Please read this first before starting IPL or Laser hair removal

thinou · January 22, 2020, 12:52pm

You can end up hairier after laser/IPL sessionS !!!

I have more & more clients came to me for electrolysis after laser & IPL hair removal failure.

In many cases, laser & IPL can provide significant hair reduction if done properly without clients ended up with more hair. But it is painful & Hair FOLLICLES need to show the sign of inflammation few minutes after Laser or IPL. But how many would want to undergo through this, so many ended up with painless or less painful treatments.

To prevent or minimise paradoxical hypertrichosis, the following should be avoided:
– Avoid having any laser/IPL treatments over area where there is no hair & where there is vellus, fine hair.
– Avoid having undertreatments by ensuring that your HAIR FOLLICLES become inflamed few minutes after the light beam hitting u. The more pronounced follicle inflammation the better & the sign to indicate some damage to hair follicles. But not too high the setting that burn you, therefore patch test is super duper important.

For more info, please visit => https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/all-client-need-know-laser-hair-removal-nora-tang/
or
https://electrolysislasertreatments.blogspot.com/2019/01/electrolysisvs-laser-hair-removal_22.html

I wish more people come to read the info I posted before starting their very first laser/IPL treatment, including DIY

strepsils · September 18, 2020, 9:07am

Hey thinou,

Thanks for sharing this information. Did you have any examples of what signs of hair follicles showing inflammation may look like? I can’t find what I should be looking out for anywhere online (not sure if perifollicular edema is correct according to the LinkedIn link you provided)

I’d like to compare on myself to see if I’m getting it done correctly

Thanks !!

Atari82 · September 19, 2020, 7:50am

Hi strepsils,

I’ve been getting LHR with the Candela Gentlemax Pro for quite a while now, almost 2 years now, and when I get mine done i get mainly perifollicular edema right away like 2 mins after the treatment area gets treated. You also should feel very slightly rough or raised skin when running your hand over the treated areas a little bit after the treatment. Sometimes i dont see a lot of perifollicular edema or signs until very later in the day after the treatment. If you scratch your skin a bit afterwards you may trigger this edema or signs to show up more prominently, so i guess thats a good way to check also. Also while getting treated you should defintley feel some sort of prominent feeling of a rubber snap and some pain (more pain usually occurs depending on how far into the treatment you are).

strepsils · September 19, 2020, 11:44pm

Hi Atari82,

I’ll try to look out for those signs next times
Yeh, I definitely feel a rubber snap and heat when I’m being treated now, before I never did (i assume is being undertreated).
So do you think the pain should continuously increase over the course of the treatments?

Thanks

thinou · September 20, 2020, 1:03am

Depending on the colour of your hair vs skin and the hair density & diameter, the good effective result is when the follicles show damage (raised follicular bumps with redness imilar to mozzie bites) few minutes (up to 5-6 min) after laser beam. Hair should fall out within a week or two after each session.

Not much follicle inflammation can indicate either under treatment or your hair color, density or diameter is too light

Treatment can b painful at the time only when laser hit, with no lingering pain or heat FEW SECONDS after the hit

thinou · September 20, 2020, 1:57am

Effective treatment is painful (with no lingering pain&/or heat)!

Not many r happy with temporarily follicular inflammation, even if that indicates good effective result. => That’s the reason why clients need to understand this. Consultation & patch test r also necessary.
Clients need to understand that angry red bumpy follicles and sometime scabbing around 48 hrs after the treatment session indicate good effective result.

No follicular inflammation = no result => Wait for around 3-4 months without having any hair removal treatments, hair or even more hair will enventually grow back. If clients keep having undertrearment every month, how can they tell they r hving good reduction result without any follicular damages?

strepsils · September 20, 2020, 4:09pm

I feel pain during each zap with lingering pain of like 1-2 seconds

But I never noticed any redness in the area neither shedding (which i assume will look patchy), does this indicate that I’m being undertreated? The only thing I notice is thin lighter hairs growing out of the spot that used to have darker thick hairs (maybe this is shedding?)

This is exactly what happened to my shoulders, back, arms and upper chest I believe, where I got more hairs especially in areas i never had any I keep telling the person doing my treatments that I’m not bothered by pain, I’d only be worried if it’s too high settings resulting in blisters/burns/hyperpigmentation

Thanks!

Atari82 · September 23, 2020, 12:38am

Hi again strepsils,

Yes the pain should gradually get a bit more but still it depends what energy they started on and if they’re going up in energy every successive treatment or every other one or something like that. The first few treatments and energies might not be even a bit painful (again depending on the energy they start on). But once you get past like 5 or 6 or more treatments you should feel some pain atleast (if youre really pain tolerant then maybe not? but most people should feel some pain after 6 treatments and defintley after 9 or 10 if you get that far or need that many). Its always hard to know for sure that’s why i feel like you should always go to a reputable and really highly rated laser clinic because there are so many factors and different responses etc…

strepsils · September 23, 2020, 2:06am

Hey again Atari82
Have you experienced successful results using the pain as possible indicators? (although I understand it’s hard to tell as generally need to wait 4 months+ or so to see for regrowths)

And yeah the place I go to appears to be reputable, Silk Laser Clinic in Australia but majority of reviews are of people saying they’ve seen results after a few weeks from a few sessions (as they have not waited long enough to see for regrowths), where I was very unlucky and got stimulated growth

Thanks

thinou · September 23, 2020, 5:37am

Light properties, such as reflection and absorption, is SOLELY based on COLOR. This principle also applies to virtually all light technology & devices such as laser, LLLT, IPL, LED, diode & etc.

Based on this principle, it is essential to apply the most effective laser energy settings, especially during very first few treatment sessions while hair is the most coarse, thick & dense to obtain the most reduction result. The later sessions, the less the reduction results because paler colour can absorb less light, thus less effective. Thus, initial patch test is super important to ensure your therapist can use high settings but not overtreat you.

For more info => https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/all-client-need-know-laser-hair-removal-nora-tang/

thinou · September 23, 2020, 6:16am

Subject: Light therapy for non-scarring hair loss (alopecia)

IPL & LED refers to devices that emit a band of spreading & incoherent wavelengths of light.

Laser refers to devices that are made to produce a single wavelength of light which has more concentrated energy. Laser is non-spreading, thus it was used to measure the distance between earth and moon, as for an example.

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Diode is spreading but single wavelength. Thus to counter effect of this spreading, diode must be applied directly skin contact, in attempt to imitate laser devices.

Low-level laser and low dosages of IPL, LED, diode & whatever terms they want to come up hv been used to stimulate hair growth for people with non-scarring alopecia.

There’s a study published by a dermatologist showing evidences at molecular, cellular, and tissue level that LLLT significantly increased hair stem cells, reversed the miniturisation process of the hair follicles and stimulated hair growth. [Reference: Panchaprateep, R., Pisitkun, T., & Kalpongnukul, N. (2019). Quantitative Proteomic Analysis of Dermal Papilla From Male Androgenetic Alopecia Comparing Before and After Treatment With Low-Level Laser Therapy. Lasers in Surgery and Medicine, 51, 600-608. https://doi.org/10.1002/lsm.23074

Currently to treat alopecia, low level light treatment alone isn’t as effective as topical minoxidil + low level light therapy as for an example. It take at least frequent treatments of low dose light therapy + topical minoxidil for at least 6-12 months for the clients to start seeing the result of hair regrowth. Treatments r not one-off, but require continuation for the rest of life.

Doesn’t this imply that multiple sessions of under-treatments of hair removal by low levels/doses of light therapy can also stimulate hair growth, instead of removing/reducing it?