Hi, I’m a 20year old male who has been undergoing laser hair removal on my forearms and upper arms, the hair has become long thin and wirey and seems to have gained more pigment. It is currently very patchy on the upper arm and due to the way the hair has changed it looks very odd, I’m not quite sure how I can blend in this new hair with the forearm hair and it is very stressful, if anyone else has encountered this it would be useful to know what you did.
FWIW I’ve seen that look a lot lately, both in real life this summer and on TV/Movies. The reason might be that I started looking for it, because I admit I never studied men’s body hair before (haha)… But it could also be that its a thing that people do now. I don’t think it grows quite that way naturally (bare on upper arms, really fuzzy on lower). I may be wrong though… anyone with experience could chime in. My point is though; I see people with this look quite often and you might not look that out of place anymore.
Probably not the kind of answer you were looking for but know that I am in the process of trying to do the same… upper arms complete removal (or at least great reduction), and then a slight reduction on lower arms. The lower arm reduction I will definitely do with electrolysis, the rest I’ve not yet decided and depends on how easy access I can get to electrolysis or if I just do laser.
Wich type of laser has been used on you?
How many treatments?
Spot and fluence?
Hi Joheu, I know for a fact that it grows like this because my hair used to be like this before I started LHR, now terminal hair has grown on my upper arms and on the inside of my arm, it’s frustrating that I’ve paid to grow hair.
Lillox, I’ve had more sessions than I can remember, however, about 5 of them were at a laser clinic where they were conning me into thinking ipl was laser and using a low fluence as when they turned it up on the last time they burnt me everywhere as I’m a skin type IV I believe. I’m now using a different laser technician who’s using an alexandrite laser I think, it’s a laser that glides, I’ll ask her for the name next time I go in.
We need to know the parameters’s been used. Alexandrite in safe on 1-3 fototype but could be used even on 4-5 but your operator has to be really careful. There are no big problem using alexandrite on your skin but you could see many secondary effects like discolouration and easy burnt. Be aware of ipl, if it’s not of medical level it won’t work and ipl exposes patients to several risk of melanoma (nobady says it, but it’s the truth).
What spectrum of light does an IPl have? Haven’t seen any data on IPL’s causing melanoma.
Hello.
The same thing happened to me as well.
I guess it is “normal”.
The only way to deal with it is to get electolysis done on the remaining hair.
It might not be the answer you are looking for but yeah.
I have a theory as to why this happens.
You see, when you remove hair from an area, you are creating an injury which the body tries to heal by increasing the blood circulation to that area which results in the remaining hair follicles to grow the hair longer. And since the follicles are damaged by the laser procedures, the hair thins out.
Im not sure of the parameters this technician is using but it seems to be working since ive only had 3 sessions and there are patches where the hair has completely gone or growing back very lightly, but there are also patches where there is strong hair growth.
Hairy man thanks for your contribution, is this what you did? I feel like such an outcast like this as it looks so strange so i decide not to wear T shirts until I can sort out what to do, my biggest fear now is that i’ll have a very clear line where the hair stops, hopefully electrolysis can help fade it out after i’ve cleared the majority with LHR, but I suppose this is better than patchy hair.
Yes Rogers, it is what I did, and as long as you work with an electrologist who is smart enough to know what they are doing, you can eliminate those remaining hairs without any problems.
Also, let me elaborate on my situation, I had my legs treated with laser and %90 of the hair is gone. Unfortunately, the remaining hair has grown so long (longer than before) (and thin) that it makes my legs hairier than they actually are.
The same happened for the hair I had on my upper body which have been mostly eliminated with electrolysis.
Did you end up removing all the hair on your upper body then? Because this is something that I didn’t want to do but if it’s my last resort I may have to. Is there any way you can post a photo of what the electrolysis looks like, I would appreciate it!
- Just watch this video if you want to learn more about the process
It is made by a real pro who know what he is doing.