Hi everyone,
It’s been 4 days since I had my first treatment using a LighSheer diode laser on my beard.
I have a very thick beard and can’t get a clean shave no matter what I do. Besides, I always get ingrown hairs and on weekends, when I shave more aggressively, my face always ends up bleeding. So I decided to go for the laser. In fact I would be happy just with some permanent reduction that would reduce my beard to a normal level, but I know patchiness is usual when doing this on the beard, and I’m willing to go all the way if it is necessary.
I’d already tried some lhr in other clinics on my neck, to get a feel of what would work best. But after having some not so good experiences with IPL and GentleLase, I decided to go for the LightSheer, as my skin is really pale (type II or III, maybe) and my hair dark and coarse.
After sending some emails to a couple of clinics and having a first consultation in one of them, I decided to do it with this particular last clinic. My reasons were that the one performing the lhr was going to be a doctor and not a tech, that they were very experienced using lightsheer, didn’t downplay the pain factor, asked me to come one hour in advance to apply Emla instead of pretending that I came with it already applied, and to top it all, their prices were fairly competitive.
The treatment was done using 26 J and the doctor was very thorough with it. She used a red marker to draw some kind of guide on my face and was always asking me for feedback on comfort and pain. She removed half of the saran wrap, did that side of my face, then did the same on the other side and saved my upper lip for the last. After finishing each section, she cleaned my skin of all the dead hairs that had been expelled and applied some cream.
I must say it hurt a lot, but not so much as I was expecting, maybe even less than the GentleLase treatment I got on my neck. The only part that REALLY hurt was my upper lip, but at least it didn’t take her too much to finish it.
When I got home I noticed my skin was somewhat red, and full of dead hairs. I could remove many of them just with my fingers.
However, the next day when I woke up, I had some important swelling, especially in my upper lip that was all puffy and my face was sore. The swelling subsided, but you could still notice it till the third day after treatment.
Right now, at 4 days post-treatment, my face seems almost healed: it’s no longer sore or puffy.
I am now waiting for the hair to start shedding, in order to see how effective the treatment has been. In some parts of my face I can feel some hair still growing, but in some other areas (my upper lip especially) I do not feel any. However, as most of the burnt hair has yet to shed I have no idea if my entire upper lip will shed or what… I’ll have to be patient.
I’m supposed to come back for a 2nd treatment in two months, and have been told that if in a couple of weeks time I see there’s some spot that has been missed I can come back for a free touch-up.
One question: how much time does it take for the hair that’s going to shed to do it? I guess I just want to enjoy a couple of days without this permanent shadow 
I’ll keep you updated on how this turns out!