Whats up with these "stuck" little bits of hair?

Hair Removal Methods Do-It-Yourself Electrolysis
#1

So I’m trying to figure this out, and the reasoning is totally escaping me. I’m hoping one of the pro’s will step in with an explanation
Ordinarily I avoid shaving. In the last six months I have shaved maybe a half dozen times, and then it’s usually a small part of my face I’m fed up with and wanting a fresh start. But in the last couple months, I have a few times. This may be related to my issue.

I started electrolysis last spring. Right up until january, I never noticed what I am about to descibe. In late january, 2 things of note happened.
a) I shaved my entire face, once. I’ve shaved my lip and chin a few times since then, but very rarely.
b) I tried my hand very briefly at thermolysis, before deciding that as a DIY’er the angles werent the best and I was better off with blend.I maybe did 100 hairs with thermolysis but I mention it as it may be related to what I’m seeing.

Since January, I’ve noticed “stuck” little bits of hair. These are imbedded in the skin and SEEM to be in exogen.Several times I’ve gone to zap one, and on pulling it out realized this hair was jut a tiny little piece.They are all dark, terminal hairs.By tiny I mean they are maximum a millimeter and a half in length, most barely a millimeter. If I squeeze the surrounding skin they pop out, like a zit.There is nothing holding these tiny little bits of hair in the face, they are clearly making their way to the surface, and ejecting.

Now the reason for concern, is there seems to be quite a few of them! It causes shadow on my chin.At this point I see more of these little stuck hairs, than ones to remove with electrolysis. I could understand if I had been breaking hairs off , but this doesnt happen to me very often when I’m working. They look like little black dots all over my chin, though they also pop up less frequently on my upper lip. Almost like a newly growing hair, that never really seems to find a way to grow.

What bothers me, is I NEVER noticed these for the first six months of electrolysis! That may be because I’m getting to the nitty gritty of what is there to treat.I’m also wondering if exfoliating would be of benefit to help them go away.

But I’m really curious about the mechanism that caused them in the first place! At this point it’s been about 3 weeks since I last shaved my chin but today there were at least 30 of these little buggers a number of them I took out with my fingernails.What’s causing them?

Seana

#2

Hi Seana,

Well the good news is these “little pieces of hairs” prove that you ARE killing hairs! We call these “tombstones” out here in the West. Long explanation for this and, if you have my book, it’s all in there … look up “tombstones.”

#3

So that would be from the thermolysis treatment then. Thankfully I didnt do that muchthermolysis and it should clear

Seana

#4

No, not from thermolysis. ANY well-done treatment with any modality would (and should) present these tombstones.

#5

And I’m definitely killing hairs. They’ve gotten less and less for a while.I’ve still got work to do and I feel like I always will.I wish under the jaw line was as good but Nightfrost has had some issues with time.

Seana

#6

Well done Seana, these only appear towards the end of treatment so they are a sign of your progress.

#7

Seana,

Many of the questions you seek, for example this issue of “tombstones,” is very well documented and explained in a number of books on electrolysis. Indeed, this subject is even explained in Hinkel’s book that was published in the 1960s. I think every book on electrology explains this.

Question: Which books do you have?

#8

Thank you Christine. Though I had read about tombstones I didnt think that’s what it was until Michael had pointed it out, and for some reason I thought it was more common with thermolysis than blend the material I had read on them covered them under thermolysis… I’ve learned differently!
I hadnt considered I might be at that stage yet. These started appearing in january/early febuary.By my calculation that was at least a couple months too soon, but I did do a lot of fairly intense work so that may have made difference.

Now to get Nightfrost moving on the hairs on my neck, those have me feeling some dysphoria of late and I’ve considered biting the bullet and going to see a pro and have them removed. Nightfrost seems to never get enough time with the probe to have an effect on those. All in time I guess.Not being able to see to remove those myself is really frustrating, I’ve even started trying anyway on one or two but the angles and line of sight make it very difficult.

#9

Michael,

I started with Milady’s hair removal guide because I could get it online. Hinkel’s book is on it’s way somewhere in transit ( it was cheap, you can get used copy for very little) and yours is due to be ordered this week I’ve had to deal with a lot of online stuff I could find ( stuff like the sterex guide which doesnt cover tombstones) mostly because of finances. Yours would have been ordered last month with my probes, but I had to instead order out of Dectro because TES cant sell Ballet probes to canada anymore. Whenever possible I try and combine things to save a penny or two on shipping.

Unfortunately sometimes the answer is I have to put learning as a side activity in order to keep the kids fed and christmas and birthday presents coming.And i learn a lot by doing nd trial and error, not to mention what I ingest here like a sponge.

Seana

#10

Seana, When I qualified as an electrologist, I continued to reread, Electrolysis,Thermolysis and The Blend (Hinkel) over and over again, and each time I gleaned more and more from it. It takes a while for everything to come together for us. I remember getting concerned the first time that I saw a client present with tombstones. Like you I had read about them, but I still did not recognize them on sight.