REPORT LASER HAIR STIMULATION

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

We have accounts of laser hair stimulation testimonials all over Hairtell in relation to a few areas of the body and face. Laser hair reduction has been available to the consumer market since the late 1990’s and has been remarkably successful in helping the hairy and we are most glad to hear about those successes. This new thread is specific to one side effect, and it is hoped that consumers will report this side effect here, rather than having the information scattered over 94,000 posts on Hairtell. A recent consumer suggested that a page like this be added, Please no bashing, just the facts.

You can copy and paste this, so as to give complete information:

[color:#000099]

Gender:

Age:

Date you started treatment:

Hair color:

Color of Skin (Skin type can be relative, so pictures are much better. It would be much better, and more scientific if we had clear photos of the area being treated before, and the same area after. Close up would be nice- so as to be able to clearly see the hair color and thickness):

Hair Structure:

Area(s) treated:

Name of LASER or IPL (Make, and model of laser, date of manufacture, and software revision- this will give a more clear indication of the particular system’s capabilities.):

Treatment settings (Complete treatment parameters including Energy/cm2, pulse width, repetition rate, cooling method, spot size, and number of passes (if more than one).

Skin reaction:

Shedding?

Did you report increased hair growth to your laser specialist?

Before and After pictures?

***HIGHLY DESIRABLE- Proof of accurate energy output from laser/IPL source- company name, technician name, and date of service within the last 6 months are of the utmost importance. Any medspa who uses third party service should be able to get this info from the company if they do not already have it themselves.

Other comments.[/color]

No detail is too small to mention.

If photo’s need to need to be updated, send to me in a private message or make a new post and I will move them to the original post as you direct.

If you had success in other areas treated with laser, please mention that as well. You can also go to the LASER SUCCESS STORIES link here:

#2

Is it possible to update a post later? I would like to update it with photos.

Let me start:

Started treatment: April/May/June 2010(?)

Skin color: I’m portuguese. I guess my skin is a type III or a little (olive?)

Hair structure: Vellus, thin.

Hair color: Black/dark brown

Area that was treated: Back of the neck, and upper back

Type of laser used: IPL/Laser. 8 IPL sessions on the first clinic (franchise). Bad treatment, treatments every month. It did not seem to make things that worse, barely any shedding. When I switched clinic, I noticed a difference in the settings used. They used ipl and laser. Got shedding and made things really worse. My age is still a factor though. Although I must say I had a very unnaturall look on my back, some patches of longer vellus hair, then don’t. oh well…

Settings if known: First clinic, very low. I can’t say for sure… And I don’t even want to contact them again. Where I am now I was treated with higher settings, although I don’t wanna say any numbers because I might be wrong. I’ll update, I’m going to ask them.

Skin reaction after treatment: As I said, minor irritation following the treatment. Barely any shedding in the first clinic, shedding in the second clinic. One minor detail, in one of the treatments I had where they treated me with laser on the “hair line” on the back of my neck I got these tiny scabs and in a small area the hair took longer to grow. Still it grew, but I think that that area might have been “treated” that time.

When did you notice an increased amount of hair after the starting date? I only got properly informed about all of this after the initial 8 treatments, which made me search for serious options. I would say that the two months space in between treatments opened my eyes to what should have been a hair free time. What I noticed was growth of stronger hairs in all the area treated. And it makes/made a difference from the areas that were not targeted. Really. In one I have absolutely notmal vellus hair and then I have this strange hair that isn’t neither coarse enough but it still seems like a vellus hair, only upgraded lol. a little more dark.

Did you report this to your laser specialist? In the second clinic, yes. I changed treatment to electrolysis.

Before and after pictures? I’ll try to update.

Important factors: age, I’m 19 made a few days ago. Could this be something that was going to happen even if I didn’t had the treatments? How can I be sure? I’m guessing/hopping not, and I saw it happen in front of my eyes, bigger the energy, worse results. AND THE HAIR WAS NOT EVEN CLOSE TO BE SUITABLE TO THESE KIND OF TREATMENTS. THAT SHOULD BE CLEAR.
All I know is that I will follow with electrolysis for now. If the treatment is successfull, which is something I’m eager to know and complete (the 18 months window that I’ve been reading about here).
What happens one year after the treatment if it really has been well performed or what will happen after the very last treatment, I’m hoping to share with you. I hope one day I can put these mistakes behind my back.

Thank you all. You can follow my treatments diary here:

It has some photos, although not the best; and they’re post the laser hair stimulation. Any questions, do ask

#3

Jon,

You can send me pictures by PM or you post them here with instructions to move them to your original post.

Thanks much,

Dee

#4

Posting complaints of laser hair stimulation as I stumble across then from past posts.

"#81167 - Sat Dec 18 2010 08:14 AM Re: Diary of a European guy.
[color:#6600CC]Spaniard[/color]
Contributor

Registered: Sat Aug 28 2010
Posts: 29
I suffered paradoxical hypertrichosis. I don´t know what is the prevalence rate, but I do know what is starting from “a little amount of non desirable hairs” and ending up with “a fistfull more”

The only thing I got rid of, was my money (not so much, fortunately)

Since electrolysis can´t make you hairier, I´m not taking chances about laser anymore.

Just my personal experience.

#5

From 2004:

#16989 - Wed May 12 2004 08:25 PM NEW MEMBER !! LASER QUESTIONS]

[color:#CC33CC]Chuck[/color]

Registered: Wed May 12 2004
Posts: 272
Loc: Kansas City, MO
How’s it going everybody? I just found this board because I was kind of getting fed up with the Kitty’s Consumer Beware board and it’s censorship. I believe this board will be much more non-biased, and will not shoot me if I say nething that the “moderators” don’t believe in. Here is a message from the Kitty board that I copied and pasted because I’m too lazy to type it all over again.

Hello everyone, I’m back again. I have been absent for a little over a couple of months because I was in the wonderful hair-free period after my fifth GentleLase Plus treatment. Once again, it as all came back, in fact, it even looks like there is more. I seem to have much more neck hair, upper arm, and shoulder hair especially. On Monday, I’m going to my SIXTH treatment. This is the start to my free treatments, yes that’s right, I said free. I don’t know how I got so lucky, but I found a tech that has a policy after 5 treatments, re-treatments are free. Boy is he going to feel sorry. I won’t bother to waste your time about my opinions regarding the conspiracies of laser treatment and how it hasn’t worked a darn for long term effects for me. I do have some questions however.

I now realize that long term results will NEVER be achievable for me, so I am just worried about the shedding aspect. MY GOAL - To use laser treatments the rest of my life to create continual hair free periods. What I mean by this is, I would go to the tech every 2 months or so. I used KALO after my irratation from the laser went away after my fifth treatment, and I noticed that for a couple weeks after the hair free period it comes in lighter and MAY lengthen the hair-free period a tad. This is my goal…the hard part is the 2-3 weeks of irratation and pepper spots, but after that, I’m home free for a good six weeks. After those six weeks I will then go back and get another treatment, for the rest of my life. Since my treatments are now free, I am going to utilize only a few free treatments from my tech. I’m going to tell him I’ll pay him $100 or so each treatment to come back indefinitely, being that he guaranteed free treatments after the fifth, I would imagine he’d be more than willing to accept to meet the cost of his time working on me.

I have seen some machines on ebay that advertise long-term hair removal and bla bla bla, but what I’m worried about is what is the CHEAPEST device I can purchase that will enable me to get the hair free period that the GentleLase plus gives me. I’ve also tried the Lyra laser, and the Polamar Este Lux. The Polamar Este Lux gave me a hair free period, but the Lyra did not make one single hair shed. Here is one machine I’ve seen on ebay that claims to be a laser hair removal device.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=11840&item=4167519984&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=3179&item=4167914676&rd=1

Will these devices induce shedding and a total hair free period? This is all I’m looking for, just over and over again, kind of like a “laser waxing” because that’s all laser hair removal is anyways. I’m curious to what causes the hair to shed. Is it the strength of the laser, power, jules… what creates shedding because that’s all I’m interested in.

One more question, long term repeated laser treatments. Has there been any studies? Is it safe to use laser treatments say 5 - 7 times a year for ten years or so? Even if it isn’t good for your skin, well, I’m still going to do it anyways, I just want to see what I’m getting into. Please tell me good news :smile: My hairness is horrible, I look like a 21 year old wearwolf. I have hair everywhere, dark, and thick.

Thank you,

Chuck

#6

Copied and pasted:

#94864 - Today at 01:50 PM Re: How many laser appts before paradox. hypertrichosi
notadelphin
Major Contributor

Registered: Wed Jan 05 2011
Posts: 55
I noticed longer, dark velus hair several months after the only laser treatment I had, at an area of the legs where I only had short velus hair (top part of the thigh).

If you want to be 100% sure, don’t let them lase you unless they use a good laser with strong settings at an area where the hair is dark & wiry like pubic/underarm hair. It should be ok then.

#7

Copied and pasted from a new thread started 2-9-2012. The poster is switching to electrolysis after several treatments with a GentleLase LASER.

Follow DPP progress with electrolysis on his thread: Diary of an Australian boy

#95727 - Yesterday at 02:15 AM Diary of an Australian Boy
DPP
Member

Registered: Mon Sep 05 2011
Posts: 7

My Dear Friends,

You may not know me. I have not been an active member on this forum. But I have been around for over a year now. Following all of you.

This is my story:

I am a 22 year old male of middle eastern background living in Australia. I decided to undergo laser hair removal when I was 19 years old. The areas that I had treated were my arms, facial cheeks, underarms, and shoulders. I had these areas treated with an Alexandrite Gentle Lase machine. On my cheeks I had approximately 20 sessions spaced a month apart. Everywhere else I had approximately 10 sessions spaced 8 weeks apart.

In all the laser sessions, I responded just as I was supposed to. My skin came out in bumps and whelks. This subsided by a day. And I would be left with red bumps all over for the next couple of days. The hairs would then gradually fall out of their own accord over the next few weeks. etc.

[color:#FF0000]Unfortunately, the laser was not only ineffective but the areas treated are now worse than they originally were. The hair is now very dark, and much coarser. Particularly in areas that were not a problem beforehand. For example, my inside forearm hairs which were quite fine before are now very thick and dark. And my shoulders are really bad too. This response was generally noticed everywhere. There are a few small patches on my outer forearm where the laser seems to have killed off a few hairs.

This stimulation is clearly the result of laser because there are clear lines where the laser has traveled and created dark coarse hair next to light fine hairs. [/color]

I stopped after this many treatments and sought advice from doctors. To keep this short and sweet - they had no idea. One even burnt me.

I then sought the help of other laser therapist who may have come into contact with other people like me. No one was sure what had happened. One very experienced therapist had me go for two sessions of laser with her. She claimed that the laser had been on ineffective low settings. She raised the settings to extremely high (unbearable) levels on a Lumenis Lightsheer machine, to the point where I was shaking during treatments. With the help of Emla I had two sessions with her but this was also not very effective. However, I will give it to her, she didn’t burn me.

So by this point I was so upset and frustrated I decided to leave it for two years. But now the hairs are unmanageable. Because they are thick, waxing results in a field of ingrowns, sore bumps, pain etc. And shaving is much the same. And I haven’t worn a t-shirt in two years. Or exercised. I haven’t been happy. I spend most my time worrying about it. And the remaining time plucking. Sleep and awake time. Especially given that I never really had hair anxiety before laser.

But my solace has been this website. It is so comforting to know that this is a shared experience. That I am not the only one who cries. So thank you to all of you here. If it weren’t for you all, I would be in far worse place. Hairtell has been my daily home of optimism for the past year.

So above is the history. I am going to start my diary in the next post :slight_smile:

  • P
#8

Oh, sorry, put this in the wrong place, so now i’ll add it here…

my details aren’t great but here ya go…

Date you started treatment: no idea, a few years ago, and only 1 treatment

Hair color: black

Color of Skin: olive brown

Hair Structure: curly coarse (chin hair)

Area(s) treated: chin

Name of LASER or IPL: Diode i think

Treatment settings, if known: no idea

Skin reaction: i can’t remember, pretty sure it wasn’t good. i feel like i recall brown spots where the gun was placed, hanging around for some time.

Shedding? can’t recall.

Did you report increased hair growth to your laser specialist?

no.

Before and After pictures?

Other comments.

i got treated with what i believe was a diode on my chin from my someone who had no idea what they were doing. (i want to say a few years ago or more).

She placed the gun right below the jaw bone, so at least she knew to be inconspicuous. I could feel it really just feeling way too hot and not right (oh yeah, something like a laser being burned into my skin!),

she did at most 10(?) zaps of the laser when i thanked her and left,

and i’m not sure how much later(a handful of months maybe i think when i noticed, really not sure, sry) i got coarse straight hairs growing right at the top of my neck where it meets the jaw, i have never had them before. It is an absolute fact that i have never had those hairs before b/c they were so straight and coarse out of nowhere, and were totally different than my distorted, curly hairs that i’ve always had.

can’t remember how many, 10? 15? Started as a couple then i actually had to spend time plucking them, so no idea how many in the end, but not too many. I am olive medium brown, this was a few years ago. (i got rid of them with electrolysis recently).

#9

Check out our laser FAQs before starting your brazilian treatments!

#10

yeah, now im highly educated (although i’ve chosen not to learn all the settings) i wasn’t back then. But it’s still quite odd given the amount of treatments i’ve had for it to not be diminished what so ever, even with 5 yags from the same people who did my legs. So it might just be something odd rather than user/practitioner error. Time will tell. :D.

but i’ll pass the faq page on to some ladies i’ve been helping with info about laser, it’s wonderfully comphrehensive.

#11

Poster ‘Portis’ reports laser hair stimulation. Here us the link:

More

#12

I think there needs to be section on this where people can/need to add their age. It’s a little hard to discern how much hair growth is due to laser stimulation and how much is due to growing older/hormones changing/natural causes. Unfortunately, there’s really not enough information here to conclude how much hair growth is due to the laser. For example, when people in their late teens seek LHR (I used to be one of them), can I safely blame the hair growth on the laser? I can’t say that with confidence since my body is still producing hair. Or if someone sees an increase of a few hairs in a spot they didn’t have before? I don’t know if I would constitute <20 hairs as “induced growth.” I do think it’s good information to have on record, but I definitely think there needs to be more scientific studies on this phenomenon.

#13

Thanks. Good points. I just added Gender and Age to the guideline form in the first post on this thread. It looks like this:

[color:#000099]

Gender:

Age:

Date you started treatment:

Hair color:

Color of Skin:

Hair Structure:

Area(s) treated:

Name of LASER or IPL:

Treatment settings, if known:

Skin reaction:

Shedding?

Did you report increased hair growth to your laser specialist?

Before and After pictures?

Other comments.[/color]

#14

From a poster on 3-18-13:

#105489 - Today at 05:18 PM Laser Induced Growth on Upper Arms–PLEASE HELP
Chichigirl13
Member

Registered: Tue Oct 02 2012
Posts: 2
I’ve been obsessively lurking on this website for quite some time now, but have never mustered up the courage to start a post. I have gotten both electrolysis and laser hair removal on a few parts of my face and body and have had good results. I’m an Italian female with dark hair and therefore have been blessed with some dark facial and body hair. When I was about 14 years old (I’m now 24) I got laser hair removal on my forearms. From what I remember I received six treatments and the results were incredible. It removed all but a few fine hairs from my forearms and gave me a newfound sense of confidence at the time. A couple of years ago I started to get very uncomfortable with the hair on my upper arms as well, which was more noticeable than most people’s because it was brown, but it was extremely fine and really only noticeable to me. I became so obsessed with it that finally I decided to get laser hair removal on that hair too, aware that it might not actually remove that hair, but not realizing that it could actually INDUCE worse growth! [color:#FF0000]I received three treatments with no issues at all, and then a couple months after the fourth treatment I noticed more hair was growing back and it was thick, dark, and long.[/color] The woman who does my laser hair removal (and also my electrolysis) is convinced that it is not laser induced hair growth because [color:#FF9900]the hair on my forearms started to grow back in all of a sudden as well, almost 10 years after no growth[/color]. I have seen several doctors and have gotten several blood tests done (no I do not have PCOS even though I suffer from other common symptoms as well such as hair loss and acne). I am also a Registered Nurse so I do know how hormones can affect your body and it seems as if I am perfectly healthy. All I can come up with is that I came off of my birth control last February and it was after my May treatment that I noticed worse growth. I know it sounds like it wasn’t actually the laser that caused the growth on my arms, but I truly feel that even if I do have something going on hormonally, my arms wouldn’t have been affected by it if I had just accepted the fine hair on my arms and not tried to change my appearance with laser hair removal on that area. I have been so extremely depressed from this situation and I resorted to electrolysis last October, and then stopped in December after my electrologist recommended I just stick with laser on such a large area, which I refuse to do. I received a total of ten hours of electrolysis (I believe I received thermolysis with an Apilus) on my upper arms and I feel like it did absolutely nothing. There was still so much hair to be removed and then my electrologist convinced me it wouldn’t be worth it to keep getting electrolysis on a large area like that. Since December I did nothing to the hair except be so incredibly uncomfortable and depressed over it, but I just haven’t wanted to even deal with it. About two weeks ago I decided to wax it myself because I just couldn’t bear to look at it anymore. I’m still uncomfortable even with the waxing though because the thick hairs growing back there look weird and stubbly. Basically I’m at a complete loss and I don’t know what to do about it anymore. I think about it almost every second of every day. It has completely taken over my life and I’m so angry at myself for ever trying to remove the hair there in the first place. I’m not sure if I should find a new electrologist who can maybe give me quicker results or if I should just keep waxing it forever. I’ve already spent so much money on this area between the laser treatments and the electrolysis (my electrologist charges me $65 an hour, which I know is reasonable, but not if she’s not doing a good job). I just need some feedback or suggestions as I feel completely hopeless. I would include pictures, but there’s really not much to see since I waxed it a couple weeks ago. I will say though that I know the hair isn’t terrible…it is sparse and I really can’t even see it when I stand a foot away from the mirror, but up close some of the growth that is there is dark, thick, and long. I apologize for such a long post here, but I wanted to give as much information as possible in order to receive some helpful answers so I can just start living my life again. Thanks in advance for any replies.

#15

To be fair, I don’t think the above case is related to laser induced growth. It sounds like coming off birth control probably had a lot to do with this. This is a major factor in hormonal growth, so it’s hard to ignore it here.

#16

Stopping birth control pills caused long , dark hair to grow on her upper arms and forearms? These areas are not highly sensitive to hormones like facial hair, so I don’t think anything is unfair here. What’s unfair is, a laser clinic took this woman’s money to treat fine dark hairs.

#17

They should have never treated fine hair, but it sounds like the first couple treatments didn’t cause any adverse effects. I still feel you can’t simply ignore a huge thing like stopping birth control.

#18

Millions of women stop using their birth control pills without developing hair growth!

#19

It wasn’t ignored. It was hardly considered because the arms are not influenced by hormonal changes like the face can be. She was referring to her ARMS top and bottom.

#20

It wasn’t ignored. It was hardly considered because the arms are not influenced by hormonal changes like the face can be. She was referring to her ARMS top and bottom. [/quote]

Perhaps, but I have never heard of someone having induced growth on their forearms.