Pepperspots and red bumps not going away

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

So I have been getting laser hair removal for a while now and I’m having some issues. The main one is that I have pepperspots, or little black dots all over the area which are not going away. I know I’m not the first person to write about this, but everyone says “exfoliate!” and I’ve been doing that every day for months with no success. And I know people have had that problem too, so then you say: “just wait til your next appointment, they’ll burn right off!” but alas, I am past my 5th treatment now and they are all still there.

Also, I have a few red bumps that the laser hair lady said were probably sweat bumps or mild ingrowns at worst and would go away over time. But no, they just sit there, month after month.

Is there anything else I can do to get rid of pepperspots? Or the little red bumps? thanks

#2

Hmm I had a red bump but I am a born picker and got a pair of tweezers and dug right in there, and pulled out a long black hair lol, it was gross AND cool.

Anyway I find exfoliation is best for hairs which shed, but the ones which are pepperspots I gradually “pop” out, much the same way you’d pop a pimple. On the other hand, I think most people say exfoliate and wait to be on the safe side :slight_smile:

#3

There’s not much you can do if they don’t exfoliate off or burn away. There is a good chance the pepperspots are new each session, not the same ones lasting for months and months on end. Unless your settings are really low or something I guess.

#4

They should be burned off. Are the treatments thorough? Are they missed spots?

What areas are you treating? What machine? How many treatments? Spaced how far apart? There is not enough information in your post.

#5

The treatments are thorough enough that there should not be pepper spots everywhere. The place uses Candela Gentlelase, which is supposed to be a good laser for very light skin with very dark hair (i.e., me), the treatments are 8 weeks apart on my buttocks

#6

The type of laser doesn’t matter if overlapping is not being done properly. Also, settings matter. Do you know what they are?

Can you post a photo of a patch of the skin? This area generally doesn’t have coarse enough hair for laser and fine hair tends to leave more pepperspots.

#7

That’s great that this area “generally” doesn’t have coarse enough hair for laser, but I was not so lucky. Trust me, the hairs were pretty thick and dark.

I was reluctant to post pictures, but whatever, I’m at a loss for how to deal with this, so here:

I should first off say how hard it is to get a good picture of your own ass. So because of the lighting and the angle, these don’t really show you a perfect image of the problem, but they give you an idea.

Also, what do you mean by not doing overlapping properly? And I’ll ask about the settings next time I go in (it’ll be my 6th appointment, but probably not my last). Any other ideas?

#8

It’s really impossible to tell the coarseness of the hair since it looks shaved in the photos. Maybe you can post a photo of a spot when it grows out a bit.

I would call and ask the settings, so you come in next time prepared to suggest others.

When they’re covering the area, they should be overlapping by about 10%. Otherwise, they would miss spots (the handpiece is relatively small), which causes patchiness.

#9

It is not shaved! Those aren’t stubble, that’s the pepper spots I’m talking about that won’t go away.

#10

Also when the hair grows out it’s not as coarse anymore since I’ve had 5 treatments already. But the pepper spots have been there from the beginning basically, about 8 months ago.

#11

By the way, what laser setting should I suggest? I don’t know anything about settings. Would a higher setting remove pepper spots? thanks

#12

those are little buggers best bet would be to get professional therapist to massage the area soften it up and try draw those out, or have you tried a sauna? get the skin pores open then scrub like a mad man, use alot of moisteriser,.

#13

We can’t come up with settings over the Internet without seeing you and testing your skin. You need to ask them for joules, spot size, and pulse width used and post it here. Then we can judge whether they’re aggressive enough for your skin type.

You may want to wait longer in between treatments. When the hair first comes out, it’s fine. But it gets more coarse after a while.