I am type IV skin and am wondering if the 1064nm laser would be effective for treating my thick, black, coarse hair that is on my face. I originally got laser many years ago and now I have thick hair on my face, but I am thinking that laser was not good and suited for my skin (aka too low wavelength). I have heard great things about YAG and I’m contemplating whether to try it or not or if it will just stimulate more hair. I am also getting electrolysis and I am not sure if that is working either. How do I even know that the treated hair is being treated down to the follicle papilla, and not just in between there? My electrolysis said the hair will return in the same places because we have to keep attacking it until it weakens.
I wouldn’t use laser on the female face. Just my opinion. Consumers have reported increased hair growth and then the only thing left on earth that can correct the problem is electrolysis.
Properly performed electrolysis does work. I don’t subscribed to the often repeated information that the hair needs to be weakened by zapping it several times. There are differences of opinion on that point, but I believe hair can zapped with the one and done result.
The first four to six months will seem that nothing is happening. At month six, you should be seeing progress . At month nine, you know something good is happening. At month 12, you may be 90% finished. At month 18, your electrologist may be spending more time looking for hair than treating hair.
Work hard up front in those first 4-6 months to get cleared of all bothersome hair. Stay cleared. Maintain the gain. This is how you get to the 90% mark by 12 months.
If you don’t invest effort, time and money in those first six months, this can thwart success and will take more than 18 months to resolve your problem.
If you are a hormonally, vulnerable female, you may be chasing hair throughout your lifespan, on and off, to keep your facial hair under control.
Electrolysis is the sure footed way. It is not always easy, but it works.
“One and done” … excellent term Dee Dee!
Indeed this “weakening the hair with multiple treatments” was memorialized in many electrology schools and was (is) called “the breaking down process.” Sometimes called the “save the skin” approach, I have illustrated that such a technique actually causes a build-up of scar tissue in the follicle and can lead to unsightly “pebbling.”
Along with this nonsense is the “papilla only” and “hair can only be killed in anagen” madness.
All of these three notions (excuses?) were empirically dismissed in Hinkel’s 1968 book … and again dismissal-reinforced in my own books (1991).
I don’t know if people are illiterate or just “brain dead” but several schools continue to perpetrate … with great and belligerent certitude … these false notions.
I have sort of gotten over my frustration with this crap … but it’s sort of like the people in the “Flat Earth Society” that continue to insist the world is, well, FLAT!
My own mother believed the world was FLAT … however, I’m pretty sure she espoused her theory to “screw with me” … yeah; she liked doing that to challenge my ability to put forward an argument. Although, I was never quite sure …
In my house we seldom talked about mundane “teenage problems” … it was mostly science and philosophy.