I am a guy with black hair and skin type 3 to 4. They used a Cutera Coolglide Yag on me. I had random stray strands/patches of dark hair on my shoulders and upper arms and upper back. The hair was the lightest on the upper back.
My chest was a lot hairier than the previously mentioned areas. But I did the other areas with the chest, because they offered it for free as a deal they had going on at the time. Now its been about 3 years since.
I got about 12 to 13 treatments over 2 years. I got about 60 percent (maybe more, hard to tell) reduction on chest where the hair was darkest. Especially around the middle of my chest. Towards the sides however, HAIR GROWTH ACTUALLY INCREASED. I’m assuming it is because, the hair was lighter there. But that I can live with, because at least there was some reduction.
But here is the worst part. My shoulders, ESPECIALLY BOTH my upper arms and my upper back have WAY MORE noticeably darker hair on them. I use to look relatively normal, a little hairier than normal in those areas, but now I look just ridiculous. The induced hair growth stretches down my upper back and its disgusting and so unnatural now. My upper arms have more hair on them than the lower portions where I never got treated. I look like a fool.
The worst park is before I ever got laser, I did plenty of research and read plenty about laser induced hair growth, even a couple peer reviewed articles about it. However when I talked to the laser clinician she comforted me about the process, and reassured repeatedly that I would see results albeit not 100 percent elimination, but I never expected that. When I brought up laser induced growth, she reassured me with comments like, “If I could induce hair growth, I’d be making a lot more money.” Those kinda comments.
Despite everything I knew, I did the procedure anyway, because I figure induced hair growth probably occurs only on lighter hairs and vellus hairs. And the hair on my shoulders albeit sporadic was very dark and had good contrast wiht my skin. And now there is an even coat of hair on those areas which I NEVER HAD before.
The reason I don’t understand why laser clinicians are so optimistic, is that no ones body hair stops abruptly. So even if they are treat areas with thicker hair. They are going to end up treating areas with lighter hair, and induce growth in those areas and nearby areas. Just like it happened on my upper back and the sides of my chest/abdomen.
Now i know what people will say. That hair grows in cycles. That we grow hair as we get older. blah blah blah. But clearly if it was a minor increase in hair growth or a lack of reduction I woudlnt be so upset, but to make the very condition you are trying to treat this much worse makes me very upset.
It is very obvious the hair growht wwas induced becsue it looks very uneven compared with the nearby untreated areas such as my lower arms or my mid back. Not only that, I use to be way less hairer than my dad in those areas and in general. And I still am in every single area but the shoudlers, upper back, and upper arms where my dad has very sparse amounts as I once did.
I guess maybe I’ll try electrolysis one day, but obviously I’m wary at best, because these are larger areas. Who knows what I’ll do. I should have just done nothing like most dudes ha
