The Syneron Comet is a High Tech Gimmick

I wanted to come back to this forum and tell of my experiences so that others may learn from them. I can see why some of these former laser hair removal clients have not posted follow up posts on their success, or lack thereof, because after going through months of treatments, it’s a real negative experience to come back here and talk about how it failed. It makes me feel foolish, makes me feel like all the footwork I did in choosing the best clinic was a total waste of time, and one has to admit that somebody ripped them off. Okay, so all of those considering laser hair removal read this. It’s more towards the Syneron Comet, but it being a diode laser, I think this is at least probably true for other laser types as well.

There are people on this forum that are devout fans of laser hair removal. When somebody makes a claim that it didn’t work, they immediately start asking questions about, is the person a good candidate? Was an effective strength used? Or, how much time was allowed between treatments. The truth is, people have no business asking these questions. If somebody is going to take someone else’s hard earned money, brief them on a proceedure, then point a high-powered laser at their bodies while they are lying on a table, they, the practitioners should know all of these facts, should know them well, and should not be leaving judgement calls up to the patients. That’s like asking, ‘Did the MD use the proper Lidocaine I.V. drip rate when you got your surgery?’ Sorry, the practioner has full responsibility. Now, some may say, it’s too bad you got a bad apple, see another clinic. No, this Doctor and clinic has years of experience and is pretty much on par, if not better, than anyone else out there operating a laser.

So let it be known:

  1. I have a degree in the sciences from a nationally known university. I went to medical school at a very well known school here in the United States that is a solid ‘Big Ten’ midwestern school. I did not tell the clinic this but wanted to be treated as a regular patient.

  2. I went into the clinic and was briefed on the workings of the laser, what to expect, and what type of timeline i was to be put on. I listened intently.

  3. I went to all treatments as schedualed. I recieved maximal doses, and was told that I should be expecting permanent hair loss.

  4. I was told that six treatments were needed. It was extremely obvious, beyond any doubt, that no progress was made at five treatments. I decided I wasn’t going to pursue litigation, but would take another form of action, so I didn’t see any point in paying for a sixth treatment.

  5. I have waited, monitored hair growth in all treated areas, allowed for any lagging hairs to grow. And can now speak with full, knowledgeable confidence. I know there’s something of a electrolysis - laser debate that sometimes surfaces here, and this is not to tilt the favor in any side. It’s to tell people plain facts. If somebody wants to argue this case, thay can try. But, I have the scientific judgement, I put down the money, I let them do what they considered effective treatment. AND NOW I CAN TALK THE TALK, AND WALK THE WALK.

The Syneron Comet Diode - RF laser does not work. It is not effective in gaining any real hair loss. hair lessening in between treatments should not be mistaken for hair reduction. These low hair growth periods are just merely time frames when the hair’s growth cycle has been disrupted due to the heating effect of the light and RF scources. The Comet is used in America, but in getting an approval, since it is an exterior, benign form of treatment, does not have to be proven as completely effective, just non-harmful. People can’t put a ‘medical’ type frame on it. It is more like Aroma-therapy, hot rock therapy, or fortune telling. You’re getting taken for a ride people, and most likely with some of these other forms of laser hair removal as well.

I was considered a good candidate:

I had dark coarse hair.

I had ghostly pale skin.

I recieved five treatments at maximal doses.

The doctor plainly stated that my treatments were at higher levels than most anyone.

I experienced periods of shedding, minimal hair growth, the doctor would not confirm nor deny this was a sign of permanent hair loss in casual conversation. But, it should be noted that people on this board that consider themselves knowledgeable on this subject, or at least knowledgeable enough to dispense advice to others, actually consider this shedding a sign of becoming hair free. It is not. Also, I clearly read once where one of these people actually called hair growth following a laser treatment ‘hairs trying to work themselves out’. This is erroneous. And fractured hairs coming out cannot be viewed as permanent hair loss.

I took special notice of the fact that as treatments went on, he and the other nurse that administered treatments would avoid making any real statements of substance. They never asked about progress. The general attitude was, ‘Let’s get going on this treatment. What do you want done today?’ Never anything asking about if I really did in fact feel as though there was hair loss occuring.

I also noticed that the clinic also didn’t seem as confident about their proceedures as time went on. They began to appear outright dodgy. I heard in the background once the receptionist arguing about a refund a patient was demanding. I heard a nurse trying to talk a patient into paying for a package deal when the patient first wanted to see proof. The waiting room was noticeably emptier as time went on.

Here, on December 28th, 2005, almost two full months after my fifth and last treatment with the Syneron Comet. Almost every bit of hair I had has returned. If there is any hair loss, it would have to be in the 5% range, and hardly enough to justify the $2500 I paid for the treatments. The claims they made were false, and if anything, and most importantly, the RF component of the Comet can lead to premature skin aging, vascular disruption of the dermal capillary beds (it appears as bruising, and it looks ugly), and an increase in skin dryness. To think that by bombarding your skin with powerful radio frequencies, that when used in somnoplasty proceedures actually kills off human tissue, isn’t having at least some effect on your skin, is naive. To say that it is approved by the FDA so it can’t harm skin is short sighted; first generation tanning beds, Veet, red dye number 3, and thalidomide were all approved too.

As someone who has the knowledge and the first hand experience to make this statement with fact, I would not recommend getting any type of treatments from the Syneron Comet, or any other diode laser. It simply does not work, or not near, anywhere near they want you to believe. People see this great looking, high tech machine, that works with a laser and another pioneer technology, and they immediately think that it has to work, that if it’s done in a clinic, that it has to be safe, that if you pay that much, something has to happen. Think again. People want your money.

To say that ‘It just didn’t work for me, but will work for others.’ Is an extremely scientifically flawed phrase. Either it obeys the laws of science and biology, or it doesn’t. Science just doesn’t stop working on one follical while continuing to work on others. A person with light skin and dark coarse hair just isn’t that much different from ten other people with light skin and dark coarse hair.

Epilogue: I’m not going to deal with getting any refund or additional treatments, I have my own recourse that I want to take. I’m not really bitter about any money put into treatments as that amount isn’t a real bother. True, I could have donated it to Katrina victims, but I’ll donate some anyway. What I’m more concerned with are some of these people that struggle with abnormal amounts of hair, desperately look for a way out, then these quack practitioners gladly take their money. I think it’s terrible. And now I see why there wa a nationally televised news program that exposed how these clinics work. And I’ve seen lots of posts at this forum that start with, ‘I don’t have the money for laser yet but can someone give me advice?’ And I think it’s sad people dispense advice to others when they themselves have had no long term proof to show.

Mantaray

Thanks for this very informative post!

It is a real shame to hear that it wasnt succesful. I do wonder there are alot of negative stories regarding long term results however if these machines couldnt offer permanent hair reduction… they have been around long enough wouldn’t the people who produce them be out of buisness already. For every negative long term result story there must be a success story out there? Well you would hope so.

Can I ask did you see a significant reduction in between treatments? Or did it mostly regrow by the time you had to go in for your next?

Also out of interest, I have not looked at all your past posts but what areas did you have treated? And what is your plan of action now? electro?

I have been saying the same thing for years, laser just does not work for most people yet these laser clinics just never tell people that most people make little gain.After 5 years of getting lasered I have finnaly given up, Its been 3 months since 20th treatment and soon i’ll back to shaving the thick rug off my back and other area’s like I did my whole life. One of the worst campanies has got to be sona, they continue to make false claims on the internet, local radio stations and newspapers, have not seen such evil since hitler in WORLD WAR TWO.

And any time I try to tell people any of this, I get beat down and called a liar scared that my business will suddenly fail due to all my business shifting to the LASERblazers.

The truth is, I am simply tired of people coming to my office, or calling me on the phone crying because they spent $3,000 or more, are out of money, but not hair, and somehow want me to give them credit for the money they refused to pay me when they had it, but now that they know that electrolysis is their only hope… You get the picture.

For most people $3,000 is enough, or more than enough to finish an area. At the very least it is enough to see a visible, undeniable difference in hair growth for what ever area you are having removed.

Although you seem to be one of the people who could afford to “roll the dice just to see if it worked” I still feel for your loss, and wish I could have swayed you with any of the things I have tried to say here, so you could now be hairless. (since most people on here will never meet me, nor have even so much as a free consultation with me, you know I am not crying because I did not get that money.)

Thank you for being a stand up person and coming back to give the word. I can’t tell you how many people on here try to shout me down about Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, and then just fall off the face of the earth around the time they should be seeing that the LASER law of diminishing returns is staring them in the face. (anybody seen “RedHead” or “Ants” lately?)

By the way, my doctor friends and I get solicited by LASER companies all the time. They market the machines as “an inexpensive way to capture a piece of a multi-billion dollar market segment, and increase your office’s dollars per square foot, while having low operating costs.” Even my chiropractor has monthly solicitations for them.

Those who buy into them find out too late that they have mortgaged their future (as much as $300,000 worth) for something that doesn’t do what they have been taught to say that it does. That is why you actually find some real LASER’s for sale second hand in classified ads, and other outlets for tens of thousands of dollars less than retail.

I read your post twice, Mantaray and I believe your laser story. Thanks for having the courage to report what happened to you. It is rare that the ending to all these stories is reported, as you said.

I continue to be baffled by the laser success stories, some of which I have seen with my own eyes, verses the miserable outcomes regarding laser hair removal. Why does it work for some who are “good candidates”? Why does it not work for others who are “good candidates”? These are rhetorical questions not meant to be answered now, but really need to be answered soon.

There is a lot of interest in laser hair removal, just look at some of the other forums for the number of hits they get for laser information as oppossed to electrolysis. It might not be a bad idea to share your story with these other forums so you can reach more people. You might get your head cut off by being truthful, but you may save many people from the same outcome. There is a poll that you can participate in at www.cosmeticenhancementsforum.com ,if you care to participate, about whether you are happy with laser hair removal or not. Just click on laser and then the message boards.

If someone is insistent to get lased, would you recommend that they keep focused on a small area for a year to see what happens? For example, relating to the back, say a 3" X 3" area could be lased 6-8 times over a year to see what kind of results one would get? It would still cost something, but not two to three thousand dollars that would otherwise be trustfully spent. One could moniter the skin outcome in this trial year, too.

Dee

Ouch… I wrote a long post with detailed info, but it got deleted for some reason (said this thread was deleted as the reason…?)

anyways, I’ll try to make this short. Thanks for your post Mantaray. It’s imperative to gather as many personal experiences on here to arrive at some sort of conclusions. Unfortunately, what’s available out there in serious studies is sparse at best. I agree and am also disappointed that at this point in this industry the consumer is still forced acquire the knowledge of hair removal, when it’s what those who consumers are paying thousands of $$$ to should be doing. It’s completely ridiculous. Unfortunately, I think while they’re advertising well and people with low self-esteem due to hair issues are still going and paying, it’s something that’s hard to change. That’s the worst thing about this industry. The targeted consumer here is on average someone who is willing to do and pay almost anything to get rid of their issue, and there are lots of people thriving their businesses on that.

My conviction at this point is that laser should only be done on dark coarse hair and very light skin, on smaller areas that really bother you to start at least. Investing $3000-6000 up front for unknown results is something that would be very hard to me to do. That’s why I stuck with bikini and underarms that bothered me the most and I can honestly say I’m happy with the results. One thing that one has to understand though is the situation that I had before. I think those who have a pretty bad situation that is not solved by shaving and waxing are generally much happier with laser results. What helps also is to have very reasonable expectations before getting into it. I started with very black coarse thick hair on both bikini and underarms that I couldn’t shave at all (it would look like 2 days’ stubble right after shaving no matter what I did since the hair was so coarse and the skin so pale – almost seethrough effect), and waxing created ingrowns and irritation, not to mention I had to grow hair out for weeks, which meant that I was only barely hairfree 3 weeks out of every 2 months.

I started my treatments in February of 2005 with alexandrite laser (GentleLASE) and am very happy with results so far if only for the following reasons. I have no had to shave almost at all since I started and the areas have looked pretty much hairfree since the start. My first treatment killed almost 80% of all dark coarse hair and after 3 treatments, the hairs that came back (only around 10-20% each time) were fine and thin. That means if I ever had to pick up a razor, it took 2 minutes to quickly run it over the area and there was no shadow or shaved look. Just clean skin since there is no dark coarse hair. That’s the part that I appreciate the most even though I can’t say 100% of hair is gone. I CAN say that 100% of dark coarse unshaveable hair is gone. It’s been 12 weeks since my last treatments on either bikini and underarms and yes, there is a bit of fine light hairs that are back, but you really have to look close to see them, and it may be only 10% or so of what I had originally in coarse hair. I also started electrolysis on the underarms, as it’s also more cost-effective now to do that instead of laser on these remaining sparse fine weak hairs. My electrolysis treatment of the underarms costs $20 or so since it’s pretty quick.

Now, overall, waxing prices nowdays are $20-40 for each bikini and $15-25 for each underarm treatment. Compared to those prices, $100 per treatment on each areas that I paid that gave me the above results is not that much more over the coarse of these 10 months. And now that I’m switching to electrolysis for the fine hairs that did and will come up in the next year or whatever, will cost me pretty much the same as waxing, except it’s permanent. This makes a lot of sense, since the results from this are much more pleasant year-round as well. I never have to think or plan for swim/vacation days etc. For the most part, the areas are hairfree and clean, and if I want to shave the few fine hairs, I actually can without having any stubble etc. That’s why I consider money I spent on these laser treatments well spent for me. It helped me get to a point where electrolysis actually makes sense and is not a process that will take years with lots of scabbing and irritation I would have had from having it done on dense coarse thick hair I had before.

However, I don’t think it’s the best for most people out there. I definitely would recommend it to women with similar problem as me for bikini and underarms. I’ve been a much happier girl after these treatments and that’s why it’s worth it for me. Yes, some hairs might come back, but I doubt it will return to the dark coarse hair I started with. I am planning to get the fine hairs that come in with electrolysis as needed to achieve an almost permanent removal at this point.

For these reasons, I also wouldn’t dismiss all lasers as gimmicks. I think they can help people with serious hair problems granted they do have very light skin and dark coarse hair, but noone should have high expectations going in. If you don’t want to spend money for unknown results (i.e pretty much experiment), laser is probably not for you. I’m not an advocate for laser in general, I just think there are certain situations like mine where it makes sense (financial and otherwise).

Just my 2 cents. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

btw, James. Here’s a recent post by RedHead. He went ahead and updated a year later.

http://www.hairtell.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/27933/an/0/page/1#27933

Wow! It’s really a shame to see that after all that time and money, it was totally ineffective for you Mantaray. You had always been such a proponent of the Comet, you post is humbling to say the least.

As you know, I too have been treated with the Comet, and your post is making me think twice about getting a second treatment.

Just a couple of things:

There are people on this forum that are devout fans of laser hair removal. When somebody makes a claim that it didn’t work, they immediately start asking questions about, is the person a good candidate? Was an effective strength used? Or, how much time was allowed between treatments. The truth is, people have no business asking these questions. If somebody is going to take someone else’s hard earned money, brief them on a proceedure, then point a high-powered laser at their bodies while they are lying on a table, they, the practitioners should know all of these facts, should know them well, and should not be leaving judgement calls up to the patients. That’s like asking, ‘Did the MD use the proper Lidocaine I.V. drip rate when you got your surgery?’ Sorry, the practioner has full responsibility. Now, some may say, it’s too bad you got a bad apple, see another clinic. No, this Doctor and clinic has years of experience and is pretty much on par, if not better, than anyone else out there operating a laser.

True, but it is the same with electrolysis. It can be damaging and ineffective if in the wrong hands, even “trained” technicians.

Here, on December 28th, 2005, almost two full months after my fifth and last treatment with the Syneron Comet. Almost every bit of hair I had has returned. If there is any hair loss, it would have to be in the 5% range, and hardly enough to justify the $2500 I paid for the treatments.

It has been overe 2 months since my first and only treatment on my hands. Being really conservative, I can easily say that 30-40% of the hair on my hands is gone. It could still grow back, in fact I myself am still skeptical about it, especially after reading your post. But so far, the Comet has seemed to work for me.

The claims they made were false, and if anything, and most importantly, the RF component of the Comet can lead to premature skin aging, vascular disruption of the dermal capillary beds (it appears as bruising, and it looks ugly), and an increase in skin dryness. To think that by bombarding your skin with powerful radio frequencies, that when used in somnoplasty proceedures actually kills off human tissue, isn’t having at least some effect on your skin, is naive. To say that it is approved by the FDA so it can’t harm skin is short sighted; first generation tanning beds, Veet, red dye number 3, and thalidomide were all approved too.

Man, this is really making me think twice about the Comet. I never really gave much thought about how harmful the RF component could be, but your observation seems logical enough.

Mantaray, it is really disappointing to hear that it was so ineffective. Thank you for your thoughtful, and experienced analysis. It will help some of us make better desicisions when it comes to LHR. I wish you the best of luck in the future with whatever course you take to achieve your hairloss goals.

gdubber2002

I dont know what to say but so far I get good results. I am going form area to area. and no it’s not 2 months after my last treatment and I am still happy cuz most hair hasn’t grown back yet. The areas I stopped doing are stable like that after 6 + months and my tech said most people get results like that. I know my Tech is pretty good. Electrolysis can’t give you such results within couple of months as laser can. of course you propably will have to finish with electrolysis if your goal is that 100% hair free skin but in my case most areas I get is like 80+ reduction after 8-10 treatments. I dont know what to tell you guys but I dont lie I am just glad that I am not one of those people that after 7-8 treatments after 2-3 months see full regrowth. that would be depressing

If you are actually concerned that the Comet will do real damage to your body talk to a dermatologist, if you have one, or your primary doctor.

Here’s to answer some of the questions put forth. Please nobody feel defensive about any of my answers, because true, spirited discuss is what will guide everybody here in the right path.

tbanner523,
Yes, I have gone to my primary. There is dermal capillary damage that has remained for months. This was something I never had before ever, and it appeared as the treatments went on. I am planning on posting a photo of this if need be. It seems those that dream of these great lasers being so harmless need to get a dose of reality. Maybe solid proof will change their minds, then again, maybe not. What starts to happen is that the skin bleeds little amounts easily whenever a hair is sometimes plucked. This may, and probably will go away within the year or so, but you have to think; what if I was a young female that liked to go to the beach exposing skin? That’s pretty bad. I’m a middle age male, I’m not that vain about it, but I’m angry that these clinics are doing this.

malie,
Yes, there were periods of no growth. There were shedding times, and that would be followed with some zero growth activity. Usually this lasted for a week or two. Hardly enough to justify the $500 or so price of the treatment. Usually by the time of the next treatment it was ramping up in to full growth mode again, but a little less. It wasn’t till past hair cycles cought up and I didn’t get treated for two months that the hair really came back.

gdubber,
I’m very happy that you may think you have found success. But hand and wrist hair regeneration takes a long time because these hairs are fighting more exposer and friction. I myself did a little experiment of epilating a small area of my inner wrist. It took a long time, like a six months to a year for it to regrow, but it did. The hairs there are shorter, but darker. And this is with just simple plucking. Honestly gdubber, I think you are correct in reconsidering the damage the RF can do. You might want to look into the GentleYag. But, I’ve never been treated with that so I really can’t advise it.

rcrules,
Yes, it seems the voices of the people in the laser forum that outright say, ‘this did not work!’ just get drowned in all this recommending and speculation. I think when people see it doesn’t work, they pick up a razor and get back to basics.

James WW VII,
Electrolysis is something I’m going to start looking around for. But, I’m going to give the skin something like a year or so to get healthy again. Electrolysis following all this bombardment I’ve had from 50Joule RF doses may not be a healthy thing.

dfahey,
If you are intent on still getting laser, I would stick with the light only types. But then again, who am I to recommend these? I personally have never had success with them. But in getting the laser treatments, I would be very, very honest with yourself. You can’t let your judgement be clouded by wishfull thinking. See, Everytime I shed I was convincing myself that it was real hair loss. It wasn’t. It was just hair anchor mechanisms being disrupted enough to free up the hair. The hairs grew right back in that same follical.

LaGirl,
The truth is, the only areas where there was any noticeable loss, was high up near the groin/bikini area. I don’t know why, but these areas showed the only dent. But still, not what one would expect for five thorough treatments. Zero loss and the most skin irritation was on the abdomen and front of thighs. and actually most of both legs. No real loss in these areas. And, it’s not so much that I’m dismissing all lasers as gimmicks, but these people are really taking chances with the health of others by giving 50 Joule blasts of high powered tissue heating and disrupting radio frequencies or burning tissue on women’s faces. What is funny is that although the hair has returned, i still have the little pimple-like scar of the two arc burns on my foot I recieved on my second and third treatments. And I think many or most of these clinics will take anyone’s money, good candidate or not. That’s what that whole news special was about, the greed and mistreatment of all these clinics across the nation. And as for expectations. If a licensed MD tells me to expect hair loss, than what am I to believe? How can I have no expectations. That’s like going in for an appendectomy and not really expecting it to be removed. These people are stating that they can do this and they are not. And the science isn’t that unpredictable, either it works or it doesn’t. When I sked the doctor plain out, ‘have people had permanent hair loss with this treatment?’ He replied, ‘This is the best machine out there.’ He didn’t really answer my question.

Hairybastard,
You say you’ve had success with the Comet, but aren’t you also the one that also said you spent $6,000.00 on a used Paloman 2000 (‘maybe I am crazy but…’ on 7/24/04), said nothing more about it’s effectiveness or if you had even used it, but still wanted a No! No! device? Then made 13 posts about how you thought the No! No! device looked promising? You’ve never said anything about getting a Comet treatment and haven’t posted in a year, yet posted a thread within 24 hours after I posted my statement.

Mantaray

gdubber,
I’m very happy that you may think you have found success. But hand and wrist hair regeneration takes a long time because these hairs are fighting more exposer and friction. I myself did a little experiment of epilating a small area of my inner wrist. It took a long time, like a six months to a year for it to regrow, but it did. The hairs there are shorter, but darker. And this is with just simple plucking. Honestly gdubber, I think you are correct in reconsidering the damage the RF can do. You might want to look into the GentleYag. But, I’ve never been treated with that so I really can’t advise it.

I had shaved, plucked, waxed, and Nair’d my hands plenty of times before, and the hair never seemed grow in slowly, just a couple of days and it was back to full strength. But like I said, I am still skeptical about it, and thats why I chose a small, cheap area like my hands to start with. I wanted to see if I responded to it at all before I threw down thousands of dollars.

And yea, the RF thing is kinda turning me off of the Comet. I am thinking about pursuing a Cutera Yag, or maybe even a plain old diode like the LightSheer. But who knows, maybe I will just keep shaving/waxing and hope the future will bring us better technologies for removing hair permanently.

gdubber2002

mantaray you’ve got it all confused. First of all I was planning on buying machine but then realized it was stupid idea. And yes I did purchase NO!NO! form ebay from a guy who lives in Chile and to tell you the truth never used it as it should be used so cant comment on effectivnes of no no although it does cut the hair really close to skin but for me it is simply too much hustle plus I now am on mission for permanent hair removal. Second of all I never said I was using Comet. I am treated by Gentlease plus and can tell you it gives permanent results. My doctor said that it’s easy to get rid of first 50% of the hair on any area it’s the other 50% that is a challange. I dont lie. Ive seen results I am a guy 21 years old so no it’s not an age thing. you can’t say that Lasers in general are bad and electrolisys is great. In my opinion both work great. Laser to reduce the hair and get rid of as much as possible and then electrolysis to finish completely.

I can live with that statement.

Research suggests that 60% decrease is the best case situation, leaving at least 40% hair to remove via electrolysis.

The problem still is the fact that many people over promise when selling LASER, and many people buy in thinking they will lose 100% of their hair for ever, and that is not what they can expect.

What happens to those who go in expecting 100% removal and only get 30% or less? What happens to the one’s who get new growth. Now they are down and in need of even more money.

I can live with that statement.

Research suggests that 60% decrease is the best case situation, leaving at least 40% hair to remove via electrolysis.

The problem still is the fact that many people over promise when selling LASER, and many people buy in thinking they will lose 100% of their hair for ever, and that is not what they can expect.

What happens to those who go in expecting 100% removal and only get 30% or less? What happens to the one’s who get new growth. Now they are down and in need of even more money.

hmmm… I am not in favor or one or another. I know that electrolysis is permanent, period but when One gets full regrowth (being perfect candidate using best lasers)after 6-8 treatment don’t you think that the same thing will hapen when killing hair with nidle?

This brings up the point of knowing what your going in for. Laser offers a safe reduction of hair, it does not bring about permanent hair removal. I personally, went into this knowing I may receive as little as 5% reduction, I am not well off but I saved up to ‘give it a shot’ I did my research, if it didn’t give me what I was after I would be annoyed.

If you are after permanent hair removal, every single strand gone then electrolysis is the answer. People have to understand yes it can be a bit of a risk, if your not willing to take it go and do the proven removal method of electro.

I like everyone else am weary of weather it will work in the long term, yet right at this point in time I am satisfied. After the second treatment the majority of it grew back, after the third treatment…2 months after. I go in for my next session next week. I look bare compared to what I had before, hair is still there… I don’t deny that. However, for me this is enough. I only plan to have one more treatment, I will wait a year and a bit. If it lasts that long, then I may go on to other areas. Until then, time will tell. I may change my tone within a year, and I’ll be the first to come back here and clearly state weather it has worked or not. If not, shit happens.

Mantaray,

I’m sorry to hear that you got such poor results with the Comet. From your initial reports it seemed like you were going to have good results. I would be very angry if I had results like that after 5 treatments.

Maybe I’m fortunate that I never found a Comet practitioner in my area. Maybe there is a reason for that, I don’t know. A few weeks ago, the Aesthera rep was at my practitioner’s office. He had worked for other laser companies like Lumenis and Candela. I asked him about the Comet. He said that hardly anybody was using it and that the RF feature was just a gimmick. I thought maybe he was just saying that because Syneron was his competition. So his comments are in line with what you said.

When we tried the Aurora on my legs, I did get an RF burn, and that was at only 25J. My practitioner was not real big on the Aurora, at least for dark skin. We obviously could not use it on my dark skin. Maybe a lot of dermatologists are not willing to use the higher RF energy and have decided to not use the Comet. They tried to get my dermatologist to use the Microwave hair removal system and he would not even consider it.

I was considered a good candidate:

I had dark coarse hair.

I had ghostly pale skin.

I recieved five treatments at maximal doses.

The doctor plainly stated that my treatments were at higher levels than most anyone.

I thought from your earlier posts that you had a darker skin type. If you have such light skin, I would see no reason to use high RF energy levels.

I do find a lot of your doctor’s behavior unusual. Things like not asking about your progress, and being vague in answering your questions are not good. Maybe they’re not as good as you thought, but you have no way of knowing that.

Also remember that when someone posts on here about bad experience with laser, and when we ask questions and offer advice, we are trying to help them. It’s not that we don’t believe them. I don’t go into the electrolysis forums and suggest laser when posters have bad results with electrolysis.

I myself have had excellent results with laser, really with all three types. It has been 2 years since I have had any laser and/or IPL treatment on my abs and back and the long term results have been stable with 90% reduction. If it hasn’t come back in 2 years, which is several growth cycles, it is not coming back, period.

One thing I will disagree with you on is where you make a blanket statement “either it works or it doesn’t.”
Well, laser worked for me, and I have long term results. And no it doesn’t work the same on all body areas. It has not worked so well on forearms, where the skin is dark. It doesn’t work as well on fine hair. That’s just the way it is. It’s the limitation of the technology. But I am happy I used it rather than be covered in a fur coat.

The diode laser didn’t work for you. Why? I don’t know. But it has worked for others. There is not as much of a track record for diode laser/RF. So we don’t know what the works/doesn’t work ratio is for it. It is unfortunate you had to find out the hard way.

Good luck in whatever hair removal strategy you are going to pursue. Maybe you can find a good electrologist. But as you know, it will require a huge committment of time and money. It’s slow, but it does have the track record.

RJC2001

I am sorry that Mantary has had no success with his experience. However, I can’t say that his experience was the same as mine. I have had 6 treatments on my legs with the Aurora and have had fairly good success. Prior to getting started with treatments, I made a template with a one-inch square. I used this on 10 areas on my legs and counted the hairs. It has been nine months since my last treatment and the reduction has been over 60%. The remaining hairs are lighter and finer. So, what I am saying is that I have done a hair count and can see my results objectively. After this length of time, it seems that if the treatments didn’t work, most of the hair would have grown back by now – and as coarse as they had been.

I should probably add that I’ve also had my bikini line and happy trail done. The results are far better, more like 90%. And, of course, the remaining hair is lighter and much finer.