Hey, was wondering if anyone can help me? Had one treatment for legs (12 weeks ago) and 2 for bikini so far(last 5-6 weeks ago), going for next on saturday.Changed my clinic (from posh one from 850pounds legs+bikini to 400 for all, London) just to check if there is any difference. Have been told they work on one spot size 15mm, change the jules thing only 17 19 22(or something like this-dont know much about this stuff), so if I had some traetments done, should I force them to set some special highner setting (worrying they will start from basic as I am new customer). How much should I get? What should I know about apogeeelite settings anyway?Please help as dont want to waste money.
The level of settings that the new company use depends several things, but mainly your skin type. As the ApogeeElite is an Alexanderlite laser it only damages/destroys hairs with pigment in it (e.g. the darker the hair the better). This alone is very good for individuals with dark hair, however, if you have naturally tanned skin e.g. Skin Type III and upwards it can become a problem, as the laser may pick up on the pigment in the skin as well causing damage to tissue, resulting hyper pigmentation (lightening of the skin) or in more extreme cases burns resulting in scarring.
Skin type l and ll (or a cross between II and III, which I am) is usually fine for the higher settings (maximum settings on a 15mm is 30 joules). It really depends on your skin type and reaction to the laser.
A couple of questions;
Have they done a test patch on you?
What skin type are you?
What colour is the hair in the areas you are having treated?
What settings have you been treated on in the first clinic?
What company were you originally with and are going to now?
22 joules on a 15mm is an adequate setting that should still yield results, the best thing to do is presnt them with the settings that you were being treated on by your last clinic and talk to them about what they believe is suitable and their reasons behind it. You can never ask too many questions, we pay a lot of money for these treatments, so theres nothing wrong with knowing exactly what they’re doing to you.
Hope this helps,
Benji
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you didn’t provide enough information. Are they using the Alexandrite part of this machine or the Yag? Also, without the pulse setting, settings are not meaningful.
also, what is your skin and hair type? did you see shedding of your hair after previous treatments?
Im Back.THey use alex. Yeah I had patch test but what I think they do it more for manowy than for checking my reaction as noone asked for resoults, they just said they go highest one from the patch test, thats all. So im II- III (light skin european white 
with very thick black (almost all) hair. In the first place got think 17 on 15 mm spot, noticed good shadding,but after 12 weeks (adviced break between treating legs)had also good regrowth;) -thick ones.My skin was not very dry or red after this one, yesterdays was much more paintfull and skin is still redish and burned :), had 15 mm spot (they say only availible on this machine) and 19 joules (again they say max they do on this mach is 20 joules 15 mm spot), so I dont know. If you say 30 is max and they do 20 max. You know, you dont really get what you want if u go to place like this,we cant set rules if they say 20 is max I cant just say I want 30. HEre in London they are very carefull (well well) and I got impression the nurse was really good (we will see in couple of weeks:). I also was told I got 7000 shouts in 1st place but in 2nd one - 5000. I dont really know much but you know, like everyone wanna get as much as possible.Thanks guys
Oh and I have the 1st one done in Harley Medical Group and 2nd in Sk:nclinics (both in London)
Ahh now I see. I also have my treatments at Sk:n Clinic in Harley Street.
They don’t use a Apogee Elite Alexanderlite with a 15mm spot size, they use a Candella GentleLase Alexanderlite with a 18mm spot size.
The maximum that a 18mm Spot size can go to is 20 joules, 19 joules is considerably high. The general rule is the larger the spot size, the more powerful the laser. So 20 joules on an 18mm is quite similar to 30 joules on a 15mm.
The only thing I would advise is be careful with Sk:n Clinics, think carefully about whether you wish to buy a package with them. I did and got moved to a new tech called Lucy and have had a terrible experience (missed patches due to bad technique etc., I am sure of this because the areas surrounding the lines began to shed yet the lines did not), however my original tech Sarah was brilliant.
Hope this helps,
Benji
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Hi Benji_boy, I have been to sk:n in shaftesbury avenue and Im 100% sure it was Apogee, and made sure 3 times which setting she was going to use, Ill let u know bout resoults in couple of weeks time when shadding comes. Think this sk:n is not the best but just cheap to compare with others. Wanna know if I get better resoults if I pay twice 
Have a good day
Ah I see. Never heard of the Sk:n Clinic in Shaftsbury. There is the one in Harley Street who uses the GentleLase, it’s interesting how they don’t use the same machine.
Hope it goes well hun,
Benji
Yeah I know, also when I was booking the appoin. with them they told me they used GenteLase, was supprised too, but think was better as my previous were with Apogee too
Were u happy with sk:n? Have you tried any other places in london?
Can u tell me if thi 19 J/15mm and 5000 shots)legs,bikini,
underarms)is ok.
you can’t compare settings on Apogee to GentleLASE without the pulse setting information. 19j on 15mm on Apogee is high enough if the pulse is low enough. 30j is not max on Apogee, that’s for 15mm on GentleLASE (stable 3ms pulse, while Apogee is variable 5-100ms). If you’re seeing shedding, you are good.
run a search here. there are previous discussions on clinics in london.
thanks lagirl, Ive done some searching already, gonna wait for shadding now, so must I ask them for pulse? The lower the better??? Cool, will call them tomorrow think to find out
yes.
Hmm well to tell the truth I’m not overley satisfied with Sk:n. My first tech was fab, and was satisfied, however since then as I said I had a couple of problems.
The main thing I would criticise them is that the operators are mass trained and a lot of them do not have a great deal of experience, you also are treated like a number sometimes especially in regards to complaints procedures.
I’m going to have a consultation at Laser Active City Clinic (www.laser-active.co.uk) in regards to getting my chest hair and leg hair thinner out as Iv’e heard good reviews and the Healthcare Commission gave them a very good rating as well, I’ll let you know how I got on with them.
One other clinic I know that is very good is the Regency Clinic (www.theregencyclinic.co.uk) based down in Brentwood, run by Doctor Richardson, although he is very pricey, he is good.
Kind regards,
Benji
What about laser active, are the expensive?
Hey! You must help me!!! So im 3 weeks after treatment in sk:nclinic and Ive got many (10 maybe) patches of hair growing,longer, healthy I think they didnt do it properly. So i phoned them asking for an extra visit to have it fixed or checked but the receptionist said “oh it happens, it doesnt mean it was missing, its just because some hair doesnt react” So anyway I hardly said I would like someone to see it and than explain me how they know if it wasnt treated or my hair didnt react or if they can quarantee thet the nurse didnt miss it!!! Im going to see there on thursday, so please help me what to do? What must I say? How must I know if it was because of my hair ofr nurse??? This receptionist was so shitty, I asked hair why she said so without even looking on it and if she was trained as a laser terapist!!! It was not nice this conversation with her, feels like they were trained to say so even if its bullshit. And on the end she said “ok ill book you for visit but it doesnt mean you will get laser treatment” Very rude way. If they say they wont fix it what should I do? Im 100% sure the nurse didnt do it, missed it but well… What should I do? Can I win???Can you send me photos so I could check the difference between missing spots and not reacting hair???
not all clinics offer free touchups and i wouldn’t worry about it if less than 15% or so was missed. that’s not a big deal. just make sure they overlap next time. if you really feel like a lot was missed, you can tell the person who is actually operating the laser. maybe they’ll do a free touchup. in any case, they will see that you are adamant about getting very precise treatments and will hopefully overlap better next time.
if the hair is there and growing as usual after 3.5 weeks, it was missed. if it didn’t “react”, it would still fall out, but just grow back in later.
Thanks lagirl, not that much left but still feels like you should get what you paid for heh? Otherwise they will do it every time, more and more just to get us to come many more times I think. And anyway, my hair are dark and thick so it does make difference having black hairy patches. Thanks, Im going there tonight. And the nurse told me before I had the treatment they do it for free if it was missed,(guess wont be easy but in my opinion they should fix it). Thanks again, let you know what happened
Hey!!! U wont believe it!!! They fixed it for free, no questions nothing!!! I am very suprised, very, and also happy.