pain vs results: first time laser experience

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

Dear folks,

I recently has much of my body treated with the Gentlelase: it was 9 or 10 joules and 12mm. I am type II skin with pretty coarse dark hair, although I was born blonde and my hair naturally darkened over time.

I didn’t experience any shedding at all, even though even at that setting the lasering was painful, especially in armpits and bikini line. I called the salon and they said to come back in after 4 days (to let the hair grow so they could see treatment effectiveness).

Today was my second appointment (free) - 4 days later. They used the Lightsheer this time with settings of 21-23 (sorry I don’t have the spot width). This seems to be more effective - there is already some shedding. But here are my questions.

  1. There was a lot of pain - both times. Will I be able to get permanent results at this setting? It seems quite low. I didn’t use lidocaine and could if that would allow them to turn up the joules. My skin has not yet reacted or turned red, except there are red dots a few hours later. But some of the armpit/public hair areas were quite painful.

  2. They want me to return in 4 weeks and were insistent that this was necessary to get the hair eliminated. Does this make sense?

I had: lower legs, inner thighs, brazilian and armpits treated. I can still tug on some hairs that are firmly attached and alive :frowning:

Thanks for any thoughts,
Van

#2

The settings are quite low, especially for a good laser like a GentleLase. You sound very sensitive and they were probably trying not to hurt you, so perhaps they can advise you on a numbing agent. Those joules need to be higher. Going back in four weeks seems appropriate, since probably nothing happened to affect the hair, being that the levels were so low.

#3

Thanks Dee. That’s what I suspected. I will try numbing cream and higher intensity. They said they were worried about the skin reaction and didn’t want to burn me. Can you suggest minimum joules I should make sure I have?

#4

The settings on the GentleLASE were extremely low.

Also, regardless, it takes 3 weeks for shedding to occur.

LightSheer settings were better, but we still recommend at least 25J and up. Also, compression should be used on that machine.

The goal is to treat as high as your skin can handle safely in order to guarantee permanent results.

Let us know how shedding goes in 3 weeks. That’s how long you need to wait for it to happen.

Whatever doesn’t shed in 3 weeks was missed and needs to be touched up if more than 10% is still growing as usual. You shouldn’t have to pay for this touchup since it’s their job to cover the area thoroughly.

Treatments on those areas should be done 8-12 weeks apart. There shouldn’t be anything yet to treat at 4 weeks if shedding happened like it was supposed to.

Also, are the roots of your hair dark or blondish? That’s what matters for laser. There needs to be enough pigment and it needs to be coarse.

#5

LAgirl or Romeo could make a suggestion. By reading LAgirls posts for a long time, I think you want to be up to 18-20 joules with the GentleLase, with a large spot size, if you can take it. The diode laser, I’m thinking 40 with good compression, but not sure. The hair has to fall out and you need good energy levels to make that happen, as much as your skin can take. Some hairs fly out at treatment time and some shed in 1.5-3 weeks. If that’s not happening, then one has to think that the hairs are not being affected by the laser’s energy.

#6

Hi LAgirl, Dee,

That’s very helpful. The salon asked me to get back in touch in two weeks and see what has shed. I have another appointment in a month and so I can use that opportunity for touchups on any growing hairs. And those levels are really useful to know.

I have dark roots on the hairs, and they are pretty coarse. A few have shed after the Lightsheer yesterday, but many I can tug with tweezers and they are still very much alive. I will post again in two weeks and let you know how it’s going with the shedding.

Thank you for all the help!

#7

'kay! Hope all goes well.

#8

Just wanted to report back, as promised. The update is that a lot of hair has shedded - there are quite a few missed ones that are still growing, so I’ll go back for a touchup for those. At the levels the light sheer was set at (21-23) Dee suggested the hairs won’t really be permanently affected so I hope the touch up will help to permanently destroy the follicle too.

I’ll update again after the next session :slight_smile:

#9

If LightSheer is set to at least 25J and up and compression is used, you should be good. Ask them if it’s the older machine with the 9mm spot size or the newer one with a 12mm one.

#10

Hi everyone,

I just had my second treatment, 4 weeks after the first one I described in the initial post. The technician used the newer 12mm spot size Lightsheer on 24 for most of it. More on this in a sec.

I was surprised this was a session, and not a touchup, but they said the way they do it is closely-set sessions in the beginning that get further apart as you go on. So, my next few would be 6 or 7 weeks apart increasing the time in between until about a year where the session get to about 12 weeks apart. The price for 10 sessions is $2700 which seems steep… (Individually priced is $550 per session though - armpits, lower legs, feet, brazilian, areolas, chin).

The lasering itself was again quite painful at times, but again I opted not to use lidocaine. The technician said even if I used it she wouldn’t use higher joules because of the risk of burning. She used 21J on my armpits and said any more would burn. And that really hurt at times. My armpits are sore now with red dots, as is everywhere that was lasered. There are some black dots of burned hairs.

The technician is very experienced and used a gliding technique and lots of gel with the Lightsheer. She said joules isn’t the only important parameter, for example she goes over all skin twice (she does, both up and down then back and forth) and goes slowly and firmly, making the 24J more effective.

In sum, this was fairly painful as before, and my skin is showing a reaction. Lots of red bumps and its definitely heat sensitive where it was treated. Am I receiving ineffective or overpriced treatment? The joules don’t seem very high. Is this too many sessions? Love to hear any reactions.

Thanks again.

#11

The spot size does not detemine the age of the Lightsheer. The Lightsheer is sold in both 9mm and 12mm models. This is how it has always been with the current manufacturer, Lumenis, and was with the prior manufacturer, Coherent, years ago. [/quote]

I meant that the 12mm spot size machine is a newer development (there is also a Duet now with an even bigger spot size). I don’t see any reason for anyone to buy a new 9mm machine if their goal is to use it for hair removal, but that’s a different story.

OP:

  • Did they use compression? Gliding is not as relevent. Also, retreating the hair at low settings twice doesn’t target the hair any better. If the hair is not being reached or not being heated enough in the first place, doing it twice doesn’t help.

  • There is no benefit to you to treat so close together. At 4 weeks, there shouldn’t be any NEW hair to treat, so you’re paying to retreat hair that they missed. Hair grows in cycles and it takes longer for it to develop than that. I would also not go in in 6 weeks. Go when you have enough NEW hair show up. If they miss a lot of hair each time, that’s their fault and they should be doing touchups. Or they should be more careful when treating and not miss more than 10%.