Correction is needed. Why does permanent makeup fade after healing?

Today I would like to discuss the main reasons why permanent makeup pigment partially or even completely fades after skin healing. This article will be useful both for masters and customers.

The first case: “a perfect result”

Sometimes after the first procedure, the pigment distributes evenly, without gaps, and the client is completely satisfied with the color and saturation of the permanent makeup. This is a rare, but possible case. This situation is a result of the highest skill and great master’s experience. Note, that the most important factor here is ideal skin – dry, without fibrosis, herpes recurrence, etc. And although the client can be 100% satisfied with the result, the master will anyway find something to correct. Permanent makeup technicians often rate their work much more critical than the clients and in most cases want to make some adjustments to achieve absolute ideal results.

The second case: “common”

Most clients after the first session get acceptable but not great result. The pigment takes root partially, and a partial yield of pigment occurs for the following reasons:

1. The permanent make-up technique have been chosen inaccurately by master or client.  For example, on oily skin “spray” or “feather” techniques are more preferable than “hairs” one
2. Increased lymph secretion displaces pigments from the skin and prevents their fixation. This situation happens pretty often due to many underlying reasons. The master can use secondary anesthesia with a vasoconstrictor effect, for example, Sustain. The client also shouldn’t consume alcohol 48 hours before the procedure.
3. Inexperience tattoo technician doesn’t  “feel” the skin enough and works in the uppermost layer of the epidermis. As a result, the pigment completely disappears together with the crusts during healing. But this does not mean that a master should go deeper every time. It is important to understand how deep he need to place the pigment and always take this moment under control.
4. Incorrect use of tint pigments. There is a division of pigments into basic and tint in most of palettes. Basic colors are dense and give more expressed covering effect in the work. Shading colors shouldn’t be used independently, as they don’t have a sufficient density of coloring particles. Every master should carefully study the recommendations for the pigments palette that he use.
5. Working on fibrous, scarred tissue. Effective work on scars and compacted skin can be achieved with very special technique. If your makeup technician ignores the specifics or lacks experience or nuances knowledge, the pigment may completely disappear after healing. The “spotting” of the result can also be caused just by the wrong master’s working methods on certain conditions.
6. Herpes prescription. Unfortunately, tattooing lips ends worse than it could for 98% of the clients because of this reason. Herpes consequences are able to “beat” the result of the work. As a rule, the problem spoils the contour or affects the density of the pigment. Preventive measures, even medication do not work 100% of the time. Therefore, it happens that one or two correction procedures are needed to bring the result to the ideal.
7. Violation of the post-procedure care requirements by the client. Accidental or intentional combing, tearing of crusts, prolonged contact with steam or water provoke the occurrence of the defects during healing.
8. The customers often begin to sound the alarm immediately after the descent of the crusts, although the final stabilization of color occurs only 3-4 weeks after the procedure. You need some patience.

In such cases, a permanent master should determine the cause of the pigment fading and and make the necessary corrections.

The third – “exceptional” situation

According to our experience, in this category fall from 2 to 7% of clients whose skin doesn’t root pigment at all. There is no clear explanation of the reason at the moment. But, usually, the cause is related to peculiarities of the skin metabolic processes. They are not visually identified during the examination. In this case, hormonal and some other drugs, diseases in the acute stage and the state of immunity are to blame. Our body is a very complex system, and it is impossible to predict ALL factors, as if the master painted on paper. If even after the correction procedure the pigment is rejected completely, the work on the errors has been carried out unsuccessfully, all the obvious reasons have been eliminated, and nevertheless the pigment does not take root again – you or your client did end up in the unfortunate few percent of the “unlucky ones.”

Victoriya Rudko, international permanent makeup trainer, leading specialist of the Pybo Academy (Ukraine)

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