Laser hair induced growth - back

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

Hi,
I’ve been having laser hair removal done for about a year now and have had some great results mostly. But I have a question about induced hair growth on my back.

The history of my treatments is 5 on my back, about 6-8 weeks apart.

I’ve also had two to legs/buttocks (about 60/70% reduction, very impressed) and one to arms/hands (about the same, amazing results).

On my back, I had two patches of pretty coarse hair, centre of lower and upper back. These were treated 3-4 times, before I had the whole back done because the tech wanted to cover the entire area.

Now after these last 1 or 2 whole back, it seems that all the coarse hair is gone for good (in fact, I reckon it was gone after the 3rd), but the finer hairs seem to have been stimulated and are now evenly grown all over, but mainly at the sides.

So my question is, will continued treatments be effective at removing those new ones too? They have colour and are maybe up to 1 cm long. So that’s not the vellus type, right? And even if it is, are they still treatable?

Thanks.

ps Tried to take some pics, but they’re not very good (see attached).

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#2

Unfortunately the new hair is not coarse enough for laser, even though they’re not vellus. Laser doesn’t work on finer hair, only coarse hair as you can see by your results. They really shouldn’t have treated your entire back. Wish you would have found this site earlier since we discuss this all the time.

At this point, you should only treat areas with very coarse hair. For the induced hair, you’ll need electrolysis.

Btw, how long ago was your last treatment? Your treatments are a bit too close together for those areas which have long hair cycles, so you’ll likely see more growth come in if you stop treatments for at least 3-4 months. Make sure to have about 12 weeks between treatments for legs and back.

#3

OK, so it doesn’t work at all on the finer hairs… or its just less effective? What I’m really wondering now is, should I stop doing the back completely now? Or is the damage done now and its not possible to get any worse and may in fact be improved with further full back treatments?

How long would electrolysis take? I’m just guessing a full back isn’t realistic…?

Back was done every 6-8 weeks. I have one treatment left for back and that will be a 12 week gap to that one.

For legs, there was about a 6-7 week gap.

#4

My experience with male back hair, as a practicing electrologist, is that IT IS a realistic approach for permanently removing back hair. All the cases I have seen through start to finish have taken about 14-18 months. The hairiest clients basically reach first full clearance in seven months coming 2- 2.5 hours a week. Maintainence takes up the other seven months as we go over areas where new hair cycles in about every 3-6 weeks. I use PicoFlash thermolysis, but MicroFlash or flash thermolysis will work as well. Blend is effective, but too slow and painful for the amount of hair most men have. Surgical magnification allows the electrologist to make accurate insertions, which is the key to destroying hair growing tissue.

Is a year and half considered unrealistic for you? Most men need about 80 to 100 hours on the table over this time. Is that unrealistic? If so, then electrolysis is not for you even if it is your only option at this point. If you have less hair, then of course you will need less hours on the table.

If you desire electrolysis, then you need to look for someone with modern computerized equipment who has the skill to use these faster forms of thermolysis, otherwise, you will become very frustrated. PicoFlash and MicroFlash thermolysis offer less sensation, with PicoFlash only being found on the Apilus Platinum or Pure, which are the best for sensation. These newer forms of thermolysis offer more comfortable, for sure.

So that’s about how it works and believe me, IT WORKS! You just have to find someone very good to get you there and you do this by shopping around and getting as many consults as possible.

Dee

#5

  • Your hair is not coarse enough based on your pictures to get any results with laser. I wish I could say otherwise, but I really can’t.

  • Electrolysis removes 5-10 hairs per minute or so, but since hair grows in cycles, you’ll still need about a year worth of treatments.

  • You really need to wait 12 weeks at least on your legs. 6-7 weeks is not even enough on other areas with longer hair cycles. You’re basically not letting the hair come in in order to treat it. Technically, at 6 weeks you shouldn’t have much to treat if all treated hair shed within 3 weeks of your treatment like it was supposed to. For legs especially, 12 weeks is minimum if your treatments are effective.

#6

OK - thanks for all the answers. I’ll look into electrolysis, depending on how it works out after leaving things a decent period to see what grows back. The main problem is I can’t commit to 2 hours per week, time-wise!

Also, on my last back laser, is there any point doing this now? Seems like its not going to do any more than its done to date. Maybe it will make things worse?

#7

[quote=“dfahey”]

My experience with male back hair, as a practicing electrologist, is that IT IS a realistic approach for permanently removing back hair. All the cases I have seen through start to finish have taken about 14-18 months. The hairiest clients basically reach first full clearance in seven months coming 2- 2.5 hours a week. Maintainence takes up the other seven months as we go over areas where new hair cycles in about every 3-6 weeks. I use PicoFlash thermolysis, but MicroFlash or flash thermolysis will work as well. Blend is effective, but too slow and painful for the amount of hair most men have. Surgical magnification allows the electrologist to make accurate insertions, which is the key to destroying hair growing tissue.

Is a year and half considered unrealistic for you? Most men need about 80 to 100 hours on the table over this time. Is that unrealistic? If so, then electrolysis is not for you even if it is your only option at this point. If you have less hair, then of course you will need less hours on the table.

If you desire electrolysis, then you need to look for someone with modern computerized equipment who has the skill to use these faster forms of thermolysis, otherwise, you will become very frustrated. PicoFlash and MicroFlash thermolysis offer less sensation, with PicoFlash only being found on the Apilus Platinum or Pure, which are the best for sensation. These newer forms of thermolysis offer more comfortable, for sure.

So that’s about how it works and believe me, IT WORKS! You just have to find someone very good to get you there and you do this by shopping around and getting as many consults as possible.

Dee [/quote]

Dee,

When you say 80-100 hours over 14-18 months, is that permanent removal of all visible hair or is it 80-95 reduction like laser (good candidates) but it is guaranteed forever unlike laser? I just wanted clarification on what it means.

#8

Thanks for the question. Yes, that means total, permanent removal, not reduction. In all honesty, I have only witnessed one case in ten years that was incredibly out of the range of 80-100 hours over that time frame. He was massively hairy unlike the average of above average hairy guys back. He would have taken more time for sure, but he was okay with that as he was just as incredibily patient and determined to get rid of the hair.

With electrolysis, we can brag or speak, if you will, in terms of total, permanent hair removal, not reduction. The client must be willing to match up with a professional electrologist that can do this because not every electrologist has the belief, stamina or equipment to do this as I described. That’s their choice, but some?/many? electrologists will take up the challenge and get the hair off as fast as humanly possible. It can be done, it just takes the right behaviors on the part of the client and the electrologist.

Just keep this important concept in mind: the bothersome hair follicles treated TODAY will be effected forever more if the electrologist uses powerful equipment, wears a good vision aid, uses the proper size probe. NEW HAIR THAT DEVELOPS OVER YOUR MANHOOD WILL HAVE TO BE DEALT WITH LATER ON. IT IS NOT THE SAME HAIR THAT WAS TREATED FIVE YEARS AGO.

The most powerful epilator can be the best one for comfort factors as well. There is strategy issues here that must be adhered to that will make an electrolysis experience a great experience. It’s just a matter of finding a modern, electrologist who steps it up several levels from what she or he learned in school.

#9

I would use your back treatment money on another treatment on another large area. You’ll need 6-8 treatments on most areas anyway.

#10

If you have pictures of your back before you started treatment and they clearly show that you now have more back hair in certain areas. I would have a meeting with your current provider and ask them to remove the hair that they induced for free. A years worth of electrolysis is going to be expensive. I do not know how much others charge, but I charge $100 an hour and that is competitive in my area.

2 hours a week, 52 weeks a year= 10400

Even if you can find a deal for 50 an hour, it is still going to be very expensive.

#11

Well, that’s actually what I was thinking anyway - my contract was to remove small patches at the top/middle (below neck) and lower/middle (above butt). I really don’t get why the tech did the whole back. I’m gonna discuss this with them next week…

I guess one thing I should add, these two patches sort of startin growing in my early 30s (couple of years ago) and there had been increased growth in general in the shoulder back area before I even started this, so maybe this was going to happen anyway.

Also, I took some extra photos with a proper camera here. The chain you see around my neck is only 1mm thick for reference. Overall, from a distance, I’m really happy with my back - it looks pretty clean! Anyway, here you go:

http://i364.photobucket.com/albums/oo88/wsa123222/Img_1667.jpg
http://i364.photobucket.com/albums/oo88/wsa123222/Img_1670.jpg
http://i364.photobucket.com/albums/oo88/wsa123222/Img_1666.jpg

#12

Your estimates are pretty high, pdeco. My client actually finished in the $4,500- $5,000 range. I charged him no where near $100 per hour, by the way. For larger areas, pre-paymment deals can be worked out to lower the price if the electrologist that charges $100 per hour is amenable to that idea. The electrologist that charges $100 per hour better be pretty darn good, and work fast with the best equipment on the market today. Otherwise, what is the client getting that he couldn’t get with the electrologist that charges $60 per hour?

#13

I agree. I’ve worked out pre-paid deals with my electrologist where it came out to less than $60 per hour for multiple hours. Plus, with the new pictures, we can see that the hair is relatively sparse and doesn’t cover your entire back. So it would probably take a lot less time.

#14

Cool, so I get to experience another form of pain now! LOL Thanks for the replies :slight_smile:

#15

Good electrolysis on a newer machine with microflash method is not that painful at all and goes pretty fast. Also, avoiding caffeine and using numbing cream is an option.

#16

i was just reading this and wondering if he has had how ever many treatments with laser on his back wont this mean he wont need anywhere near 14 months of electro?

#17

If he doesn’t wait too long to start, most of the hair should be caught in the first two phases of growth if it recently came out, yes.

#18

Fourteen months relates to an indivdual that had electrolysis for his particular situation, removing hair at my particualr speed with MicroFlash thermolysis. Just don’t want to give everyone the idea that 14 months relates to every man with back hair. There are so many variables with what clients present with and with what individual electrologists can deliver, with the equipment they have.

#19

Hi - I just thought I would update everyone on this.

Following on from some research I did, I found a medical study where the subject displayed these exact symptoms. However what was interesting was that further laser treatments removed the newly stimulated hair growth also.

So I decided to have my entire back treated again and that was on Nov 25th. The results have been very positive indeed. All the hair on my back has now fallen out in the normal laser way and my entire back, 5 weeks on, is still completely smooth.

So I’ll give it another 6 weeks or so and report back (no pun :wink: )

#20

With laser and electrolysis, the client must understand hair growth cycles. Hair growth cycles can be a series of very frustrating hurdles that one must jump over. Both modalities need to be performed correctly at properly timed intervals. Persistance and patience must be two charactaristics that one must have in order to achieve hair reduction (laser) or complete hair removal (electrolysis), within 1.5 years.