What do you mean by damage to the skin?
If more than 10% is missed, we recommend asking for a touchup.
If shedding is good, we recommend waiting 8-12 weeks for the next treatment.
What I mean by damage to the skin is from the ingrown hairs for all the years of shaving and waxing. The ingrown hairs that I had prior to the treatment are coming to the surface. Given that its been 5 weeks, most have broken through the skin surface. There is some discoloration in a few spots that the skin was irritated and possibly infected. The spots are healing well but I have a few spots where the ingrown hairs were that will need more time to fade. I imagine by the time I am closer to being hair free, these damaged areas will be a distant memory.
The area that was treated has about 70% shedding. My spa does not do touch ups between treatments (I called to verify again) but because of the untreated spots (labia mainly), I am being credited for my last treatment.
Since the shedding was not complete and has already started to grow back in the areas that did shed I am going back at 7 weeks (2 weeks from now). I feel as though this is the best time for me to go back as I have enough hair to warrant another treatment. After my second treatment, I will look at spacing them further apart once I see more shedding than last time.
Yes, I used to have this issue. It will definitely go away after a few treatments and you’ll be very happy.
All sounds good. Thanks for clarifying.
Today I had my second treatment on my Brazilian area. I also added the lower legs and underarms and had those areas treated for the first time.
The spa normally uses the Soprano XL but the machine is being serviced this week. Instead of rescheduling the appointment, I opted to try to the Harmony XL machine instead. I know its an IPL and not a diode but I did not want to wait weeks longer to get the treatment with the Soprano machine. Summer is coming and I have a vacation planned for a few weeks from now and I dont want to be chasing a LHR treatment in the middle of everything.
Setting for the Harmony was: fluence was set at 20J and the pulse width was at 30 msec (at least that is what the machine said). We tried a lower setting but I really did not feel anything so she upped it to 20J. I could feel that but it did not really hurt. I knew it was being done but it was not unbearable.
I did use the numbing cream on the girl parts and that helped, especially on the labia which is a bit darker than the rest of my skin (which is very pale).
Its been 4 hours since my treatment. The bikini area is still a little red but not to bad. The lower legs had a bunch of red and angry follicles but those have gone back to normal. The legs were really itchy when red but that has also abated a bit. My underarms are not red or itchy at this point.
I can say that I am happy with the process so far. I had several ingrown hairs come to the surface that were deep in there. I have tried to limit my shaving to avoid the ingrown hairs coming back so the more treatments, less shaving which equates to less ingrown hairs. 
I will keep an eye on the treated areas and update again when I have some shedding.
Do you know which handpiece on the Harmony XL was used?
I know what it looked like but I dont know what it was called. The tech moved the handpiece to each spot and then zapped me. Picked it up, moved it to the next spot, pressed down a little bit and zap.
I looked like this but I dont think the top part was green, I think it was gray in color.
Harmony is one of the better IPLs.
Today is 7 days after my last treatment using the Harmony XL IPL. I have lots of shedding in the Brazilian and underarm areas. Way more than I had with the Soprano at this point. My lower legs have not shed as much but the hair has come up very slowly, as it has in all the treated areas.
I attribute this to the aggressive settings used for the treatment. It was my second treatment with in the Brazilian area so that might be another factor.
I do want to try again with the Soprano machine since that is the one that I paid for and it is an actual laser machine. I want a significant permanent reduction on the hair in these treated areas while getting LHR. I dont want to go through all of this, just to have the hair come back as though I never had treatment.
I will continue to wait for the three week mark and report back.
I wouldn’t assume Soprano is better. It sounds like Harmony is working out better for you.
Its been almost 2 weeks since my treatment with the Harmony XL machine.
The results have been really good. I think I have 95% hair loss at this time in the Brazilian area. There is a really small patch of hair that did not take as well as a few hairs in the labia that did not fall out but the rest of the area looks great and hair free.
I have not shaved my legs or underarms in a week and I could go in shorts and a tank with no problem. I can see a few hairs that have not come out but I think with the rate of growth that I am having, if I shaved the area would be hair free easily. I am trying to wait as long as I can until I shave so the hair falls out freely.
I do have a question. I helped a few hairs out in my Brazilian area and it seemed like they were stuck in good. Almost like they were glued with my skin. When the hair come out, it looked like there was a white substance at the base of the hair. The hair was still brown/black but at the very end, it was like there was calcium deposits on it. What is this? Did I pluck the hair or was this a dead hair that just got a little stuck?
Thanks for your help!
If there was white stuff at the end, you may have plucked it. Hard to know for sure.
You should wait one more week for shedding to fully complete.
its now been about 4 weeks since my last treatment. So far so good. I have seen a significant reduction in the hair growth. What does grow seems to grow a bit slow. I had complete shedding in my underarms and legs and about 95% Shedding in the Brazilian area. There was one patch of hair that was not treated and a few hairs in the labia that did not shed. Definitely better with this treatment than the first one.
Oh and most happily, I can report that the ingrown hairs are few and far between now. The skin is starting to heal. I have some discoloration and scars but they will heal and if they dont, its ok. I would rather have a few marks than the ingrown hairs. After the first treatment I ended up finding around 6 ingrown hairs. After the second I think there were 3. Since I am not shaving as much, I dont think I will have as many from here on out. Way excited about this.
I have my next appointment in a few weeks. Given what is growing, its a good time that I should have ample growth that is worth doing the treatment on. It will be around 7 weeks between appointments. I know its a bit soon but the timing works for me to do it then.
Today was my third treatment in the Brazilian area and my second in the underarms. I was running late so they could not do my lower legs today. I will have that treatment next week. My treatment was with the Harmony XL machine again. 20J for the underarms and bikini area and 18J for the labia region (I did not have the time to use the numbing cream so the tech lowered the power).
Prior to today’s treatment, I noticed that the hair on my legs and underarms grows very slowly. I can go about 5 days before I feel a need to shave.
The bikini area has had great results. After my second treatment I found that I stayed fairly bare all over the treated area for about 3 weeks after shedding was complete (except for the one patch that did not take). Instead of shaving the area nearly every day, I only have to shave about once a week. I am still having a few ingrown hairs come up but less frequently. I am hoping that with this treatment, I can shave even less frequently than ever!
I am very, very pleased with my results. Thank you to Hairtell for existing so the uninformed consumer has a place to come to get info and share their stories.
Does this mean you had a treatments only 6 weeks apart? For underarms and bikini, you should be waiting 8-12 weeks.
Legs have very long hair cycles. You should be waiting at least 12 weeks for that area.
It was 7 weeks between treatments. I could not wait longer as I am super swamped for the next 6 weeks. I did not want to delay the treatment for two long because of my schedule. Plus I had enough growth in all areas to make it worth my while.
My future appointments will have more time between them. At least I hope my schedule allows for it.
Try to wait longer, especially on the legs. Legs should be done 12-16 weeks apart.
Its been a while since I updated.
I am at the same spa getting treatment with the Soprano XL Laser. I had one treatment where the Harmony machine was used. The spa fired all of the previous techs and got some wonderful and competent people in there so I don’t have to worry about the job being done correctly any more.
I am on treatment #5 on the Brazilian area and have significant reduction on the hair in that area. The only place that the hair remains mostly is in the labia area. These areas were not adequately treated with the previous tech so I am hopeful that the next three treatments will take care of these stubborn hairs. Treatments have been 6-8 weeks apart.
Treatment #4 on the underarms has shown real promise. I only have to shave once a week at this point. I think it will be soon that I will not have any hair on the underarms at all! Treatments have been 6-8 weeks apart.
Treatment #3 on the lower legs has shown that the leg hairs are more persistent than I thought it would have been. I think there is progress. So far the treatments have been about 12 weeks apart.
I have to say that I like the Soprano XL machine at this point. It is not pain free when treatment is done properly. The treatments are fast. I think it takes about 45 mins to do all three areas but I have been seeing really great progress now that the technician has been changed. I am happy with my progress and the only thing I regret is that I did not do this sooner. For those that are seeing deals on Soprano XL treatments, dont discount them completely. Look for the place that has a tech that knows what they are doing. The spa I am using offered such a great deal that I could not turn it down ($150 for 8 treatments in one area).