My treatments

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

I promised I would make a thread about how my treatments are going, so here it is!

I had been absent from the forum for a while because I had to tend to school and work along with other things I had to pursue, so I took a while!

Well I started laser on my face and neck about 3-4 months ago (4 weeks per session, which, thanks to Lagirl, I realized was too early), and I will be going for my 4th treatment later today (having been 7 weeks this time). I also started my arms and underarms about a 2 weeks ago. I started my face and neck with 14 joules the first time and 16 joules the 2nd and 3rd times, and will persist on 18 joules this time. My arms were done with 16 joules the first time (thanks to this forum, I learned the higher the better).

Statistics thus far:

My face:
1st treatment (18mm: 14 joules): about 65% shed, with around 65% regrowth
2nd treatment (18mm: 16 joules): about 65% shed again, with around 55% regrowth (though the hair was significantly less than before)
3rd treatment: (18mm: 16 joules): about 75% shed, with around 45% regrowth

My neck:
1st treatment (18mm: 14 joules): about 85% shed, with around 25% regrowth
2nd treatment (18mm: 16 joules): about 85% shed again, with around 20% regrowth (though the hair was significantly less than before)
3rd treatment: (18mm: 16 joules): about 90% shed, with around 15% regrowth (she had missed a line towards the right side which didn’t shed at all)

My arms:
1st treatment (18mm: 16 joules): about 70-90% shed (still shedding).

My under arms:
1st treatment (18mm: 16 joules): about 75-90% shed (still shedding).

Present state:

My face had just recently grown a few more hairs here and there, which I find depressing since I feel I may have wasted a lot out of the first 3 treatments which were done 4 weeks apart. I’d say there was about a 42% reduction overall, with 60% of the present hairs much thinner and less noticeable than before. There are, however, a lot of spots on my face which I presume are pepper spots (?), though I worry about them growing in the future - if this were the case, then I’d suggest that 90% of my facial hair would have been untouched.

My neck is almost completely hair free save for that line she missed in that last treatment, which is actually worrying me, since I feel perhaps the rest of my neck hairs haven’t had time to regrow yet…

An odd thing occurred with my arms - after the treatment, the hairs were almost all “in grown” and took a long time to grow out of the skin, where I could easily pull them out, and until now (about 2 weeks after the treatment) there are still a lot of hairs yet to grow out of the skin and eventually fall out. This also somewhat concerns me, though they don’t seem to be ingrowns per se.

The underarms have still not started to regrow so I will have to update on this before my next treatment (which I will schedule once I feel the hair has stopped growing - won’t make the same mistake twice!).

Some stats about me:

I’m Caucasian, and my skin is between a 2 and 3 (leaning on a 2)… infact I may have forgotten if it was between a 1 and 2 or 2 and 3. But my skin is definitely very pallor and takes quite a long time to have a minor tan (after being burned and peeling many times).
My hair is dark brown (you can call it black) with some lighter hairs on here and there.

Well thank you for reading! I’ll keep you updated.

#2

Thanks for your detailed post. A few comments from me:

  • I’m assuming you’re using GentleLASE, so that’s good.

  • I’m assuming you’re treating only coarse hair. If the hair on the rest of your face is finer than the hair on your neck, it explains why it’s getting better results. The most coarse hair will get the best results with laser. For remaining finer hair, you’ll need to finish with electrolysis

  • Assuming you’re female, have you had your hormones tested to explain the facial growth? Are you on any medication?

  • Shedding lasts about 3 weeks. Pepperspots are dead hairs stuck in the follicles and take longer to shed.

  • The hair is not “regrowing” so you can’t judge true reduction yet. You’re seeing NEW hair grow after shedding, from the next phase of growth.

#3

I must severely apologize for this long hiatus! Has it been 6 months already??

As for updates…
So far I’ve had:
-6 treatments on my face/neck
-3 treatments on arms/underarms
-1 on chest (bought a package of 3 but haven’t followed up with the other 2 appointments as of yet…)

I must admit at first i thought there was no progress, i assume due to the fact that I hadn’t taken any before/after pictures for comparison; right now I can say i’m a little more content.

So basically, my forearms received the greatest reduction in just 3 treatments 48-50% (?), with the underarms at about %30; my face comes in second with a reduction of about 40-45% (?) with a significant reduction on the cheeks, whereas the chin and periphery of the lips made little progress; I’m not so pleased with the neck, as i had very little to begin with, and the laser apparently induced hair to grow profusely… coming down towards my upper back; I can’t say much about the chest, as I’ve only had one treatment and can’t tell whether there’s any progress. So I finished the face/neck and arms/underarms about 3 months ago, and its been 2 months since I last visited for the chest.

I must also mention the abnormal hair induction which sprouted around the sides of my neck… not a good sight! The arms also saw hair induction where there was no hair, but this was not as bad as the neck. I think it’s safe to say that I came out with about a 60-70% increase of hair on my neck/upper back area (which i didn’t have any visible hair to begin with), with a medium of 45% decrease on my arms/face.

So all in all, my experience was not very good, yet I’m happy I went in for my arms, and am considering having another arms/underarms treatment. From my own experience and others’ posts here I can conclude that the arms/legs/underarms are the best places to treat due to there being little-to-no vellus hairs.

Right now i don’t know if I’ll be continuing with laser hair removal, as I’m to start driving a truck early April. After much pondering I realized that electrolysis is inexorable for my situation. So I’m gonna hit this hair issue hard once I start driving, and I plan on consulting for marathon sessions. At least traveling won’t be an issue!

I never would have thought that body hair could have such an awful impact on one’s mood. The success stories I’ve read here do however give me a lot of hope in this battle.

So here was my experience… on to electrolysis for now :slight_smile:

#4

Thanks for the response LAGirl.

Yes I was using Gentlelase.

Unfortunately the nurse went ahead and zapped where there was no visible hair, inducing hair growth :(… however it did work great on the coarse hair.

I’m transgendered (Male to Female)… so yeah! The hair issue is a big one.

I’d also like to mention my experiment with the intervals between treatments: The first 3 treatments on my face were done at 5 week intervals, with the latter taking place every 10 weeks (like you suggested)… now there seem to be 2 theories supporting both: 1) with longer intervals, the new hairs are thick enough to be zapped–and the laser works best on thick hairs; 2) with shorter intervals, the non-anagen hairs are significantly weakened, so when in anagen stage, have a greater chance of permanent removal. My experience also postulates on the first theory, as was the case with my forearms as opposed to the neck, which was zapped too frequently.