trying laser hair removal for full arms

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

I’m a female with between Type II and Type-III skin and lots of coarse dark arm hair. I’ve gotten electrolysis pretty successfully on my face, and decided to get laser on my arms. I thought I’d post my progress while I get laser since others’ posts have been so helpful in helping me decide on the hair removal methods I have used.

I went today for my first treatment and I think it went okay but I have a few questions. The doctor uses the Cutera Nd:Yag system. I’ve heard this is most effective for Type IV skin and darker, but can it still be relatively effective on someone with lighter Type III skin?

For both full arms, the treatment took about 25 minutes. She generally did straight lines down the forearms and then the upper arms. Does this time/procedure sound usual?

She had me wear these laser-safe glasses while she was doing it, which I thought was good. She didn’t use any overhead light beside the general light in the room, but maybe this isn’t procedure with laser to use a closer-up light? (I may just be used to the overhead light used in electrolysis and thus unnecessarily expected it during laser).

She also told me it’s okay to shave in between, even while the hair is shedding during the 2-3 week period. Just wanted to double check this is okay because I wasn’t sure if you should only shave after the hair sheds and new hair starts growing in.

Also, I’ve read a lot on this site that it’s a good idea to exfoliate in the shower in the weeks following laser. I asked her about this and she said not to. She may have meant “it’s not necessary”–I don’t think she was adamantly against it–and I didn’t think at the moment to ask her about the differentiation. Should I still exfoliate in between or does anyone know if there’s a reason I shouldn’t?

Lastly, she said I’ll want to schedule an appt every 6 weeks or so in the beginning. I’ve heard 8-12 before, but I assume 6 is fine too?

Thanks!

#2

You can absolutely shave. The burned hairs might be a bit tough to shave over because they are crispy. Until the hair sheds, I find I look like I have stubble, even if I shave as close as possible. This is the annoying part.

Clinics just use the overhead room light, there is no special lighting required since the work is not detailed like electrolysis.

Some people say exfoliate, some people say it’s not necessary. There’s no reason NOT to, really. It can speed up some of the shedding under the right circumstances.

Schedule an appointment WHEN YOU HAVE NEW HAIR. If you’ve got all new hair at 6 weeks, then go for it. If you don’t have that much new hair, then wait a week or two (no matter what she says). Your personal observations on hair growth are what should dictate your treatment schedule since everyone is a little different.

#3

  • You can shave if you want to. It’s sometimes easier for the hair to shed if you don’t. Up to you. Same with exfoliating - it helps shedding.

  • What settings are being used?

  • Yes, ND:Yag will work on all coarse hair, but an alex would work better on hair that’s in between for example.

  • I doubt you have super coarse dense growth all over your arms, especially your upper arms. I would be concerned with induced growth on upper arms in particular. Make sure you’re only treating hair there that’s actually coarse and dense, like the hair in your underarms or lower arms.

  • Like Kitty said, schedule your next appt when you feel you have enough hair to treat again. You don’t need to follow some arbitrary schedule. Your body will tell you.

#4

Thanks for your replies. I’m not sure what settings are being used, but I can ask her next time.

Unfortunately, my hair growth is pretty dense all up the arms – it’s hairier than the average guy’s arms. The upper arms are a little less so and a little less coarse, but still a lot there. Today, there wasn’t as much stubble on the upper arms because it grows back slower than the lower arms, and I had only shaved 2 days before…she still used laser on the areas that didn’t have visible stubble today (on parts of the upper arms) but where there’s definitely usually hair…will that put me at risk for induced hair growth there?

#5

It would help if you posted photos. It’s hard to tell if it’s coarse enough by the description. Generally, “coarse” is the type of hair that leaves stubble and/or shadow after it’s shaved.

I would call and ask for settings so that you’re prepared when you go in next time. Ask for spot size, joules, and pulse width.

#6

I tried taking “before” photos before I initially shaved all the hair off, but my camera, no matter what light/flash settings I had it on, wouldn’t register the hair, or only very dimly. I guess I just have an older camera that doesn’t work too well.

Sorry this makes it harder to describe the hair growth–I will say the lower arms, except for a strip about two thumb-widths thick on the underside of the arm, leaves stubble right after shaving. For the upper arms, the bottom half leaves stubble right after, but the top half doesn’t (I still have dark hair here, and even though there’s a lot, it’s a lot finer). Should I stop getting laser on the top portion of my upper arms?

Also, is it okay to use lotion/sunscreen after showering still when you are getting laser? Will this slow/delay the shedding process? Thanks.

#7

I would only treat patches of hair that’s coarse and dense. Use a white pencil to outline the areas.

Yes, sunscreen is fine. It doesn’t have impact on shedding.

#8

Thanks, LAgirl. I’m thinking now I will only get laser on the lower arms, and on the tiny bit on my upper arms that has coarse hair. I wish I could have taken helpful photos to give a better sense of the hair. I’m starting to worry that laser won’t end up working for my hair at all…But the hair, especially on my lower arms, is pretty coarse, so I feel like laser done correctly should work. I figured electrolysis for my arms would be too tedious since there is so much hair there and it would end up being more expensive for the time spent, and get much more red and swollen. (I have been getting successful electrolysis results on my face, but it does get pretty swollen and red afterwards, I need a lot of ice and witch hazel/tea tree oil the first few days after each treatment). Laser just seemed the simpler option for arms in this case…even significant hair reduction and making the hair a lot finer would be fine with me…but now I’m nervous maybe I should have just stuck with electrolysis.

Should I continue trying laser for the 2nd session? I haven’t been able to see the results of the first session yet, since it’s only been a week, and as I understand from these forums, the hair sheds between the 1.5-3.5 week period after treatment. I didn’t have any adverse reactions to treatment-no redness or tingling, and there may have been some swelling but it wouldn’t have been noticeable to outside observers. I’m guessing this is a good thing. I liked the practitioner, but she seemed really nonchalant about the whole process–she described the stages of hair growth to me, but didn’t describe the machine she was using or the settings (though I knew from the place’s website and the label on the machine that she uses cutera nd:yag). I would call about the settings before I go in next time like you advised, LAgirl, but I’m worried she will be offended (even though she seemed very nice), and also she knows my mom and is giving a big discount. Is it okay to just wait for next session to ask about the settings? I’ve read about her experience in the brochure and it seems like she’s trained on laser in many institutes for awhile and knows it pretty well, so maybe I’m just getting overly nervous about all of this.

Thanks for all your help.

#9

Also, I’ve heard the hair gets finer every time with laser. Does this mean I should stop getting laser when the once-coarse hairs become finer–would this just cause induced hair growth and reverse results?

#10

boohoo, i wrote a really long post and then my pc crashed.

#11

I think the last thing you mentioned it what’s usually referred to as diminished returns, so you could look that up. You will definitely have to stop when the hair gets finer, but because hair grows in stages you do need to kill off every stage before you finish.
With induced growth I don’t think it’s so easy to tell if you are going to get it or not. It usually happens on specific areas. but it is fairly rare so don’t worry about it too much. As long as you are only getting coarse areas treated you should be safe.

#12

Let’s try again.

As far as I understand, Laser done with the right settings won’t make coarser hair finer (which is why it’s so important not to be treated at low settings). The coarser hairs will be permanently disabled. The finer hair left is mostly what was always there, mixed in with the coarser hair so not so noticeable before and not effected by the Laser.

Once it gets to the point where you just have finer hair left, that is unlikely to respond, I’d probably stop treatment.

Just as an example, I only really had coarse hair on my bikini line. 3 treatments gave me 95% or so reduction. 3 treatments on my lower legs however, gave me a very good reduction but there is a percentage of finer hair remaining that was always there that has not been affected by treatment. It is really is too fine for me to have bothered continuing.

You can also check out the link in my signature for my treatment diary. I’ve just had my 3-quarter arm treatment done a week ago. There are some earlier pictures in the thread which you can compare your own hair too. My sister’s pre treatment pic is also there.

#13

Thanks for the link to the treatment diary, stoppit. It looks like my arm hair before laser was basically exactly like your sister’s, and one of the posters seemed to say this hair is very eligible for laser. Still haven’t hit the 1.5 week mark since treatment-will be in about 2 days–so have yet to see how the shedding goes.

#14

It’s important to understand that laser is not a substitute for electrolysis. You shouldn’t be thinking “is it cheaper to get laser or electrolysis on this area”, but “is laser going to work or only electrolysis will” as it’s a lot more expensive to spend money on laser and then need to get electrolysis treatments because laser didn’t work.

Coarse hair is the type of hair that leaves a shadow and stubble after it’s shaved, i.e. doesn’t give a clean shave. I honestly don’t know many women or men who have that type of hair on upper arms.

#15

True about the costs. I just don’t know if I can do electrolysis at this point because I go to school somewhere else during the year, and it would be too hard to put that much time in for clearance with electrolysis before then. I probably will end up just continuing to shave my arms everyday. I’m thinking now that maybe laser won’t work on me and maybe I shouldn’t even bother spending money on a 2nd appointment. I wanted to try it, but if things don’t work with this practitioner, she’s really my only option in terms of cost and location. I’m just worried now that I’m going to be wasting money on something that might not work for me. Would you just advise me stopping now? Maybe I should just save up for electrolysis later on.

If coarse hair is the type that leaves stubble after shaved, then the hair on my lower arms and the bottom half of my upper arms does qualify. I have white skin, but am half Indian (South Asian), and got pretty hairy genes on that side.

#16

tryinglaser -

My arm hairs take 2-3 weeks to shed properly. My sister didn’t get shedding after her test patch, she had pepperspots until post week 6. At week 8 they were gone and new hairs started to emerge.

I don’t know why you think Laser won’t work on you if the hair is the same as my sisters and the right Laser/right settings have been used. Her hair is very coarse but we did only take it up to 3-quarter because as LAgirl has mentioned, above that the skin looks and feels smooth once shaved.

If you get almost complete shedding (maybe not the finer hairs) and it takes a good few weeks for hair to start coming back, I see no reason no to continue. But maybe just 3-quarter arms.

As for the rest, I wax it or bleach it or shave it depending on how smooth I need it to look. They are dark but otherwise reasonably fine and don’t feel too bad when growing back.
These are temporary measures and in the future, when you have funds, you can think about electrolysis on this remaining area.

#17

Thanks, stoppit. I guess I was just worried that the Nd:yag wouldn’t work well with my skin (its probably between type II and III, even though I have darker skin genes from my Indian side), especially since I haven’t asked her about settings yet. But I should remember as LAgirl said, the Nd:yag will probably work on my skin as long as the right kind of settings are being used–and I will just have to ask about that next time. I’ll see how shedding goes–I was just worried that if it doesn’t shed, like your sister’s didn’t until later, that I won’t be able to determine whether or not laser is working. But it seems like only time will tell–I’ll just have to be patient.

Doing just 3/4 arm is a good idea, I will do that instead for the rest of treatments if I continue. I would be fine with just bleaching or shaving the finer hairs when the coarser ones go away–I’m just hoping that the coarser hairs will really go away for good!

All this feedback is so helpful. I don’t think I would have ever had the courage to try these methods if it weren’t for these forums.

#18

I think it’s hard to assess what type your skin is just by the colour. Even if you are fair, your Indian genes mean you may well have more pigment in your skin.

But you’re right, settings are important and they should be on the high side.

And yup, just be patient. My sister’s didn’t shed but no hair was growing either, which is a good sign. I had 10-11 weeks between each appointment, I imagine her time scale will be similar given what happened with her test patch.

Also, if the clinic has an Alex and if you are an appropriate skin type for it, they may well switch to it after a few treatments. Once the coarsest hairs are gone and to target some of the medium/finer ones as well.

#19

It’s unlikely that you’re a type II. That’s pretty pale. Given your ethnic background, you have underlying pigment which affects things as well. A Yag laser is probably just fine for you and the fact that you experienced shedding shows it’s a good option.

I would continue the treatments, but keep them to the lower arms…basically whatever part you feel is coarse and dense enough.

#20

Thanks for the tips. At week 2.5 now, and have experienced some shedding on my arms, but not much–probably about 20 percent of the hair. I’ve been trying to vigorously exfoliate in the shower–once I saw one hair that had just fallen out on my arm, and it seemed like it had the bulb of the root on it–should it have that when it falls out?

I’ve only shaved once since getting the laser treatment, because I wanted to speed up the shedding process as much as I could and see how the hair growth went afterward, but I’m thinking if there’s not much more shedding by week 3, I’ll shave (been wearing all long sleeve shirts and it’s gotten up to the 100s some days!)-I’m just wondering if I’ll still be able to assess the shedding results as well if I shave.

If I don’t experience more shedding than this, should I let the clinic know? Stoppit&tidyup, I know you said your sister didn’t experience any shedding until week 8 but that it still seems to be working for her. Just wanted to get feedback on this. Thanks.