LAgirl has a point. People who are done AND happy don’t necessarily even tell their friends, let alone strangers on the net. That goes for any service, more so for such a thing wrapped up in self esteem issues.
he has a thread on the forum with his treatments on the full body with an IPL.
I know a lot (and I mean, a LOT) of people who’ve attempted beard removal with laser. In the best cases, it thinned it out a bit and they had to finish up with a lot of electrolysis. In the worst cases, it did nothing, left odd hair regrowth, burned the skin, and wasted months of time and huge sums of money. Not a single one had anything like permanent hair removal. There aren’t any follow up studies posted, because there aren’t any. Basically, you pay your money and hope for the best.
I’d go with electrolysis. Sure, it takes time. But it works. Permanent hair removal. Not for 6 months, but forever. I’ve had my entire beard removed and couldn’t be happier. Laser can sometimes be a good choice for thick body hair, but I never recommend it for the face.
WernotAfraid, you haven’t tried laser yourself yet, have you?
Yes, I have, though not on my face. I did have some chest/stomach work. I had ruby laser WAY back when (must have been 97) which did nothing. I then tried both the Candela Gentlelase and some sort of IPL system (the IPL burned me) before really giving up. Fortunately, I had electrolysis on my face, which is the only thing that delivered permanent results in my case. As it happens, I should have waited. With my hormone therapy and surgery, my body hair is much finer now. I wish I hadn’t blown all that money on laser.
I can’t find one published clinical study measuring the long term effects of laser hair removal. To me long term is more than 1-2 years.
A lot of the studies are funded by the laser company that invented the laser. That can cause biase and I believe deliberate misrepresentation of method and results.
For instance a clinical study by Syneron (company that made my lasers the Auora and Comet) is titled “Hair removal using a combination of conducted radiofrequency and optical energies-an 18-month follow-up.”
18 months? Sounds long term at first. But it’s 17 (not 18?) months after the first day of laser sessions. It only measures 5 months after the last laser session.
The photo of the histological example the paper claims was extracted during the study also pops up in two other studies which claim it is their sample.