Male ready to take the plunge asking for advice

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#21

A couple thoughts:

  • Do you know settings used? Clinics tend to use low ones for a test spot to avoid scaring you off with the pain. Ask for spot size and joules.

  • I doubt they’ve never had patients with side effects. Even the best ones do.

  • They can’t have 20 yrs of experience in LHR itself. It’s only been around for 10.

  • No packages is not necessarily a negative. Everyone I went to didn’t have them. Some feel it’s more honest that way, so you’re free to leave if you’re not happy. And it usually makes them work harder to make you happy since you didn’t pay for all your treatments up front.

  • Don’t forget that you can negotiate. Get a bunch of quotes and see if the clinics you like best are willing to budge based on the quotes you got from their competition.

#22

Thanks for the reply lagirl!

I went to three other places and found one I was comfortable with. The woman operating was a joy to work with. She has been doing laser since 1997/1998. Made me feel very comfortable and has actually treated her own children (two sons) with the GentleLASE. She also didn’t offer packages for some of the reasons lagirl spoke of.

Her price was half of what her competitors charged and at the very low end of the range for back treatments ($250 a treatment). Clean place and registered with appropriate MA board. I consulted on a Tuesday and set an appointment for this past Wednesday. She prepped the area and did the treatment in about 50 mins. My back isn’t completely covered by hair, only the sides and lower back, but some is more dense in spots. (See pix on pg 2) We took a picture before treatment and I offered to be a reference if the treatments gave good results.

The treatment itself: I don’t know the settings she used. I can ask and find out. The pain was inconsistent. There were about 70% of the spots she hit where I honestly felt almost nothing. There were other spots (30%) that the pain was existential. She made it known I could stop and ice at any time, but I decided to just plough through it. There’s also numbing creme available too but I just toughed it out.

Results: She told me my skin began to immediately swell and redden which according to her was a good sign. She iced immediately after finishing for a good ten minutes. I looked at my back in the mirror and it was quite red. I returned home and did nothing. Showered this morning and my back isn’t uniformly red, but has raised bumps that are red. I will be moisturizing twice a day for a week, as her post treatment sheet tells me.

Thanks to lagirl and others here for the support and I hope my positive first experience helps others to follow steps to research and consult. It is definitely the way to go. The place I went to is in MA, a 15 minute drive from Boston, town of Reading, New Image LHR…

#23

Thanks for reporting back. Please continue as you get more treatments! And do let us know how shedding goes in 3 weeks.

I wouldn’t moisturize with anything but pure clear aloe vera gel. Lotions clog pores and delay healing.

Areas with the most coarse dense hair hurt most.

#24

Ok just to update.

After the first shedding, I had hair-free skin and it was great. The expected regrowth happened, except to my eye, the hair appears finer. My practitioner only treated what she and I believed she could effectively treat, coarser, darker hair. I am actually ok with finer, smaller hairs, just not the dark, coarse, long ones. In any event, I will be returning for a follow up and see where it goes from there.

In addition to my treatment on my back, I decided to treat my biceps and underarms with electrolysis. I have some dark and coarse hair there but also some finer hair and I don’t want to rid myself of all my underarm hair, but keep it confined to armpit. In any event, I have treated the area twice and have noticed maybe a 5-10% elimination of hair. For anyone who has an idea of treating this area, how many treatments does the area usually take? I know there’s more than one electrolysis method. Could you estimate all 3? I will ask what method she’s using (I can’t remember off hand which one it was when I asked her).

#25

It is impossible to assign a number of hours to completion to an area that we cannot see. You just need to attack the hair aggressively in the beginning and stay with a plan until the end comes. More time and money up front spent - less time and money towards the end. Think in terms of 9 months? 12 months?, 14 months?, 16 months?, 18 months?, if you are a loyal dog with your treatments.

For time needed to get a first clearance:

Galvanic slowest
Blend better
Thermolysis best

ALL ARE EFFECTIVE

Hair is tough enemy, so you have to have a tough resolve to get rid of it. Electrolysis is the best weapon to kill the tough enemy because it works on all hair colors, all skin colors, on all hair structures, anywhere on the body or face.

I am a believer in laser hair reduction for the underarms, bikini line and lower legs if you are a good candidate.

Why are you nor considering laser for your underarms??

Dee

#26

Hi Dee!

Well, I considered it but I’d say 60% of the hair I want to get rid of is finer, lighter, and located on my biceps and the other 40% is much darker, coarser, and thicker. My practitioner told me she could perform either and since the majority was thinner and lighter I went with electrolysis. I thought it would be better to treat them with electrolysis instead of laser b/c the laser would be less effective on the thinner and lighter. Do you think I should revisit that decision? The thinner and lighter is still dark enough for laser, I believe…

#27

Oh, no, you have made the right decision and you will be fine. Thanks for the explanation.

#28

I would do laser on your underarms. If you just want a reduction, only do 2-3 treatments and leave it at that.

For the other areas, I would use electrolysis since you don’t want to stimulate the finer hair to become more coarse. Electrolysis will enable you to be selective with which hairs you remove and which you leave.

#29

Dee, Lagirl,

I have had two electrolysis treatments in the underarm and biceps area. After two treatments the dark, shiny hair hasn’t seemed to clear but around 5% of the finer has. Does this sound normal for electrolysis clearing? What should I expect in terms of time for clearing dark, thick, shiny hair? My electrologist also treats with laser as I lay out above (and just had the second treatment) and she told me it’d be the same price for either laser or electrolysis in this area.

Lastly, I can find Laser FAQs fine on the site but haven’t yet found electrolysis FAQs. Could anyone refer me to one?

Thanks

#30

Oh, gosh, no, there is not an electrolysis FAQ’s here, but go here to read The American Electrolysis Association Faq page:

http://www.electrology.com/faq.htm

If your hair is too thin and light, don’t trouble yourself with light-based devices, just go straight way to electrolysis. You will need several sessions ove 9-12 months, depending on the speed of the electrologist, equipment used and amount of hair present.

Just finish a laser package then switch to electrolysis to get the remaining hair.

Dee

#31

How long were your electrolysis treatments? Did you get a full clearance or only some of the hairs were removed?

Hair grows in cycles, so several treatments are needed on the same area to completely get rid of the hair. Thus, only a few laser treatments on the underarms should give you a good reduction you’re looking for as opposed to the full course of 6-8 treatments.

Electrolysis, unlike laser, removes hair one by one. It’s the only method for fine hair and light-colored hair. So you have to use it for that type of hair. For hair that’s coarse and dark, laser is a more efficient alternative. However, you need to make sure the right laser and settings are used. Do you know if she has a good machine for your skin type for example?

#32

Shinnash, do you have the website for the place your having your laser done?

250 sounds like a great deal.

#33

Cheap work isn’t good, good work isn’t cheap.

250 a treatment is very cheap. For a partial back it would not be a bad price, but 50 minutes is a long time to treat a partial back.

Keep us updated. How old are you Shinash?

#34

I know at least several clinics in LA that treat full back at $250-300. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for a relatively big city with lots of competition. It cost me $250 to treat my lower legs, which took about 45-50 mins.

#35

Is that a 5% reduction in visible hair after your treatment, or a 5% reduction a couple weeks after a complete clearance treatment? You will have “regrowth” after the first clearance; that is, other untreated hair will begin their growth cycle and will appear.

From personal experience, it takes a few clearings on the arms before you notice a long term difference. But, there is a real noticeable difference with each and every clearance.

#36

The website I found: http://www.newimagelaserhairremoval.com/index.html. The owner is great. My price was based on partial back, I didn’t have dark hair all over.

Ok, about the electrolysis, I’ve had two treatments and the area was underarm / biceps. Both times I have had near total clearance of the area. Its only been twice, but I haven’t noticed much if any reduction. Maybe the hair has gotten a bit less coarse. From what I hear here it takes more than twice so I’m not concerned.
Lagirl suggested hitting the darker, coarser hair with laser. Its a possibility I will take up my practitioner. She’s very practical and told me when I started the electrolysis that it’d be the same price for laser. I will seriously consider having laser and doing the lighter hair with electrolysis.
General info: I have type I to II skin and am caucasian. My practitioner uses Candela GentleLase

#37

If laser hair reduction didn’t exist, then electrolysis could assuredly bring you permanent hair removal. Since laser hair reduction is available, the underarms is a great place to get a large percentage of reduction. It is an area where I advise most of my electrolysis clients to start with laser hair reduction and then switch to electrolysis to wipe out the remaining hairs that laser cannot affect.

You are right. Never expect just two clearances to be enough for electrolysis (or laser) because there are several waves of hair that need to come to the surface over 9-12 months. It has nothing to do with the process of electrolysis, but rather the natural way we humans grow hair. All the hair you have doesn’t grow at the same time and that becomes our frustration when doing electrolysis and laser hair reduction. Just keep attacking hair and keep the area cleared. Within a year, you will be very happy that you put the time, money and effort in upfront.

I can see why you like your practitioner.

Dee

#38

I’m not sure if you’re judging how electrolysis works properly. Once again, hair grows in cycles. It takes 9-12 months for all hair to cycle through. So you need consistent treatments with either laser or electrolysis for 9-12 months to see permanent results. 2 treatments I’m assuming within a month or so is not going to do a lot.

#39

I understand it will take 9-12 months to evaluate. On my last trip, I decided to go with LHR for the underarms and then switch to electrolysis when the hair gets too light to be treatable by laser. Doing the same thing with my back.

#40

That’s a great idea for areas where you have coarse hair.

If you can find out, do let us know what joules and spot size is being used on you with GentleLASE.