A reader sent these tips:
What I tried seemed to significantly reduce my post-surgical facial swelling, when I had my eyelids done. Now I realize it might also have helped me reduce electrolysis swelling and scarring too. It’s to prepare the face for what’s coming. What I did for the eye surgery was do vigorous massage of the eyelids and surrounding area twice a day for a couple weeks before the procedure. That was so the capillaries would be fully exercised, and I give them a break the day before so they’d be primed to go when the insult came. I had been prone to swelling on other things before, but for the upper eyelid surgery my swelling was quite minor and peaked in 24 hours rather than giving causing major swelling peaking in 48 hours as I was told to expect. That’s not a controlled scientific study, but I think worth others trying to see if it helps.
I think it should help to quicken recovery and reduce skin damage for electrolysis too. It might be hard to tell considering how much depends on the spacing of treated hairs and how intense the heat pulse is. Still, worth trying for anyone experiencing slow recovery (over 24 hours). I think that’s the sign that damage is being done.
Maybe the even more important thing for electrolysis is having the person doing the treatment understand that it doesn’t slow treatment much to do hairs consistently well spaced, and to not return to areas already done to risk double hits at the same spot. It saves the skin needless abuse, and beautiful lasting skin is more important than immediate appearances of progress.