HI,
Im 31 year old male, my chest and back and stomach, necklines are fairly hairy, ive been being treated since 08, by Candella (alexadrite), also a couple bad treatments with IPLS,and one uncessfull treatement with a lightsheer diode ( i attribute to bad tech, and poor settings), otherwise the most of my treatements probably 10 were under the candella. the candella gave me the best results at 18mm hightest jewel setting. 20 i believe. I would be hair free for a couple months, hair would return thinner, and i would go again. after numerous treatments, i havent been back for a year. And as usual, just like my other year break, most came back, but indeed a bit thinner than orginal hair was. Im wanting to return to my maintenence treatments, but i was driving over 240 miles round trip to access the spa with the candela. a new spa has opened up 5 minutes from my house. They have a laser i cant find any info on. Its a newer Diode system that has a 800 wavelenght. its the ‘‘Palomar Vexus’’. i know palomar has been around a long time, but used to make subpar IPLs. now they claim to have the biggerst , fastest best diode on the market , 2012-2013. they say the hand piece is 2in wide and long, so they can do a full back in 5-10 min. I havent seen this machinee reviewed or addressed anywhere. I did see you mentioned it offhand in a comment, when some1 else asked if it was a good laser, opposed to a alex. I heard alex, and diode are about equal depending on the techs .
I PM’D this question to another board member, who said that basically If the Candella didnt work at 20J and 18MM that nothing would, that that hair is too deep or too fine. I would like to add some pictures of myself If i can find some that show different stages of my removal. Even though the hair is back in , especially on Pectoral chest area, and front and back of neck, But it is still finer , and less visiable that before treatments. It is however still Black Hair. Essentially I would and could notice reduction results while under a strict regiment with the candela, but a year latter, it returns just not as thick. So in my mind it seems to work as a maintenence, and Im ok with that. One thing about the techs that ran the Candella,is they would not re treat, with in 8 week period. So basically no touchups, saying the skin needed that time to heal. I think this may have been a downfall of the 10 or so candella treatments Ive had, is not being spaced correctly. The spa with the new Palomar says they can treat 4-6weeks apart and catch more hair in growth cycle. I would optimally like to clear more with a laser , then move to electrolysis. Thanks for any input!!!
Treating more often is not going to change anything. 4-6 weeks apart is too early. Hair doesn’t grow that fast. Can you please post photos? You can upload to photobucket.com and post the links here.
I will sit down over this week and get some pictures together. i would like to document it , for everyones elses viewing/ learing experience as well. I have spent a easy 10k in laser treatments from 5 different providers from Ideal Image in reno NV (BS techs), to high end spas in Fort collins CO , and Billings MT. I would like to share my experiences, and continued vow to kill most hair i have!! Although I am leaning right now instead of blowing more money on this ‘‘palomar vexcus’’ with no success reviews, to Start trying Electrolysis . I hope I can find a tech willing to put in some major work!!
HEY LAGIRL, Is the only way to post pictures is via photobucket ? ?
I believe 4-6 weeks is better on treatment times, on aggressive thick hair, but thats my IMO not a proven fact. I could never get the last spa to treat this often, and they wouldnt honor touchups or missed spots. The reason I believe it would have helped to be treated this often is some hair that didnt respond ie swell up and shed 2week later, or hair that was skipped. either way, I feel if I had been my own Tech, i would probably be closer to hair free, privately zapping the shit out of myself on every work break . I feel like the laser works to a degree, but one must stay on a regular basis of treatements, not 6-9, like 20-25 over years and years, until the hair is weakened to the point of no return. This is all just based on my humble experiences.
At this time, i finally took the next step and have a electrolysis appointment scheduled next week . First one, im excited, but unfortunatley im in a a small town, and no1 has done large clearences.
http://s1303.beta.photobucket.com/user/laserthug/library/
i think this is the link to what my hair looks like now. I didnt get good lighting or pictures but this will give you an idea. Hair on my back is a bit thinner than my chest, but still very visable, so I shave it with a electric razor, even after 10-12 laser ‘‘reduction’’ sessions
I wish i had more before picturs like before 2008. Hair was much denser. biggest reduction was stomach id say
Do you have any before pictures? I think it looks pretty good, you dont look too hairy. It looks normal in my opinion. Is your target to be hair free?
Although I have never used the diode you mentioned, I had my first 6 treatments with the lighthsheer diode, and havent found it to be as effective as the Gentlelase.
uh yeah i want that chest hair absolutley thined out to the max, and i want back hair shoulder hair , neck hair at 100% GONE. i love how some people underestimate the battle of being hairy and the sense of wanting it GONE. your on a hair forum John for removal. OFCOARSE I WANT IT GONE!!!
and John Staff, i had a diode lightsheer not the duet, but the older one used on me, with like absolutley no shedding of hair, and i was swollen and broke out from the treatment for 48hours ie it beat me up pretty good. (Could have been the settings or the tech I suspect). I have heard that the Diode, especially lighsheer is a good machine. Most of my treatments where with the Alex, Candela Gentlelase. 20J, and 18mm. sometimes turned down a lil bit for my neck , and sensitive areas. Id ususally get 100% shedding for a couple of weekes with thie exception of the center of my chest where the hair count is stupid thick and they just wont die. I would support the Candela as the best machine ive had used on me. But results as usuall are at best temp.
Ive looked everywhere I really have no before pictures to use as a example. only what im working with now.
Oh I dont understimate that at all, Ive been a werewolf since the age of 14. However I found moving from werewolf to medium hairy so that I felt I could wear short sleeve shirts was problem pretty much solved for me.
I still look at guys who seem to have zero body hair with a bit of envy, but when you actually look below the surface they have their own set of problems and are probably feeling envy over something you have.
I have met guys with no body hair who feel they look effeminate, one guy actually shaved his chest as he had read it made it grow back thicker!
Edit.
I have just added a post showing where I started, to where I am now. I think they’ll show I know exactly what you mean by being too hairy!
we all have our set of distinct dislikes. For me I hate hair, how it feels, how when i rub my arm against something , what I feel is the high hair count on my forearm. When i did shed most hairs that were treated by LHR, I felt finally I had accomplished what I had wanted. I dont need to be as bald as a Calvin Klien model, but Close. and my hair when starting out was similiar to yours John BTW
Well dont give up, not just yet.
Have you had a really good look around your local area for Gentlelase places? Some of these places are not very good at advertising on the internet, and it takes a bit of searching to find them! My current one is actually part of a hospital! Other places that have them sometimes do plastic surgery treatments.
I started off having about a 2.1/2 hour round trip, then I found somewhere about an 1 hour round trip. My current place is about 30 mins. It really does help, it being closer.
Just a thought, now you have reduced it quite a bit. What would it be like if you had it waxed? Ive never done this since I started laser, and before then it was a bloody , bleeding, spotty mess and by the time it healed it was hairy again. But just something else to consider.
Keep us all informed of your progress 
John
Listen, John, Ive done my research. Ive been treated since like 08 maybe earlier. Like i said if you took the time to read thru the post I have been treated numerous times under a Gentlelase. The closest clinic is 1.5 hours each way from me, extremely expensive, and they dont offer touchups , or guernentee a thing. They wont treat sooner than 8 weeks apart, wont re treat miss spots, or stubborn hairs. I complained to there spa manager, and they wrote me a nice proffessional letter saying that they were sorry I felt this way, and could no longer provide a service to me , since I wasnt happy with it, and sorry Goodbye. Like i say, some spas are better than others, but the temp reduction seems like a scam more and more people are catching on to.
I have my first electrolysis appointment scheduled, and hope to do some grueling 100hour (whatever it takes) clearances. My orginal intent of the post was to gather some real info on the PALOMAR VEXUS, a new diode laser, that has the biggest spot size in the industry. I have heard that spot size dictates depth , and some hairs are indeed deep so bigger spot, deeper the treatment. The new VEXUS has a 2in by 2in spot size, blows 18mm away. WONDERING IF ANY LASER TECHS, MDS, HAVE SEEN THIS NEW LASER YET. or is it same old spiced up BS
From what I can tell in the photos, the remaining hair is not very coarse. There are a few coarse patches, but the majority isn’t.
I honestly don’t feel you’ll get results from any other machine if GentleLASE at 18mm 20J didn’t work on you. That’s basically as powerful as it gets. Your only option at this point may be electrolysis if you want permanent removal of the remaining hair. Though I should also say, especially as a woman, that your hair growth looks completely normal and even and masculine. I don’t know many women who prefer the no hair look that magazines advertize. Of course, I also realize that this is a very personal thing and you probably feel completely different.
Treating often doesn’t help. As I said, hair on this areas doesn’t grow that fast. Take a look at hair growth cycle information for each body area. It takes 3 weeks for the hair to completely shed. After that, it takes at least another 5-6 weeks for new hair to come in. If you have anything remaining at 3 weeks, it needs to be touched up for free. You shouldn’t be paying for another treatment at that point.
p.s. John, this could have been you. Years of treatments at 18mm 20J and still looking for results. Of course, you’ll ignore this.
thanks LA girl for the response. while your response in a way is comforting, ive been obsessing about my hair since i was 15 , thats half my life, so i cant stop now. And yes if i could just thin the hair, selectively, on my chest / stomach, and be bald on shoulders and back, id be happy. Its to thick, and i like tang tops way too much.
On another note, i did start as hairy as John. and on another note althou treated at least 10x with a good alex laser on high settings, the first 5 treatements werent as effective as i diddnt stick to a routine schedule, every 8 weeks is what i shouldve done… then a year break most was back. Then i stuck to a 8 week schedule and did 6 full treatements, on high settings, and it did keep the hair significantly thinner for a full year,and now that the year is up, its come back but truly thinner.
as far as treatement spacing, i still belive i shed faster than every1 else , 2 weeks, and by the 3rd week, fine lil clear, and half clear, half dark hairs will start to come in on the thickeest areas. whether theyve been missed, or there too light to be affected by the laser idk. but i alwasys felt that this so called ‘’ touchup’’ if done at 3-4 weeks would help tremendoulsly, but havent had the pleasure of a clinic who would do it. I would love to put Tallman med spa in billings MT on blast for terrrible techs, policies, and just all around hidious customer service.
but still searching for answers on the hype of the Palomar Vexcus
Honestly, they can do as much marketing hype as they can, but alexandrites are still the most powerful machines. So if it’s not an alex, it’s automatically inferior.
LA girl- whats this mean ‘’ p.s. John, this could have been you. Years of treatments at 18mm 20J and still looking for results. Of course, you’ll ignore this. ‘’
had my first electroloysis session, on my chest a lil patch to get me warmed up to it. Felt like a mild tattoo session that I wasnt thrilled to sit through. I will have to train myself to take a longer sitting, but so far I can say Im optomistic about it