laser settings and skin trauma

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

I’d love some advice from all you laser experts, please!

A couple of years ago I had 4 alexandrite laser treatments on my full legs with a laser clinic. I think they used high settings because a) it hurt like hell, and b) i had extremely red and sore skin for weeks afterwards. My skin would look like I’d had a terrible case of sunburn for the first 2 days. It would start to calm down but 2 weeks after the treatment it would itch in the way that scabs do when they are healing. (I didn’t actually have scabs - but it was a similar feeling of burnt skin healing).

Then I changed clinics. I had a few treatments with a lady there who was very conservative in her settings, in order to minimise skin trauma. The machine was a Gentlelase, with settings of 12J per cm.squared.

Several years after my treatments ended, I was left with scant hair on my lower legs but most of the hair on my thighs are still there. They are brown and extremely noticeable (but not black), neither thick nor really fine. My skin is very pale. Do brown hairs ever respond to laser? And is it possible to get laser induced hair on the thighs? I ask that because I had laser induced hair on my face/arms and had to stop treatments because of it.

I now want to start laser again for my bikini line, and maybe my thighs. Should I stick to the clinic that I like and trust, which uses lower settings? I have very sensitive skin, so I am really keen to avoid as much trauma to the skin as possible. But then again, if the bikini line really needs to be blasted in order to work, maybe I should look elsewhere.

I’d love some advice if anyone can give it!
Thanks!

#2

Thighs are less responsive to laser than lower legs. If you have brown hair with very dark roots, then maybe something will happen. Laser induced hair stimulation is not a problem area for the thighs, so don’t worry about this. Focus on the structure and color of the hair. Trouble is, your hair is not very coarse there, so I am dubious about even spending the money. I would switch to electrolysis if you can find a skilled electrologist with decent speed to do this. The modern forms of MicroFlash and PicoFlash thermolysis would allow the electrologist to zoom away with the results being permanent and thus, money being well spent.

I would do the bikini line with laser and then finish with electrolysis.

#3

If the remaining hair is coarse and relatively dense, it’s worth trying, but at higher settings than 12J. If you can’t handle higher settings, you need a Yag laser instead.