</font><blockquote><font size=“1” face=“Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif”>quote:</font><hr /><font size=“2” face=“Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif”>Originally posted by FuzzyBear:
<strong>Hi Zap. Thank you for your great reports and follow ups. I am thinking about thining out my Beard. I have two questions
After the first sesison, how long (how many days),does it take before I could show my face in public (redness, pieces/patches of hair) ? I imagine I could shave after 2 days or so , right ?
Also , are the “holes” in the braed noticeable, after one treatment. I am thinking about 1-2 treatments only, I am wondering how even it would grow back after each session.
Thank you</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size=“2” face=“Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif”>After the first treatment, I tried shaving three days or so afterwards, but I did it VERY lightly and I had to be careful. If I had the choice, I would not show my face in public for several days (anywhere from 3 or 4 days to a week or even longer!). I also wouldn’t try shaving for a week or so if my circumstances were able to let me go that long! Unfortunately, that is very difficult to do for most people (including myself)!
The actual redness from the first treatment lasted a day or two, and the patches of burnt hair remained conspicuous for about a week. After two weeks or so, my skin was baby smooth compared to before. There was still hair there, but it was shedding slowly, and it wasn’t THAT obvious unless you were standing a foot away from me and looking right at my face. And about two and a half weeks after the first treatment it started growing back again (although some hairs will still shedding at this point).
Also, about 2 to 4 weeks after the first treatment I had some noticable patches on my chin and upperlip. I had to shave every day (VERY CLOSELY!) to try to hide my “half-mustache” and “half goatee” (which were on opposite sides of my face!). After a while, both sides of the mustache and goatee grew back and looked more normal. There was still a small patch on the lower part of my chin (you could even say it was kind of under the chin) that was completely bald. And some really tiny patches all over the face, but not something that I think most people would even notice.
I didn’t seem to notice the patches on the cheeks as much when I looked in the mirror. Perhaps this is because I am used to seeing a stronger shadow around the upper lip and chin areas. There were more areas of “minaturized” (I think that’s the word that was concocted by some of the people that conducted LHR studies) hair on the cheeks than on the upper lip and chin.
Also, I think that the best results were on the lower part (just a couple of inches) of my neck. The other parts that I had treated didn’t respond quite as well.
Honestly, I wouldn’t recommend this kind of procedure just for “thinning” the beard, because the results might not necessarily be as even as you might want them to be. But on the other hand, it was easier to shave on a regular basis after the first treatment. Before having LHR using the LightSheer, shaving was something that I was not able to do regularly and well because of the severity of my ingrown hairs!
So if that’s your goal, then it might be for you. But as for me, I want to go all the way. I don’t think the little bald spots would work for me . . .
I’m gonna go through with next three treatments (for a total of 5), and if my results are progressing (and the doc is cool with raising the a little fluence every time within the limits of what my skin can handle), I’ll go for my $50 for 15 minutes of touch-up every once in a while (that deal lasts for 10 years at my doctor!). I’m guessing each touchup should last between 15 and 30 minutes (so $50 to $100). I hope that by the time I got to the 5th treatment, the full face treatments can be done in 10-15 minutes!
If after the first 5 I don’t see increasing progress I might just keep shaving. I hope that my ingrown hairs that have been lifted using LHR will stay that way and not become ingrown again. If they do become ingrown I’ll try to get them lifted using LHR again and then go for some electrolysis.
If by the 5th treatment there are only a few stubborn hairs left (especially in places like between the brows where the LightSheer tip seems to big to do that area without doing damage to my brows), I might have them finished off using electrolysis. But $50 for a touchup LHR treatment is a good deal, and if it keeps progressing I will go LHR until I don’t see any more results, then switch over to electrolysis (if necessary).
Overall, though, my feeling is that I will be pretty satisfied by the time it comes to the fifth treatment. The doc started me at 23J, then went up to 27J. If I don’t have any major side-effects, and if he keeps on going up similarly (2 or 3 or 4 joules) my fluence levels will have been:
1st Treatment: 23 J (already done)
2nd Treatment: 27 J (recently done)
3rd Treatment: 29 J to 31 J (not done yet)
4th Treatment: 31 J to 35 J (not done yet)
5th Treatment: 33 J to 39 J (not done yet)
He told me he was going to go up to the “lower thirties” so I don’t know if for the 4th and 5th treatments he will go up that high, but so far my results haven’t been that bad. I think that as long as this treatment got rid of some hair (or “minaturized” enough), then he should be able to go up pretty high for the later treatments.
Also, I have been very good about wearing sunscreen and avoiding the sun as much as possible (I use the SPF 35 suncreen EVERY day). So that may be one reason that my skin hasn’t freaked out yet!
I’ve started to think that staying out of the sun and wearing sunscreen (regardless of the weather conditions outside!) is a key to avoiding some of the nasty side-effects of LHR.
