I would say see how your skin heals. I had test patch and got the scabs and I am now left with dark patch on my skin - which is ok its only a small area. I sometimes get the tiny scabs where the hair looks burnt but they go away (I think) in about a week.
At the end of the day you want your skin to be safe. If need be go back for 2nd test patch.
Thanks Leo. Well, even if my skin heals I can’t go for the highest setting (that felt most right during the test), as that area was really hurting like a proper burn until I went to sleep - just imagine if it was the whole arm!
The lower setting area looks normal today, so that would be fine skin-wise. My issue is if it will be effective for hair removal as it didn’t hurt.
Did she shave the area before testing it?
What were the exact settings? It’s impossible for us to comment on whether the settings are effective with no numbers. “High” and “low” are relative and there are 3 variables involved.
Yes, it was shaved before testing.
The lower setting was 35joules/15ms
The higher setting was 40joules/15ms (same as she used on my leg)
The skin is a bit dark and scaly now but it’s healing.
I called them and she said they will start with the lower one. My concern is if it will work at all. And if it does, will I be able to progress to a higher setting later? Was this reaction partly down to the density and coarseness of the hair currently? Or is is just too high for my skin?
Thanks
That is near me so I’m thinking I should go there?
By the way how do people know what skin type they are? Is it from the consultation? Oh and how much do you pay in comparison to electrolysis, is it more or less?
Thabk you for your reply and I am sorry for asking everyone so many questions! [/quote]
There is no harm in going for a consultation and test patch. They will inform you of your your skin type. A test patch on your leg would be a great idea, since you don’t seem to wax (from your other posts), you will be able to see the reduction just from 1 laser treatment.
Laser, where it works, is much much cheaper than electrolysis. If you can make your appointments at Renew Medica before 3pm, you get off-peak prices too.
So far I have spent £820 on full legs. It may be another £160 if my thighs need a 5th treatment but definitely no more than that.
For underarms, I spent about £350 on Laser and so far £40.50 worth of electrolysis. I imagine I won’t spend more than another £40 of electrolysis over the next few months (just a few minutes worth of treatment every 3 weeks). [/quote]
Wow that is alot of money for legs. I was thinking of maybe the bottom half of the bottom half of my legs, rather than all of the bottom half of my legs as the top part of the bottom half is not that thick (sounded confusing :p) so maybe I could work out the cost by that. I’m gonna get pictures up anyway. Better for a judgement then.
They should be able to use a higher pulse width, which should do the trick. It should still be effective. Pay attention to shedding of course.
Any more updates and before and after pictures? 
ihavehair - not yet. it’s only been 6 and 7 weeks since my arm and leg treatment respectively so there is not much to see yet.
So, it’s been almost 6 weeks since my 1st forearm treatment. There is a small amount of finer hair and my arms are still feeling quite smooth (like they do after waxing), from a normal distance the hair isn’t visible either.
I am wondering what the typical length is between forearm treatments. I will leave it until it’s obvious a good deal of coarse hairs have come up but I’m just wondering what the usual period is.
It’s interesting that you’re doing laser on thighs and arms - two of the areas that are generally seen as a no-go on the forums. Do you have pictures of what the hair was like on either area before starting treatment?
I’m afraid I don’t have before pictures of the thigh but I did labour the following point - my thigh hair was coarse and dark for the most part (comparable to lower leg hair). Only a strip on the inner thigh and the top of the back thigh had fine hairs and I did not get this area treated. In fact,a good proportion of the hair on my front thigh was visibly thicker than most of my lower leg hair.
South Asian women typically have very hairy thighs as well as lower legs.
I don’t have a ‘proper’ before arm picture as I have waxed for many many years and never let it grow back completely (I waited about 2 months before my first Laser). I can show you a 4 week pre laser growth and what it looks like now, 7 weeks post treatment 1.
Again, I’m only treating 3/4 arm and not the inner strip where the hair is fine. I can show you a picture of my sisters arm hair, mine was not quite so bad but you can get the idea.
That would be great if you could.
Intersting point about your thigh hair. As with my lower legs, the hair at the front of my thighs are much longer/thicker than the back, but even front thigh isn’t as thick as my front leg hair. I’m in two minds of whether it’s therefore worth doing the thighs.
Well, I definitely have pre forearm pictures as I remember taking them but they are not in the folder with my leg pictures. I will have to hunt for them when I have more time.
Here is my forearm, 7 weeks after my first Laser treatment. This hair is not very visible in most lighting conditions and feels downy so I haven’t bothered to shave it yet.
http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/7379/arm01.jpg
Here is my sister’s arm. I am lighter skinned and therefore my hair wasn’t as dark either but more or less the same, just perhaps a bit shorter. But, I have not seen my arms like this in maybe 12 years as I started epilating every week, which I then stopped and started waxing every 2 weeks instead.
http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/5881/armg.jpg
Wow 7 weeks after your first treatment? It looks so good, if my arm was like that I wouldn’t even bother shaving!
What happened after that? Do thick hairs grow back again? What did you see?
Thanks for the pictures, this is a good learning process.
Lol, I took that photo yesterday so I don’t know what happens after that 
I wanted to know from LAgirl (I think she must be away at the moment) what the usual time period between arm treatments is.
I shall continue to wait and see what comes up in the next few weeks and if needed will return for a treatment in the 10-12 week period.
I believe I have seen such good results with Laser as I had been a regular waxer. When I went for my first treatments on all areas, the hair is always growing in (I wait until there is what looks like a “full growth” though).
Oh, I forgot you only started arms recently! Okay so if that was your leg would you be expecting your legs to look almost how they did before in the next few weeks?
Your sister’s arms look like they would respond very well. It would definitely be quicker to zap it away with laser than go at it with electrolysis, lucky. Mine is almost as dense, but not as long or course. If it’s any thicker/denser/longer than yours, then I will definitely consider it since you’re having such good results.
Why do you think waxing regularly has made a difference? I wonder if non-waxers have noticed slower results?
“When I went for my first treatments on all areas, the hair is always growing in (I wait until there is what looks like a “full growth” though).” You did wait until full growth or until it was growing in? I get so muddled between how much hair growth there is must be for laser and electrolysis.
smurf - still haven’t found that before pic 
To describe it; it was about 4-6 weeks post wax, the hair was sparse compared to my sister’s pic and mostly vertically standing, not very coarse (compared to lower leg hair) but not fine either. Waxing/epilating for so long really changed my arm hair.
If you would like a better idea of how they were as a teenager, before I started waxing, please see peace1’s post:
Slightly thicker and darker than this.
I definitely think waxing makes a difference as more of the hairs will be in the anagen phase. This was a tip I picked up from LAgirl. Let’s say I wax my legs, after about 6-8 weeks it will look like a fullish growth but the hairs are still growing (hence what I meant by ‘growing in’).
If I remember correctly, I did underarms and bikini first treatments about 8 weeks after the last wax. For legs, it was more like 3 months. For arms, it was about 2 months.
ihavehair - as you know, I only had 3 proper treatments on my lower legs. so no, by the time of my second treatment they did not look like they did before, there was a good reduction.
The only place it looked like before treatments by the time of the 2nd treatment was my underarms.
That photo looks really great. Waxing before the first treatment helps with getting results faster too.
Sorry, I was out of the country for the last 2 weeks. Back in action now.
These area follow normal hair cycles, so 8-12 week intervals are fine. But really, you should just wait until enough coarse hair is visible again to get another treatment.
Welcome back! I hope you had a good trip.
Thanks for the info. Yup, will wait and see how it goes. If the hairs in the coming weeks are the same as the hairs that have come up so far, I think they will be too fine for another treatment. But I’m sure coarser ones will start appearing after week 10 if my other areas are anything to go by.
I’ve seen you state that about waxing. What I meant was, does being a regular waxer make much more of a difference than if you only waxed before your treatment? I do sugaring anyway, but was wondering if there’s a noticeable trend related to the frequency or overall length of wax treatments.