after 9 months of electrolysis on my upper lip i still have a light shadow. the area was dense with hair. i used to get treatments weekly but now there isn’t enough hair for a few weeks. i am getting desparate to get rid of my manly look. would vaniqa or laser help get rid of the shadow, at least temporarily? or should i just keep on with the electrolysis? thanks.
Personal opinion, stick with the electrolysis.
The usual cause of a shadow is when darker hair is begining to grow above the skins surface, hence the 5 o clock shadow look when men shave. Vaniqa would slow down the hair growth process, so the hair would grow slower prolonging your electrolysis and prolonging the shadow as the hairs would be to short to be epilated.
Laser is generally not advisable on a womans face as there is an increased risk in laser induced hair growth, also if you have barely any hairs there laser will have barely any effect or infact reverse all the hardwork youv’e put in with electrolysis and cause the hair to grow thicker and darker.
By the length of time youv’e been treating this area and the frequency of which the hair grows, it sounds like your close to the end of your hair removal journey. Just stick with it for a bit longer and eventually all those dark hairs that are causing the shadow will be gone and you’ll have that hair free look you’ve been wanting!
Regards,
Benji
Sometimes, women have a pigment shadow. It is especially noticable on the upper lip, and can also be seen on the upper cheeks. Sometimes it’s called the mask of pregnancy, (even when you are NOT pregnant) and is believed to be from hormones, with influence from the sun or tanning booths. Most electrologists fail to mention this pigmentation to the client - even when it is visible at the first treatment.
My personal opinion is that yes, hormones can be the cause, but heredity, and surface injury from the use of depilatories are also culprits. (Depilatories often cause a chemical burn.)
One way to learn if the pigment is in the skin or from dark hairs under the surface is to look at your skin under a black light. (Also called Wood’s Lamp by estheticians.) You will see freckles that you do not know you have (and many other things!).
Treatment for pigmentation includes the daily use of sunscreens. Daily as in all summer and all winter. There are skin bleaching products out there, but while I am not sure of their efficacy, they would certainly be worth trying.
You need to figure out what is causing the shadow. Is it the hair or is it the skin that is pigmented? If it’s the skin, you should see a dermatologist - there are creams or laser treatments that can help (I would wait until you’re done with electrolysis to avoid stressing out the skin).
I don’t really see how it can be the hair…i.e. after you go in for your electrolysis treatment, there should be no hair left when you leave and then for a few weeks. And if that’s the case, then there should be no shadow.
thanks everyone!
benji boy: thanks for the encouraging words and helping me reason sticking with electrolysis.
barbara cpe: thanks for the hormone info. it could be the reason although the shadow seems to be from slowly growing dark, yet now thinner hairs under my skin (pale). i used a dipilatory once and usually am not in the sun much. i don’t think my electrolysist has a wood’s lamp. would it worth it to get one for myself if i can get it cheaply?
lagirl: thanks for the advice. i think the shadow is from hair under the skin but i am seeing a dermotologist and will ask about pigmentation.
I looked carefully again and I don’t think it’s melasma on that area. I think it’s hair under my skin. How can that be after 9 months of treatment? My electrolysist maybe took a few months? to clear my upper lip. Is it that my hormones are out of whack that it’s growing back or were they just not killed the first time around? It is definitely lighter and thinner and takes weeks to have enough for treatment but why is there still a light shadow? Will it ever go away? Thanks.
It is impossible to see the pigment shadow by looking closely at your skin. The only way to know if it is pigment is to look at it under the black light. I have several clients who walk in and I can see the shadow, but when they are on the table and under my halogen light - I cannot see the shadow.
Casual exposure to the sun can cause pigment changes - especially if you have fair skin. Sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen. (I also believe that some chemical additives to foods can cause pigmentation - but have no scientific data to support this.)
Black lights can be purchased very cheaply. When using them, you must have all other lights off and outdoor light blocked out.
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Thanks Barbara. Just like you said, up close, no shadow. Farther back, shadow. I thought it’s hair because it’s blackish not the brownish melasma pigmentation. I will look into getting a black light to find out what it is. And after reading about sun exposure pigment changes, I am now very vigilent with sunscreen. Thanks again for your help!
Where can I get black light light bulbs? I’ve called around to convenience, drug, grocery and hardware stores… Can I get them at someplace like Walmart, K Mart or Target?
Probably Home Depot.
I went to a dermatologist and in the fluourescent lighting in the office you can’t really see the shadow or my now obvious melasma. No Woods lamp was used. The derm thinks it could be slight pigmentation and a shadow from the way my lip curls. I was surprised the shadow isn’t visible in some lighting. In incandescent lighting, daylight or regular store lighting there’s a shadow and melasma. I got a black light bulb and it’s hard to see but I can definitely see the melasma on my cheek and chin but nothing on the upper lip so I am still thinking it’s hair. How can that be after nearly a year of treatment and hardly any surface hair like it used to be before treatment?
It seems unlikely to me that a shadow of HAIR would not be visible up close. Especially if there is no surface hair.
Since my last post I took a break from treatment thinking it might help with the possible pigmentation (less irritation to the skin) and it wouldn’t hurt since it didn’t seem there were any visible or really a lot of feelable hairs. It’s been about 6 weeks or so since I had anything done on the area and now a lot of fine hairs are growing back in. A few are blackish but the others seem lighter maybe much fainter color. Seems like with a little more waiting most of the original/dense hairs will come back but maybe thinner, less dark but keeping the shadow there. Is this normal? Should the treatment electricity level be increased? I’m hoping the hairs will finally be gone after another clearance…
At 6 weeks with no treatment, the next phase of hair growth is here, and if you don’t get a full clearance soon, you will have put your treatment behind schedule. Since it takes at least 9 months for all hairs to show themselves once, you need to stay on top of the situation with full clearances at least every 3 to 8 weeks. Next year is when you will be able to see how well you have done. (Think of this as a 9 month game of “Whack-A-Mole”. It takes that long for all the moles on the board to poke their heads up once.)
As for the lighter and thinner hairs, in most cases, you had those already, but never noticed them, as you were so focused on the bigger, thicker, darker ones. Electrologists tend to remove hairs in levels of thickness, and by color as well. Since the thick dark ones require a different treatment setting than the light thin ones, one would want to do all of one, before changing settings and doing all of the others. In the early going, one tends to run out of time while doing thick dark ones, and never gets around to removing thin light ones. Dependingon the client, thin light ones don’t need removal anyway.