Hello,
I’m from the Netherlands and reading on your forum because there isn’t such a active forum in my country. So hopefully someone can give me some advise…
Half a year ago I had done a testpatch on my leg with a alexendrite laser (I’m a type II or III). Since then I’ve heard from a lot of women who weren’t very satisfied with the result they got from laser hair removal. So I decided to save money and didn’t go through with the treatment. But now, half a year later, there is still not growing any hair (exept for one or two hairs) on the place of the testpatch (1x5 cm.). So I’m curious;
Does this mean that laser works exeptionally well on my hair? Or is there a chance that hair will still come back?
Hopefully anyone can help me out, because posting in the Netherlands didn’t result in any reaction.
Forgive me my english which I only learned in highschool…
I have to compliment you on your English. You write better than most Americans (including myself),grammar,punctuation and all. That’s some high school you went to… <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />
I can only relay to you that for the lower legs, results seem to be very positive for women, at least, and men, as well, if I’m not mistaken. Personally,I think a year and a half is a positive outcome, two years would be even better. It sounds good for you and you are actually using a quality laser, assuming you have dark hair. I wouldn’t be hesitant to go forward if I were you.
Hopefully, there are some consumers out there that can fill in and respond to you also.
On forums like this, one tends to get a skewed view of laser hair removal. There happens to be a bell shaped curve to people’s reaction. Most people fall in the middle range and respond normally(assuming they are actual candidates). A few people have poor responses and take a lot of effort and time to get good results. Sometimes they can take twice as many treatments. Unfortunately, those are often the ones who show up in this type of environment frustrated with a lack of results. That lack of results can be due to many different issues. Not all intrinsic to laser hair removal.
On the other end of the spectrum are those fortunate ones who respond incredibly well. And they are out there. These are the ones who have almost no hair growing after less than three treatments.
If you had a test spot six months ago and there is still no hair growing, then the odds are that you are one of those people who will respond to laser hair removal better than average. At six months we tend to assume that the reduction is pretty stable. So this is a very good sign.
Well, thanks for the quick reactions! They are very helpful to me. Especially since I got no reactions here. (and thanks for the compliment Dee, though I was treated a half year ago, and not one and a half year, so maybe my English isn’t that well after all <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />…)
I’m really thinking quite positively now about starting with the laser treatment. I’m looking forward to more reactions.
Also maybe some advise about the time between two treatments. If there is hardly any hair growing back (wich I hope) after one treatment, is it important to get the second treatment after 10 weeks ??(this is what they recommend over here)
Oh, you’re fine. I must have read your post too fast as far as the 6 month window goes. If you don’t get any feedback from others that have had their legs lased, then do a search here on hairtell and type in less than 4 years. Also, take a peak at www.cosmeticenhancenmentsforum.com and do a search there as well. If this doesn’t link for you, then you can google it yourself. Yes, you will need a series of treatments spaced well for those hair growth cycles. Whether you bash the hair in 4-6 treatments or 8-10 treatments, I don’t know what is recommended, but maybe sslhr or lagirl can help you there. Good luck, you sound like a great candidate for this area.
you will need around 8 treatments spaced 8-12 weeks apart. 10 weeks is fine. legs are usually on the longer spaced periods between treatments anyways. it sounds like you will be a great cadidate. make sure they’re using the alex laser again and the person knows what they’re doing.
After all your positive posts I called a laser-clinic today to make a first appointement. I can’t go to the same clinic I went for the testpatch because I recently moved to another town and that is too far for me.
Of course I asked them which alexandrite laser they used and I was told it’s the elite cynosure, a combination of alexandrite and yag. Does this sound okay?(I’m type II or III and have coarse dark hair on my legs. I don’t seem to have a lot of choice here because most clinics use diode or IPL.
yes, this is a good laser with both alex and yag options. i would recommend to sample at least 2-3 places just to find the best PERSON to do the treatment. knowledge and skill of the technician is very important to get results.
Thanks for your advice! I will try to find some other clinics who do laser treatments. Something that isn’t very clear to me are the settings. If I get treated with the cynosure elite, should the settings be between 12 and 25 joules to be effective? I would like to check this with the technician if a get another testpatch.
settings do not just involve joules. there is also spot size and pulse involved. all three are important. also, this laser has both an alex and a yag option, so you need to know which one they’re using. settings are very different for both. joules are not equivalent among lasers.
So here is my update. Today I went to this clinic for an intake where they use the cynosure elite. They used the alexandrite on me (legs) with 23 joule and pulse 20 and spotsize 10 mm.
The technician told me he would go up to 26 joule at the max normally.
My skin is type 2, maybe 3, with brown (not black) coarse hair.
Please some advice if this could be an effective treatment for me.
10mm spot size is pretty small, which makes the effect of the joules less. 23 joules is a good setting IF the spot size is around 12-15mm at least. Also, even lower than 20 pulse would be better, it can go as low as 5ms I believe. The closer you can get to that, the more effective. But let us know how shedding goes. My main advice would be to increase the spot size, especially since legs are a pretty large area and it would be easy to miss a lot of spots with such a small spot size.
another update;
I’ve had my legs and bikini done three weeks ago. It went ok, a bit painful, especcially on the bikini line. The hair didn’t shed totally, I think about 80% shed.
That means, I think, that settings were too low. I was treated with 12 mm 23 joule.
I will ask for higher settings next time (8 january) but what to do about the pain? do painkillers help at all? I know about the emla-cream, but thats not for legs is it?
no pain, no gain with laser unfortunately <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> emla is an option, and also drink lots of water. you can try taking an ibeprofen beforehand instead.
in terms of settings, 23 joules is not too bad, but they could be using a larger spot size i believe. does this machine go up to 15mm in spot size? if it does, that would be best. if not, i would ask for higher joules if your skin can handle it.