For machines with adjustable pulse widths…should you always use the lowest possible pulse width?
For example, Cynosure Elite goes from 5ms to 30ms. Pain not withstanding, wouldn’t 5ms always be more effective?
You should do deep searching of thread topics in laser section. All of your questions have been explained on these forums before when laser experts were still around. Also, LAgirl has many posts in the laser section when she used to post here and she also discussed pulse-width.
But generally yes, lower pulse-width is better but sometimes, you can’t do lowest pulse-width due to heavy density of hair or certain skin type because it might cause heavier reactions. But 3ms-10ms is ideal range to keep it at.
Thanks Fenix. I have done quite a bit of reading on this site and others. Unfortunately I see a lot of conflicting information.
I had a session today. I told the technician I wanted to use the most aggressive settings. I even handed her a sheet of paper with the areas I was having treated and on the sheet of paper I wrote “15mm spot size, 25J, 10ms pulse width” to which she commented “maybe I should let you treat yourself.” I then reiterated that I wanted aggressive settings.
When she started she asked me about discomfort and I said very minimal. Well, after she finished and left the room I looked at the settings on the machine (Cynosure Elite Alex):
15mm spot size (good)
20J (ok, but wish she’d gone higher)
40ms pulse width (what??? that’s too long!!!)
I left pretty upset. Am I justified? Not sure how to handle?