Indian not shedding hair after first laser done

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

Hello everyone,

I live in Houston, and just had my first laser hair removal done to my legs(both upper, lower) and second session to my face.
They used a Cynosure Apogee elite which has both alexandriate and YAG. The technician said she has 10 years of experience with using alexandriate on my Indian skin (type V) and says it works great. She only had alexiandiate, but as it was broken she replaced it with elite just the week I went in.

I insisted on using YAG, and she used it on my upper lip. I don’t know what settings she used, but I did not feel any shedding of hair. So I thought she knows better and so went for a second session after 4 weeks (she said 4 weeks is enough) for full face and legs. She used 755nm alexandriate with she said energy level 15. She said as I could smell the hair burning, its effective. Its just been 4 days I have done it and I am waiting fingers crossed. If this is not effective, next time I will ask her to switch to YAG and will take an interval of 6 weeks. Can anyone please suggest what settings she could be using on me if she would have to use YAG.

#2

  • If you’re truly a type V, effective settings on an alexandrite will burn you. If you didn’t get burned, the settings were too low. Can you call and find out the joules, spot size, and pulse used? These are 3 different numbers. Find them out for the Yag and alex settings used on you.

  • Do you have coarse hair on your upper lip and face?

  • 4 weeks is way too close together, even for the face which can be done at 6 weeks to start. Legs needs a minimum of 8 weeks in between treatments, but usually 10-12 weeks since they have very long hair cycles.

  • When you say you didn’t experience shedding, what exactly happened to the hair? Is it growing as usual at 4 weeks? Is it not growing but remains in pepperspots (dead hairs stuck in follicles), or something else? Are you shaving throughout those 4 weeks?

  • I find it surprising that anyone with 10 yrs of actual solid experience is having you treat your legs at 4 weeks.

#3

Hi Lagirl,

Thank you for your valuable suggestion. I just called up the laser technician and she gave me this information about settings she used 2 times.

First treatment for upper lip: Used YAG, pulse 30ms, joules:25,spot size:12

Second treatment for upper lip: Used 755 Alex, joules:15, spotsize:12, pulse:40

First treatment for whole legs: Used 755 Alex, joules:15, spotsize:12, pulse:40

End result till now for both upper lip and legs is that, I don’t see any hair follicle shed and no burns too. Hair on legs look like they are burnt, but growing normally.

Please advice on settings, and what I should recommend her to use on me.

Thank you for helping me.

#4

Those settings on the alex are low. The Yag settings are also relatively low. It sounds like you definitely need a Yag if they can’t go higher on joules and lower on the pulse on the alex without burning you. It’s hard to suggest settings on the Yag for a type V skin. They need to test a bit to see how high you can go. But generally, high joules and low pulse is what you should be striving for. I believe the lowest you can go on this Yag is 5ms pulse and highest joules around 50-60J.

I would give it 3 weeks since your last treatment before judging what the results were. The hair that looks like it’s growing normally may shed. I wouldn’t shave for now so you can judge better what is happening.

#5

Thank you for your quick reply. I have a course hair and medium-fair skin complexion. For now the hair looks growing and will post the picture some time soon to make sure.
Thanks again as this website is helping me a lot.

#6

Do read the FAQs. If you’re Indian, you’re not “fair” by LHR standards. Take a look at the Fitzpatrick skin chart and see what you think you are. Most Indians are somewhere between a dark III to a V.