Hello Ladies and Gents,
Please could you help me with this problem.
I had a huge amount of electrolysis done, completed about a year and half ago.The worst problem site was under my chin, sadly I choose to over-treat which caused a lot of wrinkles under my chin (perfect on all other sites worked on)could anyone advice me how to get rid of this problem.
Thank you in advance for your help
How long has it been since you finished the treatments? How old are you? Do you have pictures?
Are you a smoker or sun worshipper? Did you perform electrolysis on yourself? By your comment, it sounds like YOU decided to overtreat yourself. Please describe how long it took you to heal and what the condition of your skin looked like a week afterwards and in between treatments. Any detail about your experience is not too small to add.
Dee
lagirl
I am sorry I did not reply before.
I completed more than a year and a half ago.I am 39.
dfahey
I gave up smoking 15 years ago,I smoked for about 5 years (about 10 a day)
I hate the sun, I am mixed race, the sun gives me freckles, so I avoid, I still cover my neck with silk scarfs (organza in the summer).
I had almost a mans beard, I was labeled at level 9 out of ten by the endocrinologist.
I did work on myself very heavily, at first I worked for 2 hours at a time on both sides of my face,took about 2 days for swelling to go down, they are perfect, not a mark or pinprick and I only had about three fine hairs regrow,zapped.I started on my cheeks because I found them very easy to reach,do and learn on.
Under my chin was the most troublesome, I shaved and plucked every day so very course,I had to treat more than four times over maybe four months,lots of scabbing, healed very quickly and no infections.
I used to have very rough skin under my chin but now very smooth to the touch,I would say just like the skin on breasts,but,for some reason it looks very wrinkly.
I did my mustache last of all (at the lowest setting) soooo painful but very quick, maybe 5 secs and gone for ever,maybe because I never plucked on that site just shaved, not a wrinkle on this site, just like the sides of my face.
I used galvanic. I did at a early time have blend down by a licensed practitioner,sadly every hair grew back, and I had black marks at every point,took years to fade.
Thank you both for replying to my questions,I am most grateful
Okay, thanks for your detailed description.
Poorly done electrolysis, whether it be performed by an electrologist or yourself can cause, skin damage. Couple that with smoking, whether it be in the pass or present, can help that skin condition reach the wrinkling point.
We never recommend doing electrolysis yourself, on facial or neck areas. Never. I do think after reading your post, your wrinkling could be the outcome of doing this yourself. Did you use a professional epilator? How in the world did you accomplish this yourself?
If you didn’t give your electrologist at least a year to year and a half to do her thing, then you didn’t give electrolysis a fair chance. How long were you with her and did you do weekly appointments,as needed in the beginning? Hair grows in cycles. No one can expect the hair to be totally gone in less than 9-18 months. As far as the hyperpigmentation goes, some people are prone to this no matter how good the skill of the electrologist. It is an immune response. It fades over a period of time. Month’s usually. If you were impatient, then your impatience may have cost you because now the hair may have been replaced by wrinkles. SO good news is, no hair. Bad news - skin damage.
With that behind you, you want to know what to do about the wrinkles. I would seek cosmetic solutions that will need to be discussed with an asthetic dermatologist that can see you. One kind favor to ask you. Could you please be honest with whoever you see and tell them that you performed do-it-yourself electrolysis on your face? That way, the good doctor will not blame the proceedure called “Electrolysis” for causing this. Electrolysis, in the hands of a skilled, professional electrologist will “kill” the hair and yet leave the skin beautiful after all hair growth cycles have been addressed over 1-1.5 years of properly space treatments.
One last thing: your blend electrologist should have instructed and guided you about time to completion issues, hair growth cycles and possible TEMPORARY skin manifestations, so as to reassure you that this is how the game is played to a successful ending. You just don’t go in cold, lay on the table and proceed. You should have received a consultation and thereafter, those concepts of TIME, HAIR GROWTH CYCLES, HEALING EXPECTATIONS should have been repeated often to keep you motivated. Clients give up when they are not educated about electrolysis.
Sorry you had to resort to DIY electrolysis and I hope there is a solution for your wrinkling problem, but that is “above my grade” (famous words from famous people).
dafhey,
Thank you that was more than helpful.
Please please forgive me if my post upset you, I do realize that getting a post from someone who caused the problem them self most try the patients of a saint, but truly I had no choice, I could not find ANYONE who would do galvanic(too slow).
The main reason I did not continue with my Pro treatment was that every hair follicle became infected, I only had a small section on the cheek done. Maybe if I had been informed or informed myself about drinking water,not drinking coffee and so on I would have carried on.
One thing I will say to defend myself, my endogrinologist did say that she had not come across any black patient who elektrolysis had worked well on, she could not believe it when she saw my face a year later, no hair regrowth and no folliculitis (not sure how to spell this), which I suffered so badly from before.She thought my wrinkling hardly anything in comparison to the facial hair growth I had before.They had a full meeting which they asked me to attend,they discussed bringing back electrolysis treatment, they had stopped doing electrolysis on black skin at that NHS hospital because they said that it was not effective enough (maybe it was too costly)
My LIFE had almost come to a stand still, if I had not found a solution I may have called it a day (I know that sounds over dramatic) but waking up in the morning with more beard growth than my then other half pushed me to the end.
I wish I could have found a practitioner who could have done this for me,in England it seems to be very difficult to find someone who will do pure galvanic, I can tell you it would have been much better and cheaper (I gave up work for one year) but what could I do. One thing I will say ELECTROLYSIS CAN GET RID OF HAIR PERMANTLY
Oh, joyann I am not upset at all! I’m so sorry if you got that impression from my style of writing. I clearly understand your frustrations. It does not have to be like this for people like youself. Just because you are a person of color makes absolutely no difference as far as electrolysis goes. Electrolysis is color-blind and that’s what makes it the true gold standard for permanent hair removal. Yes, it does work. You found that out the hard way.
I have worked on (and still do!) people of color. It all turns out wondefully well. I don’t use galvanic electrolysis, even though it works just great. I am accomplishing PERMANENT HAIR REMOVAL with thermolysis, specifically, PicoFlash thermolysis. MicroFlash, Flash, manual thermolysis work well, too. Blend is awesome as well. I do this with the best tools and have sought out the advice over the years with electrologists that were more experienced than me.
In your locale, if there was an electrologist that could do this correctly, with good tools and actually had a personality to actually instruct clients along the way, then doctors would have a whole different opinion and joy about electrolysis. Your electrolysis journey flubbed because you didn’t have a modern professional electrologist to help you. Galvanic is not the only way to accomplish permanent hair removal. In fact, it is an antiquated way to do this, now that we have had computerized epilators for several years that keep getting better and better. Properly performed thermolysis will work well, too.
Thanks for your posts and I wish the best for you, joyann.
Dee
dfahey
Thank you for your understanding,if I had found this site ten years ago I would have taken the correct route, but saying that 80% improvement allows me a great deal of relief, but it is still a shame that I did not wait, I could have had 95% or even 100% with no side effects.
Maybe I will be lucky and find a dermatologist who will be able to help me with my self-inflicted wrinkling.I have just begone looking,I wanted to give my skin enough time to repair itself.
Thank you for giving me so much of your time, I am really grateful.
It’s always my pleasure.
Just a question. Where did you get the machine to do electrolysis yourself? I know that you shoud never do your face yourself but being able to do electrolysis at home on say…your legs would be convenient and much cheaper than going to an electrologist.
Also, you might try puting retin-a (tretinoin) cream on your face. It helps with minor wrinkles and can even our your skin tone.
It may be cheaper for a large area like the legs, but it involves a lot of education, training, etc because you’d basically have to buy a used professional machine and learn how to use it. Electrologists need hours of treatments to learn the skill properly and do it without causing side effects. So this isn’t something that’s recommended unless you’re truly willing to invest the time and effort necessary to perfect this skill.
You mentioned in your other post that you had laser treatments done. You still have a lot of hair on your legs after that? Is it coarse? What type of laser was used on you? What kind of results have you seen?