I’ve got a couple of larger red moles, one on my chest and one on the side of my head.
I’ve heard to go to a dermatologist to have them removed, but was wondering if anyone had any experience with this. Is it painful? Does it bleed a lot? For how long? Does it irritate for a while afterward?
Thanks in advance!
PS - I also read about some “home remedies” for these as well. Any experience with any of these?
I’ve had moles removed in two different ways.
In the first the doctor uses a special contraption, or just a razor blade, to shave the mole off. The only painful part of this process is the numbing shots they give you beforehand. You keep antibiotic ointment and a band-aid on it for a week or ten days, then it’s healed. No big deal.
In the second kind the doctor has usually already done a shave biopsy, and determined that the mole is dysplastic. Then they want to cut out more tissue to be sure that all the abnormal cells are gone. This is also done in the doctor’s office with numbing shots, and usually has to be stitched up afterward. It requires a bigger bandage that needs to be changed twice a day, and you come back to have the stitches out two weeks later. While I have never been bothered by pain after having this done, they can bleed for a day or two afterward.
In the scheme of things, neither procedure is a big deal. The “omg omg omg they’re gonna cut me” nervous feeling beforehand is the worst part.
A “red mole” might well not be a mole (nevus) at all, but another kind of lesion, like a hemangioma (a benign tumor of capillary-sized blood vessels).
It is generally a dubious idea for physicians to shave off suspected moles, unless they feel they can get the entire lesion (misdiagnoses have occurred when a mole was only partially sampled and it was mistakenly characterized as benign based on the limited tissue obtained).
A much worse idea is to attempt self-removal of a pigmented lesion through a “home remedy”. There are escharotic-type salves sold over the Internet which are touted to burn off abnormal tissue while supposedly leaving normal skin unharmed. This is false, as they are nonspecific agents which damage skin (normal or not) and can cause major scarring and deformity. You also can’t tell with these salves whether or not the entire lesion has been removed, and potentially a malignant bit could be left behind to regrow or metastasize.
A physician of my acquaintance recently died of metastatic melanoma. Supposedly he had earlier self-excised a small pigmented lesion and threw out the tissue without having it evaluated by a pathologist. 
I had one of these on my ribcage right under where my bra sits. It totally freaked me out when I noticed it (it was blocked by a boob) when putting on lotion.
My dermatologist explained what it was and removed it because it would’ve been irritated by my bra strap if it continued to grow. I have no idea how much it bled because…well, boob in the way, and I didn’t watch the dermatologist remove it.
She numbed it up and did a quick shave biopsy. It has healed and is now a weird little blue-ish mark. No problems, ten or so years later.
My son had a mole removed from the back of his neck in December. The experience was much like the others said. They numbed it with a tiny needle and removed it. This part was done at the dermatologist and it was a piece of cake. My son was fine. Then, it was sent to a pathologist and identified as highly irregular. The dermatologist was shocked! He had told us he was 99.99 % certain it would come back normal. We were then referred to a plastic surgeon who did an excision. He has tiny dissolvable stitches which you cannot see, but my son says you can slightly feel if you run your finger over the scar. Right now the scar is still a little pink spot and at some point will fade and remain as just a small, skin-colored scar.
Because of that experience, I would always personally choose going to a dermatologist over using the home products.
My experiences are like Sattua. It’s not a big deal, and done by a real dermatologist (not your primary care physician).
In fact, I encourage anyone with a suspicious mole or dark spot on their skin to get looked at by a dermatologist. I was lucky and got an aggressive one that cut moles off now, and asks questions later (after biopsy). Turns out one of them was melanoma - so I had the surgery (as Sattua says, to get more tissue, and ensure all the bad cells are gone).
Have a loved-one take a look at places not conveniently visible to you (you know what I mean - scalp, back, under-carriage), and anything unusual, go to a dermatologist. It’s not worth your life gambling with home remedies for this stuff.
Thanks for the replies all!
The “home remedies” I was talking about were things like mixing tea tree oil and something else and applying it, nothing like trying to remove it with a knife. But based on some of the replies, I’ll skip this.
I guess I need to go to the dermatologist, but am a bit concerned how I’ll keep the one on the side of my head bandaged (it’s right in the middle of my hair). I’m guessing they’ll have to shave around it?
I had a couple of growths removed from my scalp. I’m a guy, so YMMV, but I didn’t have any problems with the hair. They trimmed out enough to remove the cyst and put on a small bandage, but not enough to bother me.
If you are referring to not a mole but what is commonly called a strawberry or a nevus I have had several removed. My dermatologist said they are not like regular moles. My reason for removing them was purely vanity. He did not scrape them off like a regular mole but used a small contraption about the size of an immersion blender. It had what looked like sewing machine attachment on it. I am not sure what it was or why he used it. It did not hurt much at all, just like having a blood sample taken. The bandage was very small and the healing did not take much time at all. Easier and quicker than a regular mole removal.
Tea tree oil won’t work, although it may irritate the skin enough to make you feel like it’s doing something. The salves **Jackmannii **refers to are often called “black salve” or “drawing salve” or “ichthamol ointment,” and I agree with him that they’re a bad idea. (And he and I don’t often agree on the dangers of home remedies, if that tells you anything; I’m a godless herbalist woomeister.) Skin abnormalities are definitely worth doing through a doctor; lots of people used to die from undiagnosed skin cancers when all we had were herbs and salves. Ichthamol is sometimes prescribed for infections by doctors; then it’s a good idea…but no reputable doctor is removing moles or cancer with it.
I’ve had a bunch of moles removed (five or six, I think? I stopped counting) and they’re not a big deal. Mine all scarred pretty badly, because my body is a champion at making scar tissue. But scars are better than cancer, eh? The only one that really bothers me is the one on my head, because it’s a little round bald spot and I have to be careful to part my hair to cover it. Otherwise, it’s a little ouchy pinchy as they numb it, and they may suture it, or they may cauterize it. Cautery means burning the hole with an electric probe to stop the bleeding and seal it off from infection…it stinks to high heaven, which is disconcerting, but it doesn’t hurt.
I was going to have two removed but the first one bleed soooooo much I chickened out on the second one. I’m talking a pint or two before the Dr. got it to stop. The nurse was looking really scared.
I might add that having a mole removed from the scalp is likely to bleed more than other areas. I enhanced the bleeding by having ibuprofen in the days prior to my treatment - I became patient of the week! Key learning: don’t take vitamin I before surgery of any kind. 
I wish my dermatologist was more aggressive. Both of my parents have ongoing skin cancers, and I lived in Florida for 30 years. I didn’t wear daily sunscreen for 15 of those years. I’m fair-skinned and blue-eyed.
And I have to repeat this any time I see the derm for a suspicious lesion. I’d like to write “THIRTY YEARS IN FLORIDA” on my chart in red marker.
Thanks again, all. I made my appointment with the dermatologist. They’re booked a month out, so my appointment isn’t until 05/12.
So… this thread isn’t about Kim Philby, then?