20 joules is max on 18mm. 16 is ok to start if 20 is too high for you.
Another short update:
It’s been 3 days now since the test. My skin got better about 24-48 hours later. Now on day 3 everything looks normal, I can’t tell the difference to what wasn’t treated. Got an appointment in 3 weeks for a complete treatment.
@lagirl: what do you think, should I got with the 18J since everything seems fine or would 16J do the same job ?
it’s hard to say since you never know how an entire area would react. a test spot is just a sample. i would start with 16 to be safe since the hair is pretty dense when you start. you can move up to 18 on your following treatment if everything goes fine.
Well, tomorrow it’s been 3 weeks and I don’t shed at all. The hair on the test spot isn’t growing though. I think it’s what is called peppershots. Compared to IPL, the shedding was better there after 3 weeks with almost no peppershots but the hair is growing back now. Could peppershots be the result of overtreatment ? I’m having a complete treatmentin 3 days and am a bit worried about the hair beeing stuck.
pepperspots are dead hairs. are you shaving the area? either way, they will be burned off at your next treatment. they’re nothing to be worried about.
I did shave the area once or twice, yes. Does that matter ?
it makes it harder for the hairs to come out of the skin to shed since they don’t have anything to rub on. at this point, exfoliate or just wait it out.
I’m just coming back from treatment and I have a correction to do: The test spot was not done with 18mm and 18J but with 15mm and 18J. Since I got very red last time I expected her to lower the settings to 16J. However she said since the redness went away within 48 hours she could keep the 15mm and 18J.
It did hurt a bit on the belly but nothing compared to the upper part of my chest. That hurt alot and I’m red all over again which is good since at least there is a reaction 
She also said my pain tolerance was good (compared to other patients) cuz she didn’t have to take any breaks and so I got everything done within 40-45 mins.
As always I got questions for lagirl
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What do you think about 15mm and 18J ?
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She used a water spray once in a while to extra cool down the body. In the end I was quite wet and I wonder if water won’t “break” the laser light.
regards
hairbon
EDIT: I got the info about the 15mm from the display of the machine, not from the therapist. She told me she was using the biggest spot sice. I’m not sure what is correct now the disply or the therapist. I forgot to ask.
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max on 18mm is 20 joules, max on 15mm is 30 joules. that is because effectiveness of the joules decreases as you decrease the spot size. that means that 18 joules on 15mm that were used on you are on the low side. effective settings on 18mm are considered around 14 joules and up. so for 15mm, you really should be using 22 joules and up or so at least to permanently affect the hair if your skin can handle it. you are supposed to have redness and raised follicles after treatments for up to a few days post treatment. basically, i think your settings are somewhat too low.
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I haven’t heard of any negative impact of water on laser. However, most clinics use ice.
thanks lagirl. Although it’s not really what I wanted to hear. It seems to be impossible to find someone who knows what hes doing around here. I thought she was good since she has been in business for quite a while. I tried to pluck some hairs and they still resist. To me it seems the most hair was just burned on the surface. When I told her that I want to come back in 4 weeks (which was a test to see what she’ll answer) she said that I should wait 8 weeks, so at least she’s not trying to rip me off. However I think I’m taking a 12 week break now and see what happens. I’m gonna wirte an update then.
regards
hairborn
you should give it at least 2 weeks for shedding to start. it’s too early to start pulling on the hairs.
Update:
It’s been over 4 weeks now and maybe a bit more than 1/3 of the hairs are growing back as normal again. The others are still stuck inside as pepperspots but won’t shed. There was no hair free period and I don’t think it’s normal that hairs are growing back already. What happened is that the hairs kinda fell asleep for 3-4 weeks after treatment and are now starting to grow again.
I talked to the lady again and she said it was 18J at max spot size (what would be 18mm). When I told her that the display on the machine said 15mm she told me that I couldn’t tell becasue there was a shitload of information on the display. Well, I think I know how to read a display. On the other hand, it did hurt alot and I don’t know if 15mm 18J hurts that much.
If I’m going back to that place I’ll make sure it’s 18mm and 20J next time. Otherwise I found another place that uses LightSheer instead of GentleLase…might give that a try too. If that doensn’t help I might just not respond to laser 
The one surprising thing is that I did shed after the first IPL treatment and I did have a hair free perdiod.
Once this is done I’ll be an expert on lots of machines
i’m curious, are you shaving when you’re waiting for shedding?
no
@lagirl: what can be considered normal ? how many weeks after treatment should hari regrow ? I have a feeling that only 4 weeks is way too soon.
it takes up to 3.5 weeks for the hair to shed. that means that it would take at least another 3-4 for the hair in the next phase to come in. anything that’s growing at 4 weeks was probably not affected by the treatment in the first place or missed.
So, after 10 weeks now all my hair is back. At least I can’t tell a difference, I haven’t been counting them. I was told that it takes 3-5 treatments to get an 80% reduction. Doing some math, I should have a 16% reduction worst case by now. Do you think you should notice 16% ? I’ve got my 2nd appointment in 2 weeks but with zero reduction it’s a waste of money.
did you read the FAQs? if you’ve only had one treatment, what you are seeing now is NEW hair, not same hair coming back. hair grows in 3 cycles. and yes, please take pictures each time. it becomes very easy to get used to less hair, and you forget how much you started with.
FAQ: Most people need at least 6-8 initial treatments spaced 8-12 weeks apart to achieve a good clearance. This is because hair grows in three (3) phases. Several treatments are needed to target all hair in every growth phase. Approximately 8-12 weeks after every treatment, the next treatment is needed to eliminate the hairs that now came out of the dormant phase and are now active. After 6-8 treatments or so, patients should experience a considerable hair reduction.
LHR kills the hair in the anagen phase, right ? The next stage would be the catagen phase where the hair is still visible. Now during the telogen phase there is some shedding. If you put those variables together, you kind of skip the catagen phase of all hair that was in anagen phase during treatment. So under normal circumstances (no LHR) you would lose the hair in the telogen phase and have no reduction, since new hair (anogen) will come.
But if you do have LHR, you would lose the hair that is in telogen phase anyway PLUS the hair that was in anagen phase during treatment. I agree that there is new hair but since you skipped the catagen phase for some hair, there should be a reduction. Or am I totally wrong ?
regards
hairborn
you’re misunderstanding hair growth cycles. EACH hair goes through anagen, then catagen, then telogen. while say 33% is in anagen, another 33% is in catagen and another 33% is in telogen at the SAME time. that means that even if you killed ALL of the hair that was visible at the time of treatment (which isn’t possible really), you would still have 66% of hair left and within 8 weeks, you would see the hair that was in telogen during your treatment, come in again in anagen. is it more clear? that is why it takes at least 3 treatments before you see a lot less hair come in. that is when you have gotten a good portion of the hair in each phase.