The technician used an 18mm spot at 8 joules for my underarms and I didn’t experience any shedding. I’m thinking it was too low. Can anyone recommend the correct setting? I have olive toned skin and the technicians in my area don’t really have much experience with darker skin colors :\
How long has it been?
2 weeks. My hair has just been growing normally
Wait another week then.
You shouldn’t be using GentleLASE if you have darker skin. That’s why they’re using such ineffective settings. If they don’t have a Yag, they should be sending you away and not taking your money. There is no effective setting on GentleLASE that would be safe on darker skin. You need a Yag laser. On 18mm on GentleLASE, 14-16J and up should be used, BUT these settings would likely burn you.
They are using a GentleYAG on me. Should I ask them to up it to 14-16J at 18mm? I’m slightly frustrated that I paid them $90 to do nothing 
Settings are not equivalent among machines. On GentleYAG, both 8 and 16J are useless. Max on 18mm on GentleYAG is 30J. Also, with GentleYAG, pulse width is adjustable unlike fixed 3ms on GentleLASE. So they need to make sure that’s set low enough to be effective too.
It sounds like you found a place where they don’t know what they’re doing. A classic example that it’s not all about the machine. They need to know how to operate it!
Thanks for the advice LAgirl! I’ll see if they will at least offer me a discount on the second treatment since the first one was useless. Is there a pulse recommendation you have for coarser hair on underarms?
Here’s a snapshot of my skin color if that helps any.
Is that you? Doesn’t seem anywhere close to type 5, more like 3-4.
That is me. I’m part Indian so the technician said I would be a Type 5
I think you’re more like a 4 if that. Skin type 5 is dark brown middle eastern types…
Thanks for the advice guys. I’m guessing the misjudgment of my Skin Type is what led to the lower settings on the laser. I called the center and they said I needed to wait 4 weeks to see any results and to call them then if I still didn’t see shedding. The other place here is a doctor’s office that charges $200 per session for underarms so I think I’m stuck with this center. Hopefully, if I suggest the setting changes and it’ll go better next time.
Where are you located?
You’re probably a 4 or between 4 and 5. Your underarms probably don’t see as much sun as you face too?
Either way, shedding completes at 3 weeks. So at that point, they should give you a free touchup (or redo in this case).
If a clinic uses a chart and not their experience in setting settings, that’s already a bad sign. Skin types are approximate. They need to set things based on their experience.
I’m in Kentucky so not a whole lot of options out here unless I wanted to drive to a bigger city. I’ve been digging through the forum and found some posters with Type 4-5ish skin who said they had good results with gentleyag at 22J and 18mm so I’ll see if she lets me go up to at least 20J when I go back in a few weeks.
Don’t forget that the pulse width is variable on this machine, so that setting is also important. Hopefully, it’s under 20ms. The lower, the more effective the treatment. They should test a few different combinations to figure out the highest your skin can handle.
I would also consider commuting to a good clinic. You’d only need to go once every 2 months or so and it would be worth it for effective treatments.
It has been around 4 weeks since my first treatment, and I never saw any shedding. I took LAGirl’s advice, and decided to commute to a clinic in another city. They also have a GentleYag and a neat gadget they called a PSF device (it feels like a suction cup that grabs your skin before the laser hits it).
The technician started me off at a 15mm spot size at 26J and said we could go up another notch next time if this went well. I actually felt a stinging sensation this time so I’m hoping this means I will see better results!
It should really feel like more than stinging. It should hurt if the hair is coarse and settings are high.
On GentleYag, you need to also find out the pulse width since it’s adjustable on this machine. The lowest is 3ms, so closer to that is good.
Also, any reason they’re not using the larger 18mm spot size? It’s more effective. On 18mm, 30j is max on GentleYAG, but on 15mm, it’s 40J.
They couldn’t fit the 18mm head on the PSF device so that’s why they used 15mm. Without the PSF we tried 18mm at 22J and it felt like getting hit by a mini paintball gun - ouchhh. My skin in that spot wasn’t burned or peeling afterward so I probably just need to man up and take it haha 
I think she said the pulse setting was 20ms, but I’ll confirm next time for sure! Thanks for all the advice LAgirl. Without you all I would probably still be getting treatments at 18mm and 8J wondering why nothing was happening!
The treatment should be painful. If you can’t handle it, you should use a numbing cream, take a painkiller and/or ice the area. It’s in your best interest to treat at highest setting your skin can handle without burning.
Well, if level of pain correlates with the quality of treatment, I just had the mother of all fantastic laser treatments today haha.
I went to clinic #3 today to get a Brazilian. They have won several awards for their hair removal services, and I have several friends who had great results there so I decided to make the trip. They were super professional from the get go and classified me as a Type IV so I probably need to rename this thread. (I guess there’s more of a range to type IV because my skin is definitely more tan than stopit&tidyup who’s also a type IV?).
My skin down there is darker on certain parts - definitely Type V there - so she used the GentleYAG at 18mm/10ms/18J and holy cow. PAIN. I have really dense coarse hair down there so on certain parts I wanted to curl up in a ball and die haha. She said we’d use numbing cream next time based on the results from this time so we’ll see where I’m at in 3 weeks! I might get this clinic to take over my underarm treatments if I get good results.