Male back/shouders/neck threatment - need advice

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

Im 24 year old male. Have pale skin and dense black hair. I have 4 LightSheer and 9 GentleLase treatments done. I began in spring 2007 with LightSheer threatments for my back, shoulders, buttock, chest and stomach. After 4 sessions (1. in february, 2. session 6,5 weeks after, 3. in september and 4. in december - threated with 9mm and I think it was 40J/mm2 - I had allways wery burned skin) has my hair gone much worse - before that there was not much hair on back and shoulders, after this sessions I had wery thick hair all over my back…

After that I did 10 threatments in another clinic with GentleLase - 1st before sommer - the hair got much more coarse and begun to grow in front of my schoulders and on my neck.

Then 5 treatments spaced 8 weeks apart from 9.2008-6.2009 with 15mm and 25J/mm2. After this, the hair got better, lighter and a little bit more sparse.
Next treatments in 12.2009-6.2010 - 4x with 15mm/25J. After this sessions I havent seen any change in density or thickness…

I have added some pictures from my “progress”. This year in february I have begun to treat my back once again in the same clinic - 15mm/30J - I can laser my whole back, shoulders, upper arms and neck for 80Euro with GentleLase - Im giving it a shot, I hope it will help - maybe in the past years I have developed most of my hair and now I could get rid of it(?)…

I want your opinion, if you think it could help, or it will stay the same after so many sessions? Or could you give me some other options that could help get rid of the excessive hair? Thanks a lot…

#2

I send the pictures once more, I cannot see them…I have uploaded them to web. The first four are 3,5 months after my first GentleLase treatment.

#3

The next pictures are 4,5months after the next 5 GentleLase threatments - 3 months before this pictures Ive done epilation on my back. The pictures are taken in the dark withflash - it could be that the hair is softer thanks to this light conditions…Do you think, the results are good enough for the amount of treatments? In my opinion isnt the treatment wery sucessful…


#4

Your results are very good especially on your front. The problem is the hair is probably too fine now for laser. Although it doesn’t look too different from the start in terms of hair type. There’s a couple things that could have happened…

You’re as far as you can go with laser and probably only the first 3 or 4 treatments with GentleLASE actually did anything, with the last 4 or 5 not doing anything at all.

The settings may be a bit too low, 25j on 15mm isn’t the highest, also I’m not sure why they wouldn’t use 18mm which goes deeper.

Someone else will know better if the hair is too fine. To me it doesn’t seem to be though, it’s very dark and looks the way some people do when they are just starting with laser. 9 sessions with GentleLASE is a lot though so you may be at the end of what can be done without going to electrolysis…

#5

Your results are relatively in line with what my expectations would be given that your original hair on most of the areas was not very coarse.

At this point, the hair is really too fine for laser. There may be a few spots here and there that may see results (if you treat at 18mm/20J…any idea why they didn’t use 18mm spot size?) and actually see shedding. But really, I would save money for electrolysis at this point.

It sounds like you’ve gotten most of your treatments between 20 and 24 years old. That’s when men develop a lot of NEW hair. So some of that is also playing into the seeming “results”.

#6

I think the hair was wery coarse… The last treatment with 15mm/30J the hair responded wery well - I got wery thick hair (burned hair - will be shedding the next few days) 8days after the laser looking out of the follicles in the shoulders/upper hands/sides of the back. At this places should the laser be effective - I hope so…Another places I dont care so much, can live with that :slight_smile:

The laser device is an older model, 15mm is maximum spot size. And 25J were used because my skin couldnt handle more - was burned a few days after the treatments. Shedding allways occured on 95+ percent of the area treated - allways great work from my dermatologist - previous in another clinic on LightSheer had allways bad burned skin for month or more and 20-30% of area treated was missed.

I have asked my dermatologist if she would recommend electrolysis to me - her answer was that she has done electrolysis treatments before years for women in facial area - she said laser is the most effective for long term results, electrolysis is not that effective, is applicable just for very small areas - in her opinion I should continue on GentleLase treatments, it should get better this way…

How long do you think could take electrolysis for my upper hands/shoulders area?

#7

Shedding doesn’t necessarily mean that the hair was affected permanently. Laser can make the hair shed, but if it’s not coarse enough and if the settings aren’t high enough, it won’t absorb enough heat to disable the follicles permanently.

Unfortunately, she’s wrong about electrolysis. It sounds like the electrolysis treatments she received in the past were poor, like your Lightsheer treatments. It all depends on skill and settings. I’ve had both done successfully and permanently myself.

The problem is that laser and electrolysis are not alternatives for you. Laser ONLY works on very coarse and dense growth. For everything else, you need electrolysis because laser can’t affect that other type of hair. So it’s not a matter of an option - only electrolysis will work.

Laser can get rid of all the coarse hair, but once there is only finer hair left, only electrolysis can provide a permanent solution.

Good electrologists remove on average 5-6 hairs per minute.