Is anyone familiar with a machine called Polaris Comet? One of the centres here just purchased it and it is supposed to work on light coloured hair and is also suitable for people with dark skin.
The Comet is a newer machine than the Aurora. It uses RF plus a diode laser instead of the IPL that the Aurora uses. It is generally believed that diode lasers are more effective than IPL, so I would expect the Comet to do better than the Aurora.
I would at least go for a test spot. We are very eager here on the forum to hear how the Comet works! Go for it!
Nobody is using the Comet here in my local area, otherwise I might try it myself. I am being treated with a Nd:YAG laser and am very impressed with it. IMHO it is the laser of choice for dark skin. But the Comet may do well also. I did have some success with the Aurora, but the Nd:YAG Lyra-i has worked better for me. The Aurora will remove some light hairs, but do not expect it to remove white hairs like electrolysis does.
BTW, the Comet offers higher fluences, both optical and RF, than the Aurora does.
RJC20001
[quote] "I am being treated with a Nd:YAG laser and am very impressed with it. "
What type of hair are you treating with that laser? do you know if it is suitable for fine, light brown facial hair?
what kind of hair are treating with Nd:Yag? do you know if it works with fine light brown facial hait?
Hi RJC2001,
I’m kind of following your posts about experiences with the YAG and this newer Comet laser. I was considering electrolysis over laser, but have given your posts some thought. To me it seems a lot of the complaints about laser are about facial area performance where hair is much finer. Mosts posts say the bikini area works better where hair is thicker. In that I want no facial, just body removal, I’m considering the YAG. Let me ask you, and I know it’s difficult answering without experiencing that type treatment but just for an opinion: If I have slightly tanned skin (hispanic background) and black thicker hair, do you think waiting and looking for a Comet using technician is worth it? Or should I now just go with a Yag using clinic? There are plenty of Yags in San Diego because we have a more tanned populace. But I know of no Comet users yet.
Also, You say you’ve had good results. May I ask what you would classify your skin tone as? Hair color? When you say very impressed, could you quantify this? How many treatments? Where? How long ago? Hows the clearing? I know these are alot of questions. But, I’m just trying to get a clearer picture of what to expect. Thanks, as usual I appreciate all your posts and comments.
Mantaray
OK, I’ll try to answer your questions the best that I can. Fortunately for me, the vast majority of my hair that I seek to have removed is dark, and in most cases, coarse.
My skin is a type 4. I tan very easily and get very dark in the summer. I keep some of my color year-round. For example, my arms and legs are too dark to be treated with the Lightsheer diode laser at high fluences. To me, the Lightsheer is a great laser but must be used at high fluences to be successful. I was able to have my chest, abs and back treated with the Lightsheer, but only after staying out of the sun for 3 months. That is a huge sacrifice for a sun worshipper like me! The Lightsheer worked very well on my chest, abs and back. I have had no laser or electrolysis on my abs for 2 years, and all I have left there is some fuzz. That doesn’t bother me too much. I just run a razor over it once a week and that works good enough for me.
The Lightsheer did not do that well on the sides of my chest, probably because the follicles are deeper there and the hair was finer from previous treatments. The Lightsheer does work better on fine hair then the alexandrites, such as the Apogee and Gentlelase.
Lasers love dark,coarse hair, regardless of the type of laser. My first chest treatment with the Apogee was incredible! Hairs were exploding out of the follicles everywhere, and the smell of singed hair filled the treatment room. I had 50% reduction from the first treatment, and months later, the regrowth was stable. I resumed treatments the next winter and still had some good results with the alex, but not as good as before because the hair was finer. My practitioner got the Lightsheer, and I had better success with the fine hairs. I still had some regrowth but much less, and just about got all of the stragglers with electrolysis.
I would recommend trying a YAG laser. Look for a Cutera Coolglide, Lyra-i, or Sciton Image. There are also other Nd:YAG lasers out there. Apogee makes one also. This laser works so well on dark skin that it’s amazing. I could never use the Lightsheer on my lower arms and legs. But the Lyra-i has worked very well. The Aurora could not be used on my lower legs either. The Comet may work better than the Aurora, as the diode laser is probably not as hard on dark skin as the IPL is. I have also had 4 treatments on my beard, which was very thick. Two treatments were with the Sciton, and two with the Lyra-i. My beard is about 60-70% gone. I am waiting for the remaining hairs from my last treatment to fall out so the results may turn out to be even better. I had the back of my neck treated with the Lyra to get some of the hairs the Lightsheer and Aurora missed. I could definitely feel it and could smell the burning hairs so that is a good sign.
My advice to you is start with laser, finish with electrolysis. I don’t think I would have had the patience and cash to go with only electrolysis, as hairy as my chest and back were. I had so much chest hair I could not see my skin. Electrolysis is slower than laser, no question about it. But it will get hairs that the laser misses for some reason. I got rid of 50% percent of my chest hair with one laser treatment. It would have taken weekly treatments of 1 hour each for 6 months or longer to get those results with electrolysis. But as hair gets finer and lighter, electrolysis is the only choice. Plus you can do electrolysis year round and it does not interefere with suntanning. Laser can work on fine hairs but the fluence has to be turned way up. It does get to a point where the hair is too fine for laser. When you cannot feel the laser pulses, I think the hair is then too fine and electrolysis must be used. My practitioner does tell her patients when the hair is too fine for laser and will recommend electrolysis instead.
The Aurora did actually remove some white chest hairs I had. And it worked OK on my arms. But IMHO the Lyra-i has done better. And there is virtually no post treatment redness with the Nd:YAGs for me. I would like to try the Comet. I keep asking my practitioner about it and she says they are thinking about it. They want to see some data and studies about it’s effectiveness.
Hope this helps.
RJC2001
…Oh your answer helped immensely. Thanks. You know, I’m really grateful that a question can be asked that can return an answer from someone like yourself with so much first hand experience behind it and save myself so much time and money, and possibly injury. This board of Andrea’s is just a virtual cornucopia of knowledge. Thanks again. Right now I’m waiting for all my follicals to grow out from all this epilation I’ve been doing (lasers are gonna free me from my bathroom!) and that should take about four weeks. Then I’m gonna do the phone work. It’s tempting to run to the first place that’ll book me an appointment, but I want to scout and find technicians that really know what they’re doing. I’ll get back to you on what I find. Thanks RJC.
Mantaray
That’s what we are about here, saving you time and money.
Don’t forget to post your great finds in the referral directory when you are done. (with practitioner’s permission of course)
I’m going for a patch test tomorrow with the Comet machine. I have used Lightsheer for the bikini and underarm area and have been pleased with the results. I’ll be using the Comet for my facial hair with is very blonde and peach-fuzz-like. I’ll let you know how it works out. They said I will need to wait a week after having the patch test done before they will do a larger area. The laser clinic is part of a plastic surgeon’s office and each of them are Registered Nurses. I’m a tad nervous given the treatment area is on my face, but so far I’ve had no problems at all with the bikini and underarm areas so I sure hope I won’t end up with blisters etc on my face.
The Aurora is very kind to your skin. I would expect the same from the Comet, even moreso since it uses diode laser instead of IPL.
I am very interested in seeing how the Comet works! My practitioner is too.
I am very happy with the results from laser and electrolysis so far, but I would like to find a method that would result in mass destruction of the vellus hairs to. No laser can do that right now. The Aurora could get some of the thicker white hairs, but I have so few of the thicker white ones it makes more sense to get them with electolysis.
I’m getting the fine vellus hairs on my chest with electrolysis but would like to get other areas done too.
Syneron claims the Comet is safer and more effective than the Lightsheer or Lyra lasers. I don’t see how a laser can be much safer than the Lyra. I get zero redness or scabbing with it and it does a very good job on hair removal for medium and thicker hairs.
Mantaray, glad to be of help. I think you are on the right track.
RJC2001
RCJ2001,
I was wondering what you thought about the aurora. I am looking to treat my face, the hair is extremely thin and blonde but there is soooooooooooooo much. I have considered electrolysis but with the amount I have it would take a lifetime. Any suggestions?
thanks, Jenni
I had some success with the Aurora, but eventually I reached the maximum fluences with it and I was getting diminishing returns. It did remove some white hairs, but not as good as electrolysis.
Last year, I had my arms and legs treated with the Aurora, and this year I switched to the Lyra-i Nd:YAG laser. The laser has done a better job in those areas.
The hair on my arms and legs is dark. The white hairs that the Aurora removed were on my chest.
I think the Comet may be more effective because it has higher RF and optical fluences. Plus it uses laser for the optical energy rather than IPL. IMHO laser is more effective than IPL so combining it with RF may be better than using IPL.
A good strategy for you may be to try the Comet and then use electrolysis to get the hairs that the Comet missed.
Lasers do not work on light color hairs and the Comet RF/laser may have an advantage over laser. I would say that the Aurora works better on light hair than the lasers do, but the lasers work better on dark hair.
RJC2001
For more information about the Aurora and the Comet, go to www.syneron.com. They have a product data sheet in PDF format. Also check out the Syneron media section, once you get there go to clinical papers. You will find some interesting information there.
RJC2001