Sphere 810

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all of the great information here, I have been reading and reading and gathering as much information as I could before I started laser hair removal last week.

I too purchased 2 of those group buy certificates for 3 areas of laser hair removal.
I met with the technician beforehand and I felt alright with the information I rec’d prior to purchasing my certificates and was ready to go.

However, the technician/owner of the salon, purchased a new machine - a Sphere 810 and only started using it 1 week ago.
And from what I can tell from the posts I read here - she went way too fast for the session I had.
I had full legs, brazilian, and underarms and the entire session took 35 minutes.
She was gliding back and forth very quickly.

I did a search and wasn’t able to find any comments here regarding this type of machine, so perhaps someone might be able to provide some insight, based on the info I found on the company website?

SPHERE 810

Sphere 810 is the high powered 810nm diode laser for permanent hair removal. More enhanced power provides shorter pulse width so that it reduces patients’ pains. Also Sphere 810 is available for treating various applications to all kinds of skin types, regardless of Westerners or Easterners because it provides various pulse mode.

Good advantage.
Safety
Sphere 810 operation is safe by uniform and stable laser beam quality of 810 nm Diode Laser. It minimizes thermal damage with monochromatic wavelength.

Less Pain
Sphere 810 relieves pain with strong power in a moment, short pulse width and 3 cooling system (Sapphire-tip contact cooling, an optional separate double cooling tube and an optional exteriors cooling installation).

Shorten operating time
Sphere810 provides more rapid and accurate medical operation by the enlarged spot size.

Various applications
Four different pulse mode and an optional hand piece treat lots of applications for most kinds of skin and hair types.

Accuracy
Collimating lenses uniformly radiate direct wave so that the treatment area could be pointed precisely. It helps to reduce patients’ pain and gain a better treatment efficacy because it decreases the loss and scattering of laser output.

In addition to the speedy session, I had no redness at all, no swelling, nothing at all to indicate that I even had a session. And this was my first time.
I have a skin type III. I am fair-skinned, with dark hair.

Any thoughts/comments?

#2

Sounds like one of the less popular diodes. I haven’t heard much about it. Either way, if the settings are good and proper technique is being used, you can get results on coarse growth on a type III. However, it doesn’t sound like they know what they’re doing.

35 mins is way too little. Full legs on their own should take at least a full hour. Underarms only take 5 mins and Braziliam bikini 10-15 mins.

It sounds like you’ll have a lot of missed spots even if the settings were decent. And I’m not sure whether compression should be used on this machine like with some other diodes such as LightSheer.

Can you call and ask what settings were used? Ask for spot size, joules and pulse width. That will help already.

Other than that, you should wait 3 weeks and see what sheds. Whatever doesn’t shed wasn’t affected. From the sound of it, this was likely a waste of time and nothing will happen.

#3

From what i can tell on the specs of their website:
http://equipmed.com.au/cosmetics/brands/sphere-810/sphere-810-hair-removal-laser
This machine looks like a replica of the Soprano XL.
It has a mode which they call Continues Wave (CW) and that has the ability to do 1-20 W at a rate of 10-100 Hz.
Not really sure how in practice it would work because 100 Hz would mean it fires 100 pulses in 1 second which i have no idea how it would look like.

I can tell you this though, when the Soprano first came out they were marketing it as a 20min full legs machine and later realized that even though you can cover the full legs in 20 min, that wouldn’t give you enough joules to actually produce good results.

#4

Thanks for your help LAgirl and odi.
(I am so pleased that there is this site where people can go to learn about these procedures.)

I emailed the company that made the unit (Equipmed in Australia) and this is what they told me (in part):

[font:Times New Roman]“The Sphere810 is a revolution in Hair Removal lasers and uses the same frequency at 810nm as the Lumenis Lightsheer Diode laser, however there is some major differences with the Sphere unit.
Firstly the speed of the machine is 8-10 times faster than pretty much any other machine that is on the market except for the Alma Soprano machine which is able to perform at the same speed.
Secondly due to these speeds the operator can use the equipment at lower Fluence levels(eg. Power) than on other devices and therefor create less pain and redness for the patient. Operating at 10Htz allows the user to double pulse every area without causing the usual damage that you might see with other devices.
However after saying all this the unit can be utilised in the same manner as other devices like the Lumenis in that you can achieve high Fluence treatments with short pulse widths which usually result in more painful treatments and certainly generally follicular redness, it is really up to the operator what mode they use it in, and due to the high volumes in Hair Removal centres, using the 10Htz mode is the preferred setting for most clinics.
The unit is able to deliver upto 120Joules per/square centre metre, which I am sure if you research this you will find that it is not only the fastest unit on the market, it is one of the most powerful.”[/font]

I then replied that I was concerned about the length of time that my session took and the speed that the technician was gliding across my skin and that I wanted to be sure that I am not wasting my time.
The responder replied [font:Times New Roman]“if you don’t see results, the problem is not the gliding motion that was used it was the power setting of the machine that it was set on, as with this equipment you can certainly put a lot of power to your skin at a very fast rate.”[/font]

So I am not entirely sure what is what. I don’t have confidence that this session was adeqate, but the company seems to be confident.

I suppose that the only way to know for sure is to wait and see what happens in a week (give or take).
I will keep you posted.

#5

Hi LAgirl,
I finally got the info you asked about.

Spot size = 12x10
Joules = 8
Pulse Width = short

The person I was emailing at the company responded to the info above about the Sporano’s initial claims:
[font:Times New Roman]“Yes the Soprano was certainly known for that and maybe on this occasion the operator did not use high enough power, however we are able to deliver much higher powers than the Soprano at much higher speeds.”[/font]

When I gave him the “8 joules” info, he suggested that I ask for a higher power next time, but again, he did not seem concerned about the length of time that my session took.

What are your thoughts?

#6

Odi should be able to weigh in on this since this machine is more similar to the Soprano than the LightSheer. The joules seem awfully low to me regardless though, even for that machine.

#7

With the Soprano, skin type 3 shouldn’t have any problem with 10 joules.
Because you are working in motion and it’s all very fast in theory you can complete a treatment and cover the entire area very quickly.
The trick is to take a block of area and blast it with energy and then move on. To actually get results they should probably do at least 10 passes over that block of area, also gotta make sure that the area isn’t too big cause then by the time you make a pass, the area will cool down. More experienced technicians usually run passes until they see the skin turns a little bit pink.
I know that my fastest technician do full legs in about 50 minutes and others do like hour plus.

#8

I actually work for the company who makes the Sphere just so there is no misunderstanding.

Yes the technology is very similar to the soprano with a fast treatment mode able to operate at up to 10hz. So if you are happy with the Soprano you will be even happier with this as the one problem with the Soprano is that the fluence isnt adjustable in the SHR (fast mode) and is set at 10joules and 10 hertz whereas the Sphere810 is adjustable from 5hz to 10Hz in fast mode and from 5joules to 24joules. In normal mode it is able to do up to 3Hz and 120jcm.
The other problem I see with the In Motion technology on the Soprano is on their video they claim to get the temperature up to 45degrees and anyone that has worked in hair removal knows this is not enough heat to achieve permanent hair reduction. I believe the Soprano is capable of it I just dont agree with the process of waving it backwards and forwards over the same area because I dont think you will get the heat up enough to be fully effective and I believe this is highlighted by the 45degrees claim in their video.
The treatment process is very fast on the sphere810 as the machine is doing 10 flashes per second. You are not supposed to wave the handpiece back and forth over the area but move at a pace that would see each spot recieve 2-3 flashes in quick succession. If you are flashing 10 times per second then you should be able to cover an area from 3cm to 5cm every second which means if you have a back that is approx 1500cm2 it would take you 5 to 8 minutes to cover the entire back.

So to answer your question MississaugaGirl I think they have carried out the treatment satisfactorily although on a skin type III you should be able to take up to 12jcm but any more would not be advisable.Your hair should fall out in 2 - 3 weeks.

To back up our claims with this system I believe a clinic in Canada who has performed over 7000 Lightsheer diode treatments (another very good machine) have placed this in their clinic and the feedback has been they are getting fabulous results with much less pain than the Lightsheer (they actually said they were getting better results but I dont want to wax lyrical too much.

I also believe this will be available in the US shortly and it is going to be far more affordable than either of the technologies already mentioned.

#9

Thanks so much for everyone’s input thus far! This has been very helpful information.

I just had my second session, and the technician does in fact glide VERY quickly over my skin in every direction.
Last time, the machine was set for 8 Joules, and my session took 35 minutes (for full legs, brazilian and underarms).
This time, it was set for 9 Joules, and the session took 1 hour. (I am not sure what changed - it was the same technician.)

After both of my sessions, I had no redness, no irritation, and no reaction whatsoever on any of the areas that were treated.

Perhaps I will speak to the technician about increasing the joules to 11 or 12 next time?

After the first session, I had complete (or near complete) shedding on my underarms and I would guess approximately 50%-60% shedding everywhere else.
I did feel a bit of the warmness at the end of the underarm portion (during both sessions), but I did’t feel that warmth anywhere else.
Perhaps she stopped before my skin had any pink-ness to it?

I am not sure what to think just yet as this is only my second session.
I will keep posting a little each time so others who may have similar questions about this machine can hopefully benefit from my experiences as it appears as though it’s not that common yet.

#10

You should have close to 100% shedding within 3 weeks. If more than 10% is left after 3 weeks, you should ask for a touchup.

#11

Okay, thank you LAgirl, I will keep that in mind this time around. :slight_smile:

As I get my full legs, brazilian and underarms done, I believe I should get my underarms and brazilian done at the same time (every 8-12 weeks) and do my legs on a different schedule (12-16 weeks). Is that correct?

As I purchased 2 groupon certificates, I get all those areas covered for 1 year.

Would it be a “waste” for me to go earlier for my legs (doing all parts at the same time)?
Are the sessions less effective if I go more frequently?
(The spa is not too far, so I don’t mind going more often if that is the best course of action.)

As well, the staff there keep telling everyone to come back every 7 weeks, regardless what body part(s) they are having done - or whether they have the regrowth. ?

(I want to get the best value of my certificates, but also make sure that I get the best results.)

#12

You can just do everything at 12 weeks if you don’t want to come in multiple times. It’s better to wait slightly longer so the hair can get more coarse. You don’t need to argue with them. Just call and make your appt for whenever you need to. They can’t force you to do anything. People are busy.