Alexandrite vs. Soprano

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

Hi, I would really appreciate your advice.

I have light olive skin with dark hairs, and had a course of Alexandrite laser on my face (cheeks, upper lip and chin) which really helped but the job still needs finishing. My budget is an issue, so I can now choose (and just about afford) to either go back to the same clinic and get another course of Alexandrite, or even better and cheaper - there is a discount deal available at another clinic offering Soprano XL Blue Laser. (The offer runs out tonight so would appreciate some advice asap!).

Of course, if there was one type of laser that was far superior to the rest and guaranteed to get results, then I would find the money and pay whatever it cost. But there isn’t is there.

#2

Stick to the Alex.

Are you male or female? How many treatments did you have and what was the spacing?

#3

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#4

Oops, didn’t mean to put that frowny face by my username, thought it would show up at the end of my last sentence!!

Thanks for your advice. I am female, I had a course of 6 treatments which were 4 weeks apart for the first 4 treatments, and then 5 wks and 6 wks apart for the last two.

#5

Did you get shedding around 2 weeks after treatment?

It is essential. And if so, then 4 weeks for the next appointment is too soon. You need wait to let as much as possible of the next cycle of hair come through, so more like 8 week gaps. If you go at 4 weeks, you are only treating what is present then, which can’t be much. This suggests that in reality, you’ve had about 3 treatments.

To be honest, female facial hair is too fine for laser. And if you are going to treat, restrict it to the coarse areas only.

If I were in your position, I’d actually stop for about 8-12 weeks and see what it looks like. More hair will continue to come in after 12 weeks but at least it will be a rough indication if the Laser has had any permanent effect.

Then you can decide if you want more treatments or not based on the results you’ve already had. But stick with the Alex and longer spacing.

#6

I stopped the course last June, and the hairs were virtually gone and/or much finer. I carried on shaving any remaining hairs and it’s only recently that it seems to have got a bit worse i.e. more coarse and needing shaving every day.

Trying to think back…hard to say if I got shedding, because I just carried on shaving throughout the treatment. Why do salons normally prescribe 4 weeks gaps then, is it a common misconception? My understanding is that as all the different hairs are in different cycles, you will get some but not all with each treatment, but then subsequent treatments will catch hairs at the right time at some point.

#7

Would you say it’s worse than before you started treatments or just worse compared the results in the few months after?

Induced growth by Laser is possible side effect for a woman’s face. I’m not saying you have experienced it but the possibility should be eliminated before deciding to continue. As well as the reports on HairTell, I know a number of people personally who have experienced this, so it’s not that uncommon.

It takes at least 6 months - 1 years before you can tell what the results of the sessions have been.

Salons don’t want to tell you that you can be done in a 3-6 properly spaced treatments. Just like they don’t generally (some do) tell you that you shouldn’t treat a particular area to begin with because the hair is too fine and you won’t experience permanent results. They want to you keep signing up to courses and going often so that they can earn as much money off you as possible. It helps their cause if they keep you coming back every 4 weeks so you think it’s working as you never really let the next growth cycle come through properly.

At the first treatment, the hairs will be in various stages of their cycles. With an effective treatment, everything should shed although the only hairs that have a chance of being killed are those in the anagen phase (providing they are thick and dark enough to absorb enough energy). So about 2 weeks later, the hair starts to shed.

When shedding is complete, you will experience hair free skin for a few weeks. Then the next cycle of hair begins to emerge; this is all growing anagen hair. Now it’s the time to wait until maximum hairs are present so that you can treat them all. There is no point only treating 10% of this cycle when if you wait longer, you can treat almost all of it.

I describe that the hair will first start to come through slowly, with not much hair appearing over a week. Then it speeds up and you get a lot of hair appearing over a few weeks. Then it slows down again and you don’t notice much new growth. This is the time to have the next appointment. I would never schedule in advance for my treatments. I would always wait to observe this and book my appointment accordingly. Yes, it is harder if you are shaving regularly.

2nd, 3rd, 4th, treatments can potentially (providing the hairs are coarse and dark enough) kill all the treated follicles present at the time of the treatment, since all the hairs will be in anagen.

In my experience, 3 properly spaced treatments is enough to get through all the hair cycles. if you need a 4th, 5th or 6th, you are going over the same hair cycles again but at higher settings to get the hairs that were missed first time. This is why, for example, I only needed 3 treatments on my bikini line (all coarse hair) compared to 6 treatments on my underarms (a mix of hairs).

#8

Thank you so much for taking the time to give me such helpful advice.

I think the laser has helped but it’s kind of hard to make a true comparison, as I’ve always done something with my facial hair over the years - waxing, electrolysis and then ended up both plucking and bleaching. And now I am doing something totally different - shaving - which obviously give the hair a coarser look.

Just one last question please, at what point would you stop the laser, and realise that about as much that can be done, has been done? I’m thinking to give it a go with another course and that will probably be it. I will definitely space out the treatments more, thank you so much for that golden advice.

As a sidenote, several years ago I had full body and facial laser with Ruby (which I know is outdated now). I did have to have extensive treatments, but finally my lower arms and lower legs were hair free, my back, stomach and armpits vastly improved, leaving only facial, upper arms and buttocks to remain problem areas.

#9

It’s difficult to say. Basically when the remaining hair is too fine. I judged this myself from experience. For example, I stopped my lower arms after 5 treatments. I still have about 10-20% remaining but it’s fine and I just shave it every 3-4 weeks. I knew another treatment would not give me further results.

I’d say, if everything is good (settings and spacing) you should not bother with more than 6 treatments. If it’s not gone by then, I doubt it will be.

Based on you previous Laser, I am feeling that your facial hair is too fine for Laser. Can you post a good quality photo?

You can always turn to electrolysis, either now or for what remains after your further treatments. I can suggest someone in London who I completed my upper lip and other small areas with. I went straight for electrolysis on my face.

This is my upper lip before electrolysis on a summers day from arm’s length (and an 8 year old camera):

This is after all my upper lip electrolysis. Taken using macro settings under electrologist’s lighting, last year. In regular photos (with a DSLR) and lighting, whether flash or daylight, the remaining hair just doesn’t show up.

#10

stoppit&tidyup - I tried to take a photo this morning but just couldn’t get the hair regrowth to show up (secretly pleased!). Every wrinkle, blemish and flaw showed up but not the hair even though I tried under a fluorescent light…probably best to try on a bright sunny day.

To be honest, there wasn’t a lot of re-growth this morning but I would be unhappy about leaving it, especially as i’d imagine it would get worse later on in the day. To describe it though: upper lip is dark but quite fine and doesn’t even need shaving every day. I have a collection of dark, fairly coarse hairs, quite patchy, spread out between my chin and lower cheeks.

Your pics look great though…not that you had an awful lot of hair there anyway. I have tried electrolysis in the past but it didn’t agree with me - I used to break out in terrible scarring which would last for ages. I hated it.

Re shaving, I don’t suppose you have any advice as I’m finding it is starting to affect my skin. Not sure how to describe it - it’s made it look like the skin has been dragged? A kind of raw creased appearance? (Not sure I’m describing it right). I use a triple blade and always apply moisturiser afterwards.

#11

Shez - if that’s the case, I don’t think further Laser is going to help I’m afraid.

I know it doesn’t look it but it was very dense and people were always telling me to sort it out. The rest of my face was much worse though, with long (over 0.5mm) dense hairs all over.

Anyway, electrolysis is almost entirely dependent on the person performing it. Okay, and you skin sensitivity but a good electrologist should be able to work with that and provide a treatment protocol that doesn’t have you looking like hell.

My friend started just after Christmas and one session the regular lady was on holiday so she used one of the others. It’s the first time she got a lot of scabbing, otherwise she hardly gets anything. Same settings were used as per what the regular lady had written on her card.

I will pm you. If you would do me one little favour and just go for a consultation which is free. Those patchy, coarse hairs should be easiest to remove.

I’m afraid I don’t have any advice for shaving as I never did it on my face. But you are scraping the skin so it will cause visible damage over time. Can you substitute shaving for close trimming and shave just occasionally?

#12

It was my aunty who was doing the electrolysis (for free)! She is fully qualified (albeit many years ago) and does it at her home salon, but I think she used to think she was doing me a favour by making the treatments quite ‘intense’ (either that, or she’s just not that good). Anyway, the pain and scabbing (which lasted weeks) was so awful I just couldn’t continue. However I would now consider it if it was going to be more effective than laser and not the same scabbing side effects.

I might go to a salon that offers both laser and electrolysis, so they can give me an unbiased opinion on which would be better.

Thanks for all your helpful advice stoppit&tidyup!

#13

any place that offers laser will never give you an unbiased opinion and they nearly always charge too much for electrolysis.

fully qualified in what way? was she BIAE registered?