How long should you wait for the hair to fall out after laser treatment, and if hair still remains after two weeks, does that mean the treatment didn’t work on those hairs?
…At what point do you know for sure whether or not the treatment worked?
hey there, thats happened to me a couple of times and boy must i say that waiting for the hairs to fall out is like watching paint dry!
they usually say that hairs should fall out 1 to 3weeks after . but the reason sometimes could be because the energy theyve used is too low so maybe you should return to the place and ask for another patch test and tell them to increase teh joules, thats what i had to do !
but finer hairs , especially on the stomach (personal experience!) take longer to fall out.
i couldnt really comment on how you would know if the treatment worked or not. i guess you could judge it from the point of view of the regrowth of the hair or maybe consider the reaction your hair had with it, eg did the hairs fall out when supposed to?
love, LadyPersia, UK.
It has taken some of my clients 3 weeks to shed the treated hairs, and sometimes you just don’t actually see the shedding, you just notice that the hair is gone. There should be some downtime with no/little hair growth before your next treatment. Please try not to dictate the energy settings that the practitioner should use - if they are experienced, then they will use the proper settings that will be effective, AND safely treat your skin. Ciao for now, 
OK, it’s been exactly 4 weeks to the day since my first treatment and there are definitely some patches and areas that have not shed at all.
Does this mean it didn’t work on those spots?
Q-str-
I had my first treatment (long pulse YAG) 6 weeks ago and just had my second treatment. I am an Asian male with dark coarse hair (although not that dense).
My hairs took 2-3 weeks before I noticed some shedding. However up until treatment week 6 I had some of the finer hairs continue to fall out.
Overall, nearly all my facial hairs were shed and I’ve had about 30% visible regrowth to date. On the second treatment she upped the energy significantly. I felt more pain and my skin was a bit bumpier this time, but the redness and bumpiness only lasted a few hours.
So, the answer is don’t worry at 2 weeks. Don’t worry at 3 weeks. My experience is that the hair may continue to shed for longer than that.
Thanks for the info Rebecca - what do you think about six weeks? It’s now been six full weeks since my first treatment and I STILL have distinct patches where there has been no shedding (almost like the laser or technician missed these 1-2" patches at my bikini, both armpits, etc).
I’m scheduled for my second treatment next week. I will definitely show/mention the patches to the technician, but I’m still worried that those patches were not effectively treated and will add up to more sessions, time and money to finally rid them because the first treatment(s) apparently missed them.
On a large area, and even on a small one, it’s not unusual to have some patches. Since laser hair removal is a multiple-treatment procedure this is of little consequence - there will be multiple passes over the whole treatment area and any missed hairs will be treated. There is a fair amount of scatter with laser energy, so it is sometimes difficult to gauge exactly how effectively we are overlapping our tracking. Try not to watch for shedding - it’s truly like watching paint dry, and I’ve had clients still evidence shedding when they have come in for their next treatment! Hope this helps
Hi,
My experience was the same as yours. I had Light Shee. Mine happen in every treatment. i had 3 treatments every six weeks. since i did’t see improvement i decide to stop thet treatment, and in this case i did AND I DO Blame the technician, i told the problem and she said - i will do the best i can, but i never see any improvement. The haiR were growing darker and thicker ;( Time and Money Waste. I DO SUGEST mention your concern to the tech in that way she may help you better.