Laser Hair Removal Consultation

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

So I’ve been going around the city meeting with laser hair removal practitioners to decide on who I would like to get treatment from. I’m asking the list of questions put on this site by LA girl. I’m a fitzpatrick skin type IV and I’m interested in getting my brazilian area done. In my city there are really only two clinics who have equipment capable of a YAG laser; Clinic A has a Gentle YAG and Gentle Lase and Clinic B has Cynosure’s Apogee Elite. At Clinic B the laser hair technician had some interesting things to say which I wasn’t really aware of from browsing and researching on this forum so I wanted everyone’s input on the things she said and how accurate they are. She said previously she was employed by the government to educate people about laser hair removal so according to her at least she has very strong credentials and she’s been doing this for 16 years.:

  1. Brazilian takes 5-9 treatments on average and then you just have touch ups. The first treatment you’ll notice a change, the second treatment won’t be as visual because its going to be in the subcutaneous of the skin so you can’t see it. By the 3rd treatment you should see the hair growing slower and by the 4th treatment you should notice a change in texture know as the superflux (didn’t quite get what this word was) stage where the hair will be like peach fuzz. And then as you continue you’ll continue to see a difference. According to her though the hair will never completely go away, it will just be dormant for longer.

  2. You cannot use any numbing creams like maxilene, emla etc. because using them with a laser can kill you. Some of the other clinics I went to did not mention this. According to her you can only use numbing creams with IPL not laser.

  3. She said she’d start me off at 40J, 10 mm spot size and a pulse width of 35 ms. According to her you always need to start high and then work your way down so you can see the reaction other wise if you go from a pulse width of 25 to 35 thats how you get burned.

  4. She said that I could come in 2 weeks after waxing because she doesn’t care about the hair cycles being anagen, telogen, etc. because she’s not targeting the hair she’s targeting the matrix cells which are in the subcutaneous below the cortex through the hair follicle. She says hair stages are relevant to IPL not laser. And you can never kill hair all you’re doing is making the matrix cells dormant so that it grows slower and you can go years before having another treatment, she herself is at every 11 years now. She said if anyone said laser could kill hair I should run in the other direction because they would be wrong.

  5. If you’re pregnant with a boy there will be no hormonal changes in hair growth but if you have a girl then you will see potentially your lasered hair growing back.

  6. Hair does not need to be shaved before laser treatment.

What do you guys think?

Thanks for the help

#2

Point 3 makes no sense whatsoever. Point 6 is false. At that point, the other things don’t matter. I personally am really questioning her credentials.

#3

I’ll address each point.

  1. None of this makes sense. It sounds like she undertreats her patients. You should see all hair shed 3 weeks after each treatment if it’s done correctly and you won’t need touchups down the line if the settings were high and the hair was actually killed.

  2. Not true. You can use a numbing cream with any hair removal machine. It has nothing to do with the machine. Brazilian is a small area and there are no issues using it on this area. There were only a couple incidents with the numbing cream and most of them were due to improper compounding of the cream itself making it too potent to use on a large area like full legs or full back. Doesn’t apply to you.

  3. There is no reason to work down the settings. If you can handle high settings, then that’s what you should be using the entire time for best results on all hair at each treatment. 10mm is a pretty small spot size btw.

  4. Makes no sense. IPL and laser work in a similar manner. Cycles apply to both. Either way, if you’re coming in 2 weeks after waxing, you ARE coming in when the hair is in anagen. Though 2 weeks is too early. Wait for all hair to come in after waxing, so 6-8 weeks.

  5. This is an interesting made up theory that makes zero sense.

  6. False. Laser needs to target hair under the skin. If there is hair above the skin, you’re wasting laser’s energy on it.

#4

Thanks for that LA girl, I thought everything she was saying sounded way off but just wanted an experts opinion.