Questioning the place I go to for laser treatments

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

Hi everyone!

I’ve decided to come for help because I’m starting to get frustrated by the results of laser hair treatment on my legs.

I am Middle Eastern, with dark hair and light olive skin that tans fairly easily (but I’ve also gotten some pretty bad sunburns in my life). So I’m guessing I’m somewhere between a type III and type IV.

I’ve been going to this spa in Los Angeles for a few years now for laser treatments. They use the Lightsheer Diode, which from what I’ve read is probably the best laser for my skin? They did my bikini line and it worked really well, so I decided to start treatments for my legs in the winter of 2007.

Problem is, now I’m 11 treatments into it and I still have about 30% of the hair on my lower legs and about 60% on my upper legs!!

Here are some possible issues I have with this place, and I’m hoping you guys can help me reach a conclusion about whether or not I should continue with them, or find a different place.

*For the first 4 or 5 treatments, the nurse was using settings between 16 and 18 Joules, which I have now realized were too low. I was getting decent shedding, but I’m guessing the hairs were not being killed off permanently. I’m now suspicious that they do this in order to keep their clients coming back longer.

*The nurse glides the laser over my skin pretty quickly. I’m never really quite sure whether she’s got everything, because there’s not too much method to her movements. She just figures she’ll overlap areas enough so that she’ll get a good amount of the hairs overall. Should she be more methodical, or is this how most technicians work the Diode?

*Because of her methodology that I described above, I usually end up with patches that she’s missed. It’s annoying, but usually I don’t say anything. One time though, I would say nearly 30-40% if the hairs on my upper legs didn’t shed after 3 weeks. The hairs that remained were very patchy, so it was pretty obvious that she had missed the areas. I called back and made an appointment to see her about this. When I got there, she informed me that they do not do touchups, and that she had gone over my legs adequately and doesn’t understand why the hairs remained. I pay $350 for a full leg treatment, and after speaking to her manager she ended up charging me another $100 to do a 10 minute touchup of the parts that she missed. I was livid after this, but I had bought a package with them so I was forced to continue with them after this situation.

*They tell me to come back every 6 weeks, I don’t listen and have been returning every 8 weeks. Are they just trying to get me to come in more often?

I’m done with the package I bought with them, so I can find a different place if I want. I’d want to continue here simply because I feel comfortable with the nurse that has been treating me. Finding a new hair removal place is a stressful process so I’ve been putting it off! But in staying, I’m scared I might be throwing money away.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

#2

You’re correct in your assessment. The issues are settings (WAY low even if the pulse width is on the low end) and gliding (and also treatment spacing - basically shows that it’s not working at all). No way you’ll get permanent results with those settings on LightSheer. And yes, gliding makes her miss spots.

You need to find another clinic. You should try an alex laser and see if you can handle high enough settings. On GentleLASE alex, if you can handle 16j on 18mm spot size without burning, you should go for it. If not, you can also go for a Yag laser.

It also matters how coarse your hair is at this point. Most women’s upper leg hair is not that coarse enough to begin with. You should only expect good results on the very coarse hair, like that on the bikini line. Btw, how long has it been since your last treatment there? How much is gone? Were the same settings used?

Los Angeles has hundreds of clinics. Please run a search here using the Advanced Search feature and expand to 1-2 years to find a bunch of reviews. Have consultations and do test spots.

Legs have very long hair cycles. You shouldn’t have anything to treat at 6 weeks. Treatments on this area are really not necessary more than once every 12 weeks if they’re actually effective.

#3

Thanks LAgirl.

She used 16-18 joules only for the first few sessions. Since then, she’s steadily progressed to higher and higher settings. The highest I’ve been able to tolerate without feeling lots of pain is 26 joules, but we’ve been fluctuating between 24 and 25 the last couple of times because I got a bit of a tan over the summer.

I just got off the phone with her to ask about the settings she uses on me, and she said that she never manually sets the pulse width, she just uses auto. She guessed that for 24-26 joules, the machine automatically uses somewhere between 10-12 ms pulse. Also, she wasn’t absolutely sure of the spot size, she thought it was somewhere between 9 and 10 and said it never varied. But she was saying all of this stuff off the top of her head, so I don’t complete trust the accuracy of her statements.

My last treatment was exactly 7 weeks ago, and I had a pretty high regrowth rate by 6 weeks. So basically, am I to understand that even if there is a good amount of shedding (let’s say 80%) by 3 weeks, but a lot grows back by 6 weeks, then the treatment wasn’t effective?

I am considering switching to the Alexandrite, but will it work ok on light olive skin (as long as I wait for my tan to fade)? Also, you’ve mentioned in a few posts that the Lightsheer is difficult to get good results with because a lot of technicians don’t use the correct settings nor the right technique. I know the fixed pulse width of the Alexandrite leaves less room for error, but what about technique? Is there also less room for error there?

#4

Auto setting on LightSheer is 40ms, so it’s a pretty high pulse width. To compare, GentleLASE is fixed at 3ms. Really, anything under 25j and under 40ms on LightSheer is not going to produce any permanent results, especially if gliding is used since compression is important with this machine. LightSheer has a fixed spot size. Some machines are 9mm and some 12mm. Sounds like this one is 9mm, which is pretty small as well (compare to 18mm GentleLASE).

With GentleLASE, you’ll have to go and get a test spot and see if your skin would burn at 16j/18mm. If not, you’re good to go. If yes, go for GentleYAG.

On legs, you shouldn’t be experiencing any regrowth for much longer than that. You shouldn’t need treatments more often than once every 12 weeks or so on that area.