I’ll be happy to give an update in the future. I’ve had various treatments in different areas. Below is the number of treatments I’ve had and how well the results have been. Again, I am a male with dark hair and type II/III skin with a fairly high pain tolerance.
Abdomen & private areas - 9 treatments - very little hair left. The rest is fine and light in color.
Face & neck - 8 treatments - best results with little left except for light color hairs.
Full buttocks area - 5 treatments with one more paid one to go - really good results so far.
Lower back - 2 treatments - stopped because little or no regrowth left.
Underarms - 3 treatments - stopped because no regrowth after 10 weeks.
Back of neck - 1 treatment - may have a couple of more to just thin hairs out.
Upper back - not done because I have no significant hair there.
Chest - Done one time with a Gentlelase Alexandrite laser at 20 joules at another place. The reason I changed places was because I thought that the original place I am going to (American Laser Clinics) was going to get rid of their diode machine and only have the IPL unit, which I later learned was not the case. I can tell you that the Alexandite is definitely less painful, but I’m afraid it will not do as well. I’ve also had a couple of electrolysis treatments to the chest area because I had a few light/grey hairs there, and I wanted to get rid of them also.
Here is some info that may help others.
After the first treatment to my face, it was red for 3 days, and I had a lot of whiteheads. When it all subsided, most of the hair shed, but I had the patchiness that others have told about. After the third treatment, all the patchiness went away. The hair growth that was left was more uniform between treatments. I talked to the tech about the whiteheads after the first treatment, and was told to put a fine layer of Neosporin on after treatments, and it did seem to prevent the majority of the whiteheads.
The abdomen seems to be the hardest area to get rid of the hair for me. What really has helped it the higher levels of power and compression when using the Lightsheer Diode machine. Keep insisting on higher power if the tech is agreeable to do it, unless you have darker skin which prevents it.
I did get the power up so high on the private area that I got some burns. The burns were due to the skin being slightly darker there. They healed in a week or so, and the following treatments never went any higher in power. At least I knew my limit!
Concerning the pain levels on first treatments (the Diode machine), the face & neck was defiantly the worst, followed by the private area, most others area were a couple of levels down in pain. The underarms were the least painful. The one treatment with the Gentlelase on the chest I had was very tolerable, and it was at the highest setting (20 joules with the 18 mm spot size). I have never used any pain killers before treatments.
Again, the techs at American Laser Clinics in Knoxville where I have been treated are great and the money has been well spent in my opinion. I wish most techs could be as customer focused, especially since this is a fairly large amount of money to spend. If I had been treated badly, they sure wouldn’t have me returning as a repeat customer.
Hope this info helps!