16J cause temporary blistering

I just had my 4th laser treatment at 16J, 18mm spot size, Candela GentleLase, skin type II. AND immediately after the treatment my bikini area was covered in red bubbles, they went away immediately after applying aloe, so I guess it isn’t a big deal.

I didn’t notice blisters in my underarm area and was wondering if this is because I didn’t use the numbing cream for my underarms. – There may have been some blistering in the underarms but b/c the bikini area is treated after the underarms the blistering may have faded before I had a chance to see.

Should I be concerned about increasing the joules for my next treatment?

Here is a pic of some of the blisters in the bikini area. They looked much worse before I had a chance to take the picture (before I applied aloe). Redness & blisters after 16J

Yes you should.

I had the same thing on my foot, two small bubbles, and like you, aloe was applied. Now, almost a year later, I have scars there. I’m not kidding about this, I have actual scars there. Just forget laser, it’s too easy to get skin damage that will last a lifetime. Go with electrolysis. I’m glad I did. Besides, you’ll have to go to an electrologist anyway, because lasers don’t get everything. Might as well find one now and save your skin.

Mantaray

Thank you for your concern, but it has been three days now and all of the redness has disappeared. My skin looks fine now. I am concerned about increasing the laser strength, but the previous blisters were just temporary.

there is a big difference between a “blister” and just a bit of redness and/or raised follicles. the picture is not working for me, so I can’t actually judge by seeing it. can you upload to photobucket.com and repost the link?

NORMAL reaction is a bit of redness and raised follicles for up to three days. That’s actually a sign of GOOD effective treatment. Mantaray had a bad experience, but this isn’t enough information to decide that you have the same thing, which is even more obvious now that you state it’s completely gone.

the problem you had before is that you didn’t see much because 10 joules is very low on GentleLASE. at good settings, you SHOULD be seeing a reaction on your skin. It’s temporary and only affects the hair, not the skin. Blistering is a sign of a burn and it’s not common. If you had that, it would start peeling in a few days and would definitely feel like a burn.

I had the same thing on my foot, two small bubbles, and like you, aloe was applied. Now, almost a year later, I have scars there. I’m not kidding about this, I have actual scars there. Just forget laser, it’s too easy to get skin damage that will last a lifetime. Go with electrolysis. I’m glad I did. Besides, you’ll have to go to an electrologist anyway, because lasers don’t get everything. Might as well find one now and save your skin.

This is an interesting quote. I am involved in a trade association in Texas which is made up mostly of electrologist who also do laser hair removal. All of them state categorically,that lasers are safer on skin than electrolysis. This is in keeping with the results of electrolysis that I have seen.

So are you sure they are scars? I’ve often seen people who report something similar to what you are describing who actually just have hyperpigmentation. And that can take a long time to go away in some cases. If it gets sun, it can take over a year.

Jessica-

I had the same type of reaction after my last couple of treatments on back and shoulders with a different laser. It faded away as it sounds like yours did.
I would not worry too much about increasing joules next time as long as the increase is a relatively small increase. My opinon from my experience. Good luck.

Hi, Sorry about the pic.

I took the pictures minutes after the laser treatment. The little bubbles went away as soon as I applied aloe, you can see a few in the right side of the pic.

It wasn’t just the hair follicle that became swollen, the bumps were about the size of a dime. Maybe a little smaller. They weren’t very raised, but enough to worry me, but not the tech.

My main concern is increasing the strength next time. Is 16J at 18mm strong enough to finish the treatments?

picture again

[image]http://www.laserhairremovaljournal.com/Before-After-Pictures/Fourth-Laser-Hair-Removal-Treatment/Minutes-After-Fourth-Laser-Treatment/Bikini-1.jpg[/image]

this is completely normal and is a sign of effective treatment. you should only be concerned if any effects persist over 3 days.

Every single electrologist I know, or have known, unfailing states that electrology is far, far safer (and more effective) for the skin than a high powered laser. Having a medical school education, yes, I am qualified to say a scar is a scar. This lady is blistering, she needs to be careful of her health.

Mantaray

ps: I’ve had a great experience! Electrology works wonders!

Every single electrologist I know, or have known, unfailing states that electrology is far, far safer (and more effective) for the skin than a high powered laser. Having a medical school education, yes, I am qualified to say a scar is a scar.

About the electrologist; Really? Then please look up testimony presented by electrologists who testified in front of the Texas Legislative Committee on Public Health over the last two years. Look up testimony concerning HB3178 from two years ago. The testimony should be available somewhere on line.

The problem when people make comments like yours which are so absolute, is that they begin to be less credible and more trying to prove a point.

I have to kind of wonder about your objectivity. On your profile, you list a website for an aesthetic company as your homepage. Fair enough, but you sell electrolysis equipment. Again, a conflict of objectivity.

And as far as your scar. Let’s see some high quality photographs. I’ve met many doctors who don’t know a scar from a scar.

I’m really getting tired of this Mantaray guy… As sslhr said this guy has a website on his profile that sells electrolysis equipment. Very suspicious.

HB 3178:

The bill would permit the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to regulate laser hair removal
facilities and professionals. The bill would require DSHS to adopt rules requiring the certification of
an individual performing laser hair removal and the licensure of a person operating a laser hair
removal facility. Renewal of licenses and certifications would be on a two-year interval. The bill
would require DSHS to inspect laser hair removal facilities and to recognize, prepare, and administer
continuing education programs for certificate holders. The bill would require DSHS to set fees to
cover the cost of administering the regulatory program.

…Was introduced because there were laser centers operating that needed to be more strictly controlled. This is something that was needed because lasers are very dangerous. That’s why you get this:
Laser burns

And this:

More laser burns

It’s all really very easy to understand why this House Bill was introduced.

As for my personal page, thank you for visiting. I’m happy to vouch for the quality, superior construction, accuracy, dependability, and innovation incorporated into each and every Silhouet Tone instrument. To me, they are the benchmark of what an electrolysis machine should perform at. I’m happy I own a Silhouet Tone. You have to understand how fantastic this machine is. It costs 1/50th of what some lasers cost, and it does a far superior job! You should try one out, I think you’d love it. No, I don’t sell them, but I’m impressed with their customer care. They’re really great people.

As for anyone that would rather not read about me supporting Silhouet Tone instruments, there’s a UBB function that allows one to not view any particular poster of their choosing. You may invoke it.

The Mantaray Guy

I’m really getting tired of this Mantaray guy… As sslhr said this guy has a website on his profile that sells electrolysis equipment. Very suspicious.

david and sslhr,

Mantaray has been on this site for a while. You can read his posts from over a year ago. Back then, he had 5 Comet treatments and advocated laser in the same manner he does electrolysis now. After 5 treatments he decided laser as an industry (not just his specific case and choices) didn’t work and was a dangerous scam (correct me if I’m wrong) and is now out to “warn” people on this site.

As I mentioned to him and others before, there is no 100% solution. Both have pluses and minuses. There will always be a problem when saying with such certainty that one is 100% effective in every situation, and the other isn’t, and when trying to make others believe this myth. It just breeds unsatisfied consumers mostly due to wrong expectations.

[quote]I’m really getting tired of this Mantaray guy… As sslhr said this guy has a website on his profile that sells electrolysis equipment. Very suspicious.

david and sslhr,

Mantaray has been on this site for a while. You can read his posts from over a year ago. Back then, he had 5 Comet treatments and advocated laser in the same manner he does electrolysis now. After 5 treatments he decided laser as an industry didn’t work and was a dangerous scam (correct me if I’m wrong) and is now out to “warn” people on this site.

As I mentioned to him and others before, there is no 100% solution. Both have pluses and minuses. There will always be a problem when saying with such certainty that one is 100% effective in every situation, and the other isn’t, and when trying to make others believe this myth. It just breeds unsatisfied consumers mostly due to wrong expectations. [/quote]

I agree with you. Both have pluses and minuses. What really bothers me about his comments is his “crusade” to convince everyone that LHR doesn’t work at all. That’s just as bad as the people who say that LHR is miraculous and can get everyone hair free. Both of them are giving false information to people who come to this forum.

trust me. i agree with you. it’s sometimes hard to be neutral with his comments and i try to avoid the one-on-one battle it becomes for the sake of the consumers looking for information here. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I need to comment on your last posting. But before I say anything I want to make sure that you and everyone else know that I am only responding to your comments and not to you. I am not trying to make this anymore than a response to your points which I feel need some clarification.

HB 3178:

[quote] The bill would permit the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to . . . administering the regulatory program.

…Was introduced because there were laser centers operating that needed to be more strictly controlled. This is something that was needed because lasers are very dangerous. That’s why you get this: (URL deleted)

And this: (URL deleted)

It’s all really very easy to understand why this House Bill was introduced. [/quote]

This is an example of making an inference without the facts. Your point is that lasers are dangerous and therefore this bill was introduced to protect the public from that danger. Which is not true, but before I tell you the real reason the bill was introduced, let’s talk about the danger. We are not talking about all lasers but just about hair removal lasers. The picture you show was actually not done for laser hair removal.

There is no question that hair removal lasers can cause skin reactions. The question is how serious are they. The problem with the photos that are widely circulated (the one you showed, I’ve seen many times before) is that they never ever show how it looks six month or a year later. Almost invariably everything is gone. This is not to say that there isn’t a handful of people with permanent scarring (generally very small indentions not unlike acne scars) but the statistics are very low. In fact, I would argue that the incidence of permanent skin changes (scarring) is less than results from injuries due to a) electrolysis, b) plucking, c) shaving, d) waxing, e) ingrown hairs (PFB), and f) even hair curler burns. But no one states that laser hair removal is perfectly safe.

Now about that regulation (which was submitted late in the last legislative session and has been resubmitted this year as HB174). That bill was submitted for the sole purpose of establishing mininum standards of training, education, and experience so that the people (physicians and non-physicians) doing laser hair removal could be held to a higher standard. One of the things that bill does is to establish that laser hair removal is not the practice of medicine and that laser hair removal does not have to done under the control of physicians, who are calling everything as patient safety, but are really trying to maintain economic control.

The bill was not submitted as a response to an outcry of danger from laser hair removal, nor was it submitted because laser hair removal was deemed dangerous. And I know that with 100% certainty. Why? Because I wrote the bill and was one of the parties who submitted it.

So let’s agree to some things. Let’s agree that electrolysis and laser hair removal are complementary and that neither is the final solution by itself. Let’s also agree that either system, in competently trained hands, are very safe. And finally, let’s agree that if we are going to state opinions as fact, that we back up those opinions with real data. Not inferences or assumptions or poorly conceived arguments.

If you wish to believe that laser hair removal is terrible and that it is a danger and does not effectively remove hair. That’s fine. It is your right. But if you are going to post here at least back that up with real facts to support your argument. Otherwise, you are doing a real disservice to those who are reading this site and who do not have the experience or knowledge to separate out fact from your fiction.

thanks for your input sslhr once again. i’m really glad you’re checking these forums as time permits <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> it’s really appreciated. it’s refreshing to see an intelligent well-supported post.

I just want to clear something up for the people following this thread.

I did NOT scar from this treatment.

It is a week later, and my skin is perfect. (I do have some faint scars from waxing, but they are not visible in the pic.)

These comments are not about my picture, but laser hair removal in general.

– Thanks sslhr for the information. Your comments are always appreciated, and your knowledge makes me want to go to Smooth Solutions for my legs. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />