My Paradoxical Laser Hair Stimulation Story, Help

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

I’m currently 28 years old, a white male, with a skin type that would fall into either Type II or Type III. I had always had excessive hair growth as I got older; I had a unibrow at 13-14 and my legs were covered in hair. As I got around 17-18 my chest became a rug. I was a pretty pale skinny kid with dark course hair everywhere. It was pretty unsightly to say the least.

I started laser hair removal pretty early in my 20’s. I had always wanted to pursue some kind of hair removal in my late teens, but money was always an issue as well as fear of starting something new (I tend to have really bad luck with anything I do). Anyway, I started laser hair removal finally around the age of 22. I don’t remember the type of laser they used, but my chest and back were some of the areas I first got treated. Now, my back didn’t really have much hair, just a few longer dark hairs that were spread out. I thought just getting my back lasered once and nuking those hairs would be fast and I wouldn’t have to worry about it again. Boy was I wrong.

A few months after the first treatment, the hairs started growing back along with a few hundred buddies that were all just as coarse. I was horrified to say the least, but I’m stubborn when it comes to holding on to hope. I continued treatments, but because of things going on in my life I could only get a treatment maybe once every six months.

Fast forward to 25 and I was finally in a stable situation were I could get treatment on a more regular schedule. The new facility I’m using uses the Candela GentleLASE Mini. They are great, accommodating, and very friendly. So I continued to get treatments and expanded the areas I was getting treated.

Today, I have had maybe around 12 treatments on my back with almost no progress. I had also started getting hair stimulation on the back of my neck (one of the new areas I expanded to). The hair on the back of my neck was coming in thick and was not natural looking at all. I asked the facility about this and they seemed baffled. They told me it was due to me getting older and growing more hairs.

I just coughed up the money and started getting electrolysis on my neck (Which hurts and takes forever). It’s still early in the treatments to say if it effective. However, my back and shoulders are way to hairy and to large for me to afford getting electrolysis for those areas.

Basically, where do you guys recommend I go from here? Do I try to continue doing laser (I’ve already spent probably around $30k on it so far), but convince them to use higher settings? I still wait about 4-5 months in between treatments, you think if I spaced my sessions a lot closer the treatment would be more successful?

#2

Can you post a high resolution picture of your back with hair?

#3

It’s not uncommon for guys to start seeing increased growth naturally during their 20s as well. I’m curious… did you do treatments on your chest and legs? How did those work out? If it didn’t work on your legs, I would assume the settings were way too weak.

#4

Attached is a picture of my back currently. It might not be the best resolution, but its all I can provide currently.

Well, I did have maybe 4-5 treatments on my legs. I stopped there because it thinned it out enough were it didn’t look obscene. My goal for my legs was never to fully remove the hair, there is a slight difference between when I started and now with my legs.However, I don’t think anyone would guess I have had my legs treated though from the way they look (they are still hairy than most guys legs).

My chest is still pretty hairy and I have had about the same amount of sessions on it that I had on my back. However, the hair on my chest was pretty thick when I started treatment. There is a noticeable reduction of hair from when I started to now, but my chest remains hairy than I want it.

Also, something interesting I’ve noticed. With the new place I’ve been going to for treatment, I occasionally go back within a week of treatment to get some missed spots taken care of. One time, there were so many spots that we agreed that the laser was not strong enough. At that time they raised the strength and tagged a few areas on my stomach that still had hair. Now, that area has had a reduced amount of hair growth than the rest of my chest.Whether it was because I went back so soon after treatment or the increased laser strength that gave me those results I’m not sure. They have been keeping the strength raised as far as I have been told, but I haven’t seen results like that anywhere else on my chest since those extra tags.

qwerty Attachments

Hair currently on back
BackHair.JPG

#5

4-5 treatments on legs, and only a slight difference? To me, that sounds like the laser settings were too low to do anything (ordinarily, 3-4 treatments at good settings would get you around a 50% reduction or so).

And you spent $30,000?!?! How much are you paying per treatment?? If you tell us your location, we might be able to give you a recommendation of a laser place for other areas you want to do.

Hair takes up to 3 weeks to shed, so if you’re going back within a week, you’re basically wasting your money. If at the 3-4 week mark you still have a bunch of hair, then you should either:

a) get a reshoot
b) go somewhere else for a place that uses good settings.

The gentlelase is a good machine. Is there anyway you can call and ask for the settings? For the record, 6 properly spaced treatments should give you good results (no reason for 12!!).

From what I can see from the picture, the hair doesn’t look coarse enough for laser. My advice would be to find a fast electrologist. Now, it’s hard to say if the laser actually induced growth, or if that’s just hair that developed as you were aging.

#6

Again very similar to mine except maybe mine is thinner due to soprano which may need dying to make them more visible about when i go for electrolysis. I think that hair is not suitable for laser. It really dies have to be jet black and coarse for any results it seems. We need more a grade electrologists willing to tackle larger areas fullstop.

#7

You back does not look that hairy to me…just sayin…

#8

The picture is poor quality, you can see a good contrast if you look at my neck where I shaved compared to the hair on my back.

Electrolysis really isn’t an option since there is WAY too much hair. I have experience with electrolysis and I know it would take a lot of time and money to treat my back. I don’t have that kind of money.

As far as paying $30k, that’s a rough estimate. I have had every inch of my body where hair can possibly grow treated at some point. Most areas have had multiple treatments. I’m sitting somewhere around 12 sessions for my areas treated more frequently. Also the $30k figure is amount I have spent in the last 5-6 years.

EDIT- I will get a hold of the laser facility I have been going to and see if I can get the settings.

#9

The two things that scare me from what I’ve read in other posts. One, that there is something about Paradoxical Laser Hair Stimulation that makes the stimulated hair untreatable. Secondly, that a lot of the hair is too fine to be treated.

#10

IMO, your hair are too thin for laser.
I suggest you to start electro. You can achieve a total elimination or a reduction, it’s your choice.

#11

Your hair doesn’t seem to be coarse enough for laser in the picture. It might respond to very high settings on an Alexandrite laser but I doubt if your skin would be able to take it as you are between type 2-3. Electrolysis can remove all those hairs permanently BUT unless you find a very good electrologist, it would take a lot of time and money. If time and/or money is a problem, you can simply stick to waxing/shaving/other temporary methods of hair removal. Your back doesn’t look bad at all.