We have all heard the adage, "No pain no gain," but I beg to differ. When it comes to artificial beauty, BOTOX™ injections, as well as teeth whitening and laser hair removal treatments can all be a little uncomfortable at times. Thankfully we do not always have to endure the pain, due to the help of our anesthetic friends, but how do anesthetics stop the pain? Our bodies are filled with neurons that form an intricate network. These neurons need to communicate with each other in order to send a message from a peripheral body area, where pain is being induced, to the central nervous system, the brain. The brain responds by sending a message back to the peripheral area of the body, telling it to move away from the pain.
You may have had that client with suspect issues, like hirsutism (increased hair growth in women), who resists going for expensive tests at the doctor's office. Once we convince them to finally go to an endocrinologist, those tests may come back showing no imbalance and our clients may feel annoyed that we have sent them for costly, unnecessary tests that proved nothing. However, the hair growth is so heavy that daily shaving is the only alternative the client has. The question remains: How can this client have this abnormal hair growth and not have an issue with hormones or endocrine system?
We have discussed the role that hormones play in hair growth in past articles, but there are many facets to the role that hormones play so let us take a deeper look beyond just the condition of hirsutism which is commonly connected to hormone production.
Sometimes drugs that contain hormones can cause hair growth in a client. Some of these drugs contain hormones and others disturb the normal functioning of the endocrine system. While very few of these drugs disrupt the endocrine system, the vast majority are actual hormones, called sex-hormones.
You have seen them as you peer through your magnifier, a series of fine red, blue, or purple lines that look like a map of little rivers across your client’s face. These are not broken capillaries as so many of us call them; they are, in fact, telangiectasia. Telangiectasias are not broken, but very small, dilated blood vessels approximately .5 to 1 mm in diameter. They are found near the surface of the skin or mucous membranes and while we often see them on the face near the nose, cheeks, or chin they can develop on the chest, the upper thigh, below the knee joint, and around the ankles. Often the telangiectasias on legs are referred to as “spider veins”. As an electrologist, you will encounter these tiny veins on the face and legs of your clients. It is important that you understand what these are, what can cause them, whether or not you can treat the area in which you find them, and if you can treat the veins with the needle.
