but that thicker hair should eventually fall out and discontinue growth after the treatment completes right?
No. If you experience Laser induced growth is pretty much impossible to sort out with further laser.
In all cases except where a woman has extremely coarse (like a man's beard) hairs, which are deeply rooted and generally confined to the chin/under chin area, the hair on the face of a woman is too fine to respond well to Laser. If you read the first post carefully, you will understand why.
I have thick/coarse hair on my chin induced by plucking and fine but dark on the cheeks. What sort of an improvement should i expect. I am told i have stubborn and in grown hair and it could require up to 10 treatments
I would suggest you only treat the chin area, if any.
You should be able to get rid of the coarse hair but you may induce finer hairs in the surrounding area.
You shouldn't need that many treatments if they start off with good settings and space treatments properly (about 8 week intervals for the face). 6 treatment, properly spaced are enough to get each cycle at least once, some cycles will be treated twice. There is no need for 10 treatments unless they are under-treating you or having you comeback every 4 weeks.
Do you mean pigmentation and discolouration? I know what you mean as I suffered the same. It took two years after my acne stopped for the pigmented scarring to fade. And no my skin looks so good, people find it hard to believe how bad my acne was.
I am going to try my first chemical peel next week!
Do you mean pigmentation and discolouration? I know what you mean as I suffered the same. It took two years after my acne stopped for the pigmented scarring to fade. And no my skin looks so good, people find it hard to believe how bad my acne was.
Its been 5 days since i got my first hair removal treatment. I noticed on my chin the thick hair thats growing is very weak and falls off if i exfoliate the area. I dont know if its being pulled from the exfoliation or naturally coming off. Is that normal or should i not touch at all <----its hard to do that lol
This is shedding. This is what happens after a treatment. The treated hair are no longer attached in the follicle and are not growing but being ejected from the follicle. This doesn't mean the follicle is destroyed in regards to hair producing ability though. You will only find that out after about a year, when it's time for this cycle of hair again, the follicles may still be producing hairs.
I hope you will wait the 8 weeks between treatments like I suggested.
I actually got a voucher for $99 at 90% discount which includes 6 thirty minute sessions but it expires in March so it leaves me only 4 weeks in between each treatment to use all the 6 sessions. But i will continue with more treatments afterwards and stretch them apart in time but right now i will be doing it after 4 weeks.
So i guess the hair is just shedding i was worried that the hair may be shedding because its so week and the exfoliating may be pulling it out.
Well, in 4 weeks you will only have the beginning of the next cycle of hair coming through. So very little of that cycle will be treated. You will probably spend most of this time (between these 6 sessions), not having much hair but don't get carried away, it is an illusion because you are never letting the full cycle emerge.
The hair is shedding because it's not connected to the blood supply any more.
I think you got a a Groupon? What Laser are they using?
Yes it was from Groupon. As horrible as it sounds i do not know what kind of laser they are using. They run a questionaire to determine my type but i didnt ask what kind they will be using. I am doing it 4 weeks just so i could use the 6 sessions. I figure there was no harm to get more than needed treatments since im not paying for them and since the hair on my chin is so coarse i assumed it would be helpful if anything. I didnt want to let it expire.
Not having hair is what i want lol that will keep me from plucking
and i would be getting more treatments than normally required but im not paying extra so im okay with that
Well, in 4 weeks you will only have the beginning of the next cycle of hair coming through. So very little of that cycle will be treated. **You will probably spend most of this time (between these 6 sessions), not having much hair but don't get carried away, it is an illusion because you are never letting the full cycle emerge.
**The hair is shedding because it's not connected to the blood supply any more.
I think you got a a Groupon? What Laser are they using?
Treatments sooner than they should be are less effective. It's always better to treat as much of the next hair cycle as possible and when they are in the later anagen stage (not when they have just started growing). This is because the hairs will be thicker in later anagen and can therefore absorb more of the Laser energy, so there is more chance it will be effective.
It's radiation, you need a certain dose in a fraction of time for the cells to be damaged beyond repair. It's not a matter of more treatments. Let's say you need '10' to damage the cells beyond repair. Some hairs will never absorb enough energy to produce a 10, so it doesn't matter how many times you treat them, the follicles will never be destroyed. They will continue to produce hairs. Low settings can also mean the hair does not absorb enough energy, even if it is thick enough.
You might think it's great that you may be hair free between these treatments but you are ignoring whether they are effective or not in the long term (isn't that what you want?) and also you will not get to monitor whether the hair is decreasing as the treatments progress. So you will really have no idea until you stop completely and wait some months. You may be doing the equivalent of waxing without even knowing it.
I have heard from far too many people who have invested time and hope into Laser treatments working only to have them fail and often end up with more hair, leaving them devastated, that I don't think anyone should take them lightly.
Hi stoppit, I had about 3 treatments of laser on my lower legs and I stopped, my last treatment was about 10 months ago. Although, the hair growth has reduced by about 70%, the hair around the knee area seems to be the same, is that common? Also do u think its worth going for another treatment?
What is the hair like? Is it fine? My fine hair on/around the knee was not affected. This is pretty common from what I know. Also, I do not think most techs take as much care when treating around the knee. You shouldn't have the legs flat, you need to bend them so the skin is stretched. On top of that, since knee skin is darker, they either don't treat it or have to lower settings.
I think you can get further reduction on the lower leg. Mine is about 90% with the last 10% being extremely fine, so I think you can get further reduction if any of the remaining hair is thick. But you need to make sure the settings are as high as you can handle. If it's fine hair , then further treatments probably won't do anything. Thighs generally respond less well to Laser, so if you have about 70-80% reduction there, I think that's all you're going to manage.
Thanks Stoppit, I am well glad to see ur still around sharing ur wisdom with us all. The hair around the knee area is not entirely thick but it isn't fine either so I guess another treatment would do me good. Thanks. x
Lol no probs. They will probably test patch you again since it's been a while since your last treatment. Make sure it's at least the same as the highest previous settings you had. Also, to maximise the treatment, make all the present hair in anagen by waxing 2-3 months before your appointment. It will then all be growing (anagen) hair and therefore you may only need 1 more treatment.
I had severe case of hirsutism during my teenage years. I had 3 laser treatments on my face when I was 18.
The doctor who did my laser was excellent. She frankly told me that laser will remove the existing hairs but can't stop more hair from growing as it's hormonal. She also told me that whenever u do ur laser, always ask for the laser machine that suits darker skin tones. After 3 treatments more than 50% of hair was gone. Most of that hair never came back.
After 10 years , I'm again getting laser done on my face and arms and underarms .I'm currently on my 6th treatment. with each treatment around 6-8weeks apart.I had around 80% reduction on my face and under arm, a bit less on my arms.( I have dark coarse hairs on my face and a bit thin on my arms).
The few things I learned from doing laser was( that's just my opinion).
It takes around 6-10 treatments to get rid of all of ur hairs. And u will need touch up treatments after that once or twice a year.
U should know whats the intensity , spot size of ur treatment. Below 10 j is just waste of money. The intensity should be increased for each treatment. I have been on from 12-18j. It can go upto 24 depending upon ur skin and hair type. It's more effective this way.
and fine but dark on the cheeks. What sort of an improvement should i expect. I am told i have stubborn and in grown hair and it could require up to 10 treatments