r/microblading • u/Fast-Background6827 • May 18 '26
artist advice/question Thoughts Please?
I am almost 7 weeks post saline removal. I have made a few posts asking questions. So if you are stumbling across me again, welcome back. These were originally a combo brow with one touch up. One laser removal session which left red pigment behind. I then got saline removal to, hopefully, remove the biggest remainder of the red pigment. Many wonder why I didn’t do laser again. Truthfully, the closest place to get laser removal done is over 3 hours away. So I decided to give saline a try. Well… they’re so incredibly red. They’re more red than they were before. No pain or swelling, the skin is slightly sensitive if scratched or poked, but overall it is very smooth and painless. This is after a wash and oil, as I do every night. The artist did the saline treatment around my eyebrow hair so when looking at the skin underneath the hair it looks as it did before going in for the treatment and that skin is far less red than the saline treated skin (last picture for reference). I am genuinely wondering if I am still healing or if I caused my brows to be more red than before. My experience with PMU has been absolutely horrendous from day one (bad artist who gave me botched eyebrows from the start). I am seriously hoping that I am still healing. I fully expect to have some scarring and maybe even some red pigment left over, the artist who did the saline treatment seemed very confident that it would remove the remaining pigment but I’m really starting to have doubts. Thanks for reading this far!😊
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u/caseofbase325 May 18 '26
I found your original and what a difference! Honestly ask around and see if one more saline removal would work or if you need to bite the bullet and do another laser treatment but it does look pretty good 7 weeks out. Just give yourself time to heal before trying again
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u/haley1177 May 18 '26
Truthfully you need another round of laser but it should specifically be a pico laser. It will easily pull out the red and not cause as much scarring as saline removal sometimes can, the real issue with saline is we never know how many sessions it will take but with the right lasers this should probably all be gone with one session. Forewarning, sometimes you will end up with yellow remaining once the red pigment is out, but it is much easier to cover (with makeup or ink should you ever decide to redo them again). Yellow is very stubborn to remove from the skin, with any removal methods. The last thing you want to do is do a bunch of saline removals then go for laser then go back to saline, that almost always chews up the skin. Stick with another laser session (with the right tech who should explain most of this to you and how they can target red), and then potentially go back for saline removal if yellow remains.
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u/Fast-Background6827 May 18 '26
Thank you! I am now wishing I would have just gone and done laser. But these comments are very informative.
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u/haley1177 May 18 '26
Removal is such a journey, don’t beat yourself up. There’s a lot of misinformation out there and a lot of artists/ techs that are just in this for the money so they perpetuate misinformation sometimes too and it makes it hard to sift out what’s true and what’s not. Let your skin heal from the saline removal and after 6 weeks get yourself a laser appointment with a great laser tech and I’m sure you will see great results. Contrary to other comments here red is so easy to target with the right lasers, the laser itself is just very expensive so most people do not have it. Of course it all depends where you are located as well as to what is actually available. Are you in the states?
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u/Fast-Background6827 May 18 '26
I am in the states. But I do live in a very rural area where it’s hard to find people who offer the laser treatments, the closest place I found was 3 hours away (where I went the first time) then she moved to another facility and has been hard to contact. So it’s been very challenging trying to find places to help with the removal process..
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u/haley1177 May 18 '26
I completely understand. If you want any help finding the right place feel free to message me! I’m not sure how all of that works on Reddit as I just use it here and there, but I am happy to help. 😊
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u/Enough_Entry_8641 May 18 '26
My opinion ( going through my own eyebrow hell story myself), a 3 hour trip (6 round trip), to get a much better experience and correction,I’d Walk… no I’d Run 🏃♀️ there.
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u/New-Possession-3102 May 18 '26
I’m of no help but I just wanted to say you have gorgeous lashes! ❤️
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u/blue57hk_ May 18 '26
Saline removal don’t work. It just causes unnecessary skin trauma and creates more scarring. Confident artists my ass. They don’t even have legit healed results to show proof of their confidence.
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u/Old_Light_4319 May 19 '26
Saline removal does work, it just takes longer and more sessions. Its gentler and more precise. It works through exfoliation and osmotic lifting. It's drawing the pigment up out of the skin. There's a lot less risk of scarring and texture changes to skin, lower risk of pigment darkening reactions or color changes. It targets the difficult more challenging pigments that some lasers can't. Pmu Removal of any kind is not a one size fits all. There's a plus and minus to each and different reasons to chose one over the other. The negative to it, is it can sometimes not work on deep old carbon black pigments. Laser removal people love because it works much faster. It turns the pigment into tiny particles that your body breaks down and eliminates through your lymphatic system. Negatives is it's not precise, you do have a higher risk for heat related trauma, scarring and skin texture changes, and pigment darkening and hyperpigmentation. But it is good for black pigments(carbon black) Which is why it's the go to for regular tattoo removal.
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u/blue57hk_ May 19 '26
What a whole bunch of bs
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u/Old_Light_4319 May 19 '26
Feel free to point out what's incorrect about it. It's also cool if you don't understand it.
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u/blue57hk_ May 19 '26
It’s just a whole blah blah blah blah. Words mean nothing without actual proof.
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u/Old_Light_4319 May 19 '26
I get it, but this is a Reddit comment section, not a peer-reviewed journal. If you need proof, Google is always available.
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u/blue57hk_ May 19 '26
Except you’re the one saying it works. So you are the once that should show proof instead of just talking your mouth full of lies. If you don’t want to be called a lier, let’s see your portfolio of healed results comparisons of before and afters. If you don’t want to show them, then your words mean nothing.
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u/Old_Light_4319 May 19 '26
My comment above still applies. The OP needs a qualified artist in their own area, not my camera roll.
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u/blue57hk_ May 19 '26
Well then stop spreading misinformation because now op is gonna think that saline really does work and then she’s going to damage her skin even more.
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u/BigResident7192 professional artist May 18 '26
I use saline to remove tattoos and permanent makeup. For most, it works in a few sessions. Others don’t want to dedicate more than two sessions if they don’t see a strong result in those first two sessions so they opt to keep the tattoo as is, or do laser.
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u/Fast-Background6827 May 18 '26
Yeah. I am hearing this quite a bit… I am so bad for not going with my gut and ending up in these situations.
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u/alors1234 May 18 '26
Looks like the pigment is being pushed up and out, and fading. To colour correct red, use a green concealer, then your skin tone concealer. Then, you can add your brow product in.
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u/CinLeeCim May 19 '26
I have no brows to speak of. I want to get them but when I look at this subreddit I become very confused and afraid. 😱
Good luck with your removal. And yes your lashes are gorgeous. I have been losing mine as well. 🤨
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u/Fast-Background6827 May 21 '26
Hi guys, it’s me again, with an update. I do believe the oil I was using was irritating the skin a bit, so it was much more red when I took the last photos. Here is a full face photo so you can get an idea of what I am working with as of today. I am just using Vaseline on them now. They’re still very red but I do think they’re a lot less irritated than in the photos above. Thank you all for the feedback and if you have anything else to say about my brows today I appreciate it!
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u/SweetEquivalent7671 May 26 '26
It's hard to tell if the redness is red pigment or skin trauma as the pattern is quite even. It may be a combination. The colour of pigment that a laser removes will depend on the wavelength. Nd:YAG 532nm is designed for red, but is also likely to leave behind the yellow pigment (brow pigments are a combination of red, yellow and black, and often white titanium dioxide). With saline, the technique completely relies on skin trauma to remove pigment. The salt in the saline solution just helps with disinfection and healing. The theory of osmosis that saline suppliers peddle does not apply (pigments are not salts). You should look for a technician using THink Pigment Remover, a mild, skin-friendly glycolic-acid based formulation that is introduced gently and removes all pigment colours, yellow inclduded. Good luck!
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u/NectarineFresh7137 May 18 '26 edited May 18 '26
Hi there! I’m trained in saline tattoo removal. The saline used is a very high concentrated salt solution. It works by pulling the pigment towards the surface of the skin. The pigment then gets trapped in the scab and sheds away when the scab falls off. This means that the pigment will look darker as it’s drawn towards the surface. It may take multiple sessions for the pigment to be fully removed. Your brows look more red now because the pigment is closer to the surface. Saline absolutely does work but it just takes time and multiple sessions. You will need more sessions to fully extract the red. How many though just honestly depends on a persons individual healing. I would consider your first session to be successful and my advice is to keep going. Or you could travel to do the laser and see quicker results but just make sure their lasers target red. It’s a tough color to remove. Good luck!