I went in for my first treatment yesterday - June 21, 2008. I had my upper lip treated for 10 minutes. The hairs there are fine but visible and many. I used to bleach that area every two weeks. She used thermolysis on me with a Fischer machine on a high setting. I was surprised at how quickly the lady worked. She must have removed about 80 hairs. I felt pulling of the hairs only a few times, otherwise they came out easily. The lady who worked on me also said she had a hard time seeing the direction of hair growth as the hairs were bleached and asked that I no longer bleach. The swelling and redness went away after about 4 hours. I am very happy about that as it looks like I had nothing done there (in a good way I am applying tea tree oil to the area until I buy witch hazel.
I am a little concerned about a small mole above my upper lip (1.5-2 mm diameter). The lady who worked on me refuses to work anywhere close to it. I spoke to the owner of the place and she said she is willing to work more closely to that area and actually go into it with a doctor’s note (the other woman said she would never go into the mole itself). I will probably book an appointment with the owner next time instead.
Is there any risk of going into the mole? At the consultation I was told that some moles are cancerous and a doctor could tell if it is or isn’t just by looking at it… (no tests)
P.S. Kindest regards to rachelle for the reference
It is always a good idea to keep an eye on moles. Most electrologists will want a note from a physician to make sure that the mole is being looked at for any changes. There should be no risks in treating the mole - as the hair can be an irritant to the mole tissues.
Regarding that bleaching - it can help the electrologist if the hair has grown out slightly after being bleached. The electrologist can then identify the growing hairs on the skin because they have a dark root. If you’d just bleached - well then I certainly understand the electrologists request!!!
Electrologists are in a good position to see moles up close. I always require a doctor’s prescription before working on a mole. Removing the coarse hair from a mole is very satisfying because the bump of a mole will almost always lay flat to the skin after the hair is removed permanently and thus look less obvious. Treating moles are not risky, but initially, a mole should be evaluated by a physician.
I am still very worried about a client who has three moles on the back that have irregular borders, mixed with different colors. I have frimly advised this client to see a dermatologist asap, but have not had any feedback. Electrologists should always observe moles and not hesitate to advise clients to seek a medical evaluation when something looks funky.
I like bleached hair, too. It is easy to see if one has good magnification and halogen lighting.
Thanks for your feedback. During the consulation, the owner of the place advised me that the mole doesn’t look like it’s anything out of the ordinary; but she still requested that I get a note from my physician. I am mostly concerned with the hairs growing close to it (which are not course). Hopefully she can work close to it without feeling uncomfortable. I will make an appointment with my GP in order to get a note in a month or so.
Also, I did bleach a day before I went for the treatment as I didn’t want to expose my skin to those chemicals once the treatment started.
Dee: Do you utilize a camera at work? You might take a digital photo of the moles to show this client. I had a client with a bumpy growth in her scalp. She could feel it, but couldn’t see it. I took a picture and showed it to her - she called the dermatologist on her way out of the office. It was not a skin cancer, but it was removed immediately! (Test: http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u276/Greathouse2201/VMScalp.jpg)
Good idea Barbara. I do have a camera at work and will do this in the future. I think a picture would have helped as I he didn’t seem too concerned. He loves the sun. He’s young and very busy with work. I’m fearful that he won’t follow-up on this. He has moved to another state, so I won’t be seeing too much of him, unless he comes when he visits his family.
Day two post first treatment - some red dots have shown up above my lip (It was just a little bumpy before with no redness). I believe this is just the normal healing process.
I had my second appointment on June 26, 2008 (5 days after my first). It was for another 10 minutes even though I was hopig she would do 15 this time. The lady said she felt sorry for me as my lip was very red and swollen and she wanted to stop. I had also not taken any tylenol prior to going for the appointments (I learned my lesson). For some reason it seemed to hurt more this time and I felt more pulling as well. I think she was having a hard time seeing the hairs as they have been bleached a week before. I think I will not bleach anymore and just go for the appointments on weekly basis.
So it’s now one day after treatment and my lip is still swollen and there are red bumps (unlike the first appointment where everything had gone down after 4 hours).
I think at this pace I will be able to get first full clearance in 4 more appointments. The hairs that are left above my lip are mostly short and thin - although I still want those gone as well (I think she picked out the longer and thicker ones first). She was also very gentle on the lip area just under the nose as she says that’s the most painful. She only removed a few hairs from there.
I have booked another appointment 7 days from now with another lady from the same place (she is the owner).
Added some pictures. This is the 4th day after 2nd treatment of 10 minutes with electrolysis on Fischer machine on high setting.
Some of the bleached hairs didn’t show up on the image. But this one is a better quality than the one I posted last time (I finally found the close up setting on my digital camera).
It’s been 7 days since my second treatment and most of the scabs have gone away. It’s just a bit red in spots. I am worried though because they are a few pits (about 4-5) above the lips where she has made insertions. I don’t remember whether I heard fizzling during those particular ones. Has anyone has this experience before? Will the pits go away?
I had my third treatment today with a different lady. Since the redness has not gone away since my last treatment she asked me how long ago I had my last appointment (I said a week - 7 days). This treatment was much more tolerable than the last one. She worked on me for 10 minutes. Since I booked a 15 minute appointment I asked her whether she could work on me for 5 more minutes but she said all the other hairs were fine and she didn’t want to touch them. During the treatment I told her that the lady who worked on me last (on the same machine - Fischer) used a high setting. She told me she was using advaned setting on me. She said the machine has advanced, medium and high; but since the hairs were sliding out ok at advanced she thinks it would be alright to use this setting. If some hairs were more stubborn it would be increased to medium for those.
Now my question is: if a lower setting is used does that effect the quality of the treatment? During treatment I felt most of the hairs slide out without being plucked (there were a few that felt a little plucked). One strage thing I noticed is some feeling of being pricked with the needle. I guess it was just her making the insertions with a fine needle.
I had my 4th appointment today (7 days after my last one) with the 3rd electrologist at the same place. Even though I prefer electrologist #2 and #3, I think I might give #1 another try. She worked on me during my first and second visit when I had more hairs on the upper lip (and bleached), so she might have had a harder time getting perfect insertions and using a higher setting.
Today I asked the lady to use average or medium setting on my upper lip. She tried average but the hairs weren’t releasing so she went with medium. I still think that’s better than high because the insertions from 2 weeks ago on high (by electrologist #1) are still slightly red and I don’t want skin damage from too high of a setting. There are also small pits where those insertions were made. I am hoping they will heal with time.
Anyways, the appointment was for 10 minutes again and she mostly cleaned up the darker new hairs and longer bleached hairs that were missed during the last treatment. I have stopped bleaching and haven’t bleached for 4 weeks now (I used to do it every week or 2). So I am much happier now that I don’t have to be so self conscious.
Also, I don’t know if it’s worthwhile to keep posting pictures on here as the area would probably look roughly the same each week.
Thanks to everyone again for maintaining such a wonderful site.
I use witch hazel about 4-5 times a day to keep the area clean. If that’s not available I use polysporn. I also use cortate cream to reduce the redness on the first and second day after treatment. I generally book the appointments 7 days apart and the hairs that are now being treated are scattered so I don’t think any particular area is being overheated.
Although, I think the treatment that gave me the problem was the second one because a lot of hairs were removed from the same area on a high setting (I think medium would have worked fine as it is working fine for me now). After the second treatment my upper lip was slightly swollen for 2 days. I will see how it heals after the 4th treatment of scattered hairs on a medium setting.
I had my 5th treatment today. The lady used an average setting on me on a Fischer machine. The redness was gone within two days.
I am very concerned about pits forming on my upper lip. It seems that my first two treatments on high setting may have been the cause. The insertion points are still slightly red (this is 4 weeks after!)I am thinking of stopping elecrolysis altogether. I hope these pits will go away :S I’m so afraid right now that they will stay. Do these pits generally fill over with time? What are the signs that they will become permenant skin damage?
Is this the first practitioner you saw or did you get other consultations. These kinds of problems are reported if any epilator is used with lack of skill, but more so, if the top of the line epilators are used with skill and diligence, you would not be here complaining about your treatment.
Redness, beyond what’s normal is caused by excessive blood circulating in the injured area due to blood vessels that are dilated. Pitting is caused by overtreatment or infection. Let this heal before having another treatment. Healing depends on your aftercare and the health and healing powers of your body. Permanent skin damage? I would say the chances are slim to none. It will take weeks to heal, so don’t assault this area again. Repeated overtreatment is what you want to be concerned about and it doesn’t sound like you have been repeatedly overtreated for months and months.
I will stress with passion as I always do: TELL YOUR ELECTROLOGIST ABOUT YOUR CONCERNS. Tell her you want her to see what happened to you after she worked on you. She should make time to see you. Either she will be defensive or she will learn from this and not repeat this kind of treatment on anyone. We all say we want to help people in this life, well, this is a special way you can HELP a business person become a better business person. Let her know that this is not acceptable and then be ready to move on to another electrologist if she is defensive and dismissive, that is, if you are blessed to have another electrologist in your locale.
It is okay to come here and complain or vent about what worries you, but what really matters is settling this between the two of you.
Here are the pictures. As you can see the pitting got progressively worse (especially on my right side - the last picture). All these pits were caused by my first two appointments during mid and end of June 2008. And from far away they still appear red. I think i will just stop the treatment for a month or two to see if they go away… I just really hope they aren’t permanent. Any advise?
I am applying tea tree oil to the area until I buy witch hazel.
