Are these good settings for Soprano XL?

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

Just had a treatment done with it as it was the only machine I could find in my area. I asked for the settings as I wanted to post here to see how they sounded. I’m basically skin type 3, but I treated my underarms and bikini line (I’m also male) with dark coarse hair and lighter skin in those areas even though tanned elsewhere.

I had been reading a LOT about this machine before going for a treatment and realize there’s the SHR mode where it fires multiple pulses and then another mode that I forget what it’s called where it just fires one after another like other lasers. So anyway I asked the benefits of both methods and she said they’re the same just one is pain free and the other hurts and takes longer but to satisfy me on my underarms and bikini line she did one side with the SHR mode and one with the slower mode as a test.

So for the SHR mode she had it at 10hz for the rep rate, and then 10hz for fluence. She passed it over the area for awhile until it felt really warm and almost painful then stopped.

On the other side though with the slower mode she had the machine set to III on the top and then 2Hz for the rep rate. Then she had 40 joules/cm2 as the fluence. This mode you definitely felt each pulse and was definitely more painful.

Areas looked similar, the slower mode was maybe a bit more red. Anyway just wondering though for my skin type do those settings sound decent as it sounds like a lot of people are always treated with really low settings on here so wanted to be sure they’re correct?

#2

try to find an alex laser in your area, preferably GentleLase

#3

Is it a bad machine? I had a consultation today and they lady used type one on me, 34 Hz and 3 pulses.
Is that bad?

#4

It’s not necessarily a bad machine, but it is very difficult to properly deliver permanent results. Read through this to see why:

#5

Coming back to this I think it really depends on the operator as I’ve researched it a lot lately. I have a friend that owns a Soprano XL and let me treat myself on it so now I’m more familiar with it. On the screen it actually shows the total energy delivered based on the number of pulses. So basically if you draw a grid on the skin then work just one at a time, the machine keeps adding up the total energy delivered into that grid. So you can then go to a certain total energy to know that each grid has had the same amount of energy delivered to it. The problem from my experience is some techs treat an entire area in one shot, like the whole chest at the same time, when it really should be split into 4 or so grids with 1 done at a time, not the entire area.

To HairMeOut, that sounds like HR mode so single pulses not the rapid pain free mode. Depends on your skin type but I think the highest is 40 joules, maybe 45 I forget but 35 is still pretty high. 3 pulses I’m not sure if you mean she fired 3 shots, or 3hz as in the speed the pulses fired at.

I treated my full legs, underarms, bikini line, pubic area, buttocks and feet and had complete shedding similar to when I used an alexandrite. The biggest thing is that Soprano XL if anything should be slower than an alexandrite etc because even on a 4"x4" grid, the amount of time it takes to deliver enough energy into the skin is longer than if you were just firing individual pulses on the area.

#6

I actually ended up getting a consultation and treatment at the same clinic franchise but closer to home. They had the Candela GentleLase which seems to be much more reliable, judging by all the board posts here! She did a 18mm 14J on my legs, which was beyond relaxing and I nearly drifted off, so I’m definitely going to ask them to up that? I’m Type 1 or 2. Do you think that is high enough for a permanent result? She also did a 15mm spot on my underarms and Hollywood at 22J. All in all I would say the whole thing took about 45 minutes. I think she said the number of pulses fired for just the legs was roughly 230 or so? Does that sound about right or am I probably being under treated? I just couldnt believe it was over so fast. I had no problem with the Underarms or Legs, but when we got to the Hollywood she did single pulses to give me a bit of a break, because I was actually chewing through the towel it was so sore. What do you think?

#7

oshkosh, sounds like pretty good settings to me. A good indication would be seeing if the skin turns reddish.
Assuming the technician knows what she is doing (that seems to be the case by your story) then you should get very good results with the Soprano.

#8

As skin type I-II, you should be able to handle almost max settings on GentleLASE, i.e. up to 20J on 18mm.