Electrolysis And Indian Skin
Electrolysis can be beneficial for all skin types because permanently removing the stubborn, coarse hairs on your chin, cheeks or neck will improve your complexion dramatically. Hair growth on the face is often accompanied by acne, skin discolouration and even minor scarring from the constant picking, tweezing, waxing and general manipulation of the skin.
Most skin, but especially black and brown skin, will suffer from varying degrees of something called post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation in the areas of hair growth. It looks something like this:
Example of hyperpigmentation
On light skin the spots cause by post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH) are pinkish, but on darker skins the discolouration takes on a brownish hue as depicted in the image above. On all skins post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation takes from 4 months to slightly more than one year to clear up completely. PIH is especially prevalent in black and brown skins because of the increased melanin in the natural skin tone. Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation is itself an overproduction of melanin caused by an injury to the skin.
Electrolysis treatments will cause PIH if your skin is prone to it, as is the case with most South Asian and African skin tones. You should have a pretty good indication of how you’ll respond to electrolysis treatments based on how you’ve healed from wounds in the past. If you do see PIH after your electrolysis treatment it is not the fault of your practitioner, but simply a by-product of the electrolysis wound and it is absolutely nothing to worry about. Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation is a temporary condition and will clear up in time with absolutely no need for special products or help of any kind.
Hyperpigmentation occurs most significantly on the body because much higher currents are used on the body than on the face. The pigmented spot will be slightly larger than the follicle opening (approximately 1-1.5mm in diameter) and there may be a point where you think “OMG, it’s a scar!!!” Don’t worry, it’s not. My own skin takes 5-7 months to heal from PIH, but it always heals. And so will yours.
In the long run your skin will benefit from having the hair removed because there will be less irritation and fewer blemishes on the surface of your skin. Over time you will realize that your skin tone will be clearer and more even toned.
Further Reading:
Post Inflammatory Hyperpigmentation After Electrolysis Hair Removal
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