laser didn't work, other options (long winded)?

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

Did some searches for various terms in the forums and didn’t find much. So that is why I’m posting.

I have laser removal done on my neck (front and back) and back. I have a lot of long coarse hair just below the ‘hair line’ on the back of my neck. The front I have a few patches of dark hair. On my back, I have a lot of long sparse black hairs on my back. The rest of my body is covered in fine blond hairs.

After treatments were done, the hair grew in worse. It seems that when the dark hairs are removed (plucked or cut, doesn’t matter) more hair seems to grow in and around the area as well.

It took two weeks after each treatment for the hair to ‘leave’ and it only lasted two weeks. So much for that. Now I have these nasty black hairs growing my shoulders. Which I cut off, and yes I know they will grow back worse, but I can’t stand them there!

Also my beard line seems to keep going higher up. Didn’t have laser on my face. Just from shaving, it seems to keep growing up higher. So for years I have been having to use manicure scissors to trim the hair to slow down the growth. Which is very time consuming and looks pretty bad (although 5pm shadow seems to show up in a 4-5 hours even after I use a shaver).

There are fine black hairs starting to grow on the outside of my eyes (starting to merge with sideburns). So I guess within the next few years, will have to start shaving my entire face (under cheeks, around eyes, forehead) ? Since laser did such a dismal job, glad I didn’t get it done on my face. Then again, the ‘full wolfman’ look is going to happen eventually right?

If not obvious already, I am a male :slight_smile: I can’t grow a beard if I wanted to anyway, since the hair is so sparse (on my face) and looks just gross and patchy. Also since I work in the food industry, can’t have facial hair. In terms of my back, I just wear a shirt all the time.

#2

It sounds like you may be seeing “contradictory hypertrichosis”, apparently referred to as a paradoxical effect when using certain IPL or alexandrite systems at a low fluence.

There are even laser-like products cleared by the FDA which claim to induce hair growth (e.g. “Laser Hair Comb”), which might rely on that effect.

There have been lots of posts here about it in the past, and just Google for those key words to find some studies on it. This was even a question on my evaluation when I recently had LHR done (if I had ever experienced laser-induced hair growth).

Can you post what system and settings were being used on you? If this were me, I would be consulting with other laser clinics (using different equipment) to get an evaluation and test patch done, and talking to a dermatologist.

#3

As vulpes said, sounds like an IPL. I would suggest looking for places that uses the Soprano XL diode laser, which i believe is great and strong enough to actually kill the hair.

By the way, how old are you?

#4

Come on, odi!! Your place of business uses a Soprano XL. How brazen. Is that why you are pushing this particular laser. Alexandrites, like GentleLase, seem to get the big thumbs up here for being the best of the best lasers for dark, dense, coarse hair, not the Soprano XL diode. Why wouldn’t a diode cause induced hair stimulation? My understanding is that all light-based devices that are cleared for hair reduction can cause this.

#5

Just turned 30. Not sure what type of laser they used. All I remember was putting on glasses and gel, then a little bit of burning :slight_smile: If I emailed the clinic, would they tell me what lasers they use? Seems ridiculous that the whole point was removal and ends up just making it worse. I asked them about all the fine blond hairs on me, they said that the laser only targets the black ones, so no worries. I would just have to come in for maintenance treatments every few months to have it stay gone.

Figured they were all the same. I guess not :slight_smile: Went to this place because was a certified dermatologist running it. Turned out it was just a technician running the machine. Really wasn’t much of a consultation either. Pretty much allergies, what area want gone… I was so desperate, I guess I should have done a lot more thorough research.

Although I did email a few local clinics that do the laser hair removal. They responded that if I didn’t work for my back, then surely wouldn’t on my face. Didn’t mention anything about different lasers.

I did a forum search for beard, laser not working, hair growth and it found nothing for subject only. Then went to subject and body, then seemed to find a lot, but only highlighted one word in sections of the threads.

#6

I say the Soprano XL because this is the only machine i can vouch for as being very effective, not because that’s what i use. I haven’t heard of cases of induced hair growth from anything but IPL, specially not the Soprano XL.

#7

  • Laser only works on dark coarse hair. The machine also has to be appropriate for your skin type as well as the settings. From what you describe, most of the hair you’re treating is not good for laser. And the rest is likely being undertreated and/or not treated with the right laser. There is a lot more to this science than just pointing and shooting something called a laser or an IPL.

  • Please read our FAQs thoroughly. Link is below.

  • Odi is incorrect as he/she is basing his/her advice on a singular experience with one machine. Induced growth is a problem with ALL machines, including diodes and the Soprano specifically. It is usually caused by treating hair that’s not coarse or dense enough (and usually undertreating too).

  • Can you post post pictures of your problem areas? It sounds like most of it will need electrolysis, not laser.

  • When you run a search, use the Advanced Search and expand to 3-4 years. Should be lots of stuff there - definitely search subject AND body.

ODI - I would recommend you first sample 10-15 DIFFERENT machines before you blindly recommend one. You cannot possibly know how good other machines are if you haven’t tried them. As I’ve mentioned before several times, the professionals who’ve been in the industry from the beginning and have tried MOST machines all agree that alexandrites and more specifically GentelLASE by Candela are most effective on light skin. Soprano works too, but it doesn’t come close, all things being equal. On this forum, we try to recommend the BEST way for customers to achieve results. Of course, we provide information on everything, but most people looking for info on LHR are looking for the BEST method, not any method that will get some type of results in whatever amount of time.

#8

I highly recommend that anyone who invests the bucks into a laser practice also invest in education, continuing education, associations, journals, workshops, and anything else that is available to keep abreast of what is going on in your profession. Otherwise, you are going to find yourself out of business. There is too much competition out there to not fully educate yourself on what equipment is available, the pros and cons of each machine, and the pros and cons of the service you are providing.

This forum is a start, but as a professional, you need more than a consumer site can provide.

#9

As for the facial hair, since I have issues with trimming any follicle (every one that goes, seems to have more grow in within 1/4 inch around…) am I denying the inevitable? Meaning that let’s say this hair removal works above a ‘normal’ beard line (to below my eyes), wouldn’t me shaving up to that line just cause the hairs above to grow in faster as well? Thus defeating the purpose of removal. Or should I be reading the faq and this different type of laser or electrolysis actually kills the root, so nothing left to grow in for x months…

After this first time of wasting time and money on hair removal, thinking I did enough research. All this about finding the right provider for you and types of removal (even though a, wondering if I should even bother taking out another loan to pay for it… I have some serious self esteem issues anyway, so wondering even if it does work, then I might find something else wrong and obsess about that.

I think they did mention that it’s impossible to have permanent removal, but did say that the hairs would grow back less of them and very fine.

Started with just the title, since figured pple wouldn’t just post generic topics like; help me, or laser removal trial… I did the advanced search, in the laser only group. Found nothing so did all the forums, just left it as the default timeline. Again, didn’t seem to find much, or if there was stuff it would just be the word laser highlighted or work. Never seemed to be able to find more than one key word at a time in the same threads. Gave up after 10 mins of scrolling through text.

I’ll try and take some pics. Not sure how good they will turn out since I’m sure to see anything would have to go real close. Not to mention the down sampling needed to shrink them to a decent file size.

Did skim through the faq, I guess not through enough.

#10

You don’t need to shrink the pics. Just upload them to www.photobucket.com and post the HTML tags they provide for each one here.

Laser provides PERMANENT removal. I would stay away from any place that says that’s not possible - it’s a good sign that they don’t know how to use their machine properly and are probably undertreating most of their patients. Finding a very good experienced clinic with a proper laser is probably the most important part of successful hair removal.

Shaving doesn’t do anything to the hair. You can shave all you want - it doesn’t change the structure of the hair. If you’ve seen any differences in hair that seems to be after shaving, it’s not really the case, but an optical illusion of sorts. Your body develops more hair with age. Most people think it’s because they shave. However, it’s actually the other way around. They start shaving WHEN they’re starting to develop hair. So as the body develops MORE hair, people associate it with shaving, which isn’t correct. This has been proven scientifically multiple times, so it’s not under any dispute.

Yes, please read the FAQs very carefully. It has all the information you need.

There are definitely multiple posts here on male beards. Advanced Search for “beard” should bring a ton of results. Either way, I’m not sure if you need to read them. We’re helping you here by trying to explain that laser is really not the best solution for your facial hair situation and can actually create a bigger mess than what you currently have.

#11

I guess I should have typed in just one word instead of multiple for the search. Is there a way to have the search results just find only different topic headers? Rather than seeing the same thread being shown on several lines, just because it has been added to be a different person?

Should I go to a certified dermatologist first too see what they have to say? As opposed to one of the couple cosmetic surgery clinics around?

#12

You don’t need a dermatologists. Most of them are not qualified in hair removal. You need someone who does hair removal all day everyday. That’s how you become an expert.

Please mention where you are located. You may want to run a search for your city or state and see if there are past recommendations here.

Don’t search by topic headers only. They’re not always indicative of what the question is discussing.