male thick and dark beard removal?

Hair Removal Methods Professional Electrolysis
#1

Hello, I’m new to this forum. ( I’ve read some posts though) Recently I decided to get electrolysis on my beard because I have an extremely thick and dense beard. Even though I shave really close, I still look like I have a 5 o’clock shadow followed with irritated red skin, ingrown hairs, pimples and uneven skin tone. I’m sick of shaving and having all these problems, and want that hairless look. I went to an electrolysist, who advised me that nothing really can be done about my facial hair. That since my hair is very thick, possibly curly and dense, the hair is curly and it would be hard to kill, and I would never have that hairless look. That I’d pretty much have the 5 o’clock shadow appearance, since it’s just in my genes. I did one session for an hour, and the pain wasn’t anything I can’t handle. We did a little bit of my neckline. I’m of middle eastern background. Here are some pics of my beard…maybe I can get an opinion from people here who might know a thing or two about my predicament? Thanks!

#2

And now you know why we spend so much time on here telling people that there is a grand canyon between what one practitioner and another might deliver in this service industry.

Your beard doesn’t scare me in the least. If she thinks yours would be impossible to tackle, she must never have looked at my web site, nor talked to any of my “graduates”. Like a school teacher, I have clients who are finished and happy, who call or stop by just because they miss spending time with me, and since there is no hair left, they have no professional reason to see me anymore.

Have a look for yourself.
http://www.executiveclearance.com/beforeandafter.html

I think it is safe to say that almost everyone on that page started out with more hair than you have. Those are not even my worst case situation clients. Trust me, I have cleared beards that would qualify for a Halloween House Of Horrors.

#3

Hi Mak500:

I agree with James that you would be able to get good results with electrolysis. It will take a bit of time and also perseverence in sticking with a program on your part as well as finding a confident and experienced electrologist.

However, unless the electrologist has some experience with male beards and actually believes they can do so, then you’d be better off finding someone who does.

Alicia

#4

Hi. Feel free to see my post titled Kickin bulbs and breakin chains. James has given me my first clearance and I will have my next one in January. I hope you find it informative. J

Electrolysis: Estimates of Time for Various Areas of the Body
#5

Many electrologists would be so intimidated by your beard, but not James. Cases like yours are his specialty. Maybe this all comes about because he too is a man. He can relate to your suffering since he had a tough beard at one time, made better by having electrolysis.

#6

Thanks for chiming in TempleJ!
Yours is one of the beards that make this questioner’s pale in comparison.

#7

Good Yag laser treatments would be able to get rid of the shadow and a bunch of this hair in just a few treatments. It’s important to find someone who has a Yag laser and overlaps well to avoid patchiness.

If you want complete reduction, you can then switch to electrolysis. But you may be happy already once the shadow is gone and hair is finer and less dense after laser.

#8

Meanwhile i have seen too many insufficient results by all sorts of laser and IPL treatments that i have become very sceptical on using photoepilation in the face at all, mostly concerning partially damaged hair coming back white. Often the hair is rooted so deep that not enought light can be directed to the lowest part of the follicle.

IMO findig a good electrologist even for partial clearance is the safer way to go for facial epilation, even with merely thinning of the beard in mind.

#9

I would have to agree, besides, TempleJ’s link shows the stable reduction received from just ONE full clearance, and none of the hair grew back white, and the follicles did not shrink in size, while digging deeper.

#10

If you could get to the growth I had at 6 weeks, maybe a 75% reduction, you wouldn’t have a shadow and shaving would be simple again! I’ve heard of someone getting a 95% reduction in 5 full clearances. J

#11

Thanks for the input guys. I just got back from my second appointment. It was a bit more painful, mainly because I forgot to take some sort of paid reducer before hand. How long does it take to get a clearance? From what I’ve been reading, it seems the average is about 30 hours? So I’m guessing 150 hours 100% hair gone…please correct me if I’m wrong about this. Also, I was told that the reason I have the shadow, even though I shave very closely, is due to the papilla? (sp) which is in my genes, and that’s the reason why I’d never get that hairless look.

#12

IPLs and Yag are completely different machines. Yags penetrate very deep (1064nm), which is why it’s recommended on the face. You can read edokid’s experience with it. He had complete shedding once he switched to a Yag on his face.

#13

Thanks for the info LAgirl,

I found a place close by which has the Candela GentleYAG. I want to schedule a consult with them. The biggest thing im afriad of is patchy hair, no results, and more growth or growth of new hair.

#14

You need to ask the person who will actually be treating what settings they want to use (max on this machine is 30J on 18mm spot size with 3ms pulse) and whether they have experience treating male beards. In order to avoid patchiness, they need to overlap carefully by at least 10% when zapping the area.

If you’re only treating coarse dense growth like you should be, there is nowhere to stimulate any new growth. That’s only an issue when treating fine and sparse growth.

#15

YAG was completly without effect in my face, and IPL (which is btw also penetrating deeply; its spectrum even goes beyond 1064 nm) did at least a little bit of permanent clearance - not enough to be efficient in any way in terms of hair removal, but its effects on one or twor hair growing cycles made the early stages of my social transition possible.

#16

I have my laser consultation Saturday. I wonder what things I should look out for. Also, is there anyone here on this forum who has acutally had success with full, permanent beard removal through laser treatment. I tried narrowing down the search through the laser forum but didn’t really find anything. I also tried to Google any success stories, didn’t find any…mainly horror stories =/ which is kind of disheartening. Maybe someone here might be able to give me a legit, honest success story? I would really appreciate it!

#17

Start a thread on the laser forum so we can help you better.

Don’t schedule a consultation until you make sure they have the right type of laser and experience first.

Also, take a look at the Success Stories thread.

#18

That’s because you could only find such a thing by finding someone who started with LASER and “Finished With Electrolysis”. I know of no one who has done full beard removal with LASER only. Meanwhile, you can find many who have done full beard removal with Electrolysis only.

#19

Many report that laser helped by getting rid of a certain percentage of hair, but in the end, their face looked like a marble cake with some areas that had hair and some areas that were free of hair. The facial area can have many colors of hair besides the predominant hair color. The hairs that are not dark or coarse enough for laser will be left behind. This is when you need to find a speedy, deadly electrologist. And yes, electrolysis is the only thing on this earth that can take care of any hair structure, any color of hair on any color of skin.

#20

In my opinion, if somoene is going for almost total removal or simply the removal of a shadow, good laser treatments make a lot of sense financially. It’s not any easier to find a good electrologist vs a good laser technician to treat this difficult area.