I am boy who have a little problem with the excessive hair on my arms and shoulders. It’s quite thin hair and I can barely see it when i see myself in the mirror, but it bothers me.
I went to a laser-clinic in a town situated 80 km from my city because I wanted to get rid of this excessive fluff. In my country everybody can start a clinic so i went to a skin physician to get things right. He told me that the fluff was thin so it wasn’t able to absorbe the light from the laser. But he wanted to make a test patch on my right arm to be sure.
After about 6 weeks I went back again to treat it once more, because I was told to make the second treatment after 6 weeks. The nurse who worked at the clinic said that she was surprised of the result because all the hair was gone. I questioned her about letting the hair growing out again. But she never really answered me and she proceeded with that second treatment.
After a couple of months i found out that the hair that was growing back was THICKER! And now 4 months after the treatment I have a bush, shaped like a square on my right arm. It was so bad that I got all my money back when i showed it to the doctor. I would have prefer to have my old arm back again.
I don’t know if this was a coincidence. But it made me feel real sick. How can a treatment that claims to reduce hair do the OPPOSITE? Everybody who makes a laser treatment should be aware of this risk.
If somebody knows something about this, please let me know.
the person who saw you in the beginning was right and unfortunately you should have listened. one this area especially, this is a possibility. laser is not suited to treat the type of fuzz you describe. it works best on dark coarse hair. i would recommend you look into electrolysis to get rid of this patch if you want to fix the problem. unfortunately, laser is relatively new and there hasn’t been enough published regarding this side effect on some people when treating certain areas and on type of hair that shouldn’t be treated.
Welcome to my world. Same thing happened to me. Never had any hair on my upper arms and now I have loads of it. Just get ready to open that wallet for a long time!!
ATTENTION ALL MALES PLANNIN ON TREATING THEIR SHOULDERS, BACKS, AND UPPER ARMS. DO NOT LET THEM KEEP TREATING YOU IN 6 WEEK INTERVALS. Don’t fall for that anagen stage thing. They will tell you that you have to get the hair in the anagen stage to cause destruction, and while that may be true, there isn’t going to be much hair at six weeks to treat anyway. The laser will make some of the hair beneath the surface shed, and you come back six weeks later still thinking you don’t have any hair.
The same thing happened to me. I recommend waiting a little over 12 weeks go to back, and reevaluate your progress. I’m actually reading from alot of reputable laser techs to wait even longer than that. At this point, most of the hair that has already grown out is visible and still in the anagen stage anyway. In addition you get a better realization of your results. At least you did a test patch, that was very smart of you. I would be interested in seeing that one area of stimulated hair growth compared to the other areas to prove to the world that we are not crazy when it comes to laser induced hair growth.
Chuck, I totally agree with you. When I went to my first IPL treatment, the lady told me that I need to come back for a second treatment in 4 weeks. Of course I did not agree on that and mentioned that there won’t be much hair after 4 weeks. She then said that I could wait 6 weeks, but that was max. The result is that I won’t go back there at all. There is only one reason they want you to come back that early: Your money.
If they tell you to come back after 4 weeks you will never know if the removal actually works or not since you will be hairless most of the time because of the shedding. I’m gonna have a laser treatment only 6 weeks after my IPL treatment. Now thats too early aswell I think, but since the IPL lady missed some spots I’m ok with it. After that laser treatment I’ll wait at least 12-16 weeks to see how “permanent” the results are, how my skin handles the treamtents and all that stuff. If the weather is good, I’ll even wait longer since I hate the fact that you can’t take any sun 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after a treatment. (Maybe 1 week)
This was my post in the Electrolysis Forum, thought it might be some use to this post. My laser experience well, I started Dec. 99 on sideburns (29yo), upper lip, hairline and feet. Initially i went in for sideburns which were an issue for me since puberty kicked in. What the heck since i’m here may as well do the lip hairline and feet which i waxed. After 8 sessions the hair on feet, gone. To put in perspective the hair was brown (not black and thick). However, the sideburns well kept on keeping on. After 8 sessions we started to treat the chin from a couple of stray black hairs which then progressed to the neck area (again fine but noticeable), then my jawline. It wasn’t until my sessions became from quarterly to 6wks i began to question whether the laser was inducing the hairgrowth. I started researching on the net and nothing came of it. This is when i found hairtell and even here it wasn’t mentioned. My laser therapist put it down to my PCOS which i did to since my feet were gone and i noticed my thigh hairs getting thicker. Around Oct '04, Enough was enough, then I started seeing sparse hairs going higher and higher unto the cheek area, i then began to treat the jawline in between laser treatments with wax, cream, tweeze (i know, bad move but… )the cost of going to laser was enormous and now to treat it every month was painful both for the hip pocket and me. Instead of waxing etc., in between laser treatments i decided to do electrolysis. End of 2005 information came to hand about laser induced hairgrowth, mainly from this site. Again i brought it up with my laser therapist and now my electrologist and they had no information about it, again we related it to PCOS (which i must say is a slight case needing no treatment). Now March 2007 I began consistent therapy with electrolysis and have had 8 sessions. The electrologist is excited about it because apparently under the magnifying glass she can see bald patches. From 8 weekly sessions I am going to fortnightly. She now wants me to have a blast of laser which she is hoping to kill what’s left. As you can imagine, I am hesitant but at the same time eager to get rid of this. Finally, for those interested, the hair on my feet have grown back but very finely and need waxing or shaving bi monthly. For all those laser patients that have scalded i found the best cream for after treatment is paraderm. It’s an all over cream which specifically treats burns, abrasions etc. and have found that even when my face would burn after the laser (positive i would scab)this cream applied about 4 or 5 times that same day would guarantee me no or very little scabbing. Hope i’ve been of help.
I totally disagree with the idea of coming in for treatments every 6 weeks. I believe 8-12 weeks should be the minimum and even increasing it after several treatments. But I would like to stick up for those center suggesting treatments every 6 weeks. In the sense that I don’t think most of them are doing it for the money.
I really don’t think they are unscrupulous, rather just inexperienced and naive. And believe the general wisdom that is being tossed around the industry. I think this shows just how hard it is to change opinions when they get started early.
I’m using the Candela Gentelase. What settings do you recommend? I think I’m at 18 spot size and 16 joules or something like that? I’m very fair with dark hair. I’ve been doing this for years on the shoulders and it does not work at all. It’s just an expensive wax. Initially, I had my forearms treated and then all of a sudden hair just cropped up my upper arms and shoulders. Really sucks, but I have tried 12 mm spot size up to 40 joules and now I am doing 18 mm spot size at 14 or 16 joules. Any recommendations? I do go every 6 weeks.
16 joules 18mm is a good place to start, and if your skin can handle it, i would up to 20 joules which is max on 18mm. going every 6 weeks is WAY too early. i wouldn’t go any more frequently than every 8-12 weeks. if it’s working, you shouldn’t have much to treat at 6 weeks.
do people say not to go back in 6 weeks because it’s a waste of money b/c there is not enough hair to treat? or will going back to early (e.g. 6 weeks) actually cause laser induced hair growth? i’m thinkin of going back at 6 weeks b/c i’ve heard that during your next treatment the laser burns off pepper spots. I’ve got a TON of pepper spots on my upper arms that haven’t gone away since my last treatment (3.5 weeks ago). obviously, if going back too soon will cause more growth than i will wait. if not, than I think its worth the money to get rid of the peppers spots even if i’m not technically destroying a ton of follicles. please help! thanks!
Pepperspots will fall out on their own too. It just takes longer than 3.5 weeks. You can speed up the process by exfoliating. Getting another treatment that early would basically mean that you’re not killing any hair then. Pepperspots are dead hairs. You need to wait 2-3 weeks and exfoliate while you’re waiting daily. You don’t need another treatment right now.
p.s. upper arms on men are prone to induced growth with laser. it doesn’t matter if you’re treating often or less often. if you’re one of the unlucky ones who gets it on this area, then you will get it if you treat it in general. most of the time it’s dependent on type of laser, settings, skin color, and density and coarseness of the hair. dense, coarse, dark hair on very light skin treated at high settings on an alexandrite is less prone. the farther you get away from that combination, the more of a chance that you can have induced growth on this area.
thank you for your quick response lagirl!
unfortunately, i am one of the unlucky ones who now has more hair on my upper arms and shoulders than when i started laser two years ago. i’ve had awesome results on my chest and abs, but am worse than when i started on the uppers arms and shoulders.
i’ve just moved to a new city and am now being treated with the apogee elite. the technician said the same thing about how i should never have been treated on my upper arms to begin with. however, she says that i will now benefit from laser on my upper arms/shoulders since i now have more course hair there due to the laser induced growth.
what do you think??? i wonder if i should just go with electrolysis instead or see if the laser works now?? (i’ve only had one treatment with the apogee. was treated with a different yag in my previous city)
i’m a lighter skinned indian male (persian-type complexion), and have dark black hair.
thank you!!!
My lord, we’ve got another one that supports our contentions of laser induced hair growth. And everybody in Kitty’s Consumer Beware board accused me of being crazy 3 years ago and kicked me out.
If your hair is truly coarse now, it may make sense to try. They would have to use pretty agressive settings and I would give it 3 treatments or so. If you don’t see an improvement by then, I would definitely switch to electrolysis. And they are correct. Your skin type should have never been treated on that area.
Question for you, what kind of laser and what kind of settings did you use. How many treatments did you have on your chest and stomach? How much reduction did you experience? How much hair did you have there to begin with and what kind/type was it (thick, coarse, or finer/lighter?).
I’m an Indian male as well with a lighter complexion such as yourself. I get mistaken for being a persian from time to time. Anyways, I’ve considered getting some laser as well, just want to know more specifics about your treatments.
thanks again for your advice! question - approximately how much would treating upper arms and shoulders cost (via electrolysis)? and approximately how long would each treatment take?
md-the hair on my chest was coarse and also coarse in some areas on my abs. i’d say i have about 80-90% reduction on my chest and abs overall. unfortunately, i dont recall specifics on spot size / joules but I was being treated with a cool glide yag.
i had a total of about 15 treatments.
Please read the electrolysis section to learn about it. It’s hard-to-impossible to provide an estimate that you’re asking for as each hair is treated individually. It depends highly on how many individual hairs you have to treat and how committed you are to going as often as possible in the beginning to get your first complete clearance, and then as often as possible to get new hairs that pop up as soon as they come in.