Cool Glide

taralee · April 7, 2003, 8:16pm

I had my first treatment with the Cool Glide Laser 3 weeks ago and will be goingfor my second treatment at the 4 week mark. Anyone out there with Cool Glide experience? I am fair skin with black hair and I am having my lower legs done. Yes it hurts like a … but the aestetician (sp?) that is doing this says that she feels like the anesthetic gel interferes with the laser and she doesn’t like to use it if I can take the pain. Well, I can take the pain if it means that I can expect to stop shaving my legs one day.

Any feedback on this would be helpful. I purchased 3 lower leg treatments for $675 and I do not want to purchase 3 more if I am wasting my money. I have heard alot about diode and Alexandrite lasers on the forum but hardly anything about Cool Glide. Am I being duped???

Thanks,
Tara

gkeilholz · April 8, 2003, 5:09pm

Taralee,

I have been undergoing hair removal for about 2 years now. About a month ago, I had a treatment done with the Cool Glide laser (before, I was only using the Candela Gentlelase). The Cool Glide is an effective laser, especially with darker skin tones. I don’t think the Cool Glide should be a problem, but the fact that your practitioner wants to do your second treatment at 4 weeks might be. Is it just a touch-up treatment, or is it condsidered another full treatment? The Cool Glide has a different target to destroy hair than an Alexandrite or a Diode laser. I have found that it takes anywhere from 2-3 weeks just to start shedding the hair that was treated. I don’t know of any part of the body where hair will grow within a month of being treated (except what was missed originally). My treatments are spaced a minimum of 8 weeks apart. I would seriously question your practitioner as to why the treatments are so closely spaced. That would be my concern as to a waste of money.

zindo · April 9, 2003, 6:00am

My pratictioner has me coming back every 4 weeks for my face, but he said that any other area of the body requires a 6-8 week wait in between. I hope that’s right?

mike2003 · April 9, 2003, 10:01pm

Hello Zindo,

I had the first 4 face & neck treatments spaced 4-5 weeks apart. By then I had obtained a reasonable clearance and the technician suggested I proceed as I wish for the next treatments.

I waited 3 months between the 4th and the 5th and by that time my beard was quite strong, so the treatment was more painful… I am soon due for no. 6 which will be 10 weeks after no. 5.

It is now obvious that I will never achieve full clearance but at least I have gotten rid of those awful razor bumps (which was the reason I started the treatment).

At this point I rate the results as follows:
[ul][li]Neck & throat: excellent, at least 90% of the hair is gone.</li>[]Cheeks: fair but patchy.</li>[]Chin: mediocre, just a bit of clearance achieved, at most 30%.</li>[*]Upper lip: none that I can see, still very dense.[/li] </li>[/ul]Keep in mind that male beard is the most difficult hair to get rid of (said my nurse), so you may obtain better results with other body parts.

Mike