Laser Hair Removal on Abdomen

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

Hi! I am of South Asian decent, and have type III/IV skin, I have started to get laser hair removal done on my full legs, bikini and full abdomen. The hair on my legs is coarse, as well as my bikini area, so I make a good candidate. However, it’s the hair on my abdomen that really bugs me. I have fine, not peach fuzz, it’s visible in normal light all over my abdomen start from my chest bone down to my bikini. I got one treatment of laser, YAG, done on my abdomen just to see how the hair would react. My technician told me that it would probably not affect it that much because the hair isn’t that coarse. It has now been 6 weeks after the treatment, I did not experience any shedding…:(…but I guess that was expected, however the hair that grew back was a little lighter and the coarser hair on my lower abdomen were affected. Now, I don’t know how to deal with this hair, I really feel embarrased about it, to the extent I can’t change in front of anyone. Waxing doesn’t help either, as I have fast hair growth and the hair grows back very fast. Should I get some laser treatments done on this area and hope some hair is affected? Plus, is it safe to get laser done over flat moles? I have a flat mole on my stomach and my technician said it’s ok, but I don’t think it is.

Any help would be appreciated!

#2

Sounds like laser may have worked on your abdomen even without shedding??? That’s confusing. Can you clarify?

Moles should be covered when lasing OR they can be treated with electrolsysis if there are hairs protruding. Using a white or red pen will protect the mole from being lasered because laser can not detect white or red colors.

Dee

#3

Sorry, let me clarify, the coarse hair did experience shedding, its the lighter hair that didn’t, but the lighter hair “looks” a little more lighter…if that makes sense. My technician laser right over my mole and I was very concerned, I will bring this up with her.

#4

Hi,

I am of south asian decent also and have a very similar skin type. I aouls like to get laser done on my full bikini and legs also but an very afraid of laser induced coarse groth on my fine hairs on the upper legs as well as teh effectiveness of laser treatment with yag.

Do you mind sharing your experince with me. Did it work well on your legs and bikini? How many treatments did you have and hw far apart were they? R u in the LA area? If so where did you go for treatment? Also what type of laser was used (yag coolglilde, genteal yag etc) and what settings were used?

I dont mean to be intrusive. Im just in a similar situation and your experince would be very helpful.

Also, I had a bad experince with an ILP machine. I had ILP laser done on my face only to get very very corase hair to grow back. I was hessitatnt at frst, but I had elctrolysis done n teh face adn it was the best decision i ever made. I feel you when you say the hair is very embarrasing I have a simialr problem on my body (abs, lower back etc). I would suggest you look into electrolysys for those fine hairs. It worked on my face and its 100% guaranteed removal.

#5

Hi GirlwithHope, I just started laser on my legs and bikini, I have had one treatment done, and have my next treatment next week, and so far the results are good, I experienced shedding for about 80-90% of the hair in these areas. The second treatment is scheduled around 6-7 weeks from the first treatment. I also have fine and coarse hair on my upper legs, the fine hair didn’t get coarser so far. However, I did find the laser on the bikini painful, because the hair is the thickest and coarsest in this area. I have fine hair on my lower back, but it doesn’t bother me too much, it’ more the abdomen hair that bothers me. I live in Canada, so I can’t help you with a laser practioner in the States, the laser they’re using is a NAG, but I’m not sure what type, I will ask what type it is when I’m in next. In regards to the setting the technician mentioned it was on medium setting, since it was my first time and I was finding the biking painful, but I will find out what it was when I go in next.

#6

Thank you so much for sharing with me. That helps a lot!

I wish you the best in you laser endevors. Keep us upadeted on your progress!

#7

Jewel, you need electrolysis for most of the hair on your abdomen. Read my story below with a similar experience. I would suggest only treating the hair that’s coarse on that area, and leave the rest for electrolysis. The other hair won’t be affected anyway, so no reason to pay for a larger area than you need.

Moles should be covered with something white. Since they have pigment, laser can make them lighter. It’s usually better not to mess with them.

GirlwithHope, there is no reported increased growth on the thigh area. It’s only the face for women, due to hormones.

#8

As Dee said, the moles should be coloured in with a white or if not available, red.

If your moles been lasered, I personally wouldn’t worry about it. The light emitted by laser is certainly not of the UV variety, which, as I’m sure you are aware is the primary cause of skin cancer and other associated problems.
A good trick I found was using white eye liner to cover my moles as I have several on my back. Although there’s no evidence, still worth being safe eh?

In regards to the light hair on your abdomen, it is highly unlikely to be affected. When you say it’s less noticable is that because of the shortened length? The only other permanent solution for you to pursue therefore is to find a skilled electrologist who can see the hairs and remove them.

Hope everything goes well.

Regards,
Benji

#9

Hello All,

From what Im getting here…it looks like the YAG laser wont cause fall out of the light hiars at all since the laser cant reach them. Yes? Does that mean that treating the arms is okay even if there is fine dark hair on the upper arms? The reason I ask is because I have read of men on this fourm who experinced corser growth on teh upper arms. One even said he wished he never touched teh upper arms in the first place and the problem was so much worse post treatment.

My question is, how can that be if the laser does not affect the light har in the first place?

#10

Thanks guys for replying! I think electrolysis is the way to go. My only concern is the amount of time it will take, since its a large area. My whole abdomen is covered with light hair. How long would it take in terms of time per session to get clearance for an area like this? Plus, how long would I be going for electro if I was consist with my treatments?

#11

It takes a year or so after you get your clearance. It may take 5-10 hrs to get to a clearance. It is hard to say since it depends on the type of electrolysis used and the skill and speed of your electrologist. It took me about 1.5 yrs on this area, but I was getting several other areas done at the same time, so I wasn’t as consistent as I could have been on this area specifically.

#12

Hiya GWH,

In regards to the laser not affecting the blonde hairs we mean that it won’t damage it. Laser light is attracted to pigment or otherwise known as melanin, which can be found in the hair as well as other places. However, there does appear to be an interesting side effect that on certain areas on the body the hair may become stimulated on fine and lighter hairs, the area does differ between genders.

Upper arms, shoulders and back is the usual area that laser induced hair growth/hypertrichosis can occur in men and for women it would be there faces. Women generally don’t have to worry about nay other places apart from there face when being treated with laser, however there still are the odd cases where it happens else where.
What you really need to do is decide whether you want to take the risk or not. Do you have a photo of the hair you want to treat? It would make it easier for us to be able to give our opinions, rather than just repeating the same thing (however, I reitterate this is just our opinions).

Regards,
Benji

#13

I’m also of South Asian descent, Type 3/4 skin and had/have hair all over my abdomen exactly as you describe on yourself, jewel.

I had one laser treatment (Yag) on the “treasure trail” area and didn’t feel that the number of shed hairs justified the $50 I paid considering that would buy me 45 minutes of electrolysis. I also took into account lagirl’s experience with laser and electrolysis on the abdomen and decided to start electrolysis on the entire abdomen. That was just over a year ago and I’ve spent over $2000 to date. The reduction is considerable, but I still have a lot of fine hair and some coarse ones. I think my electrologist is good. Not great, but not terrible either.

In the past few months, I’ve also had the “treasure trail” area and the parts of my belly where the pubic hair starts treated with an Alex laser. (This was done for free as part of extended bikini.) I’m not sure exactly where the hair was treated, but it appears to have all shed.

If I could go back in time, I would have gotten several laser treatments with the Alex on the coarse and medium fine hairs and then switched to electrolysis for the remaining hairs. Even if I’d paid $200 a session (the average rate for female abdomen, I believe) and gotten 6 sessions, I would have ended up better off, assuming that most hair that shed was permanently disabled.

In my opinion, it all depends on how coarse the hair is (hard to tell without seeing in person) and how good an electrologist you have access to. Also, if your skin can take treatments with an Alex laser, as the Alex can get the medium fine hairs that the Yag can’t. (I DO get hyper-pigmentation on my upper thighs from the Alex.)

Also, honestly, if you’re situation is as bad as mine was, I think you should accept that you’ll have fine darks hairs there even after electrolysis, unless you want to spend tonnes of money and time.

#14

We do not recommend using Alex on South Asian skin. There is too much potential for pigmentation and serious burns at effective settings.