To sslhr.

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

Thankyou again for your last reply sslhr.

The reason why I ask about the permanence regarding hair that have become finer is that I fear that maybe my hairs will become coarse again and I will have to undergo hair removal treatment again. I got so many negative side effects from my last treatment in february this year.
The settings were to hight and I got blisters, scabbing and ingrowns…I got only a few ingrowns before the last treatment, but after the last treatment when my skin got burned and swelled I got so many! Some of the ingrowns I got right away, on my upper back, just a few days after the treatment when my skin was newly damaged and these became hard aching bumps which now 6,5 moths later are smaller and painless but still there - hard bumps under the skin. The other ingrowns I got at the time of the next regrowth 2 months after the treatment. These are more like inflamed marks with hair in them, they are mostly on my arms but also on my back and legs. Also some weeks ago I got one more of those hard bumps on my upper back. And not only that, I have many hyperpigmented marks on my back and legs from the burns and blisters. They were much darker in the beginning so they have faded, but now it’s like they have stopped becoming better. I got one such mark may of 2005 (1 year and 3-4 months ago) and that one can still be detected although it has improved a lot, so I don’t know how long it will take for the marks to totally resolve - if they ever will.
I also got hypopigmentation from three deep blisters.

The last treatment really messed me up and I couldn’t do my studies because I was so depressed and I didn’t pass the term - I’m now reading the same term again.

Have you seen the kind of ingrowns forming hard bumps under the skin? And if you have, is your experience that they will resolve or will they remain as they are?

So after all that money and mental stress I hope that atleast the hairs wont grow coarse again. If I didn’t get side effects like some people I wouldn’t worry because then I could just buy and undergo another treatment if I thought that the hairs had become to coarse.
Of course I know I will not get hyperpigmentation and hypopigmentation if settings are used that don’t burn my skin.
But even without the burns I hate the ingrowns. I hate the thought of having something insoluble in my skin and the marks and dots they create. And the big inflamed ingrowns that become hard bumps left some hyperpigmentation too.

It’s like a ask and ask just to get a word of hope so that I can feal better. Crazy.

So, now it’s 6,5 months for me. I hope this means my hairs will remain thinner as long as possible. Although when I remember how thick they were before I imagine that my body is good at repairing hair follicles, like it is meant to have extremely coarse hair. But that’s just my thoughts.

Now on my chest I can clearly see that old hairs are shedding (I see them in the washbowl) and new hairs are growing in in their place, short small hairs. So the hairs are completing one hair cycle. Maybe this is the time when I will see if the partially damaged hair follicles have been repaired by the body and the hairs will grow out to be coarse again. Although right now they seem thin and are growing slowly. But maybe it will happen gradually, in two or three hair cycles.

If anyone has first hand experience of their hair becoming finer, please write about your long term outcome. Did it revert? Has it remained fine?
Sorry for nagging about this!

#2

I think laser hair removal doesn’t work effectively on men’s hormonal hair. I had my beard done. The results are VERY patchy hair loss.

The fine hair did become coarse again after many months. At this point, I am hoping it all grows back and the hypopingmentation spots go away so I look normal. Then maybe I can treat the scars it left with fraxel laser, but I’m extremely hesitant to turn to another laser to fix anything.

#3

you also need to account for the fact that you didn’t have the most effective treatments. you used an IPL and had hyperpigmentation/scarring which isn’t normal (I’m not sure if the chain you used led you to believe it was when it happened the first time.)

#4

hi jimmyjames,
How many treatments did you have on your beard and how long ago was your last treatment? Do you still have spots were the hair is gone?

#5

As a species, most of what we know, we’ve learned in the last 30 to 40 years. And the pace of what we are learning is accelerating, to the point that we know more and more about less and less. The problem is that we tend to forget to pay attention to what we don’t know. And unfortuantely, your questions really wrap around what we don’t know.

So let’s start about what we do know about hair and hair removal. We know that everyone is basically born with all the hair follicles that they are going to have. We also know that not all follicles are active at all times. Some follicles are never active. And some only become active during different stages of our life (puberty, menopause, etc). We also know that when a follicle is completely destroyed it does not come back.

Now let’s look at what we don’t know. We don’t know what part of the hair follicle is critical for destruction. Is it is the bulb, the bulge, or the entire follicle? What part do you have to destroy to really destroy the hair follicle? We don’t know why destroying some of the follicular cells results in finer hair. And we don’t know what happens to a hair follicle that is not completely destroyed. Will the hair follicle recover? No one knows.

But we can make some SWAGs (as opposed to WAGs). A WAG is a wild ass guess. A SWAG is a scientifically based wild ass guess.

So here are some of my SWAGs about what to expect. I think three things can happen to hair when it is treated. 1) the treatment kills the hair. 2) the treatment partially destroys the hair. 3) the treatment has no effect. My sense is that one of the reasons that we see finer hair is because the treatment partically destroys the hair follicle but does not kill it. In addition, there are hairs that are not treated-they are dormant during treatment or were missed (partially or completely).

My sense is that the hairs that we see that are finer are hairs that were treated but only partially killed. There is also some biopsies and histology that supports that theory. But I have seen people with coares hair interspersed among the finer hair and my sense is that the coarse hair is hair that was completely missed.

Whether fine hair will get coarse or not is an unknown. Again, my sense is that it has not for as long as we have been following our results. We started in 1997 and I have followed many people since then. Almost everyone who has poor results ends up seeing me at some point. Which is one of the reasons why we have learned as much as we know about what we do. I do not recall anyone who has hair that has significantly coarsen up over time. This is not to say that it can not happen, just that it isn’t common. Otherwise, I would be seeing people who would come in to complain about their hair having gotten thicker and coarser after it was fine.

This is not to say that it can’t happen. Just that among the thousands of clients we have had, it has not been an issue or something that we have seen. Now that isn’t to say that after 12 years it won’t back. We just haven’t followed people out that long. So we don’t know.

Finally, regarding all your complications. Something doesn’t sound right from what you are describing, but I can’t give you any advice since I have no idea what have. This is one of those issues where you really have to see and feel to understand what changes are happening in your skin. But I am curious, have you seen a dermatologist?

#6

I think laser hair removal doesn’t work effectively on men’s hormonal hair. I had my beard done. The results are VERY patchy hair loss.

The fine hair did become coarse again after many months. At this point, I am hoping it all grows back and the hypopingmentation spots go away so I look normal. Then maybe I can treat the scars it left with fraxel laser, but I’m extremely hesitant to turn to another laser to fix anything.

There is no question that beards on men is the most difficult area to treat. But I think it is an oversimplification and not a true statement to say that it doesn’t work effectively on beards.

What is most important is the type of laser that is used and the knowledge and skill of the person doing the treatments. Those seem to have the most effect and are most critical to getting good results. And also realizing that beard treatments may take much longer to reach the final stage.

The bottom line is that almost anyone using almost any kind of laser can get pretty good results on bikini lines most of the time. But when you move to the face (for both men and women) the relatively skill, knowledge, and equipment of the people doing the treatment become critical.

#7

jimmyjames, it would be clearer to other readers if you said you had IPL hair removal rather than Laser hair removal. There’s a big difference in effectiveness and you shouldn’t slam Laser removal that is not part of your experience.

#8

jimmyjames, it would be clearer to other readers if you said you had IPL hair removal rather than Laser hair removal. There’s a big difference in effectiveness and you shouldn’t slam Laser removal that is not part of your experience.

AMEN! Can we please get an admin to force a signature on him that explains that on every one of his one sided posts? A disclaimer if you will? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

#9

why is a certain someone perpetuating false things about my experience?

I had IPL AND diode laser. several treatments with each. [comment removed] I state my personal experience that laser hair removal did not work.

its been eight months and the hair that i still have is so coarse again that i get shaving irritation.

[comment removed]

this procedure is misrepresented to the public as a permanent solution which it is not at all. it may work if you keep going for treatments for the rest of your life, but even then you are likely to always have sparse hairs that you will need to shave.

also i am a man and am talking about mens beards so unless you had your beard done and now have no hair then please dont tell me you know more than me about the experience.

#10

you stated over and over that you used the infamous chain clinic with an IPL machine and that you got PATCHY RESULTS. Correct me if I’m wrong, but patchy means that certain hairs were killed while others were not. You mention none of this in the above because once again you are upset about your treatments. If you didn’t kill any hair, they would ALL be back and you wouldn’t have patchiness that you are upset about. If you choose not to state this in your “statements of your experience”, you cannot be upset that others are pointing out the truth to make it clear to the newbies who haven’t read about your experience. Next time, state it yourself. Bitterness doesn’t help anyone on these forums. It’s not helpful or useful to any newbies. Like so many people told you before, it would be much more beneficial for everyone if you stated exactly what happened so those looking for treatments can use it to avoid negative experiences like yours. Noone’s disputing that treating male beards is difficult with laser and may require numerous treatments and yearly touchups afterwards even with the best laser and tech, which you didn’t use. You just choose not to read into that. Besides, the person asking the question is not treating his face.

and once again, Andrea will remind you that namecalling is not allowed on this forum and will get you banned.

#11

oof. always has to have the last post. have you ever had your MALE BEARD done? of course not you are a woman.

#12

first, i answer all posts and Andrea, the OWNER of this forum, and everyone else looking for unbiased information here greatly appreciates it. I’d love to show you my inbox sometimes.

but to address your point, you can post about your negative experience as much as you want. you once again choose not to read what i said. all that is asked is that you TRY to be objective in your posts and provide all the necessary information so others can learn from your experience. i’m sure your experience is frustrating, but expressing it in the way you do here in certain instances is not helping anyone (maybe it makes YOU feel better, i can’t speak to that. but i can certainly say it doesn’t help others looking for INFORMATION here). If you actually read the helpful posts on the forum above from professionals with years of experience like sslhr, and asked him questions, not just use it for alternative reasons, you may be able to get a solution to your problem (though not sure if that’s what you’re looking for).

#13

I am new to this website and can’t figure out how to post a new topic. Please forgive my ignorance.

I am a 33 year old female with terrible (and very course) facial hair. When I was younger (and before it was banned) I used a type of birth control called Norplant. One of the side effects was facial hair growth, and boy they weren’t kidding!! Anyway, I am tired of living my life with this. A while back, I went to see an electrolysist and my experience was awful. She left me with white bumps and pits. Fortunately the pits have healed without scarring.

So lately I have been thinking about laser removal, but am petrified of scaring or other side effects. I have been reading what everyone has to say on this forum, but everyone’s experience seems so different and the information is overwhelming. I guess what I am saying is I don’t really know where to start and what things I really need to consider in making a decision.

Any help is appreciated.

#14

you should start by seeing a good endocrinologist to find out how your hormonal balanced was affected by that pill and see what is currently causing the growth. are you taking any birth control pill currently? they might put you on something new that will stabilize your hormones.

electrolysis is great for women’s facial hair. what you experienced is not normal and should not happen with a good electrologist. your options are either laser or electrolysis and you shouldn’t discount electrolysis because of your one negative experience. if you choose to go that route, you can read the electrolysis part of this forum and get information or even recommendations of how to find the best electrologists in your area.

please tell us how much hair you have, your skin type, ethnicity, where exactly the hair is and how coarse it is. then we can help you figure out which way to go.

you can start new threads by clicking “post” to the right of the search box at the top of the page.

#15

Thank you for the response.

I am no longer on any birth control. The Norplant system was not a pill. It was an under-the-skin treatment. It looked like 5 pieces of rice that was placed under the arm. Anyway, I have a lot of hair and it is all coarse. I can literally grow a beard and mustache. I have hair from my upper lip to under my chin and even some finer hair on my upper neck. (I get a 5:00 shadow) It is quite embarrassing. I am a white female with fair skin.

Do you think there is something hormonal I could take to rectify the problem?

I will take a look at the electrolysis page.

I appreciate your help and advice.

About posting though, I don’t have a post button or a search box. Do you need to be a premium member?

Thanks again!!

#16

everyone has a post button and a search box. you’re likely looking on this page and not the main laser hair removal page. try this page: http://www.hairtell.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php/Cat/0/Board/UBB43

your situation sounds like your hormonal balance was messed up while taking Norplant. what that means is that you have to do 2 things: see an endocrinologist and possibly get on a pill to bring the balance back to normal and prevent future growth and get on a hair removal treatment to remove current growth. considering your situation treating with an alex laser would be your best bet at high settings to start, and finishing off with electrolysis on the remaining finer sparse hairs that laser can’t get. since laser can will work mostly on the dark coarse hairs, i would treat those areas with laser and leave the rest for electrolysis. i do strongly recommend that you get to a doctor to start the pill or another treatment he may recommend as laser can’t prevent new growth that your body is developing regularly due to the hormonal imbalance.

#17

Thank you very much, I will start with finding a doctor. I appreciate your help!