Pics of laser clearance on my RED facial hair =)

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

I have a previous topic here discussing my laser treatment

I have now had 5 sessions and am starting to see good clearance in many areas after switching to higher fluence and lower spot sizes. I wanted to post some pics of the progress to show that it is possible to remove red facial hair with laser, at least in my case where the hair is very coarse and moderately dark.

Here is an overview of the settings used in my sessions:

All using GentleLase

Session 1: 18mm spot / 15 Fluence (no clearance)
Session 2: 18mm spot / 20 Fluence (no clearance)
Session 3: 18mm spot / 20 Fluence
+1 test spot using 15mm / 30 Fluence (noticable clearance on test spot only)
Session 4: 15mm spot / 30 Fluence (noticable clearance in numerous spots!)
Session 5: 12mm spot / 36 Fluence

I just had the fifth session so its too soon to tell the results, however 12mm spot with 36 Fluence was markedly more painful than the other settings, so I am hoping that the clearance will be markedly increased also! These pics were taken 2-3 days after my 5th session.

Thinking of all the money I have saved by not having to do electrolysis on my entire face makes me a happy redhead ; )

#2

Working on red hair? That’s awesome!! Looks good, I’d be smiling too!

#3

Yes, you will save a lot of money with Electrolysis. There are large bald spots on your beard. The problem I see is that they are in the wrong place. Any electrologist would have started to work in strategic locations, for example, reversing the pattern of growth. Lower the top line of the beard, remove all the hairs at both ends under your lower lip, thinning hair on the rest. And now you might look like this other red… but he probably is not as happy :wink: :

#4

Looking like a marble cake is awesome? Like the poster said, it is too early to tell, but I sincerely wish him a great outcome.

How dark are the roots of your hair, t.?

#5

The roots of my facial hair are relatively highly pigmented, they are slightly darker than the hairs on my head. My body hairs on the other hand, have almost no pigment, no way laser would work on them.

For me, looking like a marble cake is awesome, because I just want my facial hair gone as quickly as possible and as cheaply as possible. Also that picture was taken with about 2 days of growth, when I shave its not very noticeable at all.

I definitely plan on finishing up with electrolysis after a few more laser sessions. I recently acquired an Apilus SX-500 which I am using to epilate some of my body hair but I don’t want to risk doing my own face. Planning to have Christina Navarette finish the job for me once she gets back in town, I hear she is a very capable electrologist. =)

Looking like a marble cake is awesome? Like the poster said, it is too early to tell, but I sincerely wish him a great outcome.

How dark are the roots of your hair, t.? [/quote]

#6

From what I can understand, you have just started to getting shedding of the hairs from treatments, so you’ve really just started and will need a full set of treatments to get through all the hair cycles. Then you can stop and see if there has been any permanency.

This is the doubtful thing. If there is enough pigment and the settings are high enough, sure the hair will shed (like my finer, female arm hairs which are black) but it doesn’t mean they have absorbed enough energy to permanently disabled the follicles so they will regrow later (like my finer arm hairs).

#7

Male facial hair works different than body hairs, as I understand it they do not typically stop growing or shed until the bulge has been zapped and the follicle disabled.

Male facial hair also has a very short telogen period (6-8 weeks) and a very high percentage of follicles in anagen at all times (85-90% active). Considering that a few of the spots on my neck have been clear for around 3 months now, I think the likelihood of them regrowing is pretty slim.

Body hair on the other hand typically has a long telogen phase (6months - 1year) and low percent of follicles active at any given time (~12-20% on the arm). So it is difficult to gauge whether a hair has really been disabled or just entered an early catagen/telogen phase.

#8

After the first treatment on the body, subsequent appearing hairs are in anagen, so this issue with low percentage of active follicles doesn’t exist for treatments.

I have never read of this correlation between male facial hairs only shedding if the follicle has been disabled.

#9

Please post again after another 3 months. I beleive that regrowth from LHR takes 6 months usually. Your case is interesting.

#10

I too hope you continue posting because we really lack feedback on what happens in the years after Laser treatments are over.

6 months after you have stopped Laser though. I guess you will be continuing treatment for about a year yet.

#11

True, I just meant that with body hair it is difficult to tell if the inactive follicles are truly disabled due to the long telogen period.

There is really not much scientific research or journal articles available concerning laser removal of male facial hair. My understanding of it is primarily based on anecdotal evidence, experience reports from other men who have had it done and my own experience. All of the reports I have read seem to indicate that once a beard hair falls out it doesn’t come back.

I have read numerous reports of men who started laser hair removal thinking it would ‘thin’ their heavy beard and were then dismayed when they realized it doesn’t work that way. Many of them stop laser hoping it will grow back but I have never heard of that happening. I have even read of some people trying to use latisse and other things to get their missing sections to regrow because they don’t want to look feminine/androgynous as men often do after complete removal of facial hair.

I also personally know several others who have had their facial hair removed via laser and all of them report the same thing, facial hair is hard to kill but once its gone it doesn’t come back. One person I know had to do 17 sessions to clear it all, that was about 5 years ago and no regrowth.

#12

I believe thats because usually you are talking about body hairs where there is a 6-12 month telogen period.

Because of the accelerated growth pattern of male facial hair compared to other types of hair, I space the treatments closer together, 3-4 weeks rather than 6-8 weeks. My 5th treatment was two weeks ago and I am hoping to mostly clear after 7-8 treatments, so I will hopefully be done in 2-4 months and then finish the rest with electrolysis. I will definitely keep the thread updated though and let you know what happens.

I’m doing self-electrolysis on my chest hair and legs so I’m sure I will still be lurking around the board for electrolysis tips for some time to come =)

#13

I am not talking specifically about body hair. LHR seems to delay regrowth, and alters thr normal hair growth cycles. You could still have a reduction in growth, but perhaps not by as much as you expect. What do others think ?

#14

Typically after a laser treatment on my face I will have stunted/slow growth for 1-2 days, after which the hairs continue to grow normally (even the ones which will eventually fall out a few weeks later).

Have you seen cases of male facial hair where there was no growth for an extended period (several months, longer than the typical telogen period) and then growth returned?

Keep in mind that I am talking specifically about male facial hair here. Female facial hair is more like body hair except in certain rare cases (ie genetic anomaly or a female who has been on HRT with high dose testosterone)

#15

I had laser to remove my beard, at times “some” of the hairs literally popped out of the follicles when they were zapped and the sensation testified to this, at high energy levels it’s a bit lively. I noticed some of the hairs on the tissue when I was having the slippery stuff wiped off my face afterwards and also once I’d got home. I reached a plateau with treatment after which improvement was minimal if at all. I had approximately 3 treatments towards the end of my laser experience where no improvement was noticed. I was left patchy and unfinished, specifically upper lip, corners of mouth and both sides of chin and a few stragglers here and there. These hairs were the ones I could readily see. Once I had stopped shaving having had a number of electrolysis hours I also started to notice the finer hairs that were present. These are the hairs that you won’t notice whilst you are still shaving. They are finer, lighter and they grow slower and they don’t generally notice until you’ve stopped shaving and they have a little time to rear their pesky heads. This is the second difficult annoying period of treatment. The first being early in treatment when you don’t think any progress is being made and this one being when you think you’re nearing the end of treatment only to realise that there’s more hairs to deal with that you weren’t even aware of. I think Mike details this in one of his books, when I read it, it made sense straight away based on my own experiences and observations. I was assured that I could be cleared with laser and for what it’s worth I think the lady who completed my treatments actually believed this, I certainly did in the early days.
Something else which I should probably point out as well for reasons that I wont go to deeply in to. Around this time I was taking steps to remove testosterone from my system and I believe this had a helping hand in preventing re-growth or activation of any new or resting follicles. Not all guys attempting to remove their beard for whatever reason will have this advantage so my own experience with laser may well not be typical and possibly any results achieved not as partially successful…
t4ngent when you’re doing electrolysis on your chest take regular breaks once you start getting up towards your chin or you could end up boss eyed, there’s a couple of spots where a third hand is useful too, if you can get one grafted on temporarily it may prove useful :wink: Hope things go well for you :slight_smile:

#16

Yes, there will be a major regrowth in areas that are apparently bald now.
Christina Navarrete will curse a dozen times before she has controlled these areas. :wink: