caligirl - that sounds exactly like not overlapping properly (the shrinkage of the hairless stripes). when a grid is drawn often times straight patches where the lines are drawn don’t get covered properly by the tech.
I had mt second treatment 3 weeks ago. Unfortunately my laser tech wasn’t there so the doctor did the tx herself. She refused to increase the settings or even use the 18 mm spot size. She treated my legs and underarms at 15 mm, 24 joules and 10 ms. She turned down the settings on my bikini because she could see I was in pain even though I told her I was ok and I would tell her if it was too much. She used 15 mm, 22 joules and 10 ms on my bikini.
She passed the same areas on my legs lots of times. I noticed about a week later that I could very faintly see some pigmentation in the shape of the laser head on my legs. It went away after a few days. I do have some more shedding this time two weeks later. However both times the shedding has been stripy and spotty and I am positive it is not because of missed spots since I watch very closely and I would definitely notice if they missed spots as large as the areas that are not shedding. Can anyone explain that? I have been told by numerous techs that shedding will look stripey. They all say it is because of the stages of hair growth but I’m not sure I understand how that matters in laser as opposed to electro.
Oh, I forgot to remove my deodorant before my treatment and BOY did it make a huge difference. It was much more painful this time. I’ll never make that mistake again.
On the Yag, max on 18mm is 30J and on 15mm 40J. Just so you have an idea where you are on settings. I still think they’re pretty low for a type IV.
I dont understand why she decreased the spot size. It’s a lot easier to miss spots with a smaller spot size. Did you notice whether she overlapped? How long did it take to treat your legs?
Striping is a result of not overlapping properly. As you probably saw, the laser tip is a circle, so it’s important to overlap to make sure to cover the entire area. Also, if the settings are too low for some hairs, those won’t shed.
Are any of the hairs growing as usual or they’re just stuck in follicles and not growing? The latter are pepperspots common on legs.
I didn’t understand her explanation for decreasing the spot size but I know she was wrong when she claimed the smaller spot size concentrated the power more. It was very clear to me that the doctor doesn’t do or understand LHR very well, she just fills in for my LHR tech when she takes a vacation.
My laser tech absolutely did overlap the first treatment and I got stripes and patches. It was harder for me to tell with the Dr. whether she overlapped properly because she jumped around so much from place to place and then would go over spots she had already done. The easiest way for me to tell that the stripes and spots are not because of missed areas is my bikini. That area is being resistant to the laser. On both treatments they covered the entire mons/top area because I watched them. Yet only patches/spots of hair shed both times.
The hairs seem to be growing as usual but then they shed. Some don’t. I haven’t had any pepperspots or hairs stuck in the follicles.
If you’re sure the hair wasn’t missed, then the settings are too low to impact the hair.
When I’m talking about hair growing as usual, I don’t mean the hair that shed. I mean how much hair is growing as usual AFTER 3 weeks.
Some clinics consider lowering spot size better for finer hair.
The mons area is the area that reacts BEST to laser in my experience. If it is giving you more trouble than other areas, then something is wrong and I would try higher settings. Of all the areas laser is used on, the bikini area is one of the only areas that is pretty much a sure bet (aside from underarms).
Oh, after 3 weeks there is less hair on my legs but it is still growing although maybe not as quickly. Does that make sense? I still have to shave but I can maybe go 3 days without shaving as opposed to shaving every day because there is a reduced amount of hair on my legs. I haven’t shaved my underarms at all since I started LHR because that area took very well to the laser. There is still some hair but it is fine and not that noticeable. I don’t shave my Brazilian area. The hair on the mons is growing in patches. A few patches are hair free, some of the patches have brand new short hairs and other patches have long hairs. My left labia is pretty hair free but the right one looks like it wasn’t affected at all. Sorry if that’s TMI.
I always read that the underarms and bikini react the best to laser. For some reason although my underarms are taking great to it the bikini area is not. I am going to try to convince my laser tech to give me a free treatment since the one the doctor did was a wasted treatment. Instead of increasing the settings like my laser tech was planning to do she decreased the settings and I’m paying for that because the hair isn’t being affected as much as it should. My laser tech is very cool, I think I might be able to convince her to throw another session in for free if I explain why.
I would also try to convince her to use the 18mm spot size on all areas and test your skin with several higher settings. I would test 20J and up on 18mm and see how your skin handles it. The area should have red inflamed follicles afterwards.
Also, considering using a numbing cream. Pain shouldn’t dissuade you from higher settings if your skin can handle it.
I will. I already told her I want to make sure she (not the doctor) does all my future treatments so we’re both on the same page about increasing my settings every time. My laser tech uses the 18mm spot size on all areas and our plan had been to start low and increase settings from there.
My first treatment my laser tech used:
Full legs, Brazilian bikini and underarms all treated at 18 mm spot size, 22 joules and 10 pulse
Low back treated at 18 mm spot size, 22 joules and 3 pulse.
Unfortunately the doctor decreased the settings on my second treatment. She treated my legs and underarms at 15 mm, 24 joules and 10 ms. She used 15 mm, 22 joules and 10 ms on my bikini.
Next time I’m going to ask her to increase the joules from 22 and decrease the pulse from 10ms. I can handle the pain without numbing cream except for my bikini. I use LMX 5 there. No pain no gain. 
BTW I loved Verlaine! I went there twice on my last trip. Thanks so much for the suggestion LAgirl!!!
There is also no benefit to increasing the settings gradually. You should try to get the most for your buck from the start.
I’m glad you liked it. Nothing like a $5 happy hour until 10pm
I just had my third Gentle Max treatment two days ago on Saturday 8/7/10. My 2nd treatment was 10 weeks ago. I had a full crop of new hair all over so I knew it was time for a treatment. I told my laser tech how unhappy I was with the settings at my last treatment and she is going to comp me a session. This time she treated me on the following settings and double passed some areas on lower settings the second time around:
Lower legs: 18mm 26J 10ms
Toes and upper legs: 18mm 24J 3ms
Brazilian: 18mm 24J 10ms fist pass, 18mm 16J 3ms second pass
Underarms: 18mm 26J 10ms first pass, 18mm 14J 10ms second pass
Lower back:18mm 26J 3ms (I think she passed this area twice but I’m not sure since it didn’t hurt much and I was absorbed in watching the E! network that was playing in the treatment room).
These settings hurt considerably more ESPECIALLY on the mons/pubic area and the ankles as well as behind the knees. I couldn’t handle the pain on the mons area even with LMX. I had to ask for an ice pack after the second zap. I had red, raised mosquito bite looking bumps on my legs that itched until she applied hydrocortisone cream. That night and the next day I had red circles all up and down my legs from the laser head. This morning, 48 hours later, I could still see the red circles. Tonight they are almost totally faded. My underarm hair feels slightly crisped. I really hope these settings are more effective than the last!
From your reactions it sounds like the settings realy worked for you Really you can only use as high as your skin can take! It sounds like you got it. I’m glad they listened to you as well.
Red inflamed follicles are good, but circles shouldn’t be there. You may need to lower the setting a bit. Higher pulse and a bit of lower joules would probably do the trick.
LAgirl, do you mean lower pulse? Like from 10ms to 3?
The red circles turned to light brown, like pigmentation, but after a week they were totally gone. I can’t see anything anymore. The odd thing is it happened last time too at ridiculously low settings.
I’m two weeks out from that last session and I’m surprised at how little shedding I have. My underarms as usual shed almost completely. The Brazilian area shed more evenly this time rather than patchy and spotty like it normally does but I would estimate only about 50%-60% of the hair shed. The legs shed the least with most of the hair still there. I’ll see what happens in the next week but I’m usually done shedding at the 3 week mark.
Lower pulse width makes a stronger setting. I meant “higher/longer” pulse. So from 10ms to 20ms.
Higher pulse width is a weaker setting than a low pulse width. If your current settings are too high as they are, do NOT lower the pulse width or you may be injured.
I had my fourth treatment on 10/8/10 nine weeks after my last treatment. My last treatment was my best. I saw tons of shedding especially in the mons region that has been pretty resistant so far. However, my labia still weren’t shedding that well. I did experience some pigmentation on my legs after my last two treatments. After the third treatment (very low settings) I experienced ever so slight circles the size of the laser head a few days after my treatment. They disappeared within a week. After my last treatment I had the same thing happen but the spots were slightly darker. They too went away within a week or two. I told my tech and she said that was not uncommon.
So this time my laser tech used the following settings (but I’m not sure if I’m reading the pulse correctly):
Full legs 18mm 28j pulse of 40, 20
Brazilian/belly trail 15mm 26j first pass at pulse of 40, second pass at 20
Underarms 18mm 28j first pass at pulse of 40, second at 20
Lower back 18mm, 28j first pass at pulse of 40, second at 20 (but she wrote 3ms in front of lower back)
Do these pulse duration settings sound correct? I thought 30 (or 3) ms was the lowest setting at 18 mm on the GentleMax. Do I need to call her for clarification?
Anyway it has been almost two weeks and I’m not seeing too much shedding yet. I had zero pigmentation this time. I feel like the last couple of treatments took longer for me to see shedding. Longer as in between 2-3 weeks to see the most shedding. I still have never had a totally hair free period. My shedding has been really patchy and stripey but when I watch her it seems like she is getting all the areas without spacing too far apart. I have seen a really dramatic reduction especially after my last session. Based on the results I have already seen I am going to buy another package of three treatments and hope for the best.
Those are pretty high settings. You may even be light enough for an alex laser.
Yes, lowest pulse width is 3ms and it ranges up to 100ms.
Stripy means not overlapping properly and missing spots. I would discuss overlapping by 10% with them.
Had my fifth treatment on 11/20/2010 six weeks after my last treatment.
My last treatment didn’t seem to work well for some reason. I didn’t have much shedding as I would have liked especially on my legs. My bikini area had a few long slashes where the hair didn’t shed at all and I know she didn’t miss those areas because I watch her. I let her know. Here are the settings she used this time.
Lower legs 15mm 28j 10ms
Upper legs 15mm 30j 3 ms
Brazilian 15mm 28j 10ms
Underarms 15mm 30j 10ms, second pass 15mm 20j 3ms
Low back 15mm 32j (not sure the ms), second pass 15mm 20j 3ms
I know this has been asked before but I’m hoping someone can answer so I don’t have to go thread hunting for the answer. What is the highest and lowest setting on 15mm on the Gentlemax yag? I know the highest is 30j and 3ms on the 18mm spot size but I don’t know about the 15mm spot size. Now that I’m comparing the settings from my last 2 treatments, I think my settings were lower this last time than the treatment before since she decreased the spot size this time. Thanks in advance!
Cortisone may help.