it's a shame you had this reaction Harbour, but as Leigh pointed out, it may be the techs fault. Did you check to see if the techs at this place were certified or licensed? Some states require it and others don't, so in ones that don't you really don't have any level of competency, just a working knowledge of the process and how it works.
I've never had any scaring or bad reactions either, and my tech uses unusually high settings for me because of my tolerance for it. It rather sounds like the tech may be using thermolosys on you with high heat. Thermo and pure electro are both rated at 80 to 90% kill rate, but these days not recommended for facial hair, though thermo, due to it's speed is probably best for body hair.
The perfered techniques is a combination of thermo and pure electro and is called Blend, it draws on the speed of thermo and the acid reaction of pure electro, but in combination can work on lower settings then either of the others and still have an 80% kill rate at about 4 to 5 hairs per minute. Thermo can approach 8 to 10 hairs a minute and is still widely used, but it is perhaps the most dangerous technique in regards to scaring. Pure electro is the slowest with only a couple hairs a min, but there is little regrowth. It has the highest kill rate, but can be prohibitively expensive and time consuming and due to the acid it creates under the skin to eat out the folicle, it to can cause scaring, especially when a small area is cleared in a session with hairs being teated close together. working on small areas at a time with the hairs being close together is a problem with all forms of electrolosys, but thermo and pure electro especially. Blend is the safest and has a kill rate of better then 80% at 4 to 5 hairs per minute with no adverse reactions from most clients..
Questions I would ask, is what methode is being used on you and if it isn't Blend, why not, or is thier equipment capible of doing blend. If they are not using blend, or are incapible of doing it because of hardware limitations, find someone that can do blend.
there is also the possibility of over sensitive skin. most, including myself have no problem with applying a razor to remove remaining hair right after treatment with no visable effects to the skin.
one hint that may be taken to heart, my tech told me right at the beginning not to use any makup on my face till at least the day after treatment because the makeup can clog pores and increase the risk of infections where the face was treated. I can't say anything from experience on this, since I normally do not wear makup other then Eye and brow pencils. Full makeup is a rarety in my case.
In closing, NO, your reaction isn't normal and you should not have scabby patches, especially days later. Another possibility is to ask about the size of the probe they are using, there are different sizes and many use the smaller ones as they are preceived to be less painful. The larger probs though tend to spead out the heat better and more evenly so are less damaging to surrounding skin tissue as opposed to the smaller needles which tend to concentrrate heat more. I think my tech uses a size 4 or 5 when working with me with settings in the 8 or 9 stage depending on where working on.
Questions to ask a tech, can they do Blend? if not, i'd leave immediately. Are they certified? Another reason to leave for greener pastures. keep in mind that the majority of clients are women who grow facial hair, especially in the mustache and chin and while they may do a few men, many have never removed a complete male beard or worked with hair that is dense as a male beard, though many do underarms and such which can come close to the density of lighter bearded males. So how many male subjects has the tech worked with?
Terri
