuck,
A suggestion for an epilator to just weaken hairs. Use a high power epilator such as an upper end Apilus machine. Use a very high power setting for an extremely short period. This causes only the immediate area of the hair next to the probe to generate heat. The hair will not completely die, but will grow back weaker and thinner. Any slower modes of electrolysis will tend to kill the hairs. It sounds as if you only want to kill like half a hair and let the other half live.