Laser Beard Removal - My experience and questions!

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

So here is the deal. I am a straight guy who decided to go for laser beard removal because I was sick and tired of all the ingrown hairs, constant 5 o’clock shadow and razor burn. I did a lot of research and found out that based on my skin color (type III/IV - Greek decent) and coarse black hair, I would need a Yag type laser to tackle the deep coarse hair. So, I found a deal around me for a place that has a Cutera CoolGlide Yag. Its also a doctor’s office, so I felt it might be more reliable than a spa. So, I first went for a consultation and a patch test. The RN was nice and she told me that she has had experience with many beard removals. She told me that I was a good candidate but warned me that it DOES hurt a lot - in fact more than a female bikini or brazilian, so I should make up my mind. I told her I am ready to suck it up and give it a go! The patch test went well, and the hair on the patch popped right out. 3 days and no major reaction, so I went for my first appointment late last week.

I checked the settings on the laser machine and they looked like 40, 22, 1.2, which I have no clue, but I do know that people in here are interested in settings, so thats what they were. So the thing started - no topical anesthetic nothing as she said she doesn’t recommend it. Now, I gotta tell you that I do have high tolerance for pain…I have done martial arts and taken a few knocks, but this thing DOES hurt. I took everything with a smile and never winced but every single second seemed like an hour. I think the coarser and denser the beard, the more it hurts. The RN later told me that she was surprised that I never asked her to stop because all the previous guys she had treated winced in pain and asked for several breaks. I didn’t say a word but the truth is, I just wanted to get it over with! Everytime it hurt, I told myself - be a man!

Anyway, I noticed that 20-25% of the hair just popped out right there. I have around 40% clearance on my neck post treatment. I got a bunch of very tiny white heads the next day and some red spots but the white heads disappeared in 2 days and the red spots look like they are fading.

But here are my questions - it seems that a lot of the hair that remains looks darker than before? There is some clearance on my chin, but it looks like the hair on my goatee has also gotten darker and coarser. My chin and neck are also kinda dry since the treatment (which was 5 days ago). What do I do to reduce this? Do you think a home based IPL (like the ones they sell on Amazon)would help speed up the removal process on my chin? Because honestly, the patches of dark coarse hair are looking slightly weird! I am not sure if all the chin hair is gone, although I can see a few clear patches. The RN did warn me that I should expect some patchiness and things would even out by the third treatment, but it seems that people here feel that everyone should get a complete clearance in 3 weeks post treatment?

I am including some pics. Please let me know your opinions!

http://freeupload.mobi/image/show/b19ec635d1c912f65437f32a8f2dcede
http://freeupload.mobi/image/show/1f8975b420808b3a03a04a379e4a4e62
http://freeupload.mobi/image/show/3535e4f32617bb993118a4f9b51644f3

Thanks.

#2

  • We need to know spot size, joules and pulse width numbers in order to judge settings. It’s a combination of all three. I would guess 40 is the joules, but you need to ask for the rest.

  • It’s too early to judge anything at this point. You need to wait 3 weeks for all the treated hair to shed. Whatever doesn’t shed by the 3 week mark should be retreated at no cost as that hair was missed. This is absolutely necessary on this area in order to avoid patchiness. They should also be overlapping well when treating to avoid patchiness as much as possible (so overlapping by at least 10% when treating the area).

  • No, IPL is not going to help you. You are using a good machine. As long as the settings are good and they’re overlapping well, this is your best shot. You can’t speed up hair cycles. Hair grows in cycles, so you have to treat, wait for shedding, wait for new hair from the next cycle to grow in, then treat again. You repeat this around 8 times every 8-10 weeks or so on this area until all the hair from all cycles is killed. It’s likely that you won’t get 100% removal, but you can get close to 80-90%. You can judge how you feel about the reduction after 4-5 treatments and decide whether you need more or if you’re ok with the more sparse growth at that point which will be a lot easier to shave.

  • The first couple treatments are the worst and have the worst reactions. This will improve as the hair gets less dense and coarse.

  • Icing after the treatment should be help with redness. Also keep the area clean and dry as much as possible to reduce any side effects such as whiteheads.

#3

Thanks for the reply LaGirl. From my research that I had done prior, it seems that Coolglide has a fixed spot size of 10 mm. I just looked at the paper they gave me and the settings are 40J, 22 pulse width and 1.2 Hz. Are these settings okay?

I asked the RN about free touch up but she insisted that patchiness is common during first 3 treatments and it will even out later. She also said that first 3 treatments should be around 6 weeks and then the last 3 will be spaced out more. So no free touch ups I guess :frowning: which sucks but that’s what their policy is apparently.

If you look at my pictures, do u think the red spots and the darker spots near the chin are normal or are they something that should raise a flag? I’m not feeling any pain there maybe slight tenderness around the chin and neck.

I am okay with 80-90% clearance. In fact I’m not doing my mustache (for now at least) because I don’t want to look effeminate. I’ll see the results and then think about the mustache later.

#4

  • Yes, settings sound alright

  • If more than 10% of the hair doesn’t shed at 3 weeks, I would demand a touchup. A little missed is ok. More than 10% is not. You’re paying to cover the entire area. On this area, good shedding every time is very important. It is very difficult to get rid of patchiness, so there is no reason to help cause it.

  • Tenderness is ok for up to a couple days. You should ice the area. Since this is the first treatment, on this area a bit of side effects is common as the hair is very dense and coarse when you first start. If it doesn’t go away in a week, then you should have them look at it.

#5

Hey LAgirl,
I think I already had more than 20% of my hair shed right during the treatment. My cheeks and neck are way clear - they used to be as dense as my chin. I thought it was expected that 100% of the hair should shed in 3 weeks?

My chin has had very little shedding. Also there are patches of dark burnt hair around which for some reason are not removed when I shave although they seem long enough for the razor. I’m hoping these would shed in 3 weeks. It’s 5 days now.

#6

Not always 100%, mostly because some of the hair that wasn’t present can grow through after your laser treatment since it wasn’t there to be treated. Normally the easiest way to tell if an area was missed is if you see “patches” or “streaks” of hair. If it’s randomly sporadic, then you’re fine.

It’s common for the chin to have little shedding. Laser has a hard time on the upper lip and chin because the hairs there are much deeper on average. Those areas of burnt hair that won’t come out are common and they will shed on their own.

#7

You need to wait full 3 weeks. It doesn’t all just shed at once. You will be able to judge final shedding at 3 weeks.

#8

Okay :slight_smile: I shall wait for 2 more weeks (which will be 3 weeks in all) and update the results. Hopefully, I would see a good clearance (fingers crossed). The laser did hurt and did cause almost 20% of the hair to pop out immediately on contact, so I am assuming the settings were decent. Lets see…

#9

Today, I noticed that when I rubbed my face with a towel, 10-15 hair came out. Not significant but still I’m hoping that’s shedding. It’s 9 days into the treatment. I have also noticed that lots of my facial hair that werent removed have turned white on the top edge. It looks like a white bulb on the top. I am not sure what that is, but they are clearly half white, half black now. Never had any white hair so this is post treatment only. I’m wondering if they will shed as well.

#10

Yes, that’s shedding. Still have to wait another 2 weeks!

The change in color is curious. That has been reported before, though a lot of times the white hairs were always there, but just not visible with a lot of dark dense growth around them.

#11

Hi LA girl,

I doubt the hair were white before, I’m 23 and don’t have white hair in my beard. Now they are lot of them (hundreds) especially on the chin and they aren’t completely white, just the top is white while the bottom is black. They are falling out too, so looks like they have been affected by the laser. One more curious thing is, these hair aren’t affected by the raser when I shave, so they stick out. I will try to take a high res pic of a single strand next time and post it. It appears that others have experienced this too. I saw a thread about it. http://www.hairtell.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/44578.html

#12

It sounds like the treatment burned the pigment out of the hairs. This is fine. As long as the root is dark, it doesn’t negatively impact the treatment.

#13

I also have thin white hairs appearing in areas post laser that I AM POSITIVE where dark hair. Very curious :frowning:

#14

Three weeks have passed and it looks like the results are good! All the partially white hairs have shed off. Almost 80% of my hair is clear including the chin. The hair that didn’t shed is not that uneven, so it’s not looking weird at all, apart from two 1 cm spots between my cheeks and neck which look like they have been missed. But because of their location, they are not visible. The amazing thing is that my 5 o clock shadow has vanished! I used to have a permanent shadow due to the coarse hair. I had to shave everyday and sometimes twice when I go out in the evening, but I haven’t shaved for 2 days and it still looks smooth. Hopefully, the hair that shed have gone for good and the remaining will be removed in the next treatment which is around 4 weeks from now.

#15

How long are you waiting between treatments? Don’t go back in until enough hair grows in. If it’s longer than 4 weeks, then reschedule the appt.

Great to hear everything is going well. So you have about 20% left? Are you sure you don’t want to touch up those spots now (I assume at 3 weeks) to avoid any future patchiness?

#16

They are just 2 small spots. I’m assuming if the laser hits them next time, that hair will shed too, so the spots will go away. The rest of the 20% remaining hair is evenly distributed. Its also growing very slow so im assuming, its partially affected. Please correct me if I’m wrong. I was told 6 weeks wait for first 2 treatments, then 8 for next 2 and the last 2 will be spaced a little more apart depending on the results. I bought a package of 6 treatments on groupon. Btw what should be the settings on the next treatment? Should it be higher than first? (40J, 22 pulse, 1.2 Hz)? I’m good with anything as long as I don’t burn or get any discolorations.

#17

I shouldnt be saying this but thought id share my initial research with you. I had a few friends do lhr on their beards and when the regrowth began, it was very patchy and made them regret starting lhr on their beards.

I too want to go hair free on my entire facial area so im going to do electrolysis for the entire beard area on face and neck. Im sticking to LHR for legs/chest area though. Anyway, good luck with your LHR and hopefully you get the results you seek.

#18

Hopefully that won’t happen to me (fingers crossed)! The problem is that getting electrolysis for someone with a dense coarse beard that shows a 5 o clock even after its freshly shaved would be extremely costly, painful and time consuming. I’m actually getting it done to reduce the problem of razor burn and in grown hair. My dermatologist told me that with the kind of beard I had, this problem could persist for ever. So I asked him, what about LHR, and he said I could try it. To be honest, for the last couple of weeks, I have had no razor burn and no shadow. It feels like a huge relief. It was just my first treatment and I have 5 more to go. Lets see how it works. I’m not looking for a complete clearance, so I’m okay with little hair as long as its fine and evenly distributed (not patchy).

#19

If I were a man with the problems that arise with a thick beard, I would get lased.

On Hairtell, we probably only see the negative pictures of men who report that their faces ended up looking like marble swirl cakes after the process. If this happens to you, you may want to consider having a professional electrologist try to even things up a bit.

Good luck with your project.

#20

Yes, sounds good! I too have ingrown hairs after shaving and tried laser on the lower neck- was massively painful and also looked terrible for the next few weeks after because of more ingrown hairs getting stuck in the skin. Then i just did away with it for good. Just sticking with laser for chest/stomach/legs -After all my research, when im ready i think i will go to a place in Texas for electrolysis and get a full clearance of my beard during each session- its expensive though because they do 20 hours or so for your first clearing - 2 electrologists working together 8 hour day sessions (8*2). I think 5 sessions are required for a male beard generally if you get a full clearance during each session.

Btw i need some laser advice - have posted in a thread and request the experts here to take a look and comment- thanks and good luck again!