Blisters & Stripes on Arms (pics)

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

Hi everyone,

I have been a long-time customer of laser hair removal, for several years now, and have never had this problem. I went to a different laser place than the one I usually go to. I researched them and they use the same laser as my regular place (the Cynosure Apogee Elite) and they had good reviews, so I felt I was making a smart decision.

This is the first time I’ve had my arms lasered. It hurt pretty bad. I ended up with several blisters on my arm (pus-filled bumps, freckles that look like their going to peel off) and stripes where I was lasered. My arms felt like they were on FIRE when I left the laser spa. I’ve NEVER had that happen before. The RN spent 30 min post laser icing my arms.

These pics were taken 4 hours after my appt. I’m not so much worried about the stripes as I’m pretty sure they’ll go away, as much as I’m worried about the part that Isn’t striped - aren’t those areas that she missed?!

What do I do from here? Do I request a refund? I don’t want to go back to this place again for another treatment after this experience. I’m going to go back to my regular laser spa even though they are the twice the price! Please help :frowning:

#2

Hi, back again, I’m starting to get really upset by the stripes on my arms. How long will it take until these go away?

I’ve also decided that I am going to fight for a refund. I should never leave the laser spa looking like this. I’ve been receiving LHR for 7 years, never once have I had this experience at my regular place. I paid half the price, but I clearly got half the treatment, and worse!

#3

  1. You didn’t mention the settings used nor the lasing medium (alexandrite or Nd:YAG). Have you had other areas on your body treated with these settings?

  2. How long has it been since your treatment? Considering those pics were taken only 4 hours after treatment, expect significant improvement over the next day or two (assuming you were just treated today).

  3. In general, icing burns (or very irritated skin) is a bad idea. Especially for 30 minutes. Please STOP applying ice to the area if you already haven’t. Instead, run it under cool water for 5-10 minutes every so often. You can apply aloe vera gel liberally to soothe several times throughout the day.

  4. You have a high concentration of freckles on your arms. Have you had these since birth? If not, it likely means you’ve had decent sun exposure to the area. Freckles don’t usually pose a problem, but you should always have a test spot in areas with high concentration of freckles - they’re extra pigment.

  5. Was the hair dark and coarse? You have to wait for shedding to complete in order to assess the outcome of your treatment.

#4
  1. I would give it at least a few days. All of this usually goes away. While lighting/camera settings can skew appearances significantly, to me the redness isn’t that severe considering the pictures were captured only a few hours post treatment. I’ve seen worse. Not sure if you were actually burned.

To add some perspective, at maximum settings on GentleLASE , I get welts, redness, and severe perfolliculitis and follicular edema that takes a couple days to subside. But it always completely subsided - and I got terrific results. Everyone is different.

  1. I’m kind of curious why you have been getting LHR for 7 years. Are you treating the same areas?

  2. You mentioned you developed blisters, but I can’t discern any from the photos.

  3. Be sure to list any recent medication changes if you’ve had any.

#5

Hi Jmisr,

Thank you so much for your responses.

I’ve been getting LHR for a total of 7 years because I’ve done lower legs, upper legs, bikini, underarms, stomach, backside… waiting the appropriate length of time between each treatment. For awhile I got a touch up underarm and bikini treatment about once per year. That’s why it sounds like I’ve been getting LHR forever, but it’s been different areas of my body, and sometimes just annual touch ups.

This is the first time I’ve done my arms however.

I have no idea what settings she used. I wish I could tell you.

I am on no different medication than I have been for several years - just my LoEstrin birth control pills. Nothing else.

My arms are the most freckled part of my body and always have been. I’m guessing they’re exposed to sun the most? I am a Type 1 skin… very fair, always burn, never tan.

The blisters are small and some of them have popped fluid already and I’m now left with little holes in my skin. I can try to take a closer-up photo.

The pain has subsided a little since the on-fire feeling I had when I first left the spa. I stopped icing the moment I left the laser spa - all the icing I had was courtesy of the RN at the spa.

I feel like this RN isn’t as experienced as the ones at the regular place I go to. She is the only RN at the spa and also does Botox, photofacials, etc… whereas my “regular” place has 4 RN’s on staff and at least 2 of them do LHR exclusively.

I’m hoping the stripes go away soon… it’s embarrassing and painful.

#6

Here is the direct link to 2 more photos. In the first one you can see the raised brown bumps in the center of the photo - they are the blisters - filled with clear fluid: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/marie7990/DSC09865.jpg

Second photo you can see the hole in the center of my arm from a popped blister and then on the left there’s another little red hole. http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v11/marie7990/?action=view&current=DSC09876.jpg

Like I said I’ve never gotten blisters like this before, nor stripes from where the tech has lasered. Is this the normal outcome for freckled skin?? My skin isn’t freckled on other parts of my body that I’ve had lasered so this is new to me.

#7

Sorry to bombard with a 3rd response, but aside from the redness, swelling, blistering, and striping… the striping does indicate there are large portions of my arms that were NOT lasered, isn’t that right?

#8

Thanks for the updates.

  1. The redness is markedly reduced in the second set of photos. Expect this to continue to diminish over the next 12-48 hours.

  2. Try to avoid rupturing the blisters. If they do, you should apply a topical antibiotic like neosporin or triple ointment. The blisters will eventually go away. Be sure to notify your clinic/technician that you got blisters if they don’t already know.

  3. I would still try to find out the settings of this treatment as well as those of your past treatments. Post them here when you find out.

  4. Blisters are a rare occurrence when correct settings are used.
    Test spots are the key to preventing this. Areas with high concentration of freckles should especially be treated with a test spot first to see if adverse effects occur due to the extra pigment. Fluence should be adjusted accordingly if need be. Otherwise, there isn’t really any harm in treating them.

In fact, besides LHR purposes, pigmented lesions like ephelides can actually be treated with alexandrite lasers to lessen their appearance. Usually, however, less aggressive settings are used than in LHR. Crusting and transient darkening can occur after treatment but after a few weeks these fade along with the lesions (ie, the desired effect).

  1. Be sure to only treat hair that is both dark and coarse. If the hair is not coarse and dark, not only will you not get effective results but you also increase the likelihood of events like this occuring, as more laser photons will get absorbed in the dermis as opposed to the target follicles.

  2. Be vigilant about avoiding sun exposure in this area.

#9

It’s hard to just whether the settings were bad or their machine malfunctioned without knowing what your previous clinic used and what settings this clinic used. It would all be guesswork.

Regardless, I would ask for a refund. Photos will help you get it. They won’t want to go to court with these photos as evidence.

Everything will very likely go back to normal soon. Treat it as any other burn. There are creams available. If they have a doctor on site, they should prescribe one to you. That could speed up the healing.

#10

Thank you both for your replies.

Here is an updated picture I just took today, Day 2.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v11/marie7990/?action=view&current=DSC09861.jpg

The redness has gone down a little but it’s still very painful… you can kind of see where the skin is raised/swollen underneath each stripe. It was warm today and I had to wear a long-sleeved shirt, not just to avoid sun exposure but also because the stripes on my arms are very noticeable.

The technician did actually do 3-4 test spots and adjusted the settings to what she felt was getting the most response (she said). I’m wondering if she was equated “most response” to the burning of my skin and freckles!

I’m going to wait until Monday and then e-mail them with pictures and ask for a refund… I feel bad because the lady was really nice, and I don’t want to get her in trouble or cause a problem, but at the same time she burned my arms and clearly didn’t even treat me completely.

PS - I have taken the pictures today and yesterday with no flash and have not adjusted any lighting or anything on the photos - they are straight uploaded from my camera.

#11

Sorry you had to go through all of this.

Ideally, test spots should be monitored for a few days before commencing treatment. That would have prevented this.

To be honest, the redness looks the same in both photos - perhaps a marginal improvement in today’s shot. If this weren’t a burn, it would have significantly lessened today. Luckily, this WILL heal but it may take a few days.

I wouldn’t bother with prescription burn creams like silver sulfadiazine. It’s not really necessary here, and recent data suggest they can actually hinder healing. Stick to cool water, ibuprofen (for pain), and aloe vera. If any of the blisters rupture, go ahead and apply a topical antibiotic like neosporin or triple ointment.

Definitely call and ask for a refund. If they are nice as you say, they should go out of their way to compensate for their error.

#12

Thanks Jmisr. I just typed up a letter requesting a refund that I plan to e-mail them with photos attached. However just reviewing their website, there is NO contact e-mail anywhere on the site! How frustrating! They are going for force me to call and ask for an e-mail address, at which point they will likely over-question me as to why I want it. What a warning sign I didn’t catch before!

I’ve applied neosporin to my arms tonight, as taking a shower with even semi-hot water is extremely painful to my arms. As soon as I got out, I applied neosporin. I haven’t been putting anything else on my arms. I feel like they look worse in person than the photos.

I guess I have to wait til Monday now to call them to ask for their e-mail address.

#13

It’s probably something you should speak to them about over the phone or in person. I would call and ask for the clinic manager. In any case I would have their physician evaluate you, especially if the burns do not improve within the next 48 hours. When you call, stress the fact that you’ve never had this reaction with LHR and let them know how much this has inconvenienced you.

By the way, make sure you’re only applying neosporin to ONLY to the open blisters and not the entire area.

#14

Yes, I would discuss it with the manager either by phone or in person. If you do it by phone, tell them you took photos. They will likely be understanding about it. I wouldn’t just email.

#15

I just feel like I’m so much organized in e-mail than I can be verbally “on the spot” so to speak. Regardless I have to call since they don’t provide a contact e-mail anywhere on their website. I’ll let you all know how it goes.

I did put the neosporin on portions that were not open sores… is that bad?? I will go wipe it off… I’m going to lose alot of the freckles, too (not that worried about that though). Some of them have already gotten to the point where a light scrape with my fingernail wipes off the burnt freckle. (I know that’s bad and I’m not obsessively doing it but have tried it on 2 or 3 freckles that I could tell were raised - not touching anymore though). The RN at the spa told me that some of my freckles would “pop off” - I think ALOT are going to come off.

I’ll post again when I contact the spa…

#16

OMG. I am disgusted. I just read Yelp on this laser spa and they have 3 posted reviews + 26 filtered reviews. For anyone who’s not familiar with a filtered review on Yelp, it means Yelp moved the reviews to a somewhat hidden section for being “suspicious” i.e. likely planted by the business themselves. For example on 1 particular day, they have like 5 reviews posted all on the same day, from someone who signed up on Yelp and solely posted that 1 glowing positive review, then never posted again. There are also a handful of 1-star reviews that appear legit but if the company complains to Yelp, Yelp moves the negative reviews to the filtered section to prevent a lawsuit.

What is wrong with me?! I remember reading these a long time ago but apparently forgot they were associated with this laser spa. I was blinded by the fact they use the same laser as my regular laser place and had 3 positive reviews on the front page that I didn’t bother to check the filtered section again. So mad at myself for letting this happen, I am usually so informed and researched!!

#17

Don’t forget to leave a review :slight_smile:

#18

I’m definitely going to, after I speak w/them tomorrow. I plan to leave the full experience, esp if they don’t refund me. Although with my photos, I think I will be successful going through my credit card company if for some reason they don’t refund me.

#19

just updating because I had said I was going to call the laser spa today… they are closed on Mondays. So I’m going to have to call tomorrow. Annoying.

#20

Here is my update…

I called the laser “spa” today and told them what happened and that I would like a refund. The girl said they could give me a refund, but they really wanted to see my arms in person to make sure I didn’t need further medical treatment (of course…) I told her that it’s now Tuesday, my arms look better, and what they look like today is not representative of what they looked like Fri, Sat, and Sun, but that I had pictures I could bring in to show them what happened.

So I make an appt for today, go down and meet w/the esthetician again who right away says “Oh this isn’t that bad.” I explained again that it’s been 5 days since I was treated and what my arms look like today isn’t what they looked like all weekend long! The esthetician basically goes on to say “I told you so.” She’s referring to the fact that their “chiller” was broken on Friday and claimed I insisted on being treated anyway. That is NOT true. What I said was, I had never seen a chiller before, and my regular place has never used a chiller on me, so I didn’t mind if she didn’t use the chiller - I’ve never seen that machine before in my life. So instead of the chiller, she iced my arms up before treatment. I didn’t “insist” that I be treated after she refused to treat me or anything like that, AND she still chilled my arms before treatment by icing them.

Anyway this woman is completely clueless. When I pointed out that I still had full regrowth on my arms in the stripes that weren’t treated, and no stunted or dead hair growth like I normally do, she tried to explain the hair growth cycles to me and they can’t catch everything in 1 hair growth cycle and that’s why I need multiple treatments. OMG! I dind’t even bother trying to argue with her, all I wanted was a refund, which I ended up getting in the end.

But let me just add that whenever I’ve had laser before, esp in smaller areas and the Entire area is treated, for ex. bikini, that whole area has dead hair. I don’t have to keep shaving my bikini after a laser treatment. My arms are pretty much growing like normal, except for the raised burned areas! The areas that weren’t treated are, of course, still growing. I can’t even believe that she couldn’t see that and she was that stupid.

Extremely disappointed.