Old guy in Mexico needs advice

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

First I want to thank this community fo all of the excellent work that you do in support of others. In my case, you are a God send.

Yep, I am a 65 YO getting a brazilian. As I have aged the hair in my pubic area has become so coarse that it was irritating my wife of nearly 30 years. One day I shaved the area; the wife loved it. Three weeks later she told me that the best 30th anniversary gift I could give her was to have the hair removed permanently. So here I am.

I am going to a well established dermatology clinic in Guadalajara, Mexico where they are using a Lightsheer Duet laser. The laser tech seldom (probably never) has seen a skin type I. She works almost entirely on types III, IV, and V. Naturally she is very concerned with avoiding burns to the skin. I don’t know what kind of training they get down here, but when on my first visit I tried to talk to her about a patch test to determine a proper fluence I was blown off. She did the first treatment with a 10 J setting. All I felt was cold and of course no shedding after 3 weeks.

I’ve known and had a good relationship with one of the MDs at this clinic for several years. I talked to her about my experience and asked her to interviene. She did. BTW there are very few clinics to choose from here and no reviews available on any of them. The culture here is such that no one talks about this kind of treatment except with their closest friends. I choose to stay with a place where I know there is a good MD even if I have to learn enough to direct the process. I guess it is good that treatment is so inexpensive down here (package of 3 brazilian about $80) It looks like there will be some trial and error involved.

So the tech upped the settings to 15 J for the second treatment last week. (Still no patch test.) With that setting I felt the zap and smelled the smoke from hairs that I didn’t get shaved close enough. There was no redness to the my skin at all though I did feel some warmth in the area for about an hour after treatment. I realize that it is still too soon to know for sure, but my sence is that this is likely to to be a no shed treatment as well.

Three thing would be of help. I would like to see how to mark up the uppermost area (well above the private parts) that I’m having treated for a patch test. Second I would like to know what power settings might be appropriate for such a test. Third, I would like to know where on the net I could find a high res photo of how a successfully treated Type I should look.

Again thank you all.

#2

My first thought was, being that you are sixty-five, do have gray hairs in your area?

#3

Hi and thanks for your reply.

Though my beard is white and gray the pubic area is medium to dark brown and quite coarse. A days stubble feels like 80 grit sand paper.

I’ve worn that beard for 40+ years. My skin is very prone to razor burn and nicks.

#4

Is LightSheer your only option? It sounds like it’s the new Duet machine with a very large spot size. I’m not very familiar with the settings on that particular model. But they should be using compression, i.e pressing down on the skin while firing. The skin should definitely be red and you should easily be able to handle max settings if you’re a true type I. Can you ask the spot size and pulse width they’re using in addition to joules?

Does anyone in the area have an Alexandrite machine like Apogee or GentleLASE or a combo machine like GentleMAX?

#5

Hi and Thanks,

Yes this is a fairly new Duet machine. The large head is cooled and has and uses vacuum to pull the skin up close to the emitter. I’m guessing that is the equivalent of the compression you write about. I will try to get the spot size and pulse width. My Spanish is pretty good, but falters in this specialized technical vocabulary.

Though Guadalajara is a city of about 5 million, I have only found three clinics that are operated under the supervision of an on site MD. Given that I know and trust the MD at the one I’m using it is my first choice. One of the other clinics might have an Alexandrite machine, I have not checked.

As for being type I, back when, I was red haired blue eyed burnt to a crisp within 15 minutes in that So Cal sun I grew up in. The skin in my pubic areas is white almost to the point of being translucent. I don’t think that there is much melanin there. For what ever reason the hair has always been med to dark brown.

Again, thank you

#6

Being an MD is actually not very relevant to LHR. They don’t teach it at med school. I would go with the best machine and whoever is willing to use aggressive settings and has a lot of specific LHR experience.

#7

Whatever you do, peachy, good luck to you. Will think of coming back here and letting us know about your results?