Problems with Hair Removal Around Stoma: Seeking Advice

When I arrived home from the hospital experience we've all had the pleasure of tasting, I was actually being launched into a new world order with a newborn baby turd machine complete with its own artificial intelligence. We've all got one or had one, you know,.. it's that adorable blossoming red thing trying to eat its way out of your flipping (trying to keep the language down a bit today) abdomen. I thought it wouldn't be easy and like everyone else it wasn't, so I've had my share of problems and glitches, enough to moan about but I can assure you all that my problems fade into insignificance when I think of the distressful and soul-destroying conditions some of our ostomates have to bear.

After the first couple of days back home, I realized that I would have to address an issue which I knew I would have but I was too 'thick' to realize how soon and literally how dedicated I would need to be. This is genuinely no biggie but it natters the sodding shite out of me (well, I did try. Quite soon I decided to go for the long option, you know... remove long term! So my first mistake was to listen to the friendly advice, freely given from known assassins, AKA, trusted family members! With this advice, I decided to ''Nair'' the stoma patch to give me a lovely hair-free heaven. Now if any unsuspecting vulnerable person would like to try this, I recommend a quality life insurance because this stuff is now logged in my how to perform Homus Suicidus. Maybe some people can use this with good results but my trial was disastrous with severe blowlamp burns and blisters over the whole area. It happened so quick I couldn't clean it off in time to stop it. Its nature is such that you have to leave it on for about 4 to 5 mins, by this time cleaning it off is too late, the damage is done and believe me it's painful then cleaning it off. After that, wearing a bag is no easy task but has to be done. I do shave and have a number of different electric razors which are well suited to the job until it comes to the stoma and there are a number of sneaky buggers almost part of the stoma, if I leave them, I dread to even think about it. I manage alright, but wonder how many others have this as one of their problems, or just dislikes, and also wonder has anyone tried laser treatment,... not that I even contemplate the professional anti-aircraft weapons they have in the high street treatment parlors, I lean more towards the home use handheld laser units around 200 to 300 GB Pounds/Dollars. I have now had 12 months of nipping, pulling, and itching under the wafer with the adhesive tugging at the hairs no matter how small they are after shaving. Like I've already said and I know it isn't life-threatening,... I'm just fed up with it.

So, has anyone had any experience of using such a device, or perhaps know of someone who has.

Many thanks,

Brian.

Hi, there!! Nair is not good, I've heard!! I just use a regular razor and dump the blade afterwards... Not cut throat type!! This not only gives a great close, smooth shave but also removes any sticky crap that won't easily come off. I leave one nail a little longer and scrape off anything not removed by the razor. There is often one or two long hairs around, very close to the actual stoma. I use the longer nail to grip them and pull them out. I wouldn't use a tweezers, you could nick the stoma and if used it has to be fairly sterile. You can get right up to the edge of the stoma without danger, make sure your nails are clean!! One more thing, drag the razor towards the stoma. Do not start at the stoma going outward. You could possibly nick the stoma if you drag the razor from the stoma outwards because the stoma is out of view for the first bit. I get twice as much wear from each bag after a razor shave because the skin is nice and smooth.

Just my two cents, good luck

I used to shave for around the first 20 years of having a stoma (I was always told to use a woman's disposable razor as they're more gentle on the skin. To be honest, they don't look any different to me, but I'm no expert on the matter). But ingrown hairs were causing too many skin issues. My stoma nurse recommended using hair removal cream. I can't remember which brand I used. She told me to try it on the opposite side of my stomach first to make sure it was safe for me. That went well, so I used it around my stoma for a while without any issues. I just found it was too much of a palaver using it, so I went for the first option the nurse advised. She said threading is the best way to remove hair, but you will never get anyone to do it for you around a stoma. So I adapted it to using tweezers. I just spend a few minutes popping hairs out each time I change. I even find it very therapeutic. I've been popping the little fellas out for over 10 years now, never had any more ingrown hairs, and have very healthy-looking skin around my stoma. They even used a pic of my skin at a recent UK ostomy event.

Hi B,

Wow... thanks for that warning!! I have friends in the UK that work at Cosworth, so when I see a Brit write something I can hear it said with a British accent in my brain when I read it... and your post had me laughing my ass off! Not because of what happened to you, but because I could hear and visualize you saying it! And thanks for posting this because other ostomates might have the same idea... and end up with the same disastrous results.

If you go checkout Nair and other hair removal chemicals you'll find they should NEVER be put on any sensitive or wounded skin. The result will be chemical burns as you experienced with the symptoms of redness and blisters forming. It says on this wonderful interweb that if left on sensitive skin longer than just a few seconds it could turn to vomiting, dizziness, fainting, and weakness. The active ingredients in stuff like Veet and Nair are "salts of thioglycolic acid like potassium thioglycolate or calcium thioglycolate in combination with bases such as calcium, sodium, or potassium hydroxide. The bases serve two purposes. They cause the hair to swell, opening its keratin fibers to allow thioglycolate to penetrate. The bases also remove the proton on thioglycolate's thiol group. Once thioglycolate's proton leaves, its sulfur atom is free to attack the hair protein's disulfide bonds. Break enough of those, and the hair degrades completely and can simply be wiped away." Unfortunately, so does most wounded or sensitive skin too!!! Yikes!

So Brian... I know you're anxious to publish your book entitled "What NOT to do when becoming a new ostomate!", but please check in with the good folks here... or with your new-found ostomy nurse (when you find him/her) before you go listening to those good intentioned folks (like family members) who really have no experience with such things. They are of course wanting the best for you, but if I listened to everything my family members have suggested I'd be long gone by now. Hmmm... I wonder...

Cheers!

;O)

Brian and w30bob (not to be confused with WD40)

You both provide very informative posts as well as my daily dose of required medication aka humor. Why just the other day while I was extracting a painful wayward "pube" which was attached to the adhesive tape, it dawned on me there must be ostomates out there with bigger problems...hairy bellies...and I wondered how they handle that in terms of attaching appliances.
Voila... the answers to my inquiring mind can always be found right here on this, my favorite website!

Brian,

So maybe this is one time it's easier-ish to be a woman? I don't know what your Grace Ellen would have to say about that. Your word choice of shite had me laughing... I was watching an 'Irish' movie (American actors in Ireland) with my daughter and they said shite enough where she noticed and asked if that meant the same as our 's' word. If you knew my daughter you could already see the wheels turning in her head. She will bulldoze anyone or anything in her way if she finds an opening. She's been practicing her former Soviet Union accent... and says over and over "I want some vodka, would you like some vodka? We have vodka, vodka is like our water, etc" (she'll be 12 in a month ish). I don't know why but she needs to use the word vodka to get the accent going... super proud mom moment whenever she does that. But now in her head, shite is where she starts off trying to mimic an Irish accent and I try really hard to keep a straight face but she knows I think it's funny and she's had laryngitis so it sounds even more funny.

Hi Mayoman, thanks for the info and advice, it's all taken on board I can assure you, and hi Ben, I dread to think of your plight, being tied to a chair having your 'New Pubes' torn out of your don't go there bits, because I shit you not buddy, I'm already week at the knees thinking about you doing it alone. It gives me shooting pains up my old arse just to read about it and I'm sure your fine country has an award for your bravery, I tip my hat to you Ben.

Hya Bob, thanks for answering and I hope I've helped some other unaware novice from... lack of common sense really,because the common sense is all about seeking out the right kind of help and as you so often tell, its all usually here for easy access... just ask! But ME!!.. My wife has plenty of pet names Bob, arsehole comes to mind, shit for brains, her favourites are words like,.. worm,. uttered nice and slowww, Truthfully its all in good taste hahaaa!.... I think? I tend to bluster in without much thought, although to be fare I think about it quite a lot and then jump in without giving a flying shite and get stung. Now I really appreciate the technical breakdown you've included in your run down on which Napalm device was planted in my Nair but with the Hi Tech language, I'm afraid you lost me at thuglicoat salts and penetration. A book could be good though with a list of named family genderless hit men, ( work that one out though ) worth a packet with the Ruskies.

You're right with 'accent' Bob, lovely West Yorkshire born and bread.

Look after yourselves guys,

Brian.

Hi Jodie, I think you may be right about being a woman. With regard to your daughter, it sounds as if she is destined to do well in this world 'cause it takes some amount of determination and straightforward thinking to get on in this modern diabolic world which seems almost set to trip up our youth,... the most tech-savvy kids this world has ever seen. I know you will do it right Jodie and nowadays they will need all you've got, sorry I don't wish to appear too over the top'

As odd as this may sound, I am of Irish descent and have an Irish surname but we've only traveled over once for a full month's drive round journey of the famous stunningly beautiful Emerald Isle. Unfortunately, and fortunately, I normally drove my wife and I to my wife's family in Italy each year for 35 years, so we waited a long time to see Ireland but on the good side practically all my father's family lived in our area here in the UK anyway. Ireland,...Lovely Island,... Lovely people.

When you mention your daughter and Vodka, it brings back a memory of my father when he was alive, he used to laugh about my childhood and tell us that when I wouldn't sleep, he would slip me a shot of his best Whisky and away I went to the fairies as he would say, oh boy, I think he might get a visit from the English Bobbies nowadays though! Maybe your daughter could learn 'less o' the shite an' gi' Mae' a shot of Whisky' slightly exaggerating the w and h together, or in a good old Irish Gaelic accent.

You work hard with your family, I wish you all well.

I think if I called my son an English Bobbie he would die of embarrassment, they are now of course,... Police Officers

Brian

I tried to get a professional laser removal treatment but nobody would "risk" it because I was a "medical risk." So I bought my own handheld unit but it didn't help very much. Now I use a men's razor, shaving brush, and cream, and finish off with tweezers. I shave in the opposite direction to the hair growth. With a steady hand, I can tweeze hairs right at the base of the stoma. A tilting mirror is a must in order for me to see what's going on, especially underneath the stoma. I wish I had gotten the pro laser treatment before the surgery.

You'd be laughing either with me or at me. I think I might need a gin and tonic to keep trying to emphasize the W and H together. I might regret this analogy but when I try to do it, it reminds me of when a horse blows air out its mouth. I'll have to find an online pronunciation because my daughter learns by hearing it.

Jodie, it's closer to the horses, for a broad old Irish accent, by using the lips to make the W and lightly but quickly blow the W as for a tiny feather whilst leading immediately through into isky. Try it for a while and progress to the same technique lessening the lip movement and passing the air more through the mouth. A true Irish resident may prefer it nearer to his own local dialect. At first I thought you may think it silly but I thought may enjoy the exercise,

Hope she likes it,

Brian.

So just in case you didn't know it, Brian, you're hilarious. Thanks for all the laughs. Jeanne PS there's some pretty funny people on this forum. Winks at Jodie and Bob

Brian, were you a speech pathologist?; Jeanne

You know Brian, that was actually very helpful and timely. Some friends introduced us to a Japanese family tonight. The guy is with the Japanese Air Force but training here with the US for another school year. My son had been with our friends for hours before we got there, so he runs out and tells us how to say hello, but then he starts trying to get me to repeat another word. He was getting me to say "poop" over and over again. Their children are younger, so I'm going to get permission to go into their school buildings to help with their ESL. I haven't formally taught/tutored ESL or conversational English in several years. I can be a typical American who talks fast and I use my hands a lot when I'm talking, which we were laughing about tonight because they definitely don't use their hands when communicating. So we joked about me sitting on my hands, but then it's like I forget how to talk. I ask the kids how my pronunciation is because an adult might smile and try to be polite, but a kid will correct me until I get it right. I was told I would be given a lot of autonomy to get an ESL program up and running, but realistically I wouldn't be able to get it going until winter. So for now, conversational English hangouts and volunteering at the kids' school. Since my son had me saying "poop" on repeat, I volunteered him to help with the kids as well.

And what your post was originally about... laser therapy/treatments. I've been getting laser treatments to help get scars to heal, so not for hair specifically, but there's no hair where I've had treatments, but it's not like I was battling that to begin with. My dermatologist gave me information about a different type of laser therapy to try next, but I don't know if it's covered by insurance and I don't remember what the purpose of that one is.

Lions and tigers and lasers.........oh my! Ok, for all those that can't have laser treatments done.........here's the next best thing. It's stupid cheap, lasts forever and cuts incredibly close to the skin. I've had mine for over 10 years and it's still going strong. When it came time to replace the blade and foil screen I found it was cheaper to just buy another new razor........but couldn't toss out my decade old friend to save a couple bucks. They sell online anywhere from 14 to 30, and Amazon has them now for about 27. I use rechargeable batteries in mine, cuz I hate throwing batteries into our landfill, but you can do it either way. You can get it wet and it's practically indestructible. And if you lose it or do somehow break it.......who cares........just get another one.....they're that cheap. There's no better deal in electric razors!!

;O)

https://shop.panasonic.com/personal-care/shavers-and-trimmers/electric-shavers/es3831k

Lookin' through my 'lectric razors right now, Bob, but I reckon (think), as a gypsy neighbor used to say, "If a man wanted a 'lectric razor, Bob, he'd be looking at yours right now!" Old logic says, never doubt a gypsy, the buggers'll put a spell on you and you'll never have any luck.... I've tried, and never worked that one out,.. bit of Grace Ellen wisdom there so don't ignore that.. 's'written in stone.

Thanks for the concern though, Bob.

Brian.

I use a 9 bikini razor, small, very portable, and battery-operated. I'm quite hairy in that area. I find that I can shave the area once a week as I change my bag, and it keeps everything under control. Oh, and did I say it is quick!
I also pluck one or two that it misses near my stoma.
Jim

From Walmart

I use this....

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My routine is to shave with double blade disposal labeled for "sensitive" skin, use the Convatec Allkare remover to clean adhesive. Some removers have a lot of alcohol and really burn after shaving but this one is pretty decent. Next, I clean all around the stoma with mild soap, rinse thoroughly. Now those little stray hairs will pop up, remove with tweezers. Usually, I get a good clear skin surface so the wafer sticks, use Hollister for that and bag. Sometimes, I do get ingrowns or sore spots but this has worked for me for years. It takes longer than 15 minutes but so far no major issues.