I’m a guy of Indian descent with skin type IV and I’ve just had my first treatment with the Yag laser on the back of my neck where the hairs are coarse. I had some asprin 40 mins before so the pain wasn’t too bad.
I’ve got one question though,
I’m going to visit India in two weeks time for a period of one month, will my neck be relatively hairless during my time there or will the hair have grown back substantially?
This is a question that is playing on my mind because I want my neck to be hairless while I’m on holiday.
Thanks, I’ll keep you all posted on how my treatments are going.
yes, you might not have hair for up to six weeks after shedding occurs within 2-3 weeks after the treatment. but you didn’t provide us with any information as to how it looks now and what the settings were, so we can’t tell if the treatment was effective. either way, you’ll be able to tell if the hair sheds within the next 2 weeks.
The settings used were 28J and a spot size of 25. Will this be enough for shedding to occur? The hair has grown back slowly over the past week, with some still stuck in my skin. I phoned the clinic up and they said I should experience shedding in the next week or two.
It’s been 6 weeks since my first treatment. As mentioned I was away on holiday, during the six weeks the hair did not shed. There was no period where I was hairless except for the first few days after the treatment. It has grown back slowly but not to the length it was before. Do you think the reason the hair did not shed was because the setting of 28 joules was not powerful enough?
What should I do? Should I demand a free treatment? Or pay for the next treatment as normal.
Yes, if it was only 28 joules, it is definitely too low for a Yag and thus your lack of results. You should ask for a retreatment at higher settings (ask for name of machine and exact spot size, joules, and pulse settings so we can help you figure out what’s more “appropriate”) and look for another place to have your other treaments considering this place doesn’t know what they’re doing from what you have posted so far.
I spoke to the practioner on the phone today, the machine used was the Cutera Coolglide, the power was 28J and the spot size was 9mm.
She said that lower settings have to be used because the hair on the back of my neck is very coarse and also because I have brown skin and if higher settings are used then there’s a risk that I may damage my skin.
I have some questions lagirl.
I thought that the ND:YAG laser is safe for all skin types, does this mean it can never burn your skin?
If hair is coarser does it mean that lower settings have to be used? If higher settings are used on coarse hair is there a chance of burning the skin?
What settings do you think should be used for my treatment?
The pulse setting is missing from this and is very important. pulse can be adjusted to protect the skin. Higher pulse is safer on darker skin, but also less effective on finer hair.
Yes, Yag laser is safer for darker skins and only pretty much works on the coarse hair. It’s not effective enough for finer hair normally. So, no, lowering the settings because your hair is coarse doesn’t make sense. It’s still possible to get burned, but 28 joules are very low on that Yag, especially since it only has a 9mm spot size. If she’s afraid of burning you, she should test your skin in a few spots and see how it reacts to find an appropriate high settings, that is high enough but doesn’t burn you.
It’s hard to tell you over the internet what is high and safe enough. If your hair is coarse, then they can up the pulse to protect the skin and up the joules as well. All I can tell you is that the highest joules and lowest pulse you can handle is best. Normall, if you read these posts, people of your skin type uses 40-50 joules on this machine.
I’ve decided to not continue with this clinic. The actual nurse who treated me has left the clinic and the one who would do my next treatment said she would only use 30 joules for my next treatment, she also gave me an unsatisfactory answer as to why the hairs did not shed. Am I correct in believing that all the hairs should have shed, no matter how coarse my hair is? The nurse said only some hairs were supposed to fall out.
What exactly is shedding? Is it when the hairs grow out of the skin and then fall out? What happened with me is that the laser zapped all my hair out and then for the next few days it felt smooth before regrowth started but none of these hairs fell out, does this definitely mean shedding did not occur?
Do you think I’ve made the right decision? I think it’s better to change clinics at the beginning rather than waste all of my money.
coarse hair actually sheds the best. yes, you are correct. all treated hair should shed. 30 joules is very low on a Yag. the hair usually looks like it’s growing after the treatment and then falls out sometime in week 1.5-3.5. i think you’re making the right decision.
My skin is slightly lighter than your average Indian. On the Fitzpatrick scale I am a 4.
I’ve booked a couple of free consultations with some other clinics. Should I tell them that I had a previous treatment that didn’t work? Or should I first ask them what settings they plan on using to test whether or not they know what they’re talking about.
I would ask about settings first in addition to other questions based on what you learn here (otherwise, you would just be basically asking them to convince you how THEY will get you the results you didn’t get). Also, you might be able to use a diode, so don’t discount those clinics as well.