Hi All,
I will be starting my journey into laser hair removal on Monday.
I have scheduled a consultation appointment on Monday and will have a test patch done as well as get my answers to the settings they use on their machine. The machine they use is a Lighthseer Diode, didnt get the name/brand yet, but I will on Monday.
Any specific settings I should be looking for?
I also booked my first (tentative) appointment for the Thursday if all goes well on Monday.
LightSheer is the name. You just need to ask for joules and spot size (fixed at either 9mm or 12mm for the two popular machines).
What is your skin type? Settings depend on that. What area are you treating? Is the hair coarse and dense?
Thanks LAgirl for the response
Skin type is a IV (to best of my knowledge - ie. reading FAQ and researching, but I might be a III at the area I am getting treated)
The area is my chest and abdomen. No, not coarse or dense. The hair colour itself is dark, but not dense or coarse.
Laser only works on coarse hair.
Post a picture of the area you are getting treated and we can tell you if it’s coarse and dark enough for laser.
I wasnt able to get a pic up to show everyone.
Anyway to provide an update.
I went to the LHR clinic this week (I’m a male, 32, Type III). I had a test patch done 2 days prior to my appointment. It went well. Got some redness right away and the next two days didnt show signs of burning etc. The clinicians tested me starting from 18 Joules, then 20, and then 22. She said that 22 would work better (does it?).
Also, I thought I was a Type IV based on the Fitzgerald scale, however, I found out that I was a III (at least thats what the clinician said). The scale is a bit confusing b/c it depends on the area that you plan to get Laser done. For example, if you are darker on your arms and legs than your chest/abdomen, then you would have to asses that area based on the scale. Regardless, I am a III in the chest/abdomen area.
Before I proceed on my experience, I should state that I have minimal hair on my chest and abdomen area (like Hugh Jackman on this link (but a bit less than) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1097851/Whats-attractive--hairy-chests-polished-pecs.html)- .
I have never shaved the area in all my years, but had it waxed once, which was a horrible experience (had welts, swelling/redness for a week). So, I am not use to the pain.
I shaved the night before prior to my appointment. Got to my apponitment and the clinician re-shaved some areas that were not fully taken care of…She then started
She applied the “Gel” to the top part of my chest and start from there. She started at 18 and asked me the pain threshold. It was okay for that setting. She moved it up to 20 and now I could feel it in areas where I had hair.
I read that the pain level is like a rubber band snapping against your skin, well, for me it was more painful. Like a needle pricking the end of your finger. But not a deep pain, it was surface pain, but still the pain was intense. She did ask constantly if the pain level was okay, I would say it hurts, but bearable. She would take breaks for apply Gel in other areas and move on and that would give me a break from the pain. Again, please remember, I was not use to this pain. The nipple area does hurt and she did mention this to me b/c of its darker shade. I was able to get through it and at times I could smell the hair burning. She did do a good job to talk and keep my mind off during the procedure.
After the procedure, I was red in areas on my chest and abdomen and could see “black spots” (which I read were normal). The pain is not bad after the procedure, I didn’t need emla cream or anything like that. Its been a day now, and I feel okay. The redness has subsided some and I am happy with having no hair. The experience was much better than my waxing experience. I dont think I will ever wax again.
I have my next appointment last week of June.
Lets hope the next time the pain is more bearable.
Regardless of skin type, those settings are too low. You should at least be treated at 25J or above on this machine (preferably above 30J if the 9mm spot size is used). If you are truly a type III, your skin should be able to handle much higher settings (even up to 38-40J).
Re pain: A difference of 5-10J on this machine isn’t that perceptible. Regardless, pain is not the correct metric for judging settings and test spots. Instead, they should be looking at how your skin reacts. Good settings should hurt, because destroying the follicles is the ultimate goal.
If your skin cannot handle at least 25J, then you need an Nd:YAG laser.
Be sure you are only treating coarse, dark hair.
THE REASON YOU GET RED SPOTS ON YOUR SKIN IS DUE TO THE FACT the laser reacts with certain colors of hair (NOT ALL HAIR) and dark color skin (like tanned and genetically darker skin like most Negroes, most Indian, Arabic and other darker skinned individuals). HEAT GENERATED BY THE CONTACT OF THE HAIR AND/OR DARK SKIN WITH THE PROPER COLOR LASER CAUSES A REACTION. Hair itself is dead and that is why it does not bleed or hurt when you cut it or laser it. The surrounding skin will react and can hurt because it was traumatized. It might even become scarred if the trauma was that severe. Hair should VAPORIZE. Hair that does not vaporize was not adequately treated or is the wrong color and will always regrow.
All hair that falls out LATER was in the last stage of the hair growth cycle and will probably regrow as it is best to get the hair during the growing stage of the cycle. If you look closely at a hair in telogen (the last stage of the growth cycle), the last 1/4 inch has no color even if the hair shaft was jet black. As the hair shaft approaches telogen cycle, the body does not waste protein, consequently, the hair shaft grows thinner with no color as the papilla shuts down the growth of that follicle. Color was added to the newly formed hair by the melanocytes (color producing cells) which stopped adding color before the growth cycle ended, consequently, the hair grew for a while with no color. Lasers need color to do their job.
The PAPILLA is the specific organ from which the hair shaft rises. It includes the melanocytes which are the cells that actually make MELANIN (the color).
Whom are you addressing? I’m not really sure how this has any relevance to the discussion. The basic mechanism of LHR is already covered in the FAQ.
Your description of LHR is riddled with inaccuracies. While treatments are painful, correct settings will NOT inflict trauma on the surrounding skin. Side effects such as redness and swelling are temporary.
Sometimes the hair will vaporize, but not always. That doesn’t really have anything to do with efficacy and is irrelevant. If all the hairs vaporized, then there wouldn’t be any shedding.
Again, discussed in the FAQ.
Alopecia (shedding) begins around 7-10 days after treatment, and continues henceforth for a few weeks. When exactly each hair sheds within this time frame doesn’t matter, as long as it sheds. The statement that hairs that shed later were not in the anagen phase is incorrect and not corroborated by any scientific evidence.
Oh great. Crazy is back in action.
Thanks for the replies.
But the 22J setting was painful. She said that my skin was reacting great. She also said that the LHR will go well with my skin type and hair. We will have to see.
I believe its a 9mm spot, but I will ask next time around if its a 12mm spot. If its a 12mm spot, can it have a lower setting? (ie. 12mm with 22J is equivalent to 9mm at 30J?)
As I mentioned 22J was painful, it hurt. I could smell the hair burning and she said (during test patch) that if you go higher than you can burn the skin and leave scarring (true? Assuming so)
If I were you, I wouldnt get rid of such small amount of hair - it is manly to have it like that - and you dont look like a child…
But if you want to, I dont recommend to do it with laser - you can stimulate the folicles and get more hair than you have right now or it could just end with no results at all…
And if you want to take the risk, take the GentleLase machine - the spot is much larger and the effectivity is better - with LightSheer on high energy you just get burned skin. Thats all I can say about laser, I personally did many sessions on both machines, none worked for me - just stimulated a lot of hair, allso heavy hair on neck, were before was no hair…
Scarring should not happen, I got burned a lot times very bad, but no scarring occured…
With 9mm LightSheer 22J is very low - you need to get 35joul minimum, 40J is better… Ive personally got treatments at 45J 4 times just getting more hair…
Even if the treatment was painful, that doesn’t necessarily mean it was effective.
Once again, a difference of 5-10J on this machine is not that perceptible in terms of pain. It’s ideal to get treated at the highest setting possible your skin can handle (note the wording: skin, not tolerance for pain). Even if you can smell the hair burning, at 22J you run the risk of only damaging the follicle, not destroying it. If that happens, the hair may grow back finer instead of being completely removed. That hair will then be too fine for future laser treatments.
As I have already mentioned in my last post, if you are truly a type III, then your skin should be handle to much higher settings without burning. If your skin can’t handle at least 25J on this machine, you need an Nd:YAG laser.
Please read the FAQ.
If you are an ideal candidate and you are treated with a good laser at appropriate settings, then laser IS effective for permanent hair removal.
Induced growth occurs for a reason - poor laser operator or poor candidate for LHR.
It’s disingenuous to say LightSheer burns every candidate at high settings. It has nothing to with the machine itself. When operated incorrectly, ANY laser has the potential to burn. Burning is function of your skin type and the settings on the machine.
You were most likely burned with LightSheer because your skin type was too dark for the settings used, or because the machine was not maintained correctly and malfunctioned. 9 times out of 10, it’s the former.
Miro, induced hair is an obvious sign that the hair that was treated was too fine to treat in the first place.
Think by myself that hair on my chest was more that coarse and my skin was white… But I dont want to argue, wanted just to help this guy not to waste his time and money.
I dont understand - there is a great amount of people complaining on laser treatments - allso if theyre done on white skin and extreme coarse hair with GentleLase on full settings, many times there is no result… But still, laser is considered to be the state of the art treatment for hair removal…
There have to be big companies behind - and there are…
Just my look on this subject - I dont say he shouldnt go there or laser dosnt give results, just say it is a lottery to do it this way… He has to decide himself.
I don’t know where you’re getting your statistics - a forum is not a good way to judge anything since most people come to complain. But most people who come here before doing treatments and do it correctly with a good machine on the right type of hair (posting photos for us to judge) get great results. I got great results myself, which is why I’m here helping in the first place.
Also, “coarse” is relative. It may seem coarse to you, but it may not be really “very coarse” in general terms. It has to be as coarse as hair on the bikini area. If you’re treating this type of hair at good settings, it’s not a lottery by any means. And chest is easy to treat. The only areas on men that can have variable results is the back/upper arms.
Maybe Ill do some photographs and send them to you Just for fun 