First Laser Consultation (UK)

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

Hi Everyone,

It’s been about six weeks since I started electrolysis on my face and I’m happy with how it’s going so far!

I then made the decision to start Laser on my underarms.
My body hair grows very quickly and to be honest it does not bother me to be waxing my arms and legs every few weeks, even though by two weeks the hair is already back and then I have to leave it to grow to an appropriate length to wax again. My fiance doesn’t mind either, lovely guy that he is.
BUT I can’t stand my underarm and bikini hair. I have to wax my bikini area every 2-3 weeks and I epilate my underarms once a week and shave mid-week. My underarms are maybe properly hair free for 2 days? It’s horrible. I don’t mind showing my arms when the hair is growing back but underarms is just gross (to me).

So today I went for my first consultation at Renew Medica near Oxford Circus. I selected this clinic as back when I first started researching laser their only clinic in south London had 3 different laser types for different skins. Now they have expanded.
The consultation went well and I had a test patch. All my questions were answered. I was also surprised to be shown a picture of ‘reactive growth’ on the face in the possible side-effects. I thought this was uncommon and that most Laser places don’t mention it as a possibility.
For the test patch she picked the Apogee Elite (Yag) and drew a box on my underarm and divided it into 4. She said she used a pulse width of 30ms and different joule settings with the maximum at 30J.

How does this sound to you knowledgeable people?

I will be going for my first treatment in two weeks and then going on holiday two weeks after that (not in the sun), so I’m really hoping it will start shedding at this time and give me a hair free 2 weeks while I’m away!

#2

What is your skin type? Can’t judge settings without that.

Have you read other posts discussing clinics on London here?

#3

Sorry, yea forgot to put that. I’m Indian-Asian commonly mistaken for Mediterranean and I guess type IV or maybe between III-IV.

#4

With that combination, you’re at least a type IV, possibly type V if you’re not very light for your enthnic backround.

30J on a Yag is pretty conservative. 20ms pulse is not bad. I would ask for test spots to see if you can handle higher joules.

#5

i’m fair for my ethic background hence believing i’m on the border of type iv.

the pulse width was 30ms. she did do other joule settings but i believe they were all lower than 30J.

What should i be looking for on the Apogee Elite Nd:Yag in terms of joules?

thanks for your help lagirl.

#6

It’s impossible to tell you exact settings since we don’t know what your skin can handle. But I would definitely not get treated at anything lower than 30J on this Yag. You can ask them to test spot at 5J increments to see how high you can go.

#7

thanks, that’s pretty much what i wanted to know. i had no idea what kind of range is appropriate for this laser so that’s really helpful.

when i was having my test patch i was a bit :S as even the 30J wasn’t much more painful than electrolysis current (if you can compare the two) and i was expecting laser to hurt a lot more.

i will ask if she can try some higher settings. :slight_smile:

#8

The fact that it doesn’t hurt that much is also indicative of the settings being too low. There should definitely be some pain, especially on the coarse hair.

#9

hi - i’m back.

i had my first laser treatment a while back. after 2 weeks i had a lot of shedding - all the thicker, darker hair shed, what was left was barely visible. i was hair free for a few weeks until thicker, regular underarm hairs started growing. by week 8 after treatment it looked like a full growth (first question, was this just hair that wasn’t in the right phase to be treated the first time, so it had come back or could some of the ‘right’ hairs be back too if the settings weren’t high enough?). i just had my second treatment at 8 weeks. the aesthetician told me that the shedding was a good sign that the treatment is working. is this true?

thanks for all your help my dears.

#10

Shedding is a good sign. What your describing is normal.

Hairs grows in cycles. When the hair comes back in it is new, growing hair that is in the right phase to be killed by the laser. This is why it is important to keep a treatment schedule.

#11

Everything sounds good. The hair you see at 8 weeks is the hair that was dormant previously since hair grows in cycles.

#12

thanks for your reply pdeco. how long is the best time to wait between treatments? the aesthetician told me to come back within 2 weeks of the new growth - this started happening at about week 5-6 so i stretched it out to week 8 when the growth was a bit more substantial.
am i right to assume, that if there is good shedding again now, that 2 ‘sets’ of growth phases have been successfully treated and the period before i see substantial new growth should be longer?

#13

8-12 weeks apart is a good time frame for underarms region. Yes, you’re technically right, except that you don’t really know how many hairs were in the right growth phase when you first started (if you had waxed before you started, it would be easier to judge for example since most hair showing at that point would have been in anagen phase). If the majority of your hair sheds and you don’t need treatments more than 8-12 weeks apart, everything is going well and you should be done in 5-8 treatments with the majority of the hair gone after about 4.

#14

thank you lagirl :slight_smile:
i was just worried, as per my previous posts, that the settings might be too low and how would i ever know. but it seems like things are going okay so far then! and she did use higher settings this second treatment - hurt a lot more too!

i’m so glad i found this forum :slight_smile:

#15

If the settings were too low, you would either not shed most of the hair, or you would see most hair regrowing after 4-5 weeks. If you have a hairfree period, you’re good.

You’re welcome and don’t worry too much :slight_smile:

#16

update:

hi everyone. i’m continuing to have treatment at renewmedica.

i had my fourth underarm treatment 9 weeks ago and i think it’s going great. time between 3rd & 4th treatment was a bit long (13 weeks) as i was out of the country. but in these nine weeks since my fourth treatment, not much hair has come back at all. there was a patch in my armpit that was particularly dense with hair and very bumpy, i can’t believe how smooth it looks now. i hope that my fifth treatment last week will be my last, the hair that is currently growing a lot finer too.

i also started my first bikini treatment with my last underarms (9 weeks ago). also having my second treatment in that area next week. unlike underarms, which for me, seemed like a full growth of hair by the time my second treatment came around, the bikini area is looking quite sparse.

anyway, i’ve been thinking about starting on my legs now too. what do you guys say? given the other areas, do you think it will be successful? it’s a lot of money per treatment, which is the only thing giving me reservations.

#17

Have you waxed the bikini area before as opposed to underarms? That may explain the difference. Waxing before the very first treatment sometimes can help because it synchronizes hair so that most of what is being treated is in the right growth phase.

If your legs have coarse hair, you can definitely get results there. I had 3 treatments on my legs and the reduction has been great.

#18

thanks for your reply lagirl.

yes, i waxed my bikini line regularly and stopped a few weeks before my first treatment.
i always found it too difficult to wax my underarms though, so i used to epilate them, which didn’t last long (was doing it every week or two). i stopped that quite some time before my first treatment and was just shaving.

i need to wax my legs right now (so very hairy) and the area where i had a test patch those 9 weeks ago is still very obvious.
i think i will go ahead and book the treatment.

oh and what do you say? i last waxed my legs 6 weeks ago. should i make my first treatment for next week or should i wax now, and make the first for 4-5 weeks from now?

thank you so much!

#19

If you waxed 6 weeks ago, you are ready for treatment now on your legs. It should help decrease the overall number of treatments needed.

#20

did you stop at 3 treatments on legs? also, what sort of reduction did you get from those 3?

the hair on the front of my thighs is quite coarse so i’m having full leg treatment. also, on the back of my lower leg (top half) the hair is very fine and there is not much at all, even less than the back of my thighs… should i request that they don’t bother with this area?

i’m really excited about starting. not having to wax my legs every few weeks on top of already not having to worry about underarms and bikini now, is a fantastic thought.

i’m considering starting on my lower arms closer to winter. would anyone recommend this? it’s really only the front of my forearm that has coarser hair but obviously, that’s mixed with a lot of finer hair too. i’m not sure how well laser would work.

thanks again everyone. i’m so happy that i found this forum, it gave me the courage to start laser and electro, which has made such a difference to my life. :slight_smile: