Facial Hair Removal

Here are a few questions: I recently began laser facial hair removal at a plastic surgeon’s office in La Jolla, California. At about “level 35” (don’t recall the unit of measure), it was pretty painful, even with the topical anaesthetic. But it’s no big deal - I could take it.

My question is: It took me about a week to two weeks for my face to heal from the procedure, and all seems to be well. After the first treatment, my beard is significantly reduced. I am going to go back about 5 or 6 more times, spaced out ever 4 weeks. My question is this: I have been recently squeezing hairs out of my face much like I would squeeze a blackhead out. It seems that many dead hairs are lodged in the follicle, and that they come out just like a blackhead. Is this normal? What’s going on?

Another question, while I’m on the subject: Will all these hairs that are coming out grow back, or are these ones that the laser “got” and therefore will not grow back? I did read in other threads about the “shedding” effect and guess, after posting the question above and reading, that THAT is what is happening to me.

But again, would like confirmation of this “shedding” and also an answer to the question about these hairs growing back.

It’s normal for the hair to be pushed out that way. The dead hair is being expelled.

I don’t know if new finer hairs grow there, or if they’re totally dead, but my guess is they’re dead. I hope someone else can shed some light in the issue.

James - thanks. I hope they’re dead as well! Anybody who knows - please feel free to “shed” some “light” :smile:

Your practitioner should have told you to expect this. Yes, hairs will fall out over the next couple of weeks after a treatment. Some people get treated at levels high enough to make the hairs fly out of the follicles as they are treated, but this can sometimes be too much energy.

Shedding is a sign the hair was disabled, but shedding does not necessarily mean there will be a permanent result. It’s usually a good sign, but it’s not a done deal.

Hello all,

I’ve had 5 LaserSheer sessions for my beard and there’s still a lot of work to do until I can call the treatment a success.

My question is:

When I leave the clinic I look awful from all the dead hair on my face. It is very time consuming to clean up: when I get home it takes me 1.5-2.0 hours to pull out enough dead hair with a tweezer so that I can look presentable. I then spend about 30 mins per day for the next 7-10 days in front of the mirror with the tweezer. Is there a faster method, something I can do before leaving the clinic? My face is so red that it is not possible to rub something abrasive for at least 10 days.

Mike

Beard hair is a very difficult area to treat, the hardest, in fact. I usually advise getting treatments when you don’t plan on going out for a day or so after. The longer you can wait after treatment to remove the hairs that have been treated, the better. You should wait until the irritation is as subsided as possible. Using products like Tend skin, witch hazel, and aloe vera gel can help.

You should probably leave the hairs to fall out on their own iun an ideal world, but hey, we have lives to live. Wait as long as you can, then gently pull on each hair to see if it slides out. If it doesn’t, you should wait till it does or shave it. pulling out hairs that were not treated strongly enough to detach will delay your time to completion.