Am I A Good Candidate? / Paradoxical Laser Stimulation, Middle Eastern

[peachfuzz]

Hello everyone. A new member here but surely a one who is thankful for the help, you guys.

I’m a 20 year-old female with PCOS and I am hairy with full density with brownish hairs which no coarseness. I’m a Middle Eastern btw, and I’m truly terrified about induced hair growth. By looking at my skin tone (seems a bit darker due to flash, but probably type 3 or somewhere btw 3 to 4) and the type of hair I have, do you think I’d benefit from laser at all? I think reduction about 60-70% would be enough but I do not want to risk it if paradoxical hair growth seems like a considerable possibility.

Also, I’ve had good results with electrolysis but unfortunately my upper left leg alone took 22 hours and went down to 9 and a half in the second clearence and I’m sure 20-something hour would not be enough for the back or belly so I want to truly consider laser if there’s a chance. I have thousands of thin hairs and the electrolysis prices per minute in my country has gone double in less than 2 years so I would cost me a fortune.

Any ideas, suggestions would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

[Bono]

I see exactly what your concerns are; and I concur. If the laser clinic is amenable, I would do a small-area “test patch” … they should be willing to do it at no (or little) cost. Then, I would wait several months and see what happens. There is no way, except by direct experimentation, to predict what laser might do in your case.

[Deedra]

I like Mike’s suggestion.

Laser cannot “see” thin hairs that are not very dark and it may not even be able to “see” thin hairs that do have a lot of pigment. Laser works best on DENSE, VERY DARK, VERY COARSE HAIR on pale skin.

Come back and report what you decide to do and take before and after photo’s for sure! If you do get laser stimulation on your body and it is dense, dark and coarse, you can get more treatments to treat the hair that laser stimulated. I don’t suggest laser reduction for a woman’s face because I’ve been on the other side of this treating women who were unlucky enough to get laser hair stimulation. It can be corrected with electrolysis, but it takes a lot of time on the table, at great expense.

[peachfuzz]

Dear Micheal Bono,

Thank you so much for the reply. I truly appreciate your guidance. Electrolysis has done wonders on my face and upper legs and if I only knew that my electrologist is as skillful as you and would be able to get these areas 90%+ hair free with 3 full clearences for sure I’d go for electrolysis but patch test is a GREAT idea! Would waiting about 6 months or so after the patch test would be enough time to what it does for my upper-body hair?

EDIT: Also, a comment of yours on Youtube a few years ago mentions that you guys (those who is with you on some part of the business I guess) can speak various languages including Turkish. As a Turkish person, I would love to learn more about it, if you don’t mind.

[peachfuzz]

Dear Deedra,

Thank you so much for the reply.

I believe what you say about laser is true. I have a friend who had similar situation to mine (slightly fair skin tone and also her hair was not brown but black, not much difference on density nor coarseness though) and she says she got great results on her back. Up until talking to her recently, I haven’t thought about laser expect my lower leg and mayyybe underarms and pubic area, to be honest. So, I totally get your point.

Let’s say laser made it worse on the places that I patch tested and now it is worse than what it used to be (which had no form of epilation or depilation whatsoever, ever), then do you think the coarse hair would be THEN “seen” by laser?

If I was a client of yours and asked for your opinion on the back and the stomach area, what would be your instinct or final advice? Also, for how long should I wait until patch test to settle with an idea? Also, is 6 months too much or would I be able to see the true results in 2-3 months’ time?

As I said, I have never thought about laser up until this moment (I’m the biggest advocate for electrolysis really) and I really want to test on the smallest area possible so if it gets really bad, electrolysis would save me but even the idea of it becoming worse is unpleasant.

[Bono]

Yes, I sponsored a kid from Azerbaijan. He speaks Russian, Arabic, English and Turkish. At the moment he’s somewhere doing something with the US Air force (which was his goal). Great kid and great patriot. America is awesome … his girlfriend is from Armenia! (I know that being from Turkey, that will have a lot of meaning for you.)

[fenix]

Your skin type is not an issue but you’re not a candidate for laser because of very thin lighter hairs. Don’t waste your money. My body hair looked like yours after I completed laser treatments so I highly doubt you will see satisfactory results.

[peachfuzz]

Thank you so much for the feedback, I guess you are right, I have not think about laser until recently a friend of mine said she has seen great results (hair wise we were quite similar) maybe I can get a patch test that is very small on either on my belly or back and I can then be 100% sure about it. I wish it was not that dense so electrolysis would be much easier money-wise. But I guess I do not have to have full clearence, maybe an electrologist accepts to work on solely as a reduction (60-70%). and that would do the job. -since both of these areas never had any depilation method before, I hope to see great reduction-

[peachfuzz]

It is great that you helped a person by sponsoring and I’m sure it had great influence on him achieving his dreams. I also had friends from Armenia and other “neighbouring” countries like Bulgaria, Greece etc. and all these people were lovely. So I’m sure they are great company. I study at one of the best state universities in my country, in the department of English Language Teaching and I hope to come to USA with erasmus/exchange programs or for higher education.

[Joyce]

As someone who uses both Laser and Electrolysis, I agree that a patch test is extremely important. I have included a picture of an clients abdomen (with her permission). She is Armenian and we have done her underarms, lower arms, legs and bikini all successfully with laser. I have not seen this client for 18 months. When treatments began I was hesitant to do the abdominal area which has the elongated vellus hair that is darker. We decided to do only the midline from the belly button down to the pubic hair. I extended the area out to the pelvic bones in a V shape trying to give a more natural softer edge. We did a total of 6 treatments. I run an Apogee Elite Laser and switched back and forth between the Alexandrite and the Yag depending on whether she was tanned, using the highest joules at the shortest milliseconds while maintaining skin integrity. I even did 2 passes using extreme chilling techniques. Now 18 months later you can see the area that was treated has minimal hair versus the untreated areas. Her other areas were also hairfree. This was 18 months post the 6th treatment. We are completing the rest of her abdominal. I will be documenting with pictures. You will need a very experienced technician and a very powerful laser to get results. I have been working since 1991 with Electrolysis and 2003 with laser. Used properly, both modalities compliment each other.
I hope this helps.

[peachfuzz]

Thank you so much for taking the time out and asking for the client’s permission in order to share it with me. The area you have treated looks great but I do not think we have an experienced technician that can give me similar results in where I live. For the time being, electrolysis seems like a safer option for me. And given the fact that these areas have never been touched before, I might get excellent results in 2-4 full clearances. I’d love to learn and hear about rest of the process as well.

[Joyce]

When in doubt….go electrolysis!

[fenix]

Hello Joyce,
What you describe is impressive. I appreciate that professionals continue to followup with their clients to see stability of results after last treatment. For me I saw amazing results 18 months after 8th and last treatment; however, the more softer, less coarse hairs slowly started creeping back and few years after laser treatments it was becoming noticeable with regrowth. If you can, continue following up with your client to see if the progress is stable beyond 2-3 years.

[Joyce]

I have many clients that have diagnosed hirsutism and PCOS and have followed them for many years. PCOS and Hormonal imbalances just don’t go away even with medical intervention. I myself have done Electrolysis on my face and do a yearly treatment to maintain any new growth. My first treatment was when I was 16, so over 40 years of maintenance with Electrolysis. My legs, underarms and bikini were done by laser in 2003. A total of 5 treatments at levels that were on the top of the charts for my skin tone with no superficial burning at all. I have had another 3 treatments over the last 16 years. I am free of the maintenance of shaving or waxing. Don’t get me wrong, I have a big Electrolysis practice and I love that modality, but laser does work. Laser will give you PERMANENT reduction. It just won’t give you 100%. For many clients that works. For myself, my reduction was in the 90% plus range. As a professional you have to give your clients all the options. There is always maintenance as the body keeps evolving and changing over the years. Even a Facelift needs fine tuning over the years. We all need to maintain.
Thank you for your comment. It is much appreciated. Cheers!