Emergency Brow Removal

Emergency Pigment Removal - Handling the situation

How to handle a client's emotions when they are in a panic state seeking emergency removal

Let me explain a situation I recently had with a client who had micro blading and instantly disliked the results. My client contacted me within an hour of leaving the brow tech and found me through the Botched Ink ‘Find a Tech Page’, she was extremely upset and in a state of panic about the fact she had these huge dark brows and she knew they were permanent, she had them microbladed and had then gone for her top up and the brow tech got carried away (clients words) and the top up ended up being very dark and twice the size, so I knew this would be slightly more complicated than removing all fresh pigment as there would be healed pigment underneath, however still fairly fresh in the skin.

Clients will often do some very quick research in this situation which means they could pick up some mis information so my first port of call is to offer plenty of reassurance and explain exactly what I am able offer, however I wouldn’t have seen the brows at this stage or gained any information from the client so its important to manage expectations when offering this reassurance.

When clients arrive for this type of appointment they often want to get the treatment done as quickly as possible and get home, I find the consultation form process helpful in this situation because it gives the client time to relax a little bit, gives me time as a tech to understand exactly what has happened and then offer further reassurance and make a plan, creating a plan with your client of how your going to help them instantly provides a sense of relief for them.

Although it's tempting to plaster ‘bad work’ all over your socials because humans love to see a drama, it's really important that you put the feelings of your client first, even though they have likely ticked the box for you to share pictures on social media I would be very cautious to do this until you have firstly built a bit of a relationship with this client and secondly waited until they are not feeling so upset themselves.

With this client I talked about the situation on my instagram without showing any pictures and that alone attracted a lot of attention, once my client returned 8 weeks later with great results and feeling much happier about the situation I then felt it was appropriate to share.

It’s very important NOT to be pulled into bad mouthing another tech, regardless of how disastrous the work in front of your eyes is it’s unprofessional and creates a negative vibe during the appointment, remember it's about how your client feels when they leave.

Your client is likely to be feeling angry with the person who has done the work your removing and the last thing you want is for your client to be leaving your salon feeling just as angry and wound up, it can be difficult but once you’re past the consultation process do your best to steer the conversation away from any negative talk about the other tech or their experience, were all good at getting those conversations going with our clients so now's the time to use those skills.

The commitment to being an ‘on call’ emergency removal technician

If you’re like me and have a passion for not only brows but helping people look and feel better then you’ll understand that with emergency removal comes a level of commitment, this treatment has to be performed within 48 hours of the work being done and preferably as quickly as possible.

If it means getting up early on a Sunday morning and giving an hour of my time to help someone then that’s what I’ll do, my client above had her brows done on the Saturday afternoon and I knew getting her in Sunday would be more beneficial for the removal than leaving it til Monday, also leaving a client a whole day with brows they are in a panic about could lead to them doing something silly and turning to google for home remedies which we definitely do not want.

Emergency removals isn’t something that pops up every week (thankfully) so having that commitment and changing your own plans or moving some things around can go a long way.

How to manage the expectations of your client

You can get amazing results from emergency removal because it's fresh in the skin and removes easily however it’s still very important to manage your client’s expectations with this, your client will already be feeling upset about what their brows look like and we all know pigment removal isn’t a pretty sight when they first leave the salon, throughout the appointment I almost keep reminding them in a reassuring way that their brows will look red and inflamed when leaving but calm down and heal quickly.

By keep reminding of this throughout the appointment it provides a level of expectation therefore when you show your client at the end they feel ‘ok’ with how they are leaving… they’re not in anyway going to happy with the look because they already disliked something that you now is slightly more red and probably quite tender. However you’ve just had an hour with them to build that trust and clients generally leave feeling more grateful for your help than anything.

Talking through the process over the coming week is also important to ensure they know what to expect and I remind my clients a few times that I am always here for support and at the end of a message if they are unsure about the healing process at anytime and I do nearly always get a message pop up with a picture of the healing brows, again providing the support and reassurance helps build that relationship with your client and they will only ever speak highly of you to others for this, remember in this situation particularly its all about how you make the client feel rather than how you make them or their brows look.