Candela GentleYAG Settings for Skin Type V/VI

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

Hello,

I’m an African-American looking to have laser hair removal on my beard area due to bad ingrown hairs. My skin tone would probably be classified as a 5 (maybe 6?) on the Fitzpatrick scale. I’m not considered to be extremely dark, nor am I considered to be light. I have a medium brown skin tone.

I was wondering which settings for the Candela Gentle YAG would be most appropriate and safest to use on my skin, including:

Spot Size
Fluence (Joules)
Pulse Duration
Cryo

I’ve been to a dermatologist who surprisingly used settings that adversely affected my skin. Therefore, I don’t want to make the same mistakes again by not doing proper due diligence and taking the provider’s word for it.

I’m aware that settings can differ from individual to individual, so I’m just looking for general guidelines. I’ve seen wildly different answers online, as well as from different technicians, so I’m just looking to be pointed in the right direction. Essentially I’m looking for the safest settings or range of settings that would minimize skin complications.

Any information or insight would be greatly appreciated

#2

This is outside of what you’re asking but I highly recommend you go find someone offering electrolysis and have your beard treated this way. Electrolysis works on all skin colours - so you won’t burn your face like you can with laser. And it’s permanent.

I’ve had IPL and (ND:Yag) Laser done on many parts of my body and I am an almost perfect candidate for laser - my skin is light, and my hairs are dark. But now many of my hairs have regrown because the lasers were not effective - IPL sucks, and apparently I have white hair roots so the ND:Yag Laser doesn’t work here.

So because of this I’ve decided to go for electrolysis.

#3

Endless excuses for shit that doesn’t work. This is a new one that I’ll add to the every-growing list (electrolysis excuses, and laser excuses).

#4

I’ll give a little more background as to what my experiences have been

Spot Size: I’ve had some individuals insist on using an 18 mm spot size. The justification was that there would be less overlap and therefore it would be safer. With a test spot of an 18 mm spot size and a fluency of 10 Joules, the hair was completely removed. However, I noticed the texture of my skin had changed for the worse and looked somewhat scaly with a large amount of small tannish dots which looked like hypopigmentation. The skin also seemed reddish, even weeks after the test spot.

I should note that I followed all of the pre and post procedure instructions, including not working out before or after, staying out of the sun, not applying excessive heat to the area, and using sunscreen.

Fluency: I’ve learned that as the spot size decreases, joules can be increased, and as the spot size increases, joules should be decreased. Despite my insistence that an 18 mm spot size and 10 Joule fluency resulted in adverse effects on the texture of my skin, the next technician I saw insisted that the fluency was too low to have any effect (even though my hair had disappeared). She insisted I stay with an 18 mm spot size and increase the fluency to 18 Joules. The adverse texture effects on my skin resulted again from an 18 mm spot size and fluencies of 18 Joules and 20 Joules. Regardless, the hair was once again completely removed.

Pulse Duration: The largest discrepancy I’ve seen has been for Pulse Duration. I’ve had some say 3 ms is best for dark skin, while others have said a longer pulse duration approaching 100 ms is best for dark skin because it spreads the heat out over a longer period of time, making the procedure safer. Others have said 20 ms should be the max, and others that this setting doesn’t even matter and is never changed from 3 ms. Does anyone know which pulse width should be used for dark skin? Longer or shorter?

Cryo: The technicians I’ve asked about Cryo say there’s no difference between 40/20 and 30/20. Can someone confirm or deny this?

Settings that worked for me: I’ve noticed the settings which worked best were with a 12 or 15 mm spot size combined with a fluency ranging from 16-18 Joules and a Pulse duration of 10 ms. As stated earlier, whenever a spot size larger than 15 mm was used, even with a fluency as low as 10 Joules, I experienced adverse texture effects with my skin which included reddening, a scaly look, and small tannish dots. I experienced no such adverse texture effects with a 12 and 15 mm spot size.

However, it seems as if many technicians don’t want to use smaller spot sizes - is there a medical reason for this? Does anyone know why a larger spot size, despite technicians saying it’s safer, may’ve resulted in the adverse skin effects?

It would be great if someone knowledgeable about the topic could give me info, I’d really appreciate it

#5

Skyfield,

Do not waist your money and SKIN using laser. I strongly suggest you to use electrolysis.
I am not a laser specialist, I am an electrologist and I had a client with your skin and hair. He did 10 laser treatments and came to me with beard denser that before. He has very deep and curved follicles with very thick and black hairs and a lot of ingrowing. This type of hair laser cannot kill unless you are willing to sacrifice your skin by using very high power settings of the laser. If you need more explanation, you can PM me.