I am a doc student who lives on student loans (out of state too) and I have no money for electrolysis or laser. I am also in counseling so I do therapy with adults and teens, which puts me in relatively close contact with many people. The hairs on my chin are the worst; even after I shave, you can see the darker shade of the hairs against my pale skin and since I'm on campus all day, by 3-4pm they are very obvious.
I bought a home electrolysis kit and am trying diligently to do it myself... however I find that I get scabs at every single hair I treat. Here are some pics of my arms and chin after I treated some hairs. Any tips on how not to get the scabs? I know if I put makeup it may get infected, but I have to see clients and I can't go like that... I just started two days ago so what you see is from 2 evenings ago and last night. Oh, and it's the Deluxe Home Electrolysis kit with settings from 1-8. The arm were 2-3 power, and chin were at 4.
I am a doc student who lives on student loans (out of state too) and I have no money for electrolysis or laser. I am also in counseling so I do therapy with adults and teens, which puts me in relatively close contact with many people. The hairs on my chin are the worst; even after I shave, you can see the darker shade of the hairs against my pale skin and since I'm on campus all day, by 3-4pm they are very obvious.
I bought a home electrolysis kit and am trying diligently to do it myself... however I find that I get scabs at every single hair I treat. Here are some pics of my arms and chin after I treated some hairs. Any tips on how not to get the scabs? I know if I put makeup it may get infected, but I have to see clients and I can't go like that... I just started two days ago so what you see is from 2 evenings ago and last night. Oh, and it's the Deluxe Home Electrolysis kit with settings from 1-8. The arm were 2-3 power, and chin were at 4.
Very clear pictures which are a great help.
1. For a start, it's quite clear from the chin pictures that you've got male-type beard growth -- we know what you're dealing with.
2. Even the best of professional electrolysis machines need an extremely skilled operator to apply the needle accurately and gauge the correct levels required. Scarring is a real risk even with a skilled operator who is working on another individual. I doubt very much whether even a skilled operator with a professional machine costing many thousands of $$ could work satisfactorily on her own face or would even try. You're probably attempting the near-impossible.
3. The scabs are actually much more obvious than the stubble.
4. You haven't mentioned how you shave and with what model of razor. Can I suggest that you consider a men's-type rechargeable razor? I use a men's Philips Norelco rotary-head model which has a "lift and cut" action which leaves the cut end just under skin level and because it's rechargeable it's possible to shave through the day if necessary. That type of razor is excellent for the short stubbly growth such as your pictures show, though useless for long, soft growth which is more typical of women in general.
i get professional electrolysis done and yes i get minor scabbing. it nothing thats really noticeable but I do have dark skin so that could make the difference. my hair is much less and now thin compared to how it was a year ago when i started so at the beginning the scabs were a little worse because of the thickness of my hair. she treats me with a tea tree oil aloe mix and I use neosporin afterwards and until my scabs heal. I have no scarring from treatments and my chin area is now much lighter than when I shaved and the stubble made my skin dark. hope this helps
The hairs on my chin are the worst; even after I shave, you can see the darker shade of the hairs against my pale skin and since I'm on campus all day, by 3-4pm they are very obvious.
One more rather obvious point I didn't mention: I'm sure you'll have seen plenty of other correspondence on this board to the effect that whatever electrolysis or laser treatment you carry out will depend for its permanence on your current hormone balance.
It's quite clear that your skin -- like that of a great many women -- has been sensitized so that it can respond to testosterone. That has the effect that if your levels of free testosterone are in the "male" range you will develop male-type beard growth in the areas in which you're currently experiencing it. To get rid of beard growth permanently it's not enough to kill the present beard growth, you've also got to get your levels of free testosterone down to a level which would be regarded as normal for a female, otherwise you're liable to develop new beard growth from other follicles. Reaching and maintaining a hormone balance within the normal "female" range is a vital element in eliminating beard growth.
And let me guess... the only way to do that is with low carb dieting right?
No, it's not the only way and I don't even know that it's helpful in all instances.
The bottom line is that for some of us, our natural hormonal balance tends to be very different from the sort of hormonal balance of most females and with PCOS it usually means that there's an excess of "free" testosterone, one of the results of which is that many women with PCOS have a lot of body hair and male-type beard growth. A high libido is also common.
Clearly most women would much prefer to be free from beard growth and excessive male-type body hair so it is usual for doctors to prescribe estrogen, often in the form of birth control pills, which, as long as one keeps taking them, may well reduce the beard and body hair growth considerably -- albeit temporarily. However, there are downsides to that, since obviously if one wishes to conceive, it's essential to come off bcp, and quite often when one comes off bcp the body's natural production of estrogen does not resume quickly, if at all.
For myself, I've never really attempted to do much about my high testosterone levels. I'm fine now about shaving and it's not really any trouble. I reckon that any of the ways that I've seen of controlling the testosterone would be more trouble than shaving is.
Maybe consider plucking the hair with tweezers until you are done school and can afford to do laser removal. when you shave you can still see hair underneath the skin, but tweezing pulls it from the root so you can't see the dark patches. I've had laser done on my face and bikini area...I have a combination of dark and blonde hairs on my face so it really only worked on the dark ones. But it worked WAY better on my bikini area because they were all dark and my skin was so pale. The lady who did it told me that people who have dark hair and pale skin have the best results with laser treatment...sounds like you would be perfect for it...
Home electrolysis... is this reaction normal? 
