Electrologists ARE very sensitive when people say, "electrolysis causes scarring." A scar is permanent. It is very rare, even with the worst electrologist, to have scarring. And as it's already been said, scarring doesn't show up for several months.

Hypo-pigmentation is not necessarily permanent, and I would never tell anyone otherwise. Hypo-pigmentation often does resolve itself. Sometimes it's as easy as spending a little time in the sunlight to stimulate the melanin. Have all the scabs you had as a child resulted in permanent hypo-pigmentation? If mine had, I'd look like the reverse of a dalmatian.

Scabbing on body areas is common with electrolysis. It's not due to over treatment.

I'm sorry if I offended anyone. I did think it was permanent (especially since the electrologist who caused it told me it was!) but I have NEVER exposed the area to sun since I got the spots, so that would explain why they haven't faded at all.

Are large scabs (say, the size of a cross-section of a cooked grain of rice) not a sign of over treatment? I thought it was just smaller ones, say the size of a dot made with a ball-point pen, that were normal.

Oh, no Squash, no one was offended. Know that we love hearing about your concerns. We bristle at such language, true, because electrolysis is wrongly labeled as a scarring proceedure by so many written sources and it scares consumers. This is such erroneous, inaccurate gunk that we have to constantly correct. Fact is, scarring is pretty rare and what people don't understand is that temporary side effects do indeed happen, but they clear within minutes, hours, days, weeks or months and all is well. We try very hard to keep those side effects to the bare minimum so clients can continue their daily lives without bringing attention, to facial areas especially, that have been freshly treated.

Large scabs, especially when they connect, must never be repeated! Pinpoint scabbing doesn't raise the antenna like those large scabs do. So, you are right to be concerned about those cross-section size of a cooked grain of rice scabs. As long as your electrologist knows the outcome of such a treatment and corrects herself, you are in good hands. If she is flippant about it, you are not in good hands.

I had a student practice on my arm several years ago. She overtreated a follicle or two and I still have hypopigmentation in that area. I knew immediately that she was frying me and had her stopped treatment, but a consumer may not know to do this. That's why we all spend our spare moments here trying to answer yours and others concerns about what is okay and what will get you in trouble.

This is all very confusing at times and we appreciate your questions. Those electrologists that pay attention to consumers like yourself are helped to be better practitioners, so thanks for your very valuable input.

Dee

Uh, oh... I have some hypopigmentation on my arms (the area from my pinky to the elbow.) I have had some hyperpigmentation in my arm as well and they faded in time; compared to my "control" arm, the electrolysis does appear to be working well so I kept chugging along. I assumed that since the same general area, modality used and scab size were the same, the hypopigmentation marks would also fade. I wonder if I should be worried now