thank u benji and lagirl
…and the quest continues!
hello all. its been a while since i posted here. so since the last time i posted and that last laser treatment was pretty useless as most of you pointed out lol. i did experience some small bald spots 3 months later but right now the hair is all back like nothing happened.
anyway!
tomorrow am going to see this place thats pretty far from my house. urg. she uses a GentleLASE plus and has multiple spot sizes including the 18 mm. She charges 75$ for under arms which is what am getting. When i called she was very nice and bubbly and i told her that i had given up on hair removal becuase of alot of past bad experiences and she told me not too. i told her i did alot of research and said a few things about what i know and she made a comment about that i was absolutely right and that she should hire me to work with her! haha. she told me that this one will work and that i will find myself lasering my whole body eventually becuase of great results (as i told her thats a dream of mine to eventually be fully hairfree everywhere). i told her my wedding was very soon and she told me to come in as soon as possible… tomorrow! i’ll shave tonight before tomorrow’s appointment.
wish me luck!
and thanks all again for all your help.
btw this place was recommended by Muci!! 
thank you very much! hopefully all will be ok. 
ok so today i went in for my appointment.
the lady was super nice and was very interested in me. i was kinda early so i filled out the forms and read a book while i waited. then when i went in we had a nice little chat about my career and her future plans and she was interested in me joining her hehe. aside from that, she told me that i was a IV skin because of my ethnic background (mediteranian) but i have thick coarse dark hairs. oh she has 15 years experience with working with laser at numerous places and now has her own place.
I did the underarms and below the triangle space below the belly botton (the treasure trail i guess is the term). No private area.
She used Gentelase plus (alex) at 18 mm spot size, 8 (minimum setting). she used the minimum becuase she said it was my first time and she wanted to see how i would react first and to avoid discolouration. I felt some pain but it was very tolerable. below the belly was more painful than underarms but it was quick. the whole procedure probably took 30 mins. i smelt burning hair the whole time. i liked that! and she did too lol
i feel fine now. there is no redness or irritation. I wish i could have told her to go higher lol. i dont mind more pain if i can garantee high kill rate!
I was instructed to put aleo vera or polysporin at home. she told me she wanted to see me in about a month. i told her if that was too soon and she said in her experience with her clients and this machine that one month was good. hmmm. ok.
i told her if i will experience shedding in about 3 weeks, she told me it will start as soon as 1 week.
she knows am leaving end of june so she said she can get in another treatment before i left (before my wedding).
So my fingers are crossed and am going to see what will happen the next few weeks.
I told her if this works for me i’ll keep seeing her. and might even do the rest of my body when i have more money. if not then ciao!
she promised it will work for me. will see!
your input is valuable to me!
-rachel
Hi Rachelle,
Sorry…I no longer recommend this place due to missed areas.
If treatment is done properly you shouldn’t go back in 4 weeks. 8 joules is kind of low… and I don’t know if your skin type is suitable for this machine. I am sure others will be able to elaborate on this.
Muci
oh nooooooooooooooooo. i screwed up again!!!
thanks muci. i also thought the 4 weeks was wayyy to early too but the lady told me it wasnt. Even when i try to tell them otherwise they convince me they are right. and after 15 years u would think they are experts and more knowledgeable. and she promised! I really hope something works :S
i seriously feel real low right now if all this was another useless visit and waste of money!
. i am very unhappy at the moment.
8 joules is pretty useless, unfortunately. If you’re going to be going back, you need to make sure to be treated at at least 14-16j on 18mm spot size. She can test your skin, for free, to see how it reacts. If you’re too dark for those settings, you’ll need to look for someone with a Yag machine instead, like GentleYAG.
And yes, you need to go every 8-12 weeks. 4 weeks is way too early.
I wouldn’t get discouraged. It sounds like she was nice - so why not call her and explain that you felt you didn’t get your hard earned money’s worth at such a low setting. Tell her what you have learned on the forums and that 8j is not high enough to affect the hair permanently. See if she will redo it for free. It’s a small area and only takes a few mins to do.
thanks so much Lagirl! am so glad u replied my thread. Am such a shy person when it comes to confrontations but u encouraged me and so i will call the place tomorrow and tell them that i feel the settings were way to low and did nothing and i would like a redo. I have a feeling she’ll say why didnt i say anything during treatment. :S but i cant get anything until next week casue this week i am way to busy and get off work 7pm when they are closed! i hope it wont be too late if i go in next monday.
thanks lagirl! i will report back what they tell me. good luck to me!
ok i called the lady today and i told her that i felt the settings where way too low for me and she said that i could come in to have it redone. i told her over the phone that i would prefer a 14j for the 18mm and she said that was way to high for my skin and pigmentation. I had 8j with the 18mm done on me by the gentlase plus machine. so am going back on monday and she’s going to show me the settings am going to try her to get to as close as 14 as possible. will a 10 or 12 do? she’s convinced that because of my skin pigmentation 14 is too high for me. she’s been doing this for 15 years. i want to give her the benefit of a doubt here. after all she did see my skin and hair.
i hope it works out! am still kinda confused about the 4 weeks till next treatment. that seems a bit too close. anyway. will update when the time comes
back to work!
The problem is that if your skin cannot handle 14-16j setting without burning, this machine is not right for you. You would need to find someone with a Yag type of laser. Why doesn’t she spot test a few areas at 16j and see how it goes. If you burn, you’ll need to switch locations. There is no point to get treated with low settings on a machine that’s meant for lighter skin since low settings won’t cause permanent damage to the hair. That’s why the Yag machines were created.
Hi Rachel,
Unless you need a Yag laser, I can’t recommend any clinics in Toronto. I do recommend those 2 places in Ancaster:
http://www.ancasterspa.com/Laser.php
This one I tried it and recommend. They use the Candela GentleLASE.
This one I never tried but I spoke to the laser technician/certified electrologist(a contributer of this Website)who was recommend by other members of Hairtell: http://www.ancasterdermatology.com/about.htm (they use the Light sheer which might be better for your skin type).
Hope this can help you or anyone else.
Muci
LHR has only been around for 10 years, so the laser tech couldn’t have been working in the LHR business for 15 years.
Just an observation.
Kind regards,
Benji
rachelle may actually need a Yag laser. So that recommendation may help her.
hello all again! thanks so much for your posts and recommendations muci.
thank you lagirl. i am looking into yag lasers. i did not think i was that dark lol. my friends call me pale but i guess its the underlying pigment i have from my ethnic background.
thank you benji boy! good observation! wow hehe.
ok i wanted to update. i went back on monday for the lady to redo. we managed to go up to 12. i know lagirl said 14 minimum but we jumped from 8 to 12 and that was like too much for the tech to do lol. i kept pushing to go higher and then at 12 i was like ok thats painful enough might as well just stay there and see what happens.
i got no burns no reactions. before i went in i noticed the abdomen hairs were coming out very easily when i pulled on them (is that shedding?). the underarms not so much. then i went to get the areas redone on monday and am going to moniter what happens in the coming weeks.
i dont want to go back to her. she has me booked for june 22 which doesnt make sense. 3 weeks!! noway. am going to call a week before and let her know that i cant make it. when i get back from my wedding i’ll check out muci’s recommendation.
thanks all so much for your advice and help. much appreciation!
love,
R
sounds good. 12 should not be too bad as long as she used 18mm spot size.
shedding takes abotu 2-3 weeks. so let us know what happens.
hello all!
its been two weeks exactly since my last laser session (it was a redo of my under arms and treasure trail.
if u remember, i went in first time 3 weeks ago for the first time and was treated with a gentlase plus with 18 mm spot size at 8. i wasnt happy with that and with the encouragment from the lovely ppl in hairtell i mustered up enough courage to call and ask for a redo at a higher setting. so i went in a week later (two weeks ago) and had it redone at 12 setting with 18 mm spot size. i was pushing for 14 but thats what the lady was comfortable doing and i started to feel it more painful so i said thats enough too lol.
so anyway right now. life is gooooooooooooooood! looool. there’s no hair growth at all, except maybe a few random hairs that maybe were missed by the laser, but they are maybe like 2%-5% of the whole area. what is there however are pepper spots (black dots of where the hairs are). i tried pulling at a few hairs and MOST of them come out easily (no plucking sensation). am not sure how am supposed to know if shedding occured.
if shedding does occur does that mean the pepperspots disappear?
running my hand the skin feels soft. for two weeks i would have something to shave by now. but it doesnt feel prickly at all. but there are black spots and the area is not “clear” if that makes any sense. but am pretty impressed with the no hair growth so far.
right now she got me booked for june 22. :S i had my appointment june 2 i believe. am thinking of cancelling because from what i learned at hairtell appointments should be spaced 6-8 weeks apart… plus at this moment, there’s nothing to shave. the hair hasnt come out yet.
love to hear ur input. thanks all!
You should wait another week. There may be more shedding. Also, try exfoliating. Pepperspots are dead hairs stuck in the follicles. Some will still shed but will take longer or some will have to be burned off at the next treatment. Exfoliating can help get them out.
Treatment spacing should actually be 8-12 weeks apart for this area. Just wait until you see enough hair come in before you go in again. It probably won’t be at least until 8 weeks since your last one.
Hi rachelle, any chance you could tell me which clinic you went to the first time?