Hi everyone. I have been having LHR removal on my scalp for a while now and because im not very happy with the laser i have been using i have now changed to the GentleMax. I was patch tested 2 days ago now on 18mm spot size at 18J and i can say that the pain factor was about 80% less than the LightSheer that i have previously used.
Because i unfortunately suffer from Seborrheic Dermatitis of the face, although not as bad as alot of people, every time i grow any kind of stubble i get flaking and it takes me ages to sort out every morning. What doesnt help is that i have a very dark, coarse beard and it grows very quickly. So i am at the point now where i am seriously thinking about getting my beard done. I was just wondering if anyone could give me any info on this area in regards to everything really, i am fairly concerned about how it will look in terms of swelling, redness etc. How long does it usually take to calm down?
For the scalp, I would actually recommend Yag treatments on the GentleMAX because that hair is very deep.
You may want to start your face treatments with a Yag too, especially on the upper lip and chin area, which has deep hair is tends to be hardest to treat. It should also minimize swelling. Then you can switch to the Alex settings once the hair is less dense.
You should read edokid’s posts here. He’s having his face treated and has had multiple treatments so far without issues.
Yep no issues! The Yag is the way to go for sure on upper lip and chin. The hair is so deep that the alexandrite doesn’t reach the root. You pretty much have to use the 15mm spot size on that area, 18 is too big. Yag is good because it works best on very coarse hair like on the face. You’ll be a bit red and puffy for a couple hours after but it goes away fast. The redness goes in 30 minutes or so then it’s usually fine. Sometimes I get the odd pimple from it but I’m pretty sure it’s because of the numbing cream they use with the saran wrap. Their numbing cream is more like Polysporin, it’s almost greasy vs a cream but they are gone in a couple days anyway.
Ok sounds good i dont plan on having anything done until my scalp hair on the sides and back starts growing in again but i will definitely ask them to use the yag. Only thing with my scalp now is that the hair coming through is still quite dark and isnt as coarse, but it is still coarse enough to leave a noticeable patch on my head even if i shave it. I was just wondering if the hair isnt that coarse anymore is Yag still the best thing to use on it ?
For scalp the alex should be fine. You’ll just find that on your upper lip and chin the hairs are incredibly deep, so the 755nm depth of the alex just doesn’t reach them. The yag is 1064 so it’s much deeper. Even with the yag I find sometimes it takes two treatments to get it all.
There was no patchiness, you shouldn’t have any patchiness unless they missed spots. I’d say it’s at least 4 sessions to see any reduction. I’ve yet to really see any reduction on my upper lip or chin though. Hoping to try the Apogee MPX dual alex/yag mode next time there to see if that works but on my cheeks and neck I’ve had about a 65% reduction after 7 or 8 treatments. Face takes way longer than any other area.
Ye the Lady that is doing my head now said that the scalp will take about 15 treatments, so im guessing the beard would be fairly similar.Ive had 8 so far but its coming back alot finer now so i think i may start electrolysis soon. Thats the problem i have now really. I have patchy growth on my scalp and although still dark and a little coarse i think its nearing the point where laser cant do much more.
Scalp has some of the deepest hair on the body. It definitely needs a Yag. When the hair gets too fine, electrolysis is the only option and I would go with blend for that area.
Patchiness is the results of not overlapping. They should be overlapping and you should see good shedding of pretty much everything 3 weeks after the treatment if it’s done well. It’s all in the technique.
Overlapping is VERY important on the fact if you want to avoid the weird patchy look. I would discuss it with them or look for another provider who is knowledgeable about this.
Hi everyone. English is my second langage so some parts might not be very well written or precise, sorry for that.
I’m new here and by no means an expert.
Most of the thing I know, I learned it here and on couples of other board.
On the other side, as a customer, I think i have now an extensive and somewhat different experiences than most and i will give my personal feedback.
I’m a 40+ year old male. Dark skin (between 3-4). Thick dark coarse hair all over, I need to shave again at night to look “kind of clean”.
In 2009 I had my backs and shoulders done, in a prepaid package of 7 times with a very reputable company (epiderma) with the lighsheer ET (no ideas of the settings). It worked great (95%+ reduction). The remaining hair are thin and almost invisible. I did 2 more treatment after that on the back but I stopped because these remaining hair will not go with laser and i’m a little scared of inducing those evil hair.
In the summer of 2010, I decided to go for a laser run. I started doing the whole front part from the beard to the bikini and everything in between. Also add arms and underarms.
I switch clinic because the previous one only offered 7 meetings program and I was not sure if I wanted only reduction versus eliminitation in certains spots.
Before going on with it I made a lot of research (here) and made my own plan.
I am in a special situation. I have big time constraints in certain period of the year. Plus time played against me because at my age white hair we’re starting to grow at an alarming rate, those considerations we’re the most important one AND money was not even a consideration !
People recommends to have treatment every 6-8 weeks with a possible touch up after 3 weeks.
Since money was not an issue, time was short and it was a nice free window of time for me in an otherwise tough schedule to deal with. I decided to not ask for any small area touch up but to go for the whole thing every 4 weeks.
Since it did not look to be dangerous and I did not care if I was trowing part of that money away, i thought it was the best way to avoid missed spots. I was also going to 2 different place with a different technician to make sure the same “mistake” won’t repeat over and over (always missing the same spots)since their method will be somewhat different.
I now had 5 or 6 treatmentn on all of these bodyparts (the first 3 with the lightsheer ET and the last 3 with the lighsheer DUET (no other than lighsheer are available in the area, might try an ND;YAG about 200 miles from here soon).
Most bodyparts, stomach chest arms underarms responded very well. I never saw patchiness or missed spots.
The beard (and part of the bikini) have always been patchy (done by the same technicians than the rest).
Considering the fact that I was on an accelerated schedule (to avoid missing spots) that I used different technicians and 2 differents laser (the DUET is way bigger and should not “missed” the same spot the ET did), and considering that we made sure to overlap a lot on the major resisting area (visible patch)in my face, I would have to disagree with you that patchiness is only bad overlapping or technician related (not saying it is never that, might be the case quite often), but I think there is more to it (either those hair are depper root and diod can’t get them or something).
Actually my point here is not to debate you (who knows thousands times more than I do) but I think that practically speaking, whatever the reasons, someone going for the beard have a strong possibility to come back with patchiness, so be ready to live with it…on the other hand, trust me, it’s worth it (shaving is now way smother).
As another update, I suppose to show commitment, I also do electrolysis (with a very experinced technician)for the white hair in the beard (of course, we see them more then ever with less black hair surronding them)and went trought couple of session already(1 session lasted 4 hour on the beard ouch).
That was my experience up till now. Hope it helps.
You still shouldn’t have patchiness. The very first time I did my full beard was with GentleLASE and I did have patchiness. You could see all down my jaw bone round circles where the laser was fired, and then all the missed hairs. Like you could actually see: OOOOOO type of a pattern on my face.
My current clinic uses a rubber stamp on my face that has a grid. Since switching there, I always get complete shedding and I don’t have patchy results at all. You really shouldn’t get patchiness unless they’re missing spots…
Patchiness is most often the result of technique. The other factors are settings - hair is at different depth and it’s different in texture on different areas. Settings need to be adjusted for this.
Facial hair is very deep. LightSheer is a diode and may not reach deep enough for some of those hairs. That’s why we recommended the Yag laser above.
Edokid - very interested in reading about your experiences. Do you have a running thread detailing all your various treatments?
I had a bad experience with a laser hair removal clinic five years ago - signed up for a course of seven sessions to treat my beard and full chest & abs. By the end of it nothing had changed; no reduction at all.
Of course back then I knew nothing about the various types of lasers, or the spacing required between treatments etc, so I just relied entirely on the staff at the clinic. Overall it was waste of a lot of money and the clinic didn’t care that I got no results.
So now I am - hesitantly - looking into this again, but trying to educate myself as much as possible about LHR and pick a clinc has skilled staff.
Anyway - I did a search on your posts to try and find a thread detailing all your experiences but haven’t found one. Let me know if one exists!
I don’t have any posts detailing all my treatments unfortunately as I pretty much would add ones on as I go. Like I’d be there to do stomach or something and would happen to ask how much arms cost then would just see if they had time to do it and so on, so nothing was really planned. Feel free to private message me or start a new thread though if you have any questions, I’m more than happy to help!
i dont plan on having anything done until my scalp hair on the sides and back starts growing in again but i will definitely ask them to use the yag. Only thing with my scalp now is that the hair coming through is still quite dark and isnt as coarse, but it is still coarse enough to leave a noticeable patch on my head even if i shave it. I was just wondering if the hair isnt that coarse anymore is Yag still the best thing to use on it ?