Post Consultations - Insight Needed

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

I’ve completed consults and test patches at 3 providers now. The first consult was with a Lightshear laser and I ended up with the skin being discolored and pink/red in the treated area 5 weeks later still. Needless to say that place is a no go for me. I was surprised that this happened since I’ve heard a lot of local people express satisfaction with this place. Perhaps the technician was a little over aggressive with the settings for me.

Spa A was a Gentlase laser. She did a test patch on one thigh at 14J and the other thigh at 16J. She also did a 14J area on my neck. The atmosphere was better here. When I came out about being trans. She was light and airy and said she’s treated plenty of them and said we will have fun and joke around. This spa wanted to see the results at 5 weeks and scheduled a follow up appointment with me. This spa is located with a dermatologists office. One concern I had was that I had 4 days worth of hair growth that she did not shave. She also seemed to go so quick with treatment that it seemed like she would at times lift the laser up as the shot was going. This might have just been my imagination though since it all happened so fast. Are these two area’s something that I should be concerned about?

Spa B was also a Gentlase. She did 3 shots on my stomach. One at 10J, 12J and 14J. She said she wants to be careful and not go to high of a setting for me. She said we can get just an effective treatment at 10J as 14J. I questioned this since that really doesn’t make much sense. Wouldn’t we want to go with as high of a setting as possible without any skin damage? She said she can see it is effective because the spot turned red after she shot it with 10J. This spa was located in a hair care salon. The atmosphere wasn’t as nice as spa A and the tech. seemed a bit hesitant about discussing the buttocks treatment area after I had told her I was trans.

Finally Cost: This is where it gets really tricky…

Spa A will be more cost effective for 6 or 12 Beard treatments, 6 Bikini treatments, 6 or 12 Buttocks treatments, 6 Stomach/Back treatments.

Spa B will be more cost effective for 6 & 12 Thigh treatments, 12 Bikini treatments, 12 Stomach/Back treatments.

So there is no clear hands down winner. Should I negotiate more or should I just go ahead and mix and match? I’m just concerned that they will be irritated with me if I mix and match plus it is more of a hassle for me to keep track of the two appointments.

Any insight from someone more experience would be greatly appreciated!

#2

"She said she can see it is effective because the spot turned red after she shot it with 10J. "

Those red spots tell the technician that whatever setting she used was enough because the hair was able to reach it’s boiling point. Sure you can tell her to go higher to be sure but it will hurt more and not likely to give you more results.

#3

So there is no gray area? Either a follicle is damaged completely or not? Is there no such thing as partially damaged? How does the technician know that we have 100% damage vs. 50%?

#4

No one can tell you anything is for sure about a hair being 100% or 50% gone. That is something one discovers after a year to a year and a half of treatments and then you can draw some conclusions by observing an area. Follicles can be partially disabled with some hair germ cells left behind. This applies for light-based systems and electrolysis. The hair germ cells that are left behind will grow back as thinner and usually lighter hairs. With electrolysis, we zap and disabled those thinner hairs, but with LASER, doesn’t work this way. LASER cannot “see” thin hair or light colored hair and thus, is a waste of money to keep trying and hoping for results.

#5

So then in theory to attempt to get the most out of my treatments and money I should expect to get treated with the highest joules setting that doesn’t cause any major skin issues beyond 3 days?

#6

Yes, but then again, you can’t know on the time of treatment if you got a burn or not, you might notice it some days later. That’s the whole idea, get results without the injury.

#7

Those settings do not provide enough info. Without a spot size, they’re meaningless. Can you find the spot size out that was used?

(Though even on the largest 18mm spot size, all those settings are too low to be effective. If you can’t handle at least 16J on 18mm, you should be using a diode or a Yag instead).