100ms pulse for RJC2001

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

Hi, I had my third laser treatment using the lightsheer laser 6 days ago. The first 2 times I was treated with 30ms pulses and about 95% of my hair fell out after about 10 days. However, this time my tan took quite some time to fade so they decided to treat me with 100ms pulses on by chest/shoulder/back.
The hair started growing back 2 days after the treatment, and now (6 days after) when I try to pull them with tweezers, about only 10% slide out without resistance and the others feel like they are normal hairs so I don’t pull them out. Is this because of the longer pulse length? or will the rest fall out eventually? I am quite worried as I feel I should have waited longer and get trated at 30ms again!

Thank you for your help and keep this great forum going :smile:

#2

Did they also lower the fluence level since you were still tan? I have been treated with the Lightsheer at 100ms two years ago on the center of my chest and had better results than at 30 ms. Regrowth seemed to be much less than at the shorter pulse widths.

I would say that a lower fluence level and having some suntan left probably affected your results more than the pulse width.

Why don’t they use the longer pulse width? Because it takes longer to treat an area at that pulse width. The repetition rate is not quite as fast as at 30 ms.

I am a big fan of the Lightsheer. But if your skin is that dark you would have been better off with the Aurora or maybe a Nd:YAG laser like the Sciton or Coolglide. I tried the Sciton recently on my beard and was quite impressed with it. Very little post treatment redness and that was gone in a few hours. A week later clumps of hair fell out of my beard while shaving. I will have a follow up treatment in the end of May.

I prefer the Aurora over the Lightsheer for dark skin. But if the tan has faded and the skin is light, I say crank the Lightsheer up to 50J and blast away. I had a test spot on my beard with the Lightsheer and it smelled like my beard was on fire. It was painful but tolerable even without EMLA. There was quite a bit of redness and the sunburn feeling so we decided to go with the Sciton. That was the first time we used the Lightsheer on coarse hair that was previously untouched by laser and the hairs exploded out of the follicles like they did with the Apogee. ZZZZZZZZZAP! That’s a great sound to hear when having laser hair removal.

Your tan will fade eventually and you can go back to 30 ms if you want but I would try both settings on lighter skin and compare the results.

RJC2001

#3

Hi Rjc2001, is ther a reason you are not trying the Aurora on your beard?

#4

Thank you for the quick reply RJC,
I don’t remember what fluence I was treated at, I will probably give them a call tomorrow to inquire. However, I did feel the laser during the treatment and it hurt quite a bit even though I had used Maxilene (works like EMLA but u don’t need to be serane wrapped) and my skin was red for 4 days after the treatment. I guess I’ll give the hairs that are still firlmy planted another week or so to start shedding before I call the treatment a failure. I will shave in the meantime :smile:

Gabster

#5

Ok, its been 6 weeks and I just got my 4th treatment 4 days ago on my back and chest with the Lightsheer diode.
I lost most of my tan this time and was treated at 30ms pulses at 24 joules. My hair started growing 2 days after the treatment and now is about 1 or 2 mm long and still seems firmly attatched to the root.
My practitioner told me that it was normal to obtain average results on the 3rd treatment, and that I sould not be disapointed this time.
However, the hair that is growing back looks like natural hair, I had great results for my first 2 treatments at the same fluences.
My question is: will the hairs that look natural eventually shed or was the treatment a failure?

Thanks for ur help guys!

#6

If your tan has faded, 24 joules seems like a very low fluence. Did you have a new technician treat you and they were afraid to use a higher fluence?

I was treated at 50J at 100ms and that was probably the most effective laser or Aurora treatment I have had on my chest. The reason for using longer pulsewidths is to be able to use higher fluences with less skin damage. You can really feel the 50J but there was no scabbing and the results were very good!

Redhead, the reason we went with the Sciton was it had a longer track record for beards plus the hairs shed quicker with it. I had test spots with the Aurora and Lightsheer. They both worked very well. The Lightsheer test spot was very red for about a day but the spot is totally hairless. The Aurora had no redness and seemed to work pretty good too, but the spot did not show as much reduction maybe 50%. Plus, with the Aurora test spot, it took a few weeks to shed. The test spots were on my neck and other areas like the chin are more prone to swelling and redness so the Sciton appeared to be the best alternative and it has worked very well. Skin color was a factor too. I have total trust in my practitioner so I agreed to go with the Sciton. She has done a lot of beards and they swell and get red very easily and you have to be very careful there.

RJC2001

#7

Gabster, I suggest you to keep a log of your laser treatments for future reference:
Fluence (J), pulse duration (ms), date, and technician name.

I have had both 30 and 100 ms for my beard (hair is very dense and coarse), and always found 100 to be less painful.

By the way:
Energy (Joules) = Power (Watts) * Time (seconds)
Therefore at 100 you get less power but for a longer period.

#8

Thanks guys, but I don’t know if I could take much higher fluences, I used Maxilene (works like EMLA) and at 24 joules and 30ms pulses it still hurt a lot, my skin was really red after the treatment and a lot of hairs had popped out. I’ll mention that I want to try higher fluences next time and see how it goes!

#9

sorry to seem an ass but what are joules and ms? i am confused, i have spent so much money on laser without asking the technician anything like the power etc they use!

#10

Buzz, Joules is a unit of energy. Other units of energy you are familiar with are e.g. ‘calories’ (energy contained in food or that you burn exercising) or ‘kWh’ (what the utility company charges you for electricity).

For laser it really is Joules for a given surface, or J per square centimetre. This is refered to as the fluence. The higher the setting the more hair follicules will be damaged (but potentially more damage to your skin too and certainly more pain!)

‘ms’ means millisecond, a tenth of a second.

Gabster, I also use Maxilene (or Topicaine which is similar) and find it much superior to EMLA to manage the pain. It is also more convenient as you point out no Saranwrap is needed. It also works much quicker than EMLA (15-20 mins vs 1 hour).

#11

If you had a lot of hairs pop out during or after the treatment I would say that is not a failure.

RJC2001

#12

Hey guys,

Just came back from my 5th treatment for my chest and back. As you suggesterd RJC, I told my practitionner to up the joules which she did, but I could only take 27 joules, and it still hurt like hell!
She said a lot of hairs popped out which is a good thing, so I’ll wait and see what happens this time! How can anyone take 50 joules? lol, I wish I could!

Gabster

#13

Tolerance to pain, and responsiveness to laser will vary. Areas I had treated with the Lightsheer had finer hair than I started out with. Previous Apogee treatments made the hair finer so that probably required higher fluences. 28 Joules did absolutely nothing for me.

The fact that hairs popped out during treatment is a good thing. But that is not mandatory for effective treatment.

RJC2001