Male chest and abdomen: No good with laser?

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

4 years ago I had 2 sessions of alexandrite laser done on my chest and abdomen. As far as I could see, it made my hair significantly thinner and somewhat sparser, wich was more or less what I was looking for. After a while though, the hair has grown back, and, with age I guess, has gotten even coarser and denser. (I´m 28)

Now, I´ve just consulted a nurse at a clinic here in my hometown, Oslo, Norway, about taking new sessions with alexandrite laser - her answer to me was simply this: for most men with coarse hair on their chest and abdomen laser is not really an option: it will leave you patchy, and/or nor really clear up things at all, unless you combine it with regular waxing and shaving, etc. She thought that the reduction i had experienced was no different that what you would see after a waxing.
She simply advised me to drop the whole idea.

Coming from an employee at a laser clinic, this does seem pretty convincing. Yet, I not really convinced, especially since there seem to by some, if not an abundance, of quite content laser users out there.

My question is: can anybody prove this norwegian nurse wrong, or was she just giving me an honest and well-informed advice?

Gagarin, Oslo, Norway

#2

The council has given the nurse, must be based on the experience she has. When the work is honest, the client’s interests are above those of the clinic.

I know a similar case where the client does not accept the diagnosis sought other medical professional and less honest. The result was that he lost his money and his time. This customer ended up with their hairs with Electrolysis.

Gagarin,I can give you a question? can you tell if Norway can electrolysis practice only physicians?

#3

I´m not sure, but I don´t think so: apparently it´s enough to have a degree from an electrolysis institute of some kind.

#4

In that case, you are lucky, it will be easier to find a professional to remove the hair that you do not want.
Thanks for the information. I know that in France the doctors can only practice, but did not know Norway.

Note: I am Spanish

#5

This is absolutely not true. Coarse dense hair is easiest to treat. It sounds like this technician hasn’t mastered the art of hair removal on a large area. It’s completely doable and actually not that difficult given the right machine, settings, and expertise.

It sounds like you got your 2 treatments in your early 20s. You have developed NEW hair since then, so that’s a big part of why you see growth seemingly “return”. It didn’t return. It’s new hair your body developed since men develop hair into their late 20s. Of course 2 treatments weren’t enough to begin with since you only treated at most 30% of all the hair you actually have with them. 6-8 treatments over the course of 1-1.5 years or so (roughly every 2-3 months) are needed in order to kill all hair in every phase of growth.

If you want hair removed from this area, I would advise you to find an experienced clinic with an alexandrite laser (the best one is GentleLASE due to large 18mm spot size.

Patchiness is due to sloppy work and not overlapping properly in addition to potentialy using settings that are too low. Density of men’s chest and abdomen hair is not a problem for laser at all.

#6

I start from the basis that this person has the experience to determine whether Gagarin is suitable for the laser. LAgirl, do you know if Gagarin could be blond or redhair?

#7

Hola ded,
The hair on my chest and abdomen is dark, (although the hair on my head is blond). I guess Im skin type III - that is, Im pretty pale at winter time, get red by the sun, and then get a decent tan. Typical scandinavian.

The main reason why Im not buying the nurses advice is that I got the desired effect after the first 2 treatments. According to her I would get the same result from waxing, and I was just lucky not ending up patchy - but is that the case? That is the question at hand…
Thanks for your answers by the way, LAgirl and ded. Exactly what I was looking for.

#8

If you saw shedding after your treatments the first time around, the hair is dark enough.

ded10, I judged by the fact that he saw results after the first 2 treatments. Blond hair wouldn’t have been affected at all.

You won’t have any patchiness if the treatments are done correctly at good settings with proper overlapping. You should also be getting at touchup at 3 weeks after each treatment on any hair that was missed (you can tell because it will be growing as usual at that point still).

#9

Well, LAgirl, I can´t really say i remember any shedding: I mean, I had red dots everywhere, and the hairs were gone, for a while. A month or two after the first treatment I can´t say I saw any difference at all. But, after the second it seemed pretty clear that the hairs were thinner and shorter, and I could note the difference for at least 2 years. As I stayed away from the hairs forming the string of hairs from the pubic area and up to the belly botton, it was easy to distinguish treated and non-treated areas, and conclude that something was dramatically changed.

However, Is the fact that I didn´t see any massive shedding a sign that the strength of the laser was too low? Did i just get an “expensive waxing”?

If so, are you to expect a couple of years of reduced hair growth after waxing??
I´ve actually epilated my hands one time, (I´ve got quite a lot of fine blond hairs there) and it did actually take a long time (a year?) until the they got equally hairy again.

#10

I’ve had 5 treatments on these areas with an alexandrite spaced 8 weeks apart. I started at 18mm spot 18J, then switched to 18mm 20J for the next 3, and I finished my last at 15mm 30J. Because the technique was a little sloppy, and they don’t do touchups at the clinic I was going to, I had to deal with patchiness–but it’s cleaned up significantly as treatments progressed. The hair started at very coarse, very dark, very dense.

Anyway, I wanted to say that I’ve had really pleasing results (95% reduction?) since I’ve been with it. I’ll say though, that after my first two treatments, I was really second-guessing myself because I didn’t notice much of a difference. It was only after the third and fourth that I realized things were going well.

Laser was a fantastic option for me.

#11

Gagarin (love the name btw), please read our FAQs at the link below. Pay special attention to the section that describes how hair grows, which is in phases. Hair cycles, so at any one point, you’re only affected abotu 25-30% AT MOST of all the hair you actually have. On the area you’re treating, the hair cycles every 3 months or so, that’s why repeated treatments are needed at 8-12 week intervals and why you need more than 2 treatments. Basically, you only got a portion of the hair affected with your 2 treatments. If you take pictures of the same area every few months, you’ll probably notice a difference in density and growth in general, even now.

You may not have paid attention to shedding since you didn’t know to look for it. Red dots are good, i.e. inflamed follicles, for the first few days after the treatment. After that, the hair slowly starts to work itself out to shed. If you shave, you won’t notice it and you can slow the process down. So it’s best to let it do it on its own.

Waxing is absolutely not permanent. It just pulls out the hair that’s currently visible above the skin’s surface, so once again, it’s only a portion of the hair. And since waxing does nothing to the follicle/root of the hair (unlike laser that disables it with heat), the hair in the next phase of growth just surfaces about 4-8 weeks later. Epilaters do the same thing.

#12

Thanks for all the advices, LA girl :slight_smile:

I´ll most likely have a couple of treatments after summer. And, for the benefit of this forum, I´m planing to take some before and after photos. I´ll get back then.

G.

#13

Hi LA Girl-I enjoy reading your responses to the questions asked in this forum. Back in February I (Male-light skin) had one treatment using an alex laser on my legs (coarse, dark hair) . It was an experiment to see how the laser would work. I have had success with the alex laser on other parts of the body. The goal with my legs is reduction. It took about 14 weeks for all the hair to return. I was disappointed and somewhat surprised that all the hair came back and it even looks like it grew back thicker. I plan to start additional treatments again in the Fall. Were my expectations too high after only one treatment? Should I have noticed some reduction or thickness of the regrowth? I don’t want to throw away my hard earned money if results are not forthcoming. Any advise you give would be appreciated.
I should add that I did experience the usual “good” signs after the treatment.

#14

You didn’t see hair “return”. You saw hair from the next phase of growth, i.e. it’s different hair than what you treated. As I explained to the person above in this thread, if you wait until that hair cycles again, you’ll notice a difference in density since you affected hair in that one cycle of growth.

#15

LAgirl…then I have a question because I don’t seem to understand this…

You said he couldn’t see the hair come back because it’s hair from the next stage of growth…the ones affected don’t come back…

Do you mean that these hairs he is seeing are hairs from a different follicle? Or is it possible to kill hairs from one stage of growth and then see hair on EXACTLY the same spot (the same holes) but then from a different stage? If so how is that possible if the dermal papilla is killed? are there more papilla’s per follicle?

Please explain so I understand this ones and for all…

#16

Toeman, I was thinking the exact same thing. It appears to me that hair is coming out of the same follicles that were treated. Perhaps this is because there as so many hair follicles that it just appears to the naked eye that none were affected and what LA Girl is saying is true. I am hoping that as I continue with the process, and have the treatments on a regular basis, I will see a reduction which will be more substantial and obvious. At least I am encouraged enough to forge ahead with additional treatments.

#17

stormy is correct. you can’t possibly judge this from memory by a naked eye. If you took closeup pictures, it could help. It seems like it’s the same follicle, but it’s not. It’s just that hairs grow close to each other.

The answer is that you have a lot more hair than you realize because at any point, you only see at most 30% of all the hair you have on that area. The rest is in another phase and not above the skin. That’s why multiple treatments are necessary with either laser or electrolysis. You basically need to kill hair in each phase of growth.

You can find specifics on hair growth cycles in the FAQs at the link below or by Googling.

Stormy, I had 3 treatments on my lower legs myself. I still have some hair and have to shave, but much much less frequently. And I notice weeks when there seems to be more hair than other weeks because I killed a lot more hair in one of the phases, so it’s obvious to me when that cycles comes in again.

#18

Then let me put it this way…

I have had 4 treatments so far on the genital area…Now this area is known (especially the scrotum) for less dense hair growth.
So it is quite easy to see with the naked eye which hairs have been treated because they aren’t in close proximity.

Now what I can tell you is this: I can exactly see which parts my electrologist has treated because of the scabs I always get…And they take more than a week to heal…

I also see hairs growing back exactly in the pinpoint centre of the scab in about 1,5 to 2 weeks…What kind of hairs are that then? Please don’t say I don’t see it well because this area is very clear to see and those hairs come EXACTLY from the centre of the scab and it couldn’t possibly be a hair follicle in close proximity because the hairs on the scrotum are quite far away from eachother and the skin is so thin that one can see the hair follicles through the skin and not ever have I seen more close to eachother…

What kind of hairs are those that are growing back so fast? New ones from the same papilla? From a new growth fase? I don’t get it…

#19

Is your worker using galvanic, blend or thermolysis? (Sorry if you answered this before)

#20

Hi James,

Yes I told this before but that’s no problem.
She is using Blend.
I have noticed hair reduction, absolutely…But Like I told in the story before hairs come back in about 2 weeks…Please explain…