Hi guys, i’m a 25 year old male and i was thinking about getting some laser hair removal done. Based on the pictures, what do you think i should do (type of laser etc). Also i was wondering if i would benefit waiting a few more years. Any guidance would be much appreciated. How many sessions and potential results etc
Thanks!
Looks like a fully grown-in chest pattern (perhaps a few finer hairs on the belly). What are you wanting to achieve: full removal, or a nicer hair pattern?
I don’t think I would be able to achieve a smooth chest where this is no hair at all but i would be happy with a huge reduction.
I assume when you say ‘hair pattern’ you are referring to the hair not covering everything right?
So ya i was my whole chest and belly reduced significantly.
Think about this and start looking at other chests (yeah, you will get some funny stares?) A “thinning” sounds good, but you might not want that. Besides the laser could very well give you a screwed-up pattern (I deal with this all the time, sorry to say.)
Here’s the point. The heaviest hairs on your chest are right in the middle. You have progressively finer hairs at the margins. Laser often works well on the big, fat and dark hairs; not so well on the fine ones (and can sometimes make them bigger).
If this happens, and it does, you will be left with a very odd pattern: scant hairs in the middle and more hairs at the sides.
Give this a lot of thought before you JUMP into any treatment. You want to look better but NATURAL, not like you had something odd happen to you. (The patchy beards from laser are the worst!)
Sorry for being chatty today … I’m waiting for a post-surgical patient to get finished-up. I’ll be picking her up and looking after the patient. So, I’m just hanging out and annoying everybody. Hey, it’s my job!
(Oh, I’m the guy that said, “git ‘er done!” Famous quote for sure; bad grammar though!)
I would say that the hair is pretty thick all around.
So how should i go about it so it doesn’t look weird? I just don’t want it to be as full and coarse as it is now…
Laser is a gamble. Are you willing to accept the risk of the “giraffe effect” in which you have randomly shaped patches of thin hair, possibly growing in various directions, alternated with randomly shaped patches that have little or no hair?
Are you then willing to finish up with electrolysis, possibly with a smooth look throughout being the only cosmetically acceptable option?
If not, it might be best to start and finish with electrolysis, with the goal being a conscientious and natural-looking reduction. Michael Bono and Josefa (and perhaps some of the other pro’s as well) have addressed this topic in previous postings.
Oh my gosh, GREAT new word SIGMA: the “giraffe-effect.” Love it!
So far, from our Hairtell contributors, we have earned the following words: moth-eaten effect, Ghost (or Zombie) hairs (from LDLD), the Sequoia effect and Pebbling (from my Georgia client), and now “giraffe effect.”
Clients are astounding!
Good going! In two weeks or so, I will show some photos of a kid with a not-too-successful laser deal on the chest. Actually, his reduction was uniform but not significant at all. (Maybe that’s why he didn’t get “no bloomin’ giraffe effect?” tee hee)
Looks similar to me when I started, years ago. Maybe I was even thicker.
I did full packages of IPL and laser, each spanning about one year. So in total two years of getting zapped about every 6 weeks. Although it did thin it down some (so it seems), I was generally not happy with the long term results (6-12 months later). I expected more, considering what I was promised and what I paid. (I had my whole body done, from the neck down, so it wasn’t cheap.)
I do believe lasers can give some permanent results. Part of the problem is that aestheticians are too afraid to keep the power up where it belongs, as many patients are very quick to complain about short term discomfort. And now the more recent lines of machines are supposedly designed to allow the aestheticians to move quickly, but some move too quickly.
I suggest letting an electrologist start working to thin it out. I was amazed by just the first 6 hours of treatments on an area. In my case, I had a lot of double and triple hairs. She took those out first, covering a lot of area quickly, providing significant visual change. (In my case I am going for smooth so much more to go.)
I heard “giraffe effect” from an electrologist, who had heard it from a client.
What really worries me – the “Rip Van Winkle effect” – lasered hairs waking up after years of dormancy…
aka “the Poltergeist effect” – They’re Here…
I remember reading threads years ago where people with the same amount of hair were being told that they were great candidates for laser.
I guess laser isn’t so desired anymore. I remember when people would recommend a certain type of laser with specific settings on the site.
So i guess i’m out of luck…
Almost always this “giraffe effect” is due to a technician using too low settings and missing too many areas and thus gives an uneven pattern. That’s why people don’t get results. To me, the chest hair looks good for laser but the stomach does not.
You look pretty light-skinned to me, so I’d recommend you to find someone with a Gentlelase or GentleMAX laser in your area
Would cynosure laser be just as good?
I’ve been doing laser treatments on my chest and have noticed the opposite. In my teens, the first hair to grow in was on the sternum. In my 20s, it spread to the pecs, abdomen and toward the neck and shoulders.
I started laser with a Gentlemax (Skin type II, dark brown body hair but not black, 18 mm spot, 16-18j, 3 ms pulse) in the fall of 2012. I’ve probably had about 8 treatments. Interestingly, the finer hair towards the edges is mostly gone, but the hair right in the middle over the sternum is very stubborn and hasn’t diminished nearly as much.
That’s exactly correct on how hairs develop.
You definitely would benefit from laser, I did a bunch on my chest and while I still get some hair it’s super fine to the point if I was shirtless or took a picture shirtless, I look totally smooth unless you’re 6 inches from my chest. You should get an alex laser based on your skin tone. Worst case if the laser left you with a bit more hair in some areas than others you could always do electrolysis then to finish up but doesn’t make sense doing it from the start when you can clear a lot with laser first.