Skin bleaching in order to use higher settings?..

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

I’m a skin type 2-3 with very light skin except…some intimate parts of body. Does it make sense to bleach the skin on those private parts? Will it allow to use higher settings (Candela GentleLase)?
The tech didn’t recommend to go higher than 14j (with 18mm spot size)for my brazilian bikini area, but I do not see very good result, about 30-40% of hair didn’t even shed…

If bleaching/whitening does make sense, would you please recommend a good cream/any other product for that purpose?

(I know that I probably can switch to YAG for my brazilian, but it’s so painful and I do not really like how my skin responds to YAG treatment)

#2

If you’re a skin type 2-3, you should be able to handle high enough settings on the Gentlelase without needing to do anything (stay with the Alex – I wouldn’t switch to the YAG.) In general, 16J is good although you can get results with 14J. How long has it been since your treatment? If it’s been at least 3 weeks and 30-40% of the hair didn’t shed, that means your tech missed it.

#3

Hmm… I meant that brazilian bikini area is much darker and something about type 4. I’m not sure that higher settings (16j or 18j) will be safe for that area.

The tech is very good, I’m sure she didn’t miss it. After 3rd or 4th laser session I’m not responding very well to the treatments. I still see the difference, but about 40% of hair don’t even shed (legs and bikini). I thought maybe it was because of kinda low settings (16j - legs, 14j - bikini) and wanted to go up to 18j on my legs next treatment. But since bikini is significantly darker, I thought that bleaching might help?

Thanks for your opinion.

#4

It sounds like the remaining hairs are not coarse/dense enough for laser and bleaching cannot change that.

#5

Did you wait 3 weeks at this point to judge shedding? I believe you just posted in another thread that you just had a treatment very recently and we advised to wait before jumping to conclusions. 14J on 18mm is a decent setting. Give it a chance to shed. 3 full weeks.

You can’t predict what your skin will be able to handle. You have to test the actual setting.

No, do NOT bleach the skin. A Yag laser is the alternative if you can’t handle higher settings, but I don’t consider 14J/18mm on bikini low. I don’t know what your statement about the Yag means. This area is painful at good settings no matter what machine you’re using. Most use a numbing cream and this is what you should be doing if you cannot handle the pain. It doesn’t mean you should be using a different lasers. If the treatment is effective, it hurts unless a numbing cream is used.

Please give it a chance to shed. Also, if you can keep all your posts in one thread, it will be much easier to track your treatments and recommend best solutions.

#6

It’s been 4.5 weeks since my last treatment. But as I said, I get result like that all the time. Once I even came back in 3 weeks and asked to do a touch-up. But the remaining hairs didn’t shed even after the touch-up. And those that don’t shed are not less coarse and not lighter, than those that do shed.
I waxed my bikini yesterday, and the majority of those hairs looked like they were “killed” by laser: the roots were white.
Also, there were some hairs with the black roots (I assume, those are in anagen, but maybe they are new cycle hairs).

The tech told me that my bikini area is too dark to try anything higher than 14j.

About the YAG - I meant that it’s much more painful for me, than the alex. The latter is painful too on bikini, but much more tolerable.

Thank you all for your opinions.

#7

Does the hair grow as usual if it doesn’t shed? Or it just stays there as pepperspots? Pepperspots are normal and are dead hairs that take longer to shed or get burned off at your next treatment. If not, then they are missed hairs.

I wouldn’t have recommended waxing. Now you removed what could have been missed hairs and sent them into a dormant period for many months. So the treatments will take longer overall.

If the roots are white, it means the hairs were in last phase of growth. It doesn’t mean they were killed. In fact, it means the opposite - they couldn’t have been. The ones with black roots were in anagen, yes.

Dead hair treated with laser looks like it has no roots at all.

You shouldn’t be choosing lasers based on pain. Pain is mostly related to settings. You should be treating at highest settings your SKIN can handle safely, regardless of your pain tolerance. On this area, most people use a numbing cream in order to handle good settings because there is a lot of dense coarse growth. This is what you should be doing as well. If you feel 14J on 18mm on GentleLASE is not working, then you should be switching to a Yag and using it at high settings.