has anyone had good results on the face?

[JillB]

i am a female and have very thick black hair on my face. i work with the public and it is so embarassing. no make-up covers up the 5 o’clock shadow.
i had one treatment with lightsheer and the results were awesome. virtually hairfree for a couple months. i went in for treatment number two exactly 7 weeks later and she lowered the setting, i got burned, and i had basically NO shedding. i have been reading stories and keep seeing that after several treatments all the hair grows back on the face! does it work for anyone on the face? i dont want to spend money (that i dont really have) to have the hair all grow back. i would rather start on electrolisis. however if i need to grow the hair out, that wont be happening either. as i said, i have to work every day.

anyway, it seems that on my cheeks the treatment has worked a little bit, there’s maybe 10% reduction and my chin hair pretty much all grew back. there’s maybe 5% reduction there. and my neck it ALL came back, it looks horrible and i have to shave everyday and i get razor burn. it’s the most horrible feeling looking at my face everyday. i just would like some positive words if anyone has had success on the face. if i could get results like after my first treatment i would figure out a way to pay for several more treatments. i plan on making another appointment in a week to do my chin and neck (my cheeks still have not healed from my last treatment 10 weeks ago) i hope i dont get burned again, but i’m going to tell the tech to turn it up to the original higher settings. wish me luck, i’m pretty scared.

[LAGirl]

1 treatment is not a way to judge your results. most people don’t see considerable results until treatment 3 or so just due to the hair growth phases. when you first had your treatment, only at MOST 30% of the hair was in anagen phase and could be killed. so the hair you saw didn’t GROW BACK, it is new hair that was dormant before. At any time, you don’t see about 60% of the hair. It is dormant. you need at least 3-4 treatments to be able to judge results at all. Did the same person treat you? If lower setting was used, and you got burned the second time around, it seems that there was something else that made that happen. Are you sure all settings were lower…i.e. joules, pulse, etc? Also, was your face exposed to the sun at any point? if you got a bit of a tan, that might have affected treatment. was the cooling done properly? Did you feel any difference in pain from the first to second treatment. With dark coarse hair with shadow that you describe, you should get results. You will still need to finish with electrolysis later though when hair becomes very fine and sparse. Also, are you sure you don’t have any underlying medical condition? Such strong growth on a female face usually indicates that there is something causing it. I would explore that if you haven’t already before even doing laser or electrolysis treatment.

[JillB]

hi lagirl, thanks again for the response. i’ll answer some of your questions…

yes the same woman treated me. i’m pretty sure she just lowered the joules (i haven’t actually confirmed this, but when i got up i could see the screen and the joules were at 26.) my face was definitely not exposed to sun at all between the first and second treatment or after the second treatment (i live in michigan, it’s winter here and i don’t go tanning. i always wear lotion with sunblock in it too.) the treatment didn’t feel any differently so i assume the cooling was working properly. i emailed the tech a few weeks ago and haven’t had a chance to speak to her but she left a message on my voicemail saying that in her 8 years of being a tech she has never seen a burn or triggered hairgrowth (i believe it stimulated hairgrowth on my neck, there’s more there now than before the treatments.) i found that kind of hard to believe. i need to speak to her again and probably will next tuesday when i plan to get my chin and neck done again.

i do not know for sure if i have an underlying condition, however my mother has hair on her face like mine and she had it checked out when she was younger. she has a hormonal imbalance so i assume i do too. unfortunately i do not have health insurance, so i haven’t been checked out. it’s definitely genetic, though.

i’m a little discouraged that no one has posted any success with laser on the face yet

[LAGirl]

if you do in fact have a hormonal imbalance, spending money on laser or any other hair removal treatment might not be a good idea yet before you get it under control. the reason is because your body will keep developing new hair due to the condition and it will seem like the treatment is not working. I would say in your case, it’s very important to go to a endocrinologist and get checked for PCOS or any other hormonal issues. There is medication that they can prescribe to control it, which will control the hair growth as well. Only after that is effect is when you should start hair removal treatments. If your mother has the same growth but DUE to hormonal imbalance. That means that this is not just hereditary for you, but you have inherited the imbalance as well – which needs to be controlled before treatments.

[anakemp]

I did 4 treatments on my face (cheeks, upper lip, chin and neck) using a yag laser. The results for the thick dark coarse hairs have been terrific. I did see enhanced growth on the finer hairs on my face though. After one treatment I had some small spots that burned–red and crusty, but after they healed I have had no scarring or pigmentation. The owner of the facility recommended reducing the spot size of the laser-apparently if the laser isn’t strong enough it can encourage growth–make sure that your technician is very experienced and that you are using the correct laser for your skin type. Good luck!