I feel so dissapointed and frustrated–after about 9 treatments on my face, the growth doubled–I have hair dark coarse hairs growing on places where it used to be light peach fuzz. Now I literally have to wax my face 2 times a week–such a waste of money and I"m worse off. Has this happened to anyone before? I’m a student so I can’t afford any other techniques anymore!
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Read the forum, and use the search feature. This is one of the known possible results of LASER hair removal treatments.
You should find a good electrologist (not as easy as falling off a log) and get good treatment done. If you really can’t afford the treatment you need, you may want to do an apprenticeship with an electrologist, or find someone to do a trade deal with.
I like that log part,James.
I would like to add another observation to this complaint of laser treatment resulting in more hair that wasn’t a problem when laser treatment began. Yesterday, I had a client come in for chin and neck hair removal. She complained that she is worse off after having had laser hair removal on her face. She sought laser hair removal on her chin and said that the technician got very close to the neck area with the wand. Soon after, she had a batch of fine to medium long dark hair on her neck.
This is increasingly a common complaint from many of my electrolysis clients seeking help for their FACE after they went through the recommended laser treatments. Certain BODY areas seem to fare better when laser is performed, but total removal still requires an electrolysis clean-up.
I can’t seem to find if there are any peer-reviewed studies being conducted at any level of our medical institutions in the U.S. as to the increased hair growth that occurs to areas that were or (were not treated) with laser. We can hypothosize that it is a coincidence and blame it on hormones or increase blood supply flooding the area,but I would like to know for sure. Also, does laser affect the subcutaneous fat layers? That is a question that one of our posters has asked on this forum, as she thinks there is a relationship to the 5 (or 9?) laser treatments she had and the loss of fat on her face??? If anyone has any dope on these issues, as to if or when these client observations will be taken seriously and then studied correctly, please speak up.
N333, I’m sorry that you have to resort to waxing your face. You are setting the table for a bigger problem down the road. Please consider shaving as a temporary measure for now and then electrolysis when you get into the workforce. You’ll be in better shape for electrolysis if you shave for now.
Dee
This seems to be a possible result when performing laser on the face. There are several postings on various forums about this happening. Laser works best on dark coarse hair and seems to activate fine hairs if touched (seems to be only on the face).
First, I recommend you do tests with your doctor to determine if you have underlying medical issues that might cause so much hair growth. It might be something that’s treatable with medicine.
If you find that there’s nothing wrong internally, then you can start electrolysis which doesn’t cost that much since you would be doing it at your own pace and only paying about $30 per half hour of treatment. Electrolysis usually works on more people than laser. Laser doesn’t produce results for everyone.
Good luck.
N333 what parts of your face did you have lasered? you mean you had laser treatments to emove yourl ight peach fuzz and turned into terminal hair or that you had laser hair removal on your upper lip for example, and the peach fuzz on your cheeks turned into thick, coarse hair?
as i have posted again in this forum, a had a similar side effect. it is seems that growing more hair after LHR is a very common side-effect especially when treatments are performed on the face, on fine hair. i can point out at least 50 people who suffer from the same. my electrologist’s office is full of women who have grown more hair than ever after their facial laser treatments! i am trying to figure out why it is happening. i must also add that not only did i get more hair, darker and coarser on areas treated but also areas of my face where i had no hair at all and where i had no LHR have started to grow hair! i guess it must be the heat which is spread on the skin stimulating more hair growth? but shouldnt the same happen with thermolysis?
dfahey, i am still researching the possibility of fat loss and premature aging due to lasers, but i have not come to a conclusion yet. most people think i am crazy. the dermalogists i have visited told me that a gentlase alexandrite laser does not have the possibility to penetrate that deep in the fat layers and also my electrologist told me that my follicles are very shallow and my hair are thin and the laser could not have penetrated that deep. if the laser did, then an electrolysis probe would need to go that deep too.
however, i have come across some people in the www.makemeheal.com forum who have suffered fat loss from various laser procedures on the face and especially a girl who have had hair removal with IPL Lumenis.
i really dont know what to believe. but i am convinced that laser is not good for our skin. all that radiation and heat generated could possibly change our skin underneath and accelerate the natural aging process in a way similar to extreme sun exposure.
another electrologist told me that thermolysis heats skin too and that heat is dispersed to a wider area, than lasers, but i am not an expert and i cannot say if it’s true.
Certain types of lasers are already used for skin rejuvination of sorts. I think if it was truly damaging to skin, universally speaking, they would have already found out. Whenever I used laser - though I was not completely satisfied with its hair removal results - my skin actually looked healthier than it did before. Not once did I ever get ingrowns and it kept a nice tone over the entire treated area. Your situation could just be a coincidence. Not saying you are wrong; I just can’t imagine it penetrating deep enough to affect fat levels or our genetic make up. I would think that if this were truly possible, with all of the people on this forum who have used laser that we would hear more reports. You could just be a scientific anamoly though…
Actually, there was a study done by the US Navy that said the guys who walk through the LASERs used for guidance systems on airplanes and aircraft carriers did show where their skin had lost DNA coding. They also said that they did not yet know if or how this change might be significant.
Hi everyone!
Thank you for all your responses–I"ve been away from the computer for a while so haven’t been able to reply till now.
Basically what happened is that I had maybe 10 course hairs on the side of my chin I wanted lasered. So they decided to “do me a favor” by lasering the sides of my face (probably saw one or two dark hairs)–the sides of my face had peach fuzz and those were targeted too, resulting in more hair growth.
My face feels prickly and the hair grows back after 5 days. I am soo frustrated, and the thought of bringing a razor to my face makes me shudder. Why is that better than waxing in the long run? Won’t the hair grow back quicker? I"ve even thought of letting it all grow out and just bleaching it, but I can feel the hair which really bothers me. I’ve also thought of using Vaniqua but haven’t seen too many good responses on it on this site.
I’m afraid of investing another several hundred dollars in electrolysis and not seeing results. Any success stories with that??
Thank you!
If you only had a few coarse hairs you never should have been doing Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation. You were overtreating the area like using a shovel to swat a fly.
Electrolysis is selective to the very follicle treatment is needed, and those who have any small level of skill can deliver permanent hair removal.
You may be one of those people who would have spent less money with an electrologist, and gotten first clearance the first time out, and a perfect, permanent result in no time with little or no follow up.
Certain types of lasers are already used for skin rejuvination of sorts. I think if it was truly damaging to skin, universally speaking, they would have already found out. Whenever I used laser - though I was not completely satisfied with its hair removal results - my skin actually looked healthier than it did before. Not once did I ever get ingrowns and it kept a nice tone over the entire treated area. Your situation could just be a coincidence. Not saying you are wrong; I just can’t imagine it penetrating deep enough to affect fat levels or our genetic make up. I would think that if this were truly possible, with all of the people on this forum who have used laser that we would hear more reports. You could just be a scientific anamoly though…
I have to agree with this. I have pretty bad eczema problems, and shaving my face daily (I’m a girl by the way) was really making my skin broken out in a rash and red all the time. Now that I only have to shave a couple of hairs off, (I’m about 7-9 months into treatments, I would guess) my skin has been a lot healthier and smoother overall. Even though I still have to occassionally use a steroid cream (prescription) on my face from time to time when I start to itch, the regrowth has been very minimal and not unexpected. I am still regrowing less and less hair after each treatment.
the regrowth has been very minimal and not unexpected. I am still regrowing less and less hair after each treatment. [/quote]
I’m flattered you are quoting me but that was not the case with me.
I also had my facial hair lasered and am at my 10th treatment coming up. At one point between my 7th treatment, I noticed more hairs on my cheeks. I let them know at the center I go too, and they just zapped this extra hair regrowth as it might have started to grow. I am now having a treatment on my legs. I look forward to getting electrolisis when I am completely done with my laser hair removal results. (for any stray hairs that maybe left)
Good Luck!
Add me to this list. I too had laser on my jawline and neck. My jawline had very few hairs that were dark but I figured get rid of them since he was working on my neck anyway. Well there are more dark hairs there now. I had laser about 2-3 years ago and went back a year and a half ago again to try and get rid of the new growth. What a disappointment! I am now going to have electrolysis treatments b/c I don’t trust the laser anymore. That bad experience will stay with me.
Hey everyone,
Well I’ve had about 3 electrology treatments on my face and its like i’ve never had treatments done. The last time I went in I walked in with tears. I"m soo upset at the clinic that did this to my face–I walked in with minimal hair and walked out with a beard–i swear. I’m not sure what to do anymore–I can only afford electrology once a month, so i’m only really hairless for 2 weeks.
Anyways, good luck to you guys. I know that this occurrence is much more common than we all think. The laser clinic made it seem like I had a problem…little do they know what a huge problem they caused me.
N333