Hello to everyone. This will be my experience so far with hair removal:
I am a male, 30, from Bucharest , Romania, Eastern Europe.
Most Important - (wanted to save your time and start with this): If you have excess hair problem, like I do , there IS a solution, a very efficient one. Its NOT the very advertised LASER crap you are served everywhere, on every web site about hair removal, at every practioner or cosmetic clinic… - it’s a method thats been there for a while, a much harder , time consuming, but the only one that works - Electrical Hair Removal or Electrolysis . You fellow monkeys must read this thread extensively because I think it WILL provide solutions for your painful problem.
I developed a excessive hair growth after age 20, on my back, chest, shoulders, belly. You will see the pictures. Some of the hairs had (or still have after laser) 2 or even 3 hairs coming from one folicle, making the problem loke worse from proximity than it is on pictures… especially when closely shaved, it felt like razor when passed the hand over them.
2008 - 25 age - started Laser Hair removal in my home town Bucharest at a Clinic with an Alma Soprano XL Diode Laser - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RrC83OqUpQ very reccomended for my hair type - dark thick hair. Did 3 passings, with 1.5 months betwwen them. All hair shed, reacted good - After the first 3 months after last treatment, thought I was having something, the hair were I must admit thinned a bit, and I was sayng to myself that they were less per squared cm … After 6 months - everything started to go back to “normal” … the hair was thinned a bit, but it continued to look bad, and grow long, about 2 inches 5cm long hairs on back chest shoulders etc. - overall the roots seemed a little affected, they delayed growth, and some of the 3hair folicle developed only 2 folicle … i considered that insuficient, the hair porblem was far from gone, and in pictures you can see that in terms of aspect, everyting looked the same as before treatment.
1 year after laser - started to give up hope that anything can be done for my hairs, wich belibe me is very painful, everyone going to the beach , looking more or less normal - you show up like monkey, and if you chose classical hair removal, like razor or even waxing - its a pain, its back in no time, skin reacts etc. - A REAL pain - praying to God for a solution, because other from this problem I am a preety ok guy doing sports and all, good shape etc. - and it came 4 years after when almost losing hope.
2013 - 30 age - A clinic in my home time advertised they brought to Romania the Electrolysis method for hair removal . decided to try. They worked with Dectro Apilus machines, but they main target was and still is to popularize the method and sell machines to other cosmetic practioners and cabinets… my starting pictures :
I was preety skeptical - started in july 2013 - shoulders and upper arms first, as a test. they took 30 hrs for the firs clearing, so you can imagine the density of folicle, posted also a detailed picture of my shoulder with upper arm, hairs trimmed, before electro started in july 2013 (with 3 laser passings remenber 
) - My practitioner she asked me to trim, because they were v close apart, and could not use the finger technique, but instead the tweezer technique… wich is slower but not so slow!
[b]Technical data about the treatment - could be considered a Dectro comercial, it is not, but i am truly grateful to them for bringing those machines in my country wich is developing now, and dosent have the late technology that you in your more modern western countrys or america have … perhaps the setting i used would work on ANY machine like those i read here - silhouette tone vmc, instantron, apilus senior… and the results would be the same, the tecnology ( Fast Thermolysis Electrolysis ) is the same no matter machine…
So - machine - Dectro Apilus Platinum Pure
mode - picoflash, FAST thermolysis
needle - F3 Dectro (F4 was too big she said hard insertions, F2 too little, unsuficient power, tried them both)
settings - time between 0.6 and 0.9 seconds , power between 70% and 85% , (“el” in the 400-600 area for you Platinum users) - she OFTEN used DOUBLED pulses, for the thick hairs, wich did not release with one pusle, or even 3 pulses
work - she worked on me Without magnification glass, used the lamp only for lightning - said that the thick black visible hairs helped her made the insertions, guiding the needle, and had no need for magnification glass - this improved the pace in my oppinion but you got to have an young , good eyed electro to be able to do this - I do
pain - sometimes must admit - a lot. because of the closed up hairs, because the 2, 3 hairs form 1 root, the skin was preety stressed, and pain was felt during treatment especially near areas like esterior of back, or near the spine - even with that , if did some sports before to slow your pace, i was able to take even 3.5hrs session, but now i stick to 1.5hrs sessions - compromise between getting an area treated, but not enduring too much pain, or sqweezing all out of your electrologist… she is human
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[color:#FF0000][b]Felt NO RESISTANCE AT ALL when hair slid out the folicle.
Another thing - hair on shoulders, areas of back - is in somehow of telogen - it grows slowly, the roots are already affected from laser, and still the method is VERY efficent - dont buy that “only works on Anagen Hairs” crap that even Dectro uses in their comercial - its not true - for laser, the root must be tied to the hairs shaft, (in anagen) in order to guide the heat to destroy the germinative cells in the base of the hair folicle, but in electrolysis, the inserted probe, needle, acts as the heat dispenser, cauterizing (burning) the hair germinative cells, in the folicle, REGARDLESS of the hair phase , anagen or thelogen (my experience so far and after 5 months without the hairs coming back… i think im right… also this is the oppinion of more experienced ppl gere like Michael Bono form America and Josepha Reina from Spain) .
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So far had - shoulders+upper arms cleared twice , and more than half back cleared once.
[b]1. Shoulders and upper arms - 1st clearing - 30hrs - started july 2013 , finished around 15august 2013 - most hard time, did not know what to expect, pain, not beleiving method works… hard.
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Shoulders and upper arms - 2nd clearing - 9hrs (!)- started 20 november2013 , finished 1st december 2013 - about 80% succes rate i would say (!!), beacause also some untreated hairs appeared… started to belive I got something here
- until you dont see it on your own skin, you dont trust even the pictures here on hairtell… -
Started Back 1 half - 1st clearing - 25 hrs - started 1st december, fnished 20th december 2013
december 2013 -> may 2014 - 5 months pause to raise money (treatment cost is 30eur/hr here, but wages are also MUCH less than yours, and i dont guarantee that the speed is as good as at experienced practittioners like Josepha Reina from this forum or Michael Bono, wich btw probed a BIG info supprt for me, thanyou!) - but my practitioner also has good speed, a good hand, and big advantage, is easy to reach by Tube (Metro), so that i am not constrained to make long sessions, and to travel extensevily to do my large areas, cutting trasportation costs - big advantage in a big city (Bucharest is 2milion ppl cty)
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Shoulders and upper arms - 3rd clearing - 4hrs (!)- started 10 may 2013 , finished 15may 2013 - again, very high succes rate, the hairs are really starting to get scarce, but treatment still needs to be done - after this 5 month pause, this convinced me that this method really works - so little hairs appeared, treated ones almost all dead …
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Back - now im working in parralel - 1 half 2nd clearing - with a Apilus Senior (older generation machine) , and the other half, the uncleared one, still with the Pure machine… Will come back with progress time and sensation comparison.
[/b]To not make this very long , (i will continue to post photos and treatment evolutionl looking to do upper arms, chest, belly, and of caourse completing back and shouders) - IT REALLY WORKS see picture taken 5months from first treatment on shoulders, the one where you can see clearly the “border” area back - shoulder -> and you do the verdict. the small dots are from a teenage acne problem, they are now healed but left marks on back. Hope that pictures will say more so I post them…
I can say now that I really feel v grateful somehow blessed (religious guy here) that such a method has come even here in a not so developed country, that I found a dedicated practioner able and willing to work on me, and that i found this forum with tons of valuable info, and with very helping people. Especially Josepha Reina with hers treatments (wanted to name this thread “diary of a Romanian Guy” - but i named it like that so that Google takes the index and when ppl look for hair removal, on men back chest etc, maybe they come here instead of being redirected to the eternal laser clinic in their area… - its a very niche forum, not getting the atention it diserves … thats why -> look for Diary of the Scandinavian Guy http://www.hairtell.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/106693/1.html and Diary of the European Guy http://www.hairtell.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/95412/1.html , presenting her work) amd Michael Bono, a very experenced Guru in electro and a very helping guy, also doing men cases … Thank You, other specialists here, all the guys thet poste pictures before me, and you guys reading this, be sure to look them up and see what they posted about their tratments!
Hope that this will serve as an inspiration to everyone in my situation to go out there, search for an electrologist in your area , and start the work because results will soon follow and your life will start to change, you will feel releived to slowly get rid of this embarassment. All the best to you all!
and now pictures:
before laser - chest
before laser - back
after 3x laser, at 3 months - thougt i saw reduction and thinning - but it proved to be false - hairs continued to appear and afer 1yr was back to normal lenghth and density, but a little bit thinned , must admit this.
before electro - chest shoulders upper arms (but after 3x laser )
before electro - chest untrimmed - see how flash makes everting look worst? (but after 3x laser )
before electro - chest trimmed - but tips of hair felt like needle so it is not a solution, triming , although look better
back before electro , after 3x laser
hair density on shoulder and upper arm before electro:
machine used for electro, and setting (setting a bit high, lowered it afterwards, but hairs on my shoulders were tough…) - painful at this setting without anesthetic
rection after treatment on shoulder - you cand see this one reacted unusually bad - it can do woth many thins, duration of treatment, fatigue, settiong high… ohers areas reacted much better, but wanted to show that even in this area, and with this reaction, things were looking again very good for skin, after 3 months - I do not have a problem skin, it is thick and gained aspect after electro, and generally i dont react bad to anyting, alregens etc - its just that electro can be tough sometimes especially if you have more hairs from one folicle, and the density and thickness is VERY high …
after 1 passing (after 3 months time passed) on back shoulders comparision …
after 1 passing (after 3 months time passed) on back shoulders comparision …
after 1 passing (after 3 months time passed) - shoulder detail …
after 2 electro passings, 5 months after passing 2 - right back half untreated, lef treated - still needs work but differences are big, bigger in reality than in this picture between treated - untreated areas - see the following 3 pictures
after 2 electro passings, 5 months after passing 2 - border between shouder (treated) and chest (untreated) - CLEAR difference - proof it works.
after 2 electro passings, 5 months after passing 2 - border between shouder (treated) and back (untreated right half) - CLEAR difference - proof it works.
after 2 electro passings, 5 months after passing 2 - border between shouder (treated) and back (detail, untreated right half) - CLEAR difference - proof it works!
got to go and eat something !
