Test patches and shedding..??

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

I would really appreciate some advice about setting out with laser…

My first question is about test patches. How long should I wait after a test patch before deciding whether the proposed treatment levels were OK or not? I had one done, and my skin has calmed down after a day but I have redness around each of the follicles so my skin skill looks unsightly. Would I know by now if I was going to get brown marks / scabbing / pigmentation change, or should I wait a little longer before taking the plunge? (I’m desperate to start asap but nervous about skin reaction…)

The other question I have is about the appearance of skin before shedding takes place. I’m wondering if it looks/feels as bad as if you’ve just shaved and the hair is growing out, or is it a little finer? I’m worried about that few week period before shedding because I’m going to need to show my skin and will need to have some way of disguising the hair, either by bleaching or shaving.

Thanks for your help!

#2

Well few things, it’s normal for skin to be a bit red after or around each hair, usually that just means the hair wasn’t shaved close enough. If you had pigmentation problems then the entire area would be a different colour. It’s tricky though, I had a test spot on my face done and around each hair it went brown and darker colour. When I went for my full face, I had none of that, so the test patch looked worse than the whole treatment!

Skin looks normal before shedding, hair does as well, looks like it’s just growing. It’s harder to shave if you did though, since it’s not growing just being pushed out. It’s fine to shave if you need to after a few days though.

#3

I would wait until the hair sheds before you decide to commence treatment. If it all (or virtually all) sheds, those settings should be okay, provided they haven’t caused you any skin problems.

#4

You’re fine to shave while you wait for hair to shed, but be warned: The texture of the hair is different after being cooked to heck so it can be hard to get a perfectly close shave during this time, especially on dense hair. My legs looked and felt like like they had perpetual 3-day stubble, no matter how closely I shaved. But then they shed and I had a month or more of perfectly smooth skin (even better than waxing) so it was pretty neat.

#5

Thank you so much for your responses! One more thing that I’ve never really understood… Is there a real reason why one can’t wax / pluck the hairs as they’re coming out (other than it then being difficult to tell if they’re shedding properly or just weren’t treated?)? Why is it necessary to wait for them to ‘detach’ themselves?

Thanks again!

#6

You can, technically. Most people like to speed up shedding with some gentle exfoliation. But like you said, it feels identical to a non-treated hair, so by waxing/plucking right away you COMPLETELY lose all ability to tell if the treatment worked, even slightly. You will never know if they missed patches, or if they did a shoddy job altogether, and you will have missed your one opportunity for a free touch up.

In my opinion, it is sooo not worth the risk of having literally wasted hundreds of dollars on a session with no way to know if it worked.

#7

Yes, the reason is that you can’t tell which hairs have been affected. If a bunch weren’t, you need to get a free touchup at that point, i.e. at 3 weeks.

#8

Definetly don’t wax or pluck in between or after laser hair removal treatments. If you must just shave the areas.