Straight answer on LHR for face--does it work?

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

Hello, I am new here. Female, pale skin, dark and what I consider to be very coarse/dark facial hair (like a man’s, doesn’t shave closely and leaves a shadow). I have been doing a lot of research and had a consult yesterday for LHR on my chin and lip. Everything I’ve read online from clinics and dermatologists have indicated that LHR is a great option for facial hair and I’m a super swell candidate. The technician I spoke with yesterday also said I was a great candidate, said she’s had tons of long term success with treating facial hair, even on PCOS/hormonal cases during the past 12 years she’s been a laser tech.

However, I have yet to see one positive long term success story online! My sister had LHR on her face as well and it all came back. What is the deal? I am starting to wonder if it’s a scam, although the consult I had yesterday was at the dermo office of my regular clinic (they have aesthetic services as well).

Has anyone out there had success with facial hair removal via laser? Are they just not talking about it?

I also have a consult w/ a highly regarded electrolysis tomorrow so I haven’t put my eggs in any baskets yet.

I’m just really frustrated by the vast difference between what the clinics/doctors say and the vast amount of anecdotal experience found online. It’s hard to sort through!

Thanks for any thoughts you might have and appreciate all the insight and wisdom on this board!

#2

Personally I would go for the permanent removal with electrolysis at the hands of a competent therapist if possible, rather than what seems to be uncertain results with laser.

#3

That is where I am leaning, but I am going to wait until my consultation before making any decisions. This may sound ridiculous but I am terrified of both needles and electricity so the idea of electrolysis is a total nightmare for me. But I might be just that desperate. Eeep!

#4

A few years ago, I had 4 sessions on the face and 2 on the arms, with the same machine (sorry…don’t recall the name of it). My mom went with me and had quite a few sessions on the face. We both have light skin and dark hair, though I’m a bit tanner than she is.

We did cheeks, upper lip, chin, and I even did eyebrows. NOTHING was removed for either of us. This was 5 years ago though. Maybe the dermatologist was afraid to use a high setting on the face. Maybe the machine wasn’t good. I’m not sure. Though, on the arms, I had great results.

We stopped going to that dermatologist, because we were paying $300 for the face each time with 0 results, but 5 years later, the hair that she removed on the arms is permanently gone. It grows back in spots…so I am finishing up my arms now.

#5

Laser results aren’t uncertain. The problem is that everyone and their mom decided to buy some sort of machine nowdays and knows little about getting actual results for clients. Those are dependent highly on settings and the machine used. I and many others on this forum have had great results. See our Success Stories thread.

If you have relatively large patches of dark coarse dense growth on your face, you’ll get good results with laser. However, you’ll need to finish up with electrolysis on any finer and sparse hair that remains after 6-8 treatments.

Please read our FAQs at the link below. You don’t mention the name of the machine or settings, which leads me to believe you’re probably not ready to make a decision on which way you shuold go. You should also check out 4-5 clinics after you figure out exactly what laser and settings you’re looking for.

If you have PCOS, your body will develop more hair later in life. Laser and electrolysis can only remove hair that’s already there. They can’t prevent your body from developing new growth.

#6

I skimmed the success stories thread and did not see much in the way of long term success stories for facial hair specifically, which is my main concern. Did I just miss it?

The one clinic I spoke to thus far uses a Lightsheer laser though I do not know the settings.

#7

I think that’s what LAgirl is getting at.

People have great results on the body but it’s rare that anyone comes forward to say “I have had great results on my face”.

I’ve been interested in Laser for about 10 years, although I only amassed the courage to start about 3 years ago after coming across this forum. I straight away realised that whilst Laser would be great for some body areas, I’d be taking a risk on my face. So I started electrolysis there instead.

During these 10 years, I have not really heard of any successful LHR on the face stories. I’m on another general forum where majority of the posters are from the same ethnic background as myself. Women from my part of the world commonly face excess hair problems so lots of them have tried Laser. As have some of my relatives. Still no proper success stories. There have been one or two cases where women who didn’t experience induced growth managed to make it a bit sparser and finer but they still admit they’d need electrolysis if they wanted to be hair free. In which case, they could have gone with electrolysis from the start and the Laser money could have gone towards that instead.

Other stories I often hear are from women saying “Laser is great!! I’m having it done on my face and it works!”
Then I probe them and it turns out they are going every 4-6 weeks as soon as the hair free period is over and have generally been going for more than a year, sometimes two years. They actually have no idea what would happen if they waited a bit longer and if all the hair would come back or not. They aren’t even waiting long enough before their next treatments, and if they were, they may find that after a year of treatments, there is little difference.

#8

Many electrolysis professionals came to the conclusion that LASER had little to no value based on what they had seen from work on faces and upper body. It turns out that these are the worst places to judge the Electrolysis vs LASER question… if you are pro LASER anyway. If one is going head to head Electrolysis VS LASER on face and upper body, and you have a great electrolysis worker, the electrolysis side will be ahead of the LASER side no later than the 3 month mark. The electrolysis side will also finish at a time when the LASER side is still in need of work.

We even have a poster here on the site, who drew a line down his body, and did LASER on one side and electrolysis on the other. He came to the same conclusion. He finished the electrolysis side, and it had been looking more clear than the LASER side for months, and then discontinued LASER entirely, and finished with electrolysis. His conclusion, he might have gotten more bang for his bucks had he done electrolysis all the the way through.

I had a situation where two friends competed with their hair removal, the person with the heavier beard was working with me, and the person with the lighter one went for LASER, My client was in easy maintenance when the friend was out of money, and hairy. Worse yet, that person’s body reacted to the LASER treatment by shingling the skin over the follicles, so that when we got around to doing electrolysis on the hair, it was more difficult to do, than had we done it before the LASER treatments had cause this mutation. In this one person’s case, use of LASER caused the total hair removal job to take 4 times as long, and cost at least 3 times as much as if I had done the entire job from virgin skin to full, final (executive) clearance. That person’s bare face is now on display as one of my models on my web site.

Another of my clients said that after having LASER on the face and coming to me to “finish up” she wishes she had started with electrolysis in the first place. She is in the video on my web page.

Electrolysis professionals are unimpressed with the good results LASER has on Legs as that area often loses hair as you age, even if you do nothing to them.

For face and upper body, electrolysis would be most advisable. We have not even talked about LASER stimulated growth on face and upper body, post treatment. I have a client who started trying to get rid of a small area around her ears, and got stimulated growth that eventually wrapped around her face, and sent her to me to undo that nightmare.

#9

Most women’s facial hair is not coarse enough for laser. So most women who treat that hair in the first place shouldn’t be. They just get sold packages by unscrupulous clinics that tend to sell them like used cars.

Only women with strong coarse dense PCOS growth on their face are good laser candidates, and there aren’t that many of them relatively speaking. This forum has a tiny fraction of all the people getting treatments there, and we don’t even see followups from people who got advice here, got results, and then moved on. People don’t like to spend time thinking about hair once it’s no longer a problem.

Either way, there are definitely posts on here from at least several women with good results on coarse facial hair, including several African American women. Use the Advanced Search feature and you’ll find them. Most of them haven’t reported back once they finished completely because they probably moved on with their lives.

I have to completely disagree with James. Legs don’t get impressive results? Read our success stories. Or just read mine and stoppit’s in this thread. We both got great results from laser on the legs. That area has coarse hair (lower legs primary) and is one of the easiest to get results on. The other electrologists on the forum agree. People don’t start losing hair on their legs with age until they’re way into their late 40s or late 50s. We are only two of numerous people (including several of my close friends) who have been enjoying smooth legs with no black dots and shadows since our 20s. That’s a lot of years.

Upper body hair? You’re generalizing here. Chest and stomach on men get great results because the hair is very dense and coarse. Questionable areas are backs.

Laser stimulated growth is NOT an issue on any area with coarse dense growth. And we don’t recommend treating any other type of hair with laser in the first place. So there is no risk.

#10

I did laser on my face and the back of my neck about 12 years ago…it was one of the worst things I ever did! I spent a small fortune, went to 3 appointments, it was VERY painful and I didn’t think the results were that good…needless to say, I didn’t continue with the entire package…as the years went on, the hair regrowth became worse than before I was treated…I started tweezing the hair on my face and let the hair on the back of my neck go…finally, this winter I had enough…I called an electrologist…it was the BEST decision I ever made!! I wish I made it sooner, and I wish I never did laser (I would do laser on other parts of my body, but never my face…I have read that it actually induces hair growth on your face, and I 100% believe it after my experience!)

I started in January, and I go weekly…I know this is going to be a long journey, but I can DEFINITELY tell it is better. Before I went, the thought of a needle and just the word ELECTROLYSIS made me wince, and I was kind of squeamish…I am not “afraid” of needles, but I am somewhat of a wimp…my first question on this board was “how painful is it??”…I think they should change the name (it is not NEARLY as painful as the name implies!)…laser was more painful, and quite frankly, waxing is more painful! It really isn’t bad at all…I take 2 tylenol before I go and the sides of my face don’t bother me…every now and then, I might feel a little something, but if it was bad, I can ASSURE you, I would have quit by now! I have her put a numbing cream on the back of my neck and cover it with plastic while we work on my face…I find that area is a bit more sensitive…after the numbing cream, I barely feel anything…

If you still have doubt, I am already thinking of doing my upper lip when this is done as well as bikini (I am thinking of starting laser on my bikini in the fall, then clearing any remaining with electrolysis…I want to do a brazilian, but that isn’t the kind of thing I would do with electrolysis)…again, I can ASSURE you - if this was REMOTELY unpleasant, I would simply be counting down my appointments and counting the days until I was done…not planning other areas of my body to cover!

Message me if you have any questions!

#11

You shouldn’t do laser if you’re not willing to do the research necessary to figure out what machine and settings will actually work and on what type of hair out of all the hair you have.

There are plenty of people on this forum who’ve had no results from electrolysis either and have spent thousands of dollars on expensive plucking.

People here often make the mistake of comparing BAD laser treatments to GOOD electrolysis treatments. That’s not exactly a fair comparison.

Read stories of those of us who got great results from BOTH laser and electrolysis. These opinions are unbiased and based on actual results and facts.

Both methods work well if you do them properly.

#12

How is it that I frequently end up arguing with LAgirl even when I am agreeing with her?
When I said that electrolysis professionals are not impressed with the results that LASER gets on Legs, I did not mean that LASER gets no results. I was saying that it does. Just that it is an easy area to clear, as the follicles are shallow, and the hairs per inch count is small, the hairs large enogh that magnification is not even needed to treat the area, and most people lose hair in the area due to reduced blood circulation over time anyway. I never said it did not work. In fact, I have said all over the forum that legs, and eyebrows are the two sites that even waxing can lead to permanent hair removal. In fact, poor nutrition, a bloody shave, and scalding hot water can lead to loss of leg hair. Legs and eyebrows are just not the best place to use to prove that something is a good bet for permanent hair removal, because so many things that don’t work other places could work in those areas. Get it? It is like saying that just because Tonya Harding scored a knock out vitory over Paula Corbin Jones on Celebrity Boxing, she should have gotten a women’s world title shot against Layla Ali.

Have I made myself clear now?

#13

James, you know I love electrolysis and treated large areas like the stomach with it. It took 2 years to clear the stomach with many hours on the table. The same area could have been cleared with laser in about 4 hours TOTAL spread over a year if I had coarse hair like hair on the legs.

Yes, legs lose hair after a while in some people, but that doesn’t happen until you’re in your late 40s or 50s. Removing hair in your 20s gives you 20+ years of hairfree life to enjoy. Most people who treat their legs, like a good friend of mine, has coarse dense growth that leaves black dots and creates ingrowns when shaved. Those 20+ years of hairfree legs are priceless to her. She’s had only 4 treatments with GentleLASE so far and has had a significant reduction where she only shaves once in a while and has no shadow or dots anymore. She’s ecstatic. All that for 6 hours on the treatment table in 9-10 months.

#14

So don’t say that I said LASER doesn’t work AT ALL on legs, which is how it seemed to me that you were translating my words to have said.

#15

Haha. No, I just think you’re underestimating the power of laser and the advantage it can have on certain areas compared even to the best and fastest electrolysis :slight_smile: