SOPRANO !

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#61

Hello edokid,

Thank you for your answer. I will wait another week before I go back to the LightSheer.

I am trying to understand lasers work exactly. The light is absorbed by the melanin of the hair and transformed into heat. The heat then goes and damages the hair root. If sufficient heat (+65 C) is applied for the right amount of time, then the root may be permanently damaged.

What happens during “those 3 weeks”? If the hair keeps growing, then the hair root is still active, so not damaged - No?

#62

During those three weeks, the hair is not actually “growing”. It appears to be growing, because it is slowly being ejected from the follicle. It will look like it’s growing, and feel wedged in pretty tight until about week two when you can gently tug and see it shed into your hand. Then around the third week it is finally loose enough to fall out on it’s own.

#63

The other thing too is that you should be able to tell the hair is acting a bit differently. I just woke up so didn’t read through the post again to see what areas you treated. For example though I’m male, and if I shave my face, it looks fairly smooth until the next day then its very light stubble and so on. After I do laser, the hair seems like its still growing, as it keeps getting longer the same way. However, when I shave it, THAT’s when I notice the hair is different, because right after I shave, I find it doesn’t look smooth, it looks like the last time I shaved was 24 hours ago or something. So the hair is definitely different and acting differently. I can see where you would be concerned though because even with me, I did my face 3 days ago but if I pull on the hairs on my chin, they are definitely not moving at all and it hurts if I pull on it. I think it’s more that you’re damaging the follicle but it takes a bit to actually die and just give up on that hair and let go of it.

#64

Hi edokid,
That “shaving feel” is exactly what I felt a few days after the Soprano treatment - a feel I’d never experienced with the LightSheer or Candela. But I’m willing to wait a little longer before casting any further judgment…
Gabi

#65

It can also be depending on various factors such as settings and so on. One laser type might be better for your skin type than another. Meaning, with one type of laser, it might work better on you for frying JUST the hair but ignoring more of the skin, where as another type of laser might target the hair and skin as well a bit. So my point is that the reaction you will have immediately after your treatment up until a few weeks later may be different depending on the laser being used, settings, person and so on. The key thing is that after around day 10, the hair should start to shed out and continue to do so for even 2-3 weeks. That’s what you need to go by, not how the hair looks immediately after. Trust me, it’s easy to get disappointed prematurely when it seems like the hair is growing back like normal and nothing happened. I was so worried when I switched to Apogee Elite as same thing happened and I thought I had wasted my money. Then around day 10, I used a sugar scrub in the shower and the hair wouldn’t stop coming off in my hands! Best feeling then for sure. So just give it a bit of time before judging how it worked because that’s normal. I wish it was the other way though, I did one session on my face over a month ago then did one a few days ago as a touch up. I just shaved this morning and now it looks like I took a razor to my face dark in the drunk with a dull blade! Luckily all my friends know how obsessed I am with laser so it’s a totally normal look for me!

#66

I didn’t say the hair will keep growing. It LOOKS like it’s growing, BUT it’s actually just being pushed out to shed.

#67

I am curious about the Soprano. I have been doing tons and tons of reasearch on laser. My little sister did none whatsoever and found a place on the internet for LHR. They use a Soprano XL. She said it rarely hurts at all. She is medium/light skinned hispanic/italian but her legs are very pale with medium coarse and dense black hair. She has one session left of 6 on her lower legs and she loves her results. She spaced her treatments about every 8 weeks and she rarely has to shave.

I may be stubborn for insisting on a Yag but I have to admit I want to try the Soprano for my fine body hair. It supposedly works no matter what color your hair or skin and no matter the texture.

#68

I’m a bit lost, your sister is medium/light so i assume you are the same and you want to try Yag? I wouldn’t dare use that unless i was type 5-6.

They also say that both Alex and Yag is for all skin types, doesn’t make it so.

I would say though, that it is probably the most versatile laser in terms of what it can treat successfully.
With the Soprano you can safely and effectively treat types 1-4 without reducing any power and if you would want 5-6 you would need to reduce some power so you won’t burn the skin and that may lead into loss of effectiveness.

In general most of my clients that tried other machines before are very happy they switched over to the Soprano mainly because it hurts less.

#69

You sound like you’re probably skin type 3 possibly 4, so an alexandrite might be pushing it for you. Maybe do a test patch on both lasers to see what works best as I’ve had mixed results. I’m type 3, always used alexandrite and had full shedding and great results. On my lower abdomen on my last session, my tech did about an inch high by 6 inches wide with the yag, then the rest with alexandrite, and then my face with yag. My face has had amazing results, since it’s so coarse, and the yag treats the deepest so it actually made the most difficult hairs shed. However on my abdomen, I’ve literally had maybe 5 hairs fall out from where the yag was used, where as immediately above it with the alex I’ve had complete shedding already. Reason I mention this is, for me at least, it seems like yag is good depending on the area or skin type but not good on others. On my abdomen I found it was a bit more painful than the alex was, yet on my face it was around the same. So it’s hard to say, but I think regardless of what machine you use, you need to feel some pain otherwise it’s just not going to work. You need to fry that root to damage it so it never grows back, so I just don’t see how it’s possible to accomplish that with no pain at all. Just to add to that though, don’t let pain judge what type of laser or clinic you go to, pain should always come last. If you want hair removal, you deal with the pain. If you can’t handle the pain, then you shouldn’t be doing laser.

#70

That’s the whole idea about the Soprano, do laser for less pain. I think it should really be rooted in your head for people to prefer pain then same treatment (in theory at least) with no/less pain.
I do understand people who say that if they don’t feel anything then it probably doesn’t work. With the Soprano it’s not really the case, you will feel something but unlike most other good machines, the pain will be a lot more tolerable.

#71

Right, I just mean more in general, never used Soprano so can’t comment on it. I’m speaking more to the people that get treated with any laser and then say I couldn’t feel a thing. I’ve had friends get treated with yag and alex and say they felt nothing so for those people you definitely need to feel something!

#72

  • No laser works on fine hair and light color. Clinics will tell you anything to take your money since there are no refunds.

  • Soprano is a diode. It will work as well as any other diode like LightSheer if the person knows what they’re doing and uses good settings, but it won’t work on hair that’s not coarse. Don’t kid yourself.

  • Legs have long hair cycles. I would advise your sister to start waiting 12 weeks between treatments so she actually sees how much hair is truly gone. She also won’t be able to judge this for sure until she stops treatments for 6 months at least. Right now, she’s just going in and burning off the hair every 8 weeks when they only start coming in. There is no way to tell for sure how permanent her results are.

  • Painless treatment can be a sign of undertreatment, even with the Soprano which can hurt less, but should still hurt.

#73

Undertreatment with the Soprano is pretty hard to notice to be honest. Many areas you treat even at full strength, people won’t feel anything, maybe a slight warmth.

The protocol by the company is to run X number of passes on the skin but i wouldn’t trust that too much to be honest.

My rule of thumb with the Soprano is to run passes until the skin begins to change a bit of color into pink.

The technician that showed us how to operate the Soprano when we bought our first one (we now have 2) she kept telling us to be cheap on the pulses cause the hand piece is so expensive and as a positive side effect (according to her) people will need more treatments.

#74

Actually I’m a shade darker than my sister. I am more of a medium tan color all over. I have been told by several laser clinics that I am a type 4. Most clinics wanted to use a Yag on me.

As for my sister’s results. The true test will be after she finishes her last treatment which is coming up soon. I’ll post back in about 6 months to let you all know.