Hello I’m new to the forums. I had one laser hair removal session done at what appeared to be a home business (now they have their own building location) with the lightsheer duet. Well I don’t know if the girl did it too fast or not properly because my underarm hair at first appeared to be thinned out but a couple months after I noticed certain hairs become longer and even hairs growing in areas around my armpits where they never did. Long ones too. Some areas got a tiny bit thinner/shorter but not by a lot. I don’t know if it’s because I only did one session but anyways. I think the setting were too low. I asked about the settings but she didn’t even know and just said the machine chooses based on skin type. Well this other place I came across has a cynosure elite which they told me is a yag laser. I’m hoping to get answers on whether that would be a better option for my skin type. I do have dark black/brown hair as I’m middle eastern and the hair does grow in male patterns so I’ve considered a hormonal imbalance as well and it is thickish in certain areas. I know laser only reduces hair and that’s ok because I may try going on medications to prolong results or just wax/epilate what the laser couldn’t get. I just want the hair to be reduced so it’s finer. I’ve uploaded a picture of my arm to show my skin type & I do bleach my arm hair so that’s why it looks light. I appreciate any responses.
This other person reported having hairs that were both longer and straighter after doing laser and now regrets their decision:
Laser elongated hairs!
This is laser induced hair growth. Google “laser induced hair growth” and “laser paradoxical hair growth”.
What happens is that laser will stimulate the small “vellus” baby hairs that you can’t really see and it causes them to become “terminal” hairs which are the thick normal ones that you do see. It’s actually making your hair situation worse by creating more hair for you to deal with. If you have more of these vellus hairs around the area being treated, I would NOT do anymore laser because laser can stimulate even more of these hairs. In the case of someone who has a lot of nearby vellus hairs, electrolysis would be a better long-term option IMO. Laser is best on dark coarse hairs on people/areas with light skin when there are no/few nearby vellus hairs.
Awe really? That sucks. I’m not really trying to do electrolysis because it’s more painful and time consuming. Makes no sense to me how some people can get laser and it works for them. I’m pretty sure it’s just due to the setting not being high enough. Like I have lots of lighter hairs on my stomach I wanna do too. It really sucks to hear the options I would prefer may not be so suitable but I still have hope. My hair is quite thick/dark/dense. All that lol. I don’t see how laser can’t work for me. I think the lady just didn’t use the proper technique. I’m hoping that’s the case. Thank you for the response.
Is it possible that laser can stimulate the vellus hair to become terminal, even though the vellus hair are just on (not attacked by laser) the surrounding area of the hair (coarse) that they are treated ?
I think it could be possible because heat from the laser would probably travel through the skin but then again if you look at the head for the lightsheer duet its pretty wide maybe two inches in width or so which is why I’m thinking if someone were to do laser on a client and be rushing like the girl who did mine was its possible she went over the area where the vellus hairs were and I think thats what happened with me along with too low settings. Because I have lots of vellus hairs in that area but not all of them got affected just a few close to the edge of my underarm hair. Perhaps a proper technique with a professional and maybe a smaller laser head would prevent it from happening again.
Seems to me if the vellus hairs were to grow darker after laser treatment then on the next treatment the laser would pick them up and fry them. After all laser targets the dark hairs. That’s why it doesn’t work well on blonde hair.
Hey who knows lol that would be awesome. Makes me a little nervous of doing areas where the hair isn’t so coarse just fine but plentiful. Still I’m tired of all the time and methods it takes to remove my body hair. I will hopefully give it another try in the future when I save enough money.