Plastic and cosmetic surgery

by Frederick Strange Kolle

The patient holding the sponge will at once feel a stinging sensation when the needle enters the skin, which is later not as objectionable. The current is now increased by advancing the handle of the rheostat until about eight milliampères are shown by the index on the dial.

Within a few seconds a white froth will issue from the follicle, showing that decomposition of tissue is taking place. The operator must familiarize himself with the time and amount of current required to destroy superfluous hairs. Coarse hairs may require as much as fourteen milliampères, but it is advisable to use a moderate amount of current and to leave the needle a little longer in the follicle to avoid scarring of the skin.

The papilla having presumably been destroyed, the patient loosens her grip on the sponge and the needle is withdrawn.

The operator now takes up an epilating forceps, such as shown in [Fig. 517], and removes the hair. If the hair does not come out of the follicle readily it shows that it has not been destroyed, and the same treatment, just described, must be repeated, but for a shorter duration.

Fig. 517.—Epilating Forceps.

When the hair is removed it will show more or less bulb according to its size and nourishment.

The physician now proceeds to remove the coarse hairs first. Hairs should not be removed too closely placed, as the current will destroy the tissue between the follicle and cause scarring. It is better to remove the hairs some distance apart, leaving the remaining hairs for later sittings.

About forty or fifty hairs may be removed at one sitting. This will require from half to an hour and a half of time, but the operator will soon accomplish considerable work in a minimum of time.

Some of the hairs removed will return, showing as black or dark specks in the skin, in from five to ten days. The number returning depends on the operator’s skill. At first he should not be surprised to see fifty per cent come back, but this ratio is reduced so that only three or four hairs out of fifty may return, and perhaps these stunted in growth.