Microblading Regret: What Laser Removal Really Looks Like

Full Transcript

I can't tell you how many hundreds of people have come into the studio and told us that their brow artist said their semi-permanent makeup would fade after two to three years. Six, seven, eight years later and the pigment is still there. It hasn't faded one bit. And when they come in for laser removal, sometimes it doesn't come out then either. Even when it does come out, sometimes it can surprise you. These brows were dark. And once the dark lifted, the red undertones were revealed. If you regret your microblading, I'm going to show you what it really looks like when you try to remove it. My name's Billy DeCola and I'm the owner of Studio Kiku. We remove tattoos and permanent makeup with laser.

Will your microblading fade? Permanent makeup is often advertised as semi-permanent. But guess what? There's no such thing as semi-permanent makeup. The only thing that would make a tattoo semi-permanent is if it wasn't put in deep enough into your skin to stay. Then it would last maybe four to five weeks, maybe a couple months. But then it's just going to fade as your epidermis recycles. Microblading, nano brows, powder ombre, combo brows, it's all the same. It's a tattoo.

So why do my brows turn red when you laser them? Black pigment, like you see in most body tattoos, is carbon based and it's just black pigment. But permanent makeup pigment is much different. It consists of a number of colors. So even if you see black, most likely it has reds and yellows in it. And those colors help it heal warm over time. Like these brows, they were gray. And after one session of laser, you can see the warm color that was underneath. So your brows aren't actually turning red or turning yellow. What's happening is the dark pigment's being removed and it's revealing what's underneath.

Can red and yellow brows be removed? Well, we don't really have a problem removing red pigment by itself. But if red is mixed with white, then that's when we run into some difficulties. These were warm toned brows. Four sessions later, they're almost gone.

Yellow is the tricky one. A lot of times what happens after you laser yellow and you're going to look in the mirror and you're going to be like, "Wow, this is awesome. These are gone." They're going to think it's completely gone and they go home and maybe a day or two days later they're going to think, "Oh man, it came back. Like, the pigment is back." But I have news for you. The pigment was never gone. It was just masked by your irritation from the laser. And that's also why we don't take photos right after the session. But sometimes we can remove the yellow and sometimes we can't. You never know unless you try. What we don't want to do though is overtreat the yellow by going too strong. Number one, we definitely don't want to damage your skin. We don't want to damage the hairs or the hair follicles. Number two, if you do go too aggressively with yellow, a lot of times what happens is it oxidizes and it turns dark. And once the pigment oxidizes, it's very hard, if not impossible, to remove. The only option you have at that time is doing a saline removal.

Can laser turn lip blush black? That does happen on occasion. It depends on the type of pigment that was put into your skin. Most pink pigment, if not all, has white titanium dioxide in it. And white, when it's hit by the laser, has a tendency of darkening. In some cases, it'll lighten up after a little bit of time, and in other cases, it won't. So when people come in and they want to remove lip blush, I normally recommend doing a test spot. And just remember, one test spot and one spot of the mouth or the brow is not an accurate indication of what's going to happen across the whole entire treatment area. These lips took two sessions and the pigment is gone.

How many sessions will it take to remove my brows? That's a question we get all the time, and it's an impossible question to answer accurately. What we normally say is it takes anywhere between three and six sessions to safely remove your brows. Could we get it off in one session? Most likely we could. Is it safe? Will your skin or your hair follicles or your hairs be okay? Probably not. Here's where these brows were after two sessions. And remember, not all brows can be completely removed, and we never guarantee complete removal. I don't want anybody to get the idea that this is an easy process. If you want to know what your brows would take, send a photo at studiokiku.com/faded, and we'll give you some honest feedback.

Will laser removal make you lose your brow hair? A lot of people are worried about that. It normally happens under two circumstances. One, the wrong laser is being used, or two, the wrong technique is being used. Those are usually the two reasons why your hairs may fall out or become singed and turn all white when you're getting laser removal. There are lasers out there that definitely harm the hair follicles and damage the hairs. The PicoWay, when it's used properly, will not do that at all. If you're getting your brows or permanent makeup removed, ask what laser they're using.

If we lasered your brows a few times and we're not seeing any results at all, or if the pigment is reacting, but it's just not fading, then we're most likely going to tell you to stop. Not all pigment responds well to the laser, and we definitely don't want to take your money if we're not seeing any results. And in that case, if the laser's not working and you're trying to either change the shape of your brows or remove them completely, then the only other option would be saline removal. Anybody who comes in to remove a tattoo should know all of the possible outcomes. Even if they're not going to be great, the worst thing that can happen is a surprise, and an unpleasant surprise at that.

A lot of people want to jump right into saline removal before they even try laser removal. Honestly, in my opinion, saline should be the very last resort. Even though, in some cases, it can be effective once the pigment has faded a lot. But when you're dealing with deep, dark, saturated tattoos, saline removal is just not effective. We've had so many clients come in and say they've done six or eight sessions of saline removal with no results whatsoever. And then they do one session of laser and it lifts it right away.

So what are the risks of saline removal? You're actually breaking the skin open so you could scab and you could scar if it's done improperly. And if you're doing it over an area where there is hair, then any scar tissue that forms could prevent that hair from growing back. In most cases, we only do one or two sessions of saline. If it's not working after that, we're not going to keep pounding your skin. Give it a couple tries. If it doesn't work, then, hey, your semi-permanent makeup is permanent.

I just got my brows yesterday and I hate them. How long do I have to wait before I get laser tattoo removal? We normally recommend waiting at least three months from the time you get tattooed until the time you do laser. Number one, your skin is damaged. The last thing you want to do is laser skin that is damaged. You're asking for scar tissue, you're asking to damage your hairs and your hair follicles. Number two, the pigment hasn't had enough time to settle into the skin. When ink is placed into the skin, it's a liquid. It's a carrier, it's probably distilled water, some alcohol, some glycerin, maybe a little witch hazel in there, and also the pigment. When that is put into your skin, it takes time for your body to absorb all of those liquids, which will leave behind that pigment. If you laser a tattoo that was done yesterday, you're not going to see the reaction that you're looking for. It's not going to be effective and you're going to be wasting your money and just damaging your skin more than if you just left it alone.

And it works the other way too. If you just had laser and you want to go get your brows redone, we normally recommend waiting at least three months until you get the new tattoo. We think it's important when you do get a tattoo, especially if it's a fine line tattoo like nanostrokes or microblading, that your skin is perfectly intact before you apply the new tattoo.

And to the artists out there watching this, the only gripe I have really is that a lot of people are saying that they're doing a semi-permanent tattoo on somebody, and it turns out to be ultra-permanent. Like, it's not even coming out with the laser. So if you do the right thing and you tell people, "Hey, this is a permanent tattoo on your face," then you've done your job and you've informed your client. But if you tell them it's going to fade within a year or two or three years and it doesn't, then you're misrepresenting the service that you're providing. And we're dealing with people's faces here. This isn't like some ankle tattoo that they can cover with a sock. This can affect somebody's life either very positively or very negatively. So do the right thing and represent tattooing the way that it should be represented, and that is honestly.

Thanks again for tuning in to the FADED Podcast, and we'll catch you again next time.