Okay so I’ve read a bunch of threads and tried looking for everything, but it’s been hard and it feels like there are 500 conflicting reports. I’ve seen people say that you will get patchiness and feel like a monster no matter what with laser for the beard, and I’ve seen people say they’ve had good results after just two sessions.
I have a really thick, coarse beard with a blue shadow immediately after even the closest shave, even when I can’t feel any stubble, exacerbated by my light skin. Each hair is very thick, like a small piece of lead in a mechanical pencil. I guess I’m something between skin type II and III because I do burn on parts of me body, but I have olive skin. I’ve had this for years and it’s frustrating - the shadowy beard not the skin - and what I’d really like is for my beard to be thinner, so I don’t have to deal with the shadow either at all or as often, so I can have clean shaves and not constantly be disappointed in my face. I can epilate or wax the rest of my body, but not my face, so laser seems like the only option for reduction. I really like the idea of permanent reduction and making existing hairs thinner and turning it into a different type of beard rather than completely destroying everything, and I’ve seen LAGirl mention the Yag laser does that, targets the coarsest hairs and makes everything else finer. But I still want to have something to shave at least weekly, and be able to grow some scruffy soft facial hair if I’d like to. That’s another thing is I don’t like the texture of my beard, it being so thick and hard. Electrolysis just seems out of the question for me based on money and time. I basically just want to have a uniform reduction full pass getting every hair and just be done with it.
What really scares me is the patchiness. Are there any stories out there of people years out of their laser treatments who were only interested in reduction for their beard who have no patchiness? I’ve only seen people whose goal was complete elimination of their beard, who of course have a different profile and just kept going until it was gone, never from people who had 2-4 treatments and what their long-term results were. Well, I saw one person in this thread say they were happy with one treatment who only planned on one more, but they were still midway through, I don’t know what their long term results were.
Basically, is there any way to ensure there isn’t patchiness? I know the technician have to overlap by at least 10%, but I’m not entirely sure what that means and if I can definitely convince a laser technician to do that. And I know the YAG laser is probably what’s best for my skin/hair type and what I want. And I read LAGirl say to get a free touch up 3 weeks in for any hair that doesn’t shed because it was missed. Is all patchiness caused purely from people not having had their first session get every hair? So just technician negligence? Or is patchiness some inevitable horror that everyone who has laser for their beard has to look forward to? Shouldn’t two well spaced out, properly done laser sessions get every hair in it’s growth phase and solve the patchiness? I just haven’t seen too many definitive positive experiences in the range of what I’m looking for to be encouraging, but it’s still my only option.
Also I didn’t find much on Boston options and clinics. Does anyone have particular recommendations? I already searched in google with site:hairtell.com and didn’t much. I’m looking at All In One Laser in Watertown and Finesse Laser in Waltham because they both have Alexandrite and YAG.