Face burn from Elos IPL - advice & help please.

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

greetings.
i have done 5 synron IPL treatments in my cheeks for removing exccess hair.
so far results are not impressive, not all hairs shed after treatment and a there is no serious hair reduction.

every treatment the technician increases the light power, eventually reaching the maximum power last treatment.
unfortunely, don’t know what is the reason but i got a 2nd degree face burn.

here is a link for the burn and area i’m talking about:

as you can see the burn is in the bottom border of the treatment area.

basically, my hair on my cheeks is not like the BEARD hair, dont get mistaken.

the hair on my cheeks is a mix of coarse medium black hairs and also a majority of thinner brighter ones… this could also be from reason of waxing in the past.

My difficulites

  1. so far I did feel the technician is doing a good job, and going over some area’s a couple of times to make sure the hairs are “burned”.
    is this proceduere of going over an area a couple of times effective? dangerous?
    tho i do need to mention i’m pretty sure the area i got the burn wasn’t passed more than once
    is this kind of burns are widespread among IPL users?
    anyone knows what can i do in order to make sure i won’t get ugly scars?

  2. I think hopefully once my face will turn back to be ok, i need to re-think about where and with what hair removal treatment i should go to. (i’m not giving up yet!)

i did consider electrolysis tho I think there is 2 much hair for doing this, and also I have heard alot of scars and pigmentations problems causing from this kind of treatment. especially in the face. also couldn’t find someone reliable in my area (middle-east) - i think most of the women doing this kind of treatments are very old-school and not using the latest technology avaliable.

does anyone know/estimates what machine suits the best for my type of skin (mocha) and hair?

i’m 25 years old, skin is pretty oily, and does have tendency for acne and scarring.

By the way, in the same clinic i am going to, they also offer applinix SELECTIF pro (ultrasound) treatments.
I did do a couple of them in the side of the eyes for small amount and brighter hairs, tho I did find the treatments not effective (there’s a need to pluck one hair at a time, one by one, plus the results are poor) and very expensive.

I’d really appriciate if anyone could help/advice me what to do.
thanks so much.

Guy.

#2

  • Laser only works on dark coarse dense growth. Your cheeks seem to have finer growth and the color looks reddish. It sounds like it’s not coarse enough for laser to be effective. You’re also not using the best machine type. What IPL is it btw?

  • Yes, they shouldn’t go over the area more than once, but they should overlap.

  • The burn is superficial. It’ll resolve itself. Just use aloe vera and keep the area dry and clean.

  • I think electrolysis is your only option if you want permenent results, however long it takes. It removes 5-10 hairs per minute with a good electrologist using thermolysis.

  • There is no indication anywhere that SELECTIF pro provides any permanent results. You can pluck the hair without it with the same “result”.

#3

hello LAgirl.
thanks for the quick feedback! :slight_smile:

the kind of IPL mentioned is an IPL with a RadioWave pulses, made from ELOS company. from what i’ve understood it’s really not the greatest machine but I think it’s just supposed to be much safer than laser if the patient is exposed to the sun. and in my area there’s alot of sun… :open_mouth:

anyway I’m still not so comfortable with the thermolysis idea because i can’t find someone who is trusty enough not to scar my face. i think most patients of this kind of treatment around here are 50 years old women who wan’t to remove some facial hair - i am not in touch with this “layer” of society except my mom. i could be wrong tho - but anyway i can’t find any real authentic recommendations/experiences.

still looking for alternatives…

#4

I don’t know where you got that info on the ELOS, but it’s false. There is no safe machine for skin that’s been exposed to the sun. It doesn’t really work that way. Settings are set on any machine according to the skin type. If you have a tan, the skin is darker and settings need to be adjusted accordingly and treatments won’t be as effective. Yag lasers are the only ones made for darker skin, which includes tanned skin. Though for best results, you should be using the most powerful machine your skin without any tan can handle safely. And you should be using sunblock throughout treatments.

Scarring doesn’t just appear from one treatment. You should sample 4-5 electrologists for 10 minute treatments and judge from that. Pick one that leaves the skin looking great. There are plenty of “real” experiences with photos on the electrolysis section of this forum, including plenty of men.

#5

ELOS is the name of their technology, the maker is called Syneron.
They say it’s safer because it uses IPL which is much weaker than real lasers so then the risk of being hurt when exposed to the sun is lower. But then again, you could just save your money, don’t do the treatment and still won’t get hurt by the sun.

From experience, ELOS is very weak when it comes to getting results.

#6

Hi,

I am also from the middle east. I would advise you to go and buy a cream called mebo for burns and keep applying it to the affected area. You will find it in any pharmacy.

I had a bad experience with IPL in the same area you are treating now. Please try to avoid it and find another place who has Nd yag laser.

#7

I don’t understand where you are getting this information about Elos being weak? It can’t be from actual experience because we use this technology in our clinics and we get fantastic results over many years and 1,000’s of clients.

I agree laser is better for hair removal than IPL.

#8

FYI, odi hasn’t been active here since August. I hope he answers you, though.