Hello.
I am having a treatment with this type of alexandrite machine:
Arion spec
is it effective according to the Technical Specifications ?
i have fine black hairs on my back, shoulders and upper hands, what kind of settings do i need in order to have an effective hair removal? they used on my last treatment on my back this settings : 5ms pulse width , 20 j , i dont know the spot size - does it really makes the diffrence?
thanks
is your hair dense? fine hair is hard to treat with any laser, especially if it’s not dense. back and shoulders are hard to treat on men. alexandrite is your best bet at high settings, but it’s still difficult. we can’t recommend settings without knowing your skin type. they would have to test you. also, yes, spot size makes a difference. the larger the more effective given appropriate power settings. however, this machine seems to have the largest spot size at 14mm, so 20 joules is pretty average. what is the highest setting in joules on the 14mm? do you know? By comparison, 18 mm is highest on GentleLASE alex, with max 20 joules on that spot size. 30 joules on 15mm, etc since effectiveness of joules decreases with drop in spot size.
Did you see shedding after your treatment? how long has it been?
my hair is pretty dense , my skin type is between 2-3 .
i dont know the highest setting on the 14mm because i dont know what spot size they used on me , i just know that i saw it can get to 30 j max in the spot size they have treated me.
its been 2 months now after my treatment on my shoulders , there was shedding and now they grow a lot finer and less dense. on my back i cant really know beacuse i can only see through the mirror and when i look i cant see hairs - its been almose a month since , so its hard to tell yet.
does the pulse width also counts for the effectivness of the treatment? last time on my back they used 20j with 20ms and it wansnt effective at all (they also didnt shaved my hairs) and this time they used 20j with 5ms and i shaved my hairs couple of days before…
yes, pulse is very important. GentleLASE is actually set at 3ms, and it’s not variable like it is on other lasers. Generally, lower pulse is more effective, but also more likely to burn darker skin.
about the pulse width , i have read this article :
"Laser pulse width also appears to play an important role, as suggested by the thermal transfer theory. Thermal conduction from the melanin-rich shaft and matrix heats surrounding follicular structures. To obtain spatial confinement of thermal damage, the pulse duration should be shorter or equal to the thermal relaxation time of the hair follicle. Thermal relaxation of human terminal hair follicles has never been measured, but it is estimated to be approximately 10-100 milliseconds, depending on size. Therefore, devices for hair removal have pulse durations in the millisecond domain region. The normal-mode 694-nm ruby, normal-mode 755-nm alexandrite, 800-nm pulsed diode lasers, long-pulsed Nd:YAG lasers, and filtered flashlamp technology all use this mechanism.
The concept of thermal damage time has recently been launched in the case of the hair follicle. The melanin-rich hair shaft and matrix cells occupy a relatively small volume, and propagation of the thermal damage front through the entire volume takes 3-20 times longer than the thermal relaxation time of the hair follicle. Super–long-pulse heating (>100 milliseconds) appears to allow for long-term hair removal. "
what does that means? longer pulse (>100 milliseconds) are better in long term hair removal then shorter pulse (<10 milliseconds) ?
no, it doesn’t. Shorter pulse is more effective, especially on finer hair (3-20ms). Longer pulse is safer on darker skin because the laser energy is basically delivered at longer intervals. You need to find a good balance with high enough joules and low enough pulse that your skin can handle safely to be most effective at removing the hair permanently.
Where did you read that quote?
Around 2000, Wellman Labs (one of the premiere laser research facilities supervised by Dr. Rox Anderson) proposed a “novel theory of laser hair removal.” What they were proposing sounds exactly like what you described. They were floating the idea that the structure that was being targeted was not the smaller hair shaft/follicle but instead a larger structure that required time for the heat wave to diffuse out. The effect was to require longer pulsewidths. The reason they were doing that was because at that time they were promoting diode lasers (Palomar) and it is much easier to build a super long pulse diode than it is to build a short pulse diode.
So they were proposing a theory to promote the laser that they were building (Palomar and Wellman have a financial relationship). So after writing this theory they then went out to test it, and well history records that this theory died a quiet death. In fact, today the people who were promoting it back then admit that they were wrong.
There are a couple of lessons here.
But most importantly . . .
3. Even reputable research organizations have biases when money is involved, and money is always involved. You can’t always trust what you read. To Wellman’s credit, once they did the research they were upfront about their results. Some “researchers” are dishonest about their results.
The highest setting in joules on 14mm is 18j/cm2, the minimum pulse is 20ms and the maximum repetation rate is 1.6Hz.
The highest setting in joules on 12mm is 22j, the pulse and the repetation rate are the same as with 14mm.
30j/cm2 can be reached only with 10mm.
2.5Hz can be reached only with 15j at 12mm and lower spot sizes.
after this specification what do you think of this machine? i don’t feel that it’s powerfull enough compared to gentlelase and apogee, what do you think?? plz reply
yes, according to these settings, it’s less powerful than GentleLASE.