Settings Questions

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

Hello everyone,

I have 2 questions for you all:

  1. I’ve been getting LHR on my beard for awhile, and now the patchiness is minimal (which is a nice plus). Anyways, my dermatologist has been using a GentleMax on me. She’s been using the Alex on my face and neck, and then goes over my face and neck again with the YAG portion (I’m a skin type II-III). For the Alex, she uses the 18mm spot size, 18-20J, and 3ms pulse width. Then for the YAG, she uses 18mm spot size, 20-22J, and 10 ms pulse width. I’ve seen a remarkable reduction, but I’ve also read on here that it might be more beneficial to reduce to spot size to 15mm and then up the joules to nearly 30. I know with a smaller spot size, it’s easier to miss spots, but now that a lot of hair is gone, any spots she misses won’t be terribly noticeable, and she normally doesn’t miss much anyways. I may ask her about doing this next time, but my question is what should I ask her to do with the YAG portion of it?

  2. I’ve been getting laser on other body parts (i.e. arms and chest) with an apogee elite. I’m not terribly familiar with this machine, but the settings I’ve had this time and last are 19J, 15ms pulse width, and 15mm spot size. Are these settings effective enough to get a reduction providing the hair is coarse and dense enough for laser? I know I could be fine if they go higher, but I was told it was against their company’s policy to go into the 20’s for joules, so I hope the settings I’m being treated at are effective.

Thanks all!

#2

Settings on the face are really good. If the hair on face is still coarse, she should stick with 18 spot 22-24 joules. If there is specific patchiness, then she can go to 15 mm and perhaps higher Joules on YAG ( IF YOUR SKIN CAN TAKE IT ). However, I would prefer the Apogee Elite Yag on your face.

Her treatment on arms and chest is not bad but I am sure that eventually she will use lower pulse widths.

#3

The hair on the face seems a little coarse still (though not as much as when I first started). The density seems to have gone down a lot. I’m curious as to why you prefer to the Apogee Elite YAG over GentleMax’s YAG (I didn’t even know there was a difference between them). I wish I knew how to take a decent picture with my camera. I guess I will just have to trust her judgement if you don’t think there’s much reason for her to drop to 15mm. There’s only maybe at most 3 tiny spots that have a bit more density than the others (so it appears really dark).

With regards to the arms and chest, I’m not sure if they’ll go with a lower pulse width (it took a long time for them to build up to this point and they don’t seem too willing to budge). If they don’t drop the pulse width, do you think it would be beneficial later to go to a place with a Gentlelase (They use 16J/18mm on me there)?

#4

I prefer the Elite YAG for the face because you can really blow the persistent hair ( patches ) off your face quite effectively. It seems to take longer with the GMAX Yag.

On your arms and chest you can stick with the Elite but they should do test patches at higher energy.