I started growing a lot of hair and went with full body laser at 18. I didn’t have dark coarse hair on my upper arms or back, just a couple here and there. But after multiple treatments over years I now have a forest growing everywhere. Not an inch without hair. It seems like a lot of the vellus hairs have turned into terminal ones. I am an Asian Indian/male/21. Please help! Where should I go from here, do I have any options left?
Here is a picture of my arm: http://i.imgur.com/RIdmJ.jpg
This is awful. This really happened to you? Do you have before pictures? What was used - an IPL or actual laser? This picture should go into a physician national data base and be discussed at dermatologist seminars.
this is a difficult one.
you ‘started growing a lot of hair’ and then went for full body laser. the laser clearly did not work, however, it’s hard to say if it induced or to what extent. since you already started to growing a lot of hair (as many men your age, especially asian indian), this may well have been the hair growth you would have established anyway.
it will be helpful to know if you used IPL or Laser and which machine/laser type.
Laser only works on coarse dense growth. They shouldn’t have treated anything else. Laser can induce worse growth on finer hair.
You’re at an age when you’re right in the middle of developing new hair, so some of that hair will have grown in regardless. You’ll be developing new hair into your late 20s.
The hair in that photo is pretty coarse, so you can get a good reduction by treating it with a good machine and settings.
It’s hard to provide any more info without knowing specifics on the type of laser and settings that were used. You should read the FAQs at the link below and follow the advice there when looking for a new clinic. And only treat hair that’s coarse and dense. Full body treatments are rarely a good idea on anyone since most people don’t have that type of hair on the entire body.
They said I was a between a type IV and III. Most of my treatments were done with the YAG and a few at the end were done with the apogee. I wish that I knew that it can induce growth at the time. I have coarse dark hair like this all over my back and upper arms now.
If you’re Indian, you’re at least a type IV.
What specific Yag? Can you find out settings? We need to know joules, spot size, and pulse width.
Apogee is a model of a laser. It can be an Alex or a Yag.
Is all the new hair like the hair in the photo? That hair should be easy to treat at good settings.
Your photo resembles my husbands skin - def a type IV at least. I would expect all your treatments to be with a YAG laser. The YAG portion of the Apogee also.
Sent an email to Sona Med Spa today and should have more answers about treatment settings soon. And yes, a lot of the hair is like that, especially on my arms (upper and forearms), legs, upper back, back of the neck, and chest. Surprisingly I have no hair on my feet except for 1 or 2 hairs. Thanks for all your help and responses. I wish I had posted here before I got the treatments.
Indians tend to be hairy and as LAgirl said before, shoulders/back hair can still grow until late 20s so even though it might look like it induced new hair, it was probably hair that wasn’t there when you were treated.
Also, my guess is that the hair on your arms is the kind of hair you will have on most of your body, that’s just the way you are.
If this is true, then would it even be worth it for me to pursue laser treatment again?
Yes, it’s worth it. You may just need a few touchups later in life for any new hair that develops.
Sona is still around? Wow.
Yeah but don’t pay for a package bro have one session see what your shedding is like and go from there. Get electrolysis on upper arms and back or combo both laser and electro. To be fair your hair is just really long have you tried trimming for a more natural look and then electro on upper arms and back? Im prob gonna have electrolysis on upper arm as laser really is poo
