have anyone experience with this machine? how are the results? it seems very promising. at least for the pain management. thanks for replies.
have anyone experience with this machine? how are the results? it seems very promising. at least for the pain management. thanks for replies.
I hope to try this new machine two days from today! If not then I will try it next week. I am very curious about this new machine and I will report back as soon as I try it.
For anyone that is interested in more information on the Aesthera, you can check it out the Aesthera website .
My practitioner is looking to buy a new optical hair removal machine and the reps are doing demos so I am fortunate enough to try some different machines. The rep that handles this device claims it is by far the best he has ever seen. He used to work for Lumenis (Lightsheer). He is not a real big fan of Nd:YAG lasers. As far as pure laser devices, he says the Lightsheer is the best. I am just repeating these comments FWIW.
RJC2001
I finally got to try the PPx today. It is a new concept in optical hair removal. It uses blue-green wavelengths instead of infrared. Melanin absorption is highest in the shorter blue green wavelenths. What makes the PPx unique is the pneumatic technology. It draws a vacuum pulling on the skin and stretching it before the blue-green pulses are fired. The pulling and stretching brings the target hairs closer to the surface where they are more easily treated. The principle is illustrated here as high photon efficiency .
During this session I had my lower legs treated up to the knee. Before my appointment I shaved my legs clean with an M3 Power razor. There was almost zero pain. It does feel different as you can feel the suction has the vacuum is drawn and the skin is stretched. A slight warm sensation is also felt. Treatment was rapid with the large spot size. There are at least three different spot sizes. The smaller sizes are needed depending on body part. If you are doing near the edge of the chin, you need a smaller tip so there is a tight seal so there can be a vacuum. The larger tips are used for the legs, back, chest, etc. Where the follicles are deeper, like they are in the chin, a stronger vacuum is drawn.
I do feel that the hair was targeted. While a felt no pain during the actual treatment, I did get that sunburn feeling after the treatment. Surprisingly, there was no post- treatment redness. So maybe the PPx does do a better job of targeting the hair more specifically. I was told to expect shedding within 4 weeks, maybe a little bit longer.
We also did some test spots on my chin where the other lasers and IPL devices missed the hair. This will be a very interesting comparison. The follicles here are deeper and if the advantage of the pneumatic technology will be seen anywhere, it should be in this area.
My first impressions of the PPx are favorable. It did seem to target the hair while causing almost no pain. I won’t know much about long term results for a few weeks. It is claimed that this device will work better on finer hairs than the Nd:YAG lasers and my practitioner agrees. She said she could see the finer hairs being more affected by the PPx than other devices.
Next week I will be trying the Cutera Prowave 770 and/or Coolglide on my arms and neck. It uses a combination of wavelengths including 1064nm. It is also claimed to work on finer hairs. It will be an interesing comparison.
An overview of the PPx technology can be found here .
For more detailed information, check out some of the clinical papers .
If you are concerned about pain during laser treatments, the PPx device is worth checking out. I will post updates as necessary. I can’t wait to see how this works.
RJC2001
RJC, the PPX seems to be great. I really would like to try it. Í live in New York and I hope to find someone here that uses it. Can you tell me in which city do you live??? I would definitely travel there just to have a PPX treatment… Something tells me that this machine should help me get rid of my hairs. I’ve had many treatments done with different lasers but there are parts of my body that didn’t respond very well to the laser, probably because my hair follicles are very deep. The PPX looks very promissing. I’m eager to hear from you about the results of this treatment.
I just had a demo and my practitioner only had the machine for a day. She is waiting to see how her clients that were treated with it respond. Only time will tell.
RJC2001
I also live in NYC/Boston and would like to try this… I tried laser removal using a standard laser and I had trouble dealing with the pain. The laser seems to work well on my skin though, the hair regrowth was significantly less and slower on the patch that was able to be treated.
I’ve been looking around for a center, but have not had any luck yet.
I really need hair removal on my face… I’m a woman, but I have pretty much a full beard that needs to be shaved 1-2x/day.
you can also use a numbing cream with a regular laser if pain is too much. have you considered that?
I just heard the other day that the use of numbing cream on the beard for laser treatments can lead to significant swelling.
RJC2001
I asked for a topical anesthetic prior to my second laser treatment a few weeks ago—this was upper lip, chin and under the chin. The tech applied it about a half hour before hand. It DID help somewhat with the pain and I did not experience any more swelling on those areas than I would have otherwise.(I have had two other treatments without anesthetic.) The only bothersome thing was that some of it got on my lips and they were numb for a couple of hours.
My trick to dealing with pain…and I do this when I get blood drawn, dental work, etc is to clench my fists and dig my fingernails into my palms. This pain distracts me from other pain. weird, I know, but very effective.
The pain I was describing was after an hour treatment with EMLA, applied by the technician and wrapped.
I noticed a red irritated rash on my face from the EMLA (in parts that she didn’t get to with the laser, that lasted about two days. For 8 hours after the treatment, even after washing for a long time, I found my face burning quite a bit. Again, this happened in areas not treated with the laser.
Can’t seem to find anyone in the US that has an Aesthera system and a website… Is there a listing of any sort?
It’s a new device so it’s going to be hard to find practitioners right now.
The closest thing I can find is this:
You will probably have to save the PDF files to your hard drive before you can read them.
Hope this helps.
RJC2001
RJC2001 I know you ve tried PPX and i think it’s a little to early to tell the results but what is your opinion so far? I will try this ppx soon on my beard shaping because it doesn’t live redness after treatment and It’s important cuz I work most day so dont wont to be red on my face. I guess I am lucky to have a 2 techs who use this machine. Ive seen pictures they are really impresive and if it works very good on lighter brown hair that will be great.
I am finishing doing my lover body and now will focus on face and arms upper urms and shoulders
thanks
Hi
i am a new user, i havent had anything done yet, jsut in the reseach phase…i am located in dubai, uae and most of the places offer the lightsheer, most by lumesin(sp?). I’ve read all the posts back until october and quite a few mention the pain factor involved with this laser, along with triggered hair growth…im not sure what my skin type is, im moderately fair, as in i dont burn easily, but do tan alright, and my hair is extremely thick… this is my upper lip and chin area. does the laser really hurt a lot? and if i get numbing creme on it isnt it possible to sustain major burns cuz i wont notice the pain? (just refering to the article on hairfacts.com about the woman sueing the ppl that did her lhr and scared her legs with 2nd degree burns…
I’ve booked a couple of consultations to check out the people and places that offer this…and am quite nervous about goin in for laser. Would you happen to know if this ppx thing is offered in the UAE or not?
Also an unrealted question…how many patch tests can i get done at one time? like two frm two diff lasers the same day? how close can the patches be? and how long should i wait before i decide on a particular laser/practitioner?
Also am slightly freaked out aboout the fact that the hair has to be in growth phase when i get it done…does that mean i have to run around for weeks with a mustasche and beard (and belive you me it looks scary) until i can get it done?? can i atleast bleach it? also in between treatments when it starts growing back can i thread or wax it out?? i’ve been threading/waxing those areas for many many years and now the hair has grown thicker and comes back faster! also i have this really unattractive greenish shaddow even when the hair is gone…urgh!!! help!!!
LightSheer should be a good laser for you if you are in fact light-skinned. Google a Fitzpatrick chart. If you’re type IV or lighter, LightSheer should be fine as long as they can use 25 joules and up on you. You can get as many test patches as the techs will do for free <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> You do need to have the hair be IN THE FOLLICLES for the laser to treat it. That’s why you can’t wax, pluck, thread, etc (any method that removes hair with root) for at least 5-6 weeks. You CAN however shave or trim the hair. As long as the roots are still there, it’s fine. Shaving doesn’t make the hair thicker btw, it’s an old wives tale. So don’t be afraid of that. Waxing and threading does on the other hand for a lot of people as you have experienced.
Getting patch tests is done to determine how high of settings your skin can handle without burning (treatment at highest settings is best for ultimate best results). After getting them done, you wait 2-3 weeks to see if shedding occurs as it should.
If you are darker than a type III and your hair is dark and coarse, Yag laser might also work on you. So you can do a test patch with that. But if your skin can handle LightSheer at 25-30 joules, I would go with it first because it’s a more powerful laser, especially on finer hairs.
RJC2001 I know you ve tried PPX and i think it’s a little to early to tell the results but what is your opinion so far? I will try this ppx soon on my beard shaping because it doesn’t live redness after treatment and It’s important cuz I work most day so dont wont to be red on my face. I guess I am lucky to have a 2 techs who use this machine. Ive seen pictures they are really impresive and if it works very good on lighter brown hair that will be great.
I am finishing doing my lover body and now will focus on face and arms upper urms and shoulders
thanks
It is still too early to tell. I would definitely encourage you to at least get a test spot on your beard to see how it reacts. There is no pain so they can crank it up at least on the test spot.
I had another test spot today with a Cutera ProWave 770. It was on program A and it was considerably more painful. I could smell beard hair burning. It was really red at first but the redness disappeared. Judging by the way it felt, I think I will be losing some more of my beard.
There was so little pain with the Aesthera I just have to wait to see the results. I did have a test spot on my beard with it and my practitioner is very interested in how it responds. I did let my beard grow over Christmas and the spots treated with the Aesthera were not growing/growing out at all. So maybe the hair was singed I’m not sure.
RJC2001
I sent an email to the doctor at the laser center I went for my treatment - GentleLase … if he would want to take a look at Aesthera … He came back with the following reply…
Thank you for the information – I am aware of this company. We like using true laser and not filtered light as there can be some problems associated with filter light.
He did not say what are the problems though!!
RJC2001 I think I am going to go with it although I don’t like the idea it’s a ipl not a laser. They say that laser targets specific deepness where Light source not. I want to try PPX because like you said there was no redness after treatment right?
Have you tried a Yag instead? I believe RC2001 has had minimal redness on the face when treated with a Yag, especially the Lyra model.
thanks lagirl!
i googled and i think i fall inbetween III and IV. Have my first consultation tommrow…thanks for the advise on how many joules they should start me out with (25). If the doctor himself is doing the procedure, and hes certified, but not experienced with this laser should it still be ok? cuz they just got this machine so i dont think they’ve used it too much…should i go for it or wait till they get more experience with this? or is it like you use one laser you’ve used them all?
thanks again.
most important thing is that they are experienced in hair removal in particular. i.e. they know how to treat on best intervals, aware of hair growth cycles, can manipulate settings, and know how to figure out how to use highest settings that your skin can handle. Also, make sure they use short pulse if it’s LightSheer. If they’re using long pulse, even higher joules are needed.
if your hair is coarse, Yag laser will work as well without a chance of burning at high settings.