Hi everyone! I had my first electrolysis treatment last Thursday on my chin. It took about 30 minutes, and the electrologist removed every hair (hairs are dark and coarse). My skin reacted worse than I expected, but according to the accounts I have read on this website, my reaction was not abnormal. I broke out in red bumps and about five whiteheads. It looked pretty bad! The skin was very sensitive for about three days afterward. I followed recommended aftercare: kept it clean with mild soap, applied witch hazel, pure aloe and tea tree oil and didn’t wear makeup.
It has been 5.5 days so far, and my skin has more or less healed. I have some red marks from the breakout that seem to be fading, but nothing too bad. It’s not sensitive at all. When I look closely in the mirror, I only see about 4-5 hairs. I don’t have a magnifying glass but I am looking quite closely and under a bright light.
I have read that I should be going in for treatments every week or two in order to eventually treat all the hairs in the growing phase. Given that I only see 4 or 5 new hairs and it’s Monday night, I don’t imagine I will have significantly more hair by this Thursday (one week after my first treatment). How do I know when to go in for my second treatment? Should I wait until I have enough hair for a 15 minute treatment? I want to do this the right way and maximize results, but am not sure what to do in my situation.
Were you doing any tweezing before beginning electrology treatments? If not, here’s my take:
I would have that second appointment two weeks after the first. While you see 4 or 5 hairs in 5.5 days, the electrologist might see a few more, and in one more week, a few more.
Your skin might benefit from shorter appointments, so 10 or 15 minutes every two weeks should result in spreading those appointments out in about 8 weeks from the beginning.
I wouldn’t go in for 5 hairs. Wait until it makes sense to go. Basically, you don’t want any of the hairs out and actively growing for more than 4 weeks or so before you zap them.
In terms of your reaction, it sounds a bit severe. What type of electrolysis is being used? Have you tried several electrologists to sample treatments? Also, I wouldn’t use all that aftercare. That sounds like an overkill. Pick one. Witch hazel is enough for most people. Putting all that stuff sounds like an overkill to me. I would try not to use soap either. A couple whiteheads (they’re not really whiteheads - it’s your skin healing itself) is normal for a couple days, but a ton of irritation is not. Maybe they’re overtreatin the area? If there are many follicles close together, you may want to spread out the treatment on that same area.
Thanks for your responses, Barbara and lagirl! That makes sense not to go in until I see more growth, and to go for shorter treatments going forward.
To answer your questions, I was tweezing for a number of years before starting treatment. Now that I’m educated about the effects of this, I can see that it made my problem a lot worse. Barbara, should the fact that I was tweezing in the past affect the time I wait to go in for my next treatment? Since your original advice was based on the assumption that I wasn’t tweezing, what would you say now knowing that I was?
Lagirl, the electrologist used thermolysis, I think with an apilus machine. I haven’t sampled any other electrologists yet. I spoke to a few others by phone. One of them said that she tells her clients to wait to go in for their next treatment when they have enough hair to be tempted to remove it themselves.
I’ll follow your advice and will stick to witch hazel only next time. I think the reason my reaction was so bad was due to a number things. I have very sensitive skin, it was my first treatment, and the electrologist did quite a bit of work on me. Plus, she removed a number of ingrown hairs that weren’t visible to my naked eye. I am hoping that after future treatments, my skin’s response won’t be so severe.
Again, many thanks to both of you for your thoughtful advice!
Just another view here… The first few appointments can be the toughest on some people’s skin and then skin reaction should look calmer for the rest of the process as the skin becomes acclimatized to having electrolysis. Those chin hairs are sturdy after all those years of tweezing and they need more energy. Your skin reaction does not sound particularly “hair raising” (pun) and all clients should be informed that side effects are transitory and will occur occassionally. We try very hard to inform you here as to what side effects are beyond acceptable and which ones can be expected and are within normal healing boundries. Remember, we are damamging hair follicles PERMANENTLY and your body doesn’t like that insult and will tell you so with something called the inflammation process. I’m always surprised when I ask a client how they healed and then they report with a stunned look on their face, that they had a few red dots that lasted three days! Well, what do you expect when someone inserts a metal probe into your hair follicle and gives you a burst of energy!
We always insist that you tell your electrologist about your healing outcome whether she/he asks or not. The goal is to make perfect insertions with the appropriate amount of energy and timing without side effects. If you experience side effects, they are only temporary and should subside within a week or ten days for facial work. Body work may take longer. The way to help yourself is to do proper after care as lagirl said or your healing time can take longer.
I like getting that first, full clearance and then keeping one clear after that for obvious reasons. It’s a balancing act when we start electrolysis. Do you want short appointments weekly with little skin reaction and some remaining hairs left behind or do you want all noticable hair removed each time you come in with maybe more skin reaction that may last less than a week or ten days? Either way is okay. By the way, longer appointments do not equal automatic rougher skin reactions. It is your decision, along with the electrologist that can see you and who knows the ability and bounds of what her epilator can do.
How often were you tweezing? 15 minutes every day? A few hairs every week? Less than that?
Yes, previous tweezing affects your treatment recommendations. If you were tweezing daily before beginning treatments, I would suggest that you wait no more than 2 weeks before returning. This will help prevent you from the temptation of tweezing.
Dee, I really appreciate your helpful insights on side effects and healing. I will be sure to keep a dialogue about this going with my electrologist. It helps that I’m confident in her expertise! I was definitely educated by my electrologist and this website about how my skin might react, and haven’t been scared off by the redness/breakout/bumps. It’s all in the name of permanent hair removal! I don’t think it will be as bad going forward as my skin gets used to the treatments.
Barbara: I would say I tweezed an average of 4-12 hairs every every 1-3 days. I realize those are pretty rough estimates! I never let it get too bad. Luckily, I am really good at withholding from tweezing these days - I have seen the negative and lasting effects it has had, and have vowed to never do it again. I’ll follow your advice and wait no more than 2 weeks between appointments.
I believe that you will be happiest by starting out with bi-weekly appointments. Say you were tweezing 100 hairs a week at that (4-12 hairs every 1-3 days) - that’s about 15 minutes worth of hairs…You won’t have to do that for a long time - a few months maybe, then can spread the appointments out.