So I know laser on the female face is a huge no no, but I was wondering if the sideburns are the same consistency as the hair on your head if it’s okay? An electrologist I went to mentioned having clients with great results starting with laser and then finishing with electrolysis.
Here are pictures (this is after 2 years of waxing so they look nowhere as terrible as they used to be). Elvis would be proud 
I think this area poses the same risk of Laser induced growth as the rest of the face, not something I personally would want to risk.
This is the area I did first with electrolysis (the lower half though) and was done in relatively few hours (over the course of a year).
If you did go with electrolysis and committed to quick clearance, I don’t think it would take long to clear or take long (total hours of treatment) to permanently remove all the hair. 
My skin reacts pretty poorly to electrolysis so I’m really hesitant to get anywhere near my face with it 
I’d rather look like Elvis than Freddy Krueger given the choice haha. The areas of my skin that have been lasered in contrast have reacted well so far so I was hoping it’d be the same way with the sideburns.
Your results with electrolysis were amazing though, stoppit! I wish my skin could tolerate it.
Yes, there is still a risk of induced growth. That hair would probably respond VERY well to laser, so you would see the thick dark hairs gone, and then the entire area (and surrounding area) would likely grow a whole lot of finer hair. So it’s a trade off, kind of a risky one.
Do you want the coarse hair gone, but ten times as much fine hair growing on your cheeks (can’t really wax that, but you could shave or bleach it)?
I know you said you react poorly to electrolysis, but I think a few months of some pink dots is waaay better than a lifetime of permanently hairy cheeks (which you’d eventually have to have electrolysis on anyway I think). Besides, really delicate settings on an Apilus Platinum are known for leaving the skin in perfect condition. People get way more marks on the body than the face usually.
Thanks for the advice, Kitty! Maybe using a smaller spot size would avoid inducing growth in the surrounding area? I’d be happy if my sideburns were just cheek fuzz.
I’ve had a Fischer and a Clareblend used on my areolas and both times = not pretty. I get reddish bumps followed by scabs and brown spots (not to mention ingrown hairs). I almost wish I had done laser there instead; it looks positively scary.
Is it possible that you just had bad electrolysis?
It can. How many electrologists have you tried??? There is nothing wrong with your skin, I’d be looking at other variables as why you have such reactions. No matter what, it is all temporary and will heal nicely minus the hair, of course. You will still most likely need electrolysis anyway after being lased, no matter what the area. Using ice packs near the areas being lased on your face may be helpful to avoid laser hair stimulation.
Dee
Stoppit - That could be a possibility, but I’ve seen a lot of their clients post-treatment and nobody comes out looking as terrible as me. I just assumed it was my skin being sensitive. Yay for having pigmentation-prone skin :\
Dee - I’ve tried two so far. One in late January who used thermolysis and I still have purple marks from it. Then one in early March who used blend on the Clareblend. It was a lot less painful and I didn’t get as many scabs, but I still have brown spots. I will have access to someone using an Apilus Platinum this summer so I’ll see if that turns out any better than the previous two. I wish I lived near you or James so I could find out for sure if my skin was the real issue and not the electrologist
Oh, good grief. I just saw the picture of your side burn. I wish I could jump through this computer and do electrolysis for you. Two hours worth, give or take, would get you cleared and then you go right into maintenance mode for several months. This would be fun and simple to do. I would use PicoFlash or MicroFlash thermolysis on this area. Is there not an electrologist near you who can do this with one of the better forms of thermolysis?
Those two you had are decent machines, but they don’t do micro/picoflash. Seriously, you can’t even FEEL picoflash, that’s how quick it is. I’ve had thermolysis and galvanic on my tummy and had red marks that have lasted months, but then I had picoflash and had almost no red marks on my arms or tummy.
You will see a difference if you get an electrologist who is good with pico, seriously.
I would still lean on the side of caution and check out more electrologists for better treatments. Laser can make this a bit better if you’re careful to only treat the area with the most coarse hair and not touch anything around it. But I think precision is important here to be able to pick and choose what hairs to get rid of to make the area look natural.