Went for a consultation with a doctor at a clinic. I asked him about hair removal on the legs. He said that he would recommend IPL over Laser for the legs and his reasons were as follows:
IPL
Better for coarse hairs
Covers are larger area
Less painful
Good results (>95% of hair removed)
He wasn’t being pushy with sales at all when he said this, and futhermore he shouldn’t have much reason to as he’d earn much more if he used laser anyway. However I’m still questioning whether it’s as good as he claims.
He mentioned that IPL’s better for coarse hairs, whereas laser’s better for fine hairs. I always thought laser works better the coarser the hair is.
Also I’m wondering about how effective IPL is in the long term. I’m not looking for something that will start to regrow after 1 or 2 years. I’m looking for something much more permanent.
Anyone has anything to share on this? He’s using the following machines:
If your skin type is III or lower, look for GentleLase or LightSheer. These are apparently the best lasers.
If your skin type is IV or higher, go for GentleYag. CoolGlide is also OK. It has a smaller spot size-10mm. GentleYag on the other hand has variable spot sizes-12mm, 15mm, 18mm. A larger spot size can penetrate deeper and is believed to yield better results.
You should not worry too much about the pain. Effective treatments are painful.
GentleYag with 18mm would also cover a large area in short time. Again, this should NOT be your deciding factor. 1/2 hour of extra treatment time is fine. Your primary concerns should be long-term effectiveness and safety.
Lasers and IPL both need coarse hair to work on. I don’t think any IPL would be better at treating coarse hair as compared to true lasers. In fact, I have heard some IPLs are better at treating fine hair as compared to true lasers.
Yeah I’m pretty much mainly concerned about long-term effectiveness, and a little bit on the pricing. The pain is pretty much a non-issue for me.
I only started reading about skin types awhile ago, but I have a feeling that I’m Skin Type IV. Here are a bunch of photos of me and my friends. I’m the girl in the black tank & shorts.
Would you really think GentleYag is better? Do you think I’m able to get more out per session if I use GentleYag? Or will there be less pain due to less ‘zaps’ as GentleYag covers a wider area?
I’m kinda concerned about the costs. I live n Singapore and laser is ridiculously expensive here. I enquired with 2 different clinics and these are their charges:
Clinic A (Coolglide):
Face (Chin & Upperlips): US$265 / session
Legs (Full): US$765 / session
Underarms: US$230 / session
Clinic B GentleYag:
Face (Chin & Upperlips): US$310 / session
Legs (Full): US$765 / session
Underarms: US$265 / session
Thanks for taking your time to reply to me. I really appreciate all the advice.
Are you Asian? If yes, you’re at least a type IV due to the underlying pigment.
Anyway, you seem to be at least a type III in the pictures. More like IV. So GentleLase is ruled out.
Do you have COARSE hair on your face? Most females don’t- unless they have PCOS or other hormonal problems. Treating fine sparse hair on face can actually INCREASE the growth, especially in skin types IV and V.
If they are using 15mm or 18mm spot size with GentleYag, then you would have a little advantage over CoolGlide. Larger spot sizes allow deeper penetration and hence, can be more effective. But, from what I have read(I’m not sure about this), hair on legs is usually not deep. So you might get similar results even with CoolGlide. Some people believe CoolGlide’s cooling system is not as good as GentleYag’s.
You should not rule out LightSheer diode. Have a consultation with one or two clinics. See if they can use high settings on you.
GentleYag is the best option for you but limited to legs and underarms it at all. Don’t treat the face.
Even then, make sure your hair is coarse and black. What is your ethnicity if you don’t mind me asking?
I have a Chinese friend and she thinks she is hairy compared to her peers. But her leg hair is not dense or coarse enough to see good results with Laser. She knows I’m right because she had previous Laser on her upper lip with no effect. She is looking into electrolysis for her facial areas now and probably also her legs. The hair is sparse enough on her legs it to work out cheaper than Laser too.
I have to be honest but generally the people who respond best to Laser (have the right kind of hair) can’t walk around in shorts even after waxing/shaving because the skin is never clear/smooth enough. So your pic implies to me that your hair is not dense/thick enough.
I’m probably a Type IV, seeing as how I’m considered dark as compared to typical Chinese, but still lighter than Malays.
I have hirsutism so I have some hair that grows on my upper lips and chins, but I’ve been tweezing it for many years so it’s not obvious. It probably looks close to these 2 pictures which I found on the internet.
And yup, the prices for laser is ridiculously expensive here. I’m wondering if it would be better to do electrolysis instead (elaborated below). Also I sent you a PM.
I’m Chinese, and I think my leg hair is definitely thick enough for laser. If you look close-up at my legs, it actually looks awful because you can see all the hair underneath the skin. You can also easily see all my huge pores under bright light.
However I’m starting to get worried about treating the face especially after what I’ve read about even more hair regrowth on Type IV skin and fine hair. Would you think my face is suitable to get treated for laser if the hair is as thick as shown in the pictures above?
I’m really starting to doubt what the doctor told me this morning, and this is shocking because he’s one of the more reputable aesthetic doctors here. He told me that the face should definitely be treated with laser as the hair is fine and laser targets fine hair better, whereas the underarms and legs have thicker hair and IPL is more suitable for it!
Also I’m really starting to consider getting electrolysis instead. There’s a local electrolysis with over 20 years of experience who charges about US$60 per hour, and it’s starting to look like a better alternative as it’s permanent. Does any one have an estimate on how long it will take to clear away all the hair shown in both pictures above from electrolysis?
Chin - if it’s that coarse, you may get some success with the GentleYAG but you may also stimulate the finer surrounding hair to become thicker. I’d still go with electrolysis if I were in your position.
Electrolysis is difficult to estimate because of so many factors (have a read around threads in the electrolysis section to get a better idea). My upper lip was similar to the above photo and it took me probably about 6-10 hour total treatment time over an 18 month period until I was satisfied with the reduction. I bleached before and I still bleach but what is left is so fine and light it can barely be seen. Most people think I don’t have hair there.
My sister has had pretty much the same upper lip reduction (although she had much more hair to remove) in a 4 hour TTT. But that was with a HairTell electrologist who was removing many, many more hairs per minute that my electrologist and with a better ‘kill rate’.
My point is, we both still got ‘done’ and within a decent amount of time. $60/hr is reasonable too.
GentleYAG is actually better for thick, deep hairs. But it’s very expensive. I think you could get a good reduction in 3 treatments on your legs if you space the treatments as advised in this forum and the settings are good. I’d start off with getting a test patch, seeing that the hair sheds properly and if that area still looks good three months later. If so, you can shell out the money for a few treatments.
If you can get a good, close up photo of your leg hair, we can advise better.
