Just wondering if these GentleLASE setting are too low for brazilian and underarm treatments (first treatment and touch ups.)
I did have good shedding and redness, not all follicles were raised though.
And help on this would be greatly appreciated!
18J on 15mm spot size is low. 18J on 18mm is good (if your skin can handle it). You should make a test first to see it its safe for the skin.
Okay, thank you so much for the help, I was thinking it might be too low. Should I ask my provider to raise the settings? She doesn’t seem to want to … Also, if I do a test spot, how long should I wait to see the results? She only waited about 5 minutes on the first test spots I received.
Worst case scenario, if she refuses to raise the settings - how far back will that potentially put my progress?
Thanks!
You should make a test and wait a couple of days to see if the settings were safe for the skin (if you make a test with 18J/18mm or 16J/18mm). Those depend on your skin type. I am between type 2 and 3 and can handle 18J/18mm and after 3 sessions I used 20J/18mm. But thats me. Thats why you should make a test first. And actually its even better to wait 10 weeks after the test if you want to see not only if the settings were safe, but also if they were effective, because by that time you will see the results. To wait just 5 min is ridiculous. Usually underarms is easy to treat area.
Well, she told me last time she didn’t even have 18 mm “put on” her machine, because she doesn’t think it is needed. She said we will up the joules on subsequent treatments, but probably not spot size. I asked her to explain this, and she said that because we do touch ups, we are getting the areas missed in the inital treatment.
So what I am gathering is that she will keep me at 15mm for the remaining treatments (tx 2 and 3) and raise the joules, (in her own words) to in the 20’s.
Do you think this will still be effective? I do have course, dense, dark hair.
I personally don’t have experience with the 15mm spot size. But I think even with 20J, on 15mm is not very high. On 15mm she can go up to 30J, and on 18mm up to 20J. Most probably she has the Gentlelase LE Edition which has only the 15mm spot. I hope someone here can answer your question.
Okay, would it mean anything to you if I said that I’ve experienced about 95% shedding 1-week post tx 1 in the entire brazilian area, and also saw redness and raised hair follices after treatment… I even had a little hyperpigmentation in a few small spots in that area.
However, on the flip side, didn’t experience as good of shedding in underarms. I’d say about 50%. Also didn’t notice as significant of redness, and didn’t even observe any raised follicles after treatment.
Shedding is good sign. Shedding starts at about 1.5 weeks and can last 4 weeks. So 95% is really good. Wait a bit more (if now you are in the 1st week after tx) and maybe the rest will also shed. Also for the underarms. After the third week you going to see how effective it was. Whatever didn’t shed, means that either your hair there is not dark and coarse enough at this area, or low settings, or missed spots. If you really think that she missed spots on the underarms go back in for touch up.