Laser Hair removal on scalp

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

Hi everyone. For the past 18 months or so i have been having laser hair removal on my scalp at a local clinic. They use the Lumenis LightSheer and its fair to say that i have had pretty mixed results with it so far. To date i have had 8 full sessions and a couple of touch ups. Originally i had a long conversation with the tech who is also the owner of the clinic and he told me the pros and possible cons of having it done. But he was very enthusiastic about the whole idea and said that sometimes you can get patchy regrowth but this is usually what is known as “peach fuzz” and that it would be alot lighter and alot less coarse. My reason for having laser hair removal was that i started losing my hair quite aggressively when i was 17 and because my hair is so dark and coarse, every time i shave my head i used to get ingrown hairs.

Initially we started off with a fluence of about 20 if i remember correctly and increased it session by session. Even after about 5 sessions i was still getting some very stubborn patches of coarse regrowth which have since gotten a little better but still have not completely cleared.

Now we come to present day and its about 7 weeks since i had my 8th treatment. The last 2 treatments i have had have been at a fluence of 60 and pulse of 5ms which he says is the max that the laser will go up to and it is usually a setting that is done on very fine hairs on the back (body). I’m not going to lie its the worst pain i have ever experienced and he doesnt use any form of cooling, e.g ice packs etc, or anesthetic cream. Now even after 2 sessions of extreme pain which i wouldnt wish upon anyone i still find that i am getting patchy regrowth, and it is not “peach fuzz”. It is a little less course than it used to be but not by much and it is very black. Unfortunately i still get ingrown hairs if i shave. So i basically have a 5 week window after every treatment when i can shave my head and look normal but then hair starts coming through again and because it is still so dark and patchy i basically resort to wearing a hat until i get a chance to book another session.

My next session i am going to book with another clinic that uses that Starlux 500. I know it is kind of similar to the Lightsheer but i really need to start trying different lasers as i am not seeing results from the lightsheer.

I am not really sure why its not going to plan, i think clinics in general greatly under estimate the amount of treatments that are needed to get a good result which might be even more difficult to predict for the scalp as it is not a very common place to have laser hair removal. Although more and more people seem to be doing it. I really want to try the GentleLase but there is no where near me that uses it.

Has anyone got any thoughts or ideas that might help me ? the settings i am having currently are so incredibly painful it feels like i should be under local anesthetic.

Sorry my skin type is Type II

#2

Starlux won’t be any better, it’s not even a laser but an IPL. If you’re skin type II you should be using GentleLASE or Apogee Elite both are alexandrites. It’s strange though that you’re not getting results, especially if it’s on the highest possible settings and hurts the way it does, plus sheds completely. I’m not really familiar with LightSheer so someone else here would be able to better respond on those settings. Not sure what it’s like to treat hair on the head though, but if it’s like facial hair then it’s stubborn and takes awhile. You should have seen a huge reduction though after 8 sessions…

#3

Thanks for the reply. I will have to see if i can find a place that uses the Gentle Lase, the only problem here in the Uk is that not many places use it outside of london or if they do they are very hard to find. It has reduced quite alot, i would say maybe 75% but every week that goes by i look at the bare areas of my head where i cant see any new hairs forming then the next week i can gradually see alot re growing just by looking at the color of my skin. Its really random. I’m about 90% sure if i dont have any more sessions and let it just be i would probably see a lot of regrowth. Within a couple of months. Initially one of the main reasons i chose to do it was becuase it would give my head a break from shaving every day. But my hair grows back so fast that even after all the treatments i have had, i still have to shave every day because the patches are just like the hair growth i had before even starting the treatments. At one point i just thought it might be the technique of the tech. He doesnt really plan out where he is going to laser, he just kind of does it and ends up missing alot.

#4

Those settings don’t make sense to me. 60j and 5ms on LightSheer? I don’t think that’s possible on that machine. Are you sure those are the settings and that’s what they’re using? What spot size does their machine have?

Have you seen shedding from any of the treatments?

If you have coarse growth left, you really need a Yag laser only because the hair on this area is very deep and it’s the only one that can really reach it. They should also overlap by at least 10% to make sure to cover the entire area. Whatever doesn’t shed within 3 weeks should be touched up for free. If it’s only 10% missed, not a big deal. But if it’s 15%+, then you definitely should be getting free touchups.

#5

Thanks for the reply. I am almost certain that those were the settings used, but i will check again with the clinic.

I have seen shedding from virtually all treatments, although the last one not so much.

I think i will try one more session with the LightSheer, and then, if its still being problematic i will have to try and find a clinic that uses the Yag or possibly a Gentlelase.

Does anyone have any advice on pain reduction ? one time he did give me some anesthetic cream which he told me to apply thinly to my scalp 20 mins or so before treatment. It went ok but i have just read that you are not supposed to do this on a large area.

#6

A Yag would be better for you than GentleLASE (look for GentleYAG or GentleMAX or Coolglide or Apogee Elite or MPX) because it will penetrate deeper - very important on this area.

Was shedding always close to 100%? Everything treated should shed each time at 3 weeks. And if more than 10-15% remains, it should be touched up at that point as it was missed.

EMLA and other properly compounded numbing creams are fine to use, even on this area. Most require you to leave it on longer though.

#7

Ye shedding was pretty close to 100%, Its strange, it might just be me being paranoid but its like my head just keeps re-growing hair and its very random as to where is grows. Again though it might just be that my hair is very stubborn and its just going to take a while. Ive always had very thick dark coarse hair, but its very deflating at the moment.

#8

Scalp has a lot of hair. It’s also unique in that 90% of the hair is usually in the anagen phase of growth (compared to 30% on other areas).

I think the issue is that there isn’t enough laser heat reaching the follicles to disable them permanently.

#9

If the hair removal is going as it should. How should regrowth look ? should it come back as kind of white peach fuzz, or just still black in my case but slightly less coarse?

#10

Color shouldn’t change, but it can become less coarse.

#11

Many of my ex-LASER clients experienced color change from their LASER work. I am not sure anyone knows what would cause one person to have that result, while others don’t.

#12

Just been for a touch up today still using the LightSheer. Posted the wrong settings before. The fluence is 60 with 30ms pulse and the spot size is 8mm X 8mm. He says its the max the laser will go up to. Tried some anesthetic cream this time as well, left it on about an hour but didnt seem to have any effect at all.

#13

That’s a really small spot size. The better machines by Candela for example use an 18mm spot size.

This must be an older machine. Even the older models have a 9mm spot size and the newer ones 12mm (and the newest a huge 25mm or so). Joules are considerably less effective with such a small spot size. And it makes is very hard to cover the area without missing spots.

Spot size is very important.

#14

ah,i did question him about it and his reply was that the bigger the spot size the more power you essentially need whereas with his tiny spot size all the power is concentrated and so has a better chance of removing the hair. I thought it might be an older machine, i think they have had it since 2001. I’m currently trying to contact a clinic about an hour away from me that use the Gentlelase and GentleYag. So i will probably go to them for my next treatment. That is if they will do hair removal on the scalp.

Do you think i will still be able to get good overall results using a newer machine ? would the fact that i have had about 8-9 treatments already using an “older” machine affect anything ?

thanks.

Thanks for the continuing replies, very much appreciate them :).

#15

Laser works in a cone shape. So large spot size is very important. We always recommend treating with the largest spot size available (and highest joules on that spot size as appropriate and safe for the skin type). Candela machines are some of the best on the market because they have a large 18mm spot size and lowest pulse width of 3ms.

Laser doesn’t know whether the hair has been treated before. If the hair is coarse and dark enough, it will affect it if the settings are good.