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I had some more coarse hairs below the belly button. I had 3 laser treatments at high settings to try it. It probably got rid of 40% of the hair or so. The rest was definitely too fine, so I switched to electrolysis.
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I only had lower legs treated, 3 times. My upper leg hair doesn’t have very coarse hair. It’s also not very dense, so it doesn’t bother me.
Hi LA Girl,
Just wanted to ask you, I wanted to use laser on my face and I am East Indian. It sounds like from your previous posts you would say it is bad to use on your face. Would you still say that? A long time ago I used it on my side burns and it did seem to work. I did have coarse hair though. Now I have coarse hair growing on my chin. Fine hair does not bother me.
Please read our FAQs at the link below and post a new thread. The short answer is that treating coarse hair on the face is fine, but if you’re female and the hair is mixed with fine hair, that fine hair can become worse. Also, for your skin type, you need a Yag laser.
Thanks so much for your reply. I will start a new thread, sorry.
I’m scared to get electrolysis. does it leave scarring?
Scarring is very rare. Seek out a licensed / credentialed electrologist. Maybe someone can recommend someone to you in your locale who has had work done by an electrologist they were pleased with? We recommend that you see as many as you can for a consultation. If you go to www.hairfacts.com and www.electrology.com, there will be information about choosing a professional electrologist.
Did you know that electrolysis is the only hair removal system considered permanent by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the American Medical Association (AMA) [source: WebMD ].
Many people mistakenly think they have scars when in fact they have temporary skin reaction right after an electrology session. It will subside. When the skin is disturbed, no matter what the cause, a lot of things happen underneath the skin as the body tries to defend itself against the “intruder”. Scrapes, bites, burns, bug bites, microdermabrasion, you name it, the skin reacts. No different when electrolysis is performed.
Nothing scars in good hands. In bad hands, anthing can happen. No matter what you choose to do, you need to look around for someone good and get sample treatments.
Hi LAGirl,
Hope you don’t mind me resurrecting this post.
How is your bikini line situation now, are you still getting occasional electrolysis there?
I live in Dublin, and am considering buying a deal package - 6 extended bikini line sessions of GentleLase for €150.
I currently wax or use depilatory creams but suffer ingrown hairs during regrowth and it drives me crazy!
Just wanted to check if you would still recommend GentleLase, a few years on. I have type II or III skin and dark coarse hair so think that it would be a suitable treatment for me.
Thanks!
Laser kills hair permanently. I got it done years ago now. Nothing grew back. Any hair that is gone for 1+ years can’t “come back” anyway. It’s dead. If there is any new hair past that point, it’s NEW hair that the body developped. I had some electrolysis on a few fine hairs that remained. Laser only kills coarse hair.
You sound like a great candidate and you found a good machine. Go for a consultation and make sure they use aggressive settings and get started! It’ll change your life.
Are you referring to LAgirl?
LA girl - how much new hair has grown now?
Nothing. It’s all the same since I stopped treatments years ago.
Hi LAgirl,
I have a question for you and maybe others as well when it comes to laser and electrolysis hair removal. How much time did you put into laser hair removal and how much time with electrolysis. You said its been years since you stopped treatment and I read some of your diary but I don’t have time to read the whole thing just really wanted to get a quick update on how many years you put into laser and where you treated and how many years with electrolysis hair removal and where you treated as well as a rough estimate of how much money you spent on each method.
I’m really thinking of doing this and just want a quick update even if YOU may be different then myself when it comes to hair removal as many of you have stated, getting a idea of what you went through is a good example for me nevertheless. For someone like yourself this should be easy to say since your on this site quite often as well as some of the others and answering this should be a breeze with all your knowledge in the field as well as some of the others who are often on the site. I’d like to get an idea by how many years it took and a total of what you spent and what areas you covered. And as of now you are COMPLETELY HAIR FREE in those areas and have not had any hair growth for years now. So my other question would be how many years have you gone without hair growth in those area treated??
Thank you for your help in this I’m looking for hope in this and will invest in it if I can see it clearly and right now its a bit foggy for me. Getting an idea of how much time and money someone spent and I’m looking to cover the same areas you did, will really help me out on what, I’ll roughly have to spend in the end.
It’s a bit difficult to summarize as I added on areas as I went and expanded some areas like bikini (so latter treatments cost more for the larger area).
However, I do mention the following timeline in previous posts in this thread (I’m adding approximate prices…it’s been a while):
- Laser treatment 1 (early 2005): laser on underarms only ($100)
- Laser treatment 2: Laser on underarms, basic bikini and stomach ($225)
- Laser treatment 3-4: Laser on underarms, extended bikini and stomach ($275 per treatment)
- Laser treatment 5: underarms and extended bikini (stopped stomach because the hair was too fine and started electrolysis on that area instead) ($200)
- Laser treatment 6: extended bikini only (underarms didn’t need more treatments) ($175)
Achieved about 95%+ reduction on both underarms and extended bikini from these treatments. Hard to say with stomach since I didn’t wait long enough for hair to grow out after laser to tell before I started electrolysis, but the coarsest hair along the happy trail below the belly button all gone or turned finer.
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Laser on lower legs 1-3 (2007): spaced 12-16 weeks apart ($250 per treatment) - stopped after 3 treatments because 60-70% reduction was achieved and the rest is sparse and fine, so don’t mind shaving
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Electrolysis on stomach continued through 2007 (about 18-20 months total)
The rest was all electrolysis (microflash on Apilus) from late 2005 to 2008 finishing areas and adding on others:
- Added nipple area (10-minute treatments for 12 months - had to switch to blend method because some hairs were deep and curled)
- Added underarms to finish sparse hairs (5-minute treatments for 10 months)
- Added upper lip (8-10 10-minute treatments)
- Added chestbone (8-10 15-minute treatments)
- Added eyebrows (8-10 20-minute treatments)
- Added bikini to finish sparse hairs (4-5 10-minute treatments)
So, I spent about $2,000 total on laser treatments and probably around $2,000 on electrolysis treatments as well. That was probably the best $4,000 I’ve spent in my life (if you don’t count all the international trips I do 
)
I haven’t had any laser on bikini or underarms since late 2005 or early 2006.
At this point I shave my legs once every week or two. And I have 3 hairs on my underarms leftover and about 15-20 individual hairs on my bikini line (I’m actually looking to remove them for good right now - I stopped electrolysis there before I was completely done because they weren’t bothering me). I don’t have to do anything to the eyebrows or nipple area or stomach. There is nothing there that bothers me at all. No bleaching or anything else necessary.
Hope this helps!
Hi again Harrygal here!! Thanks LAgirl so much for your feed back it really helps me understand it all!! I just wanted to add why did you stop doing your legs it seems like you were almost there and do you mind shaving after investing all the time and money into LASER and ELECTROLYSIS?? I thought that was the whole idea of doing either one of these methods is to be gone with the SHAVER for good!?! I mean are you destined to shave no matter what, due to the hairs that come out when they want to or can you be completely hair free if you put all the time into it and how much time estimated is possibly enough!?! Or should I say you will always be putting time into it because we are never truly hair free could this be true!?!
So this is the question and to anyone else who has used these methods if you could give a shout out of how much time total if its years put it down and where you covered and the money total spent, that is if your done with those areas you chose whether it be LASER or ELECTROLYSIS or BOTH it would be a great help!! I’m a true believer in results and data and I know this works to some degree but still would love to get estimated costs and total times put into it from those who have already done the deed!! Thanks!!
Lagirl, that is awesome how your laser treatments went very well and you had gotten great results and upto this day your not having any problems with those areas. I have a question, did you check for your hormones? and were they elevated? Anything regarding PCOS?
Harrygal: The remaining fine and sparse hair on my lower legs doesn’t bother me. It’s not worth it for me to try to get 100% removed there. I shave once every one or two weeks and it just takes a few strokes. It’s not worth it to me to spend the time and money on laser and then electrolysis to be 100% hairfree there. Everyone is different. This hair doesn’t bother me. I can’t speak for everyone else.
I think you should look at hair removal more realistically. For me, it’s not necessarily about removing 100% of hair on every area and never shaving again. That concept is pretty elusive anyway as your body may develop NEW hair after you’re done and you’ll need touchups. For me, the point was not to have to worry about hair. I don’t need to plan waxing appointments every time I want to go swimming, or bleaching my stomach, or worry that I have crazy stubble on my legs a day after I shaved, or deal with ingrowns and irritation. I feel “normal”. It was worth it for me for that fact alone. Hair doesn’t consume my life any longer.
Audrey: My extra hair was in the normal range and I don’t have any other signs of a potential hormonal condition, so I didn’t feel it was necessary to test for that.
Hi!
Can I ask how you’re getting on with the fine hairs on your stomach… did they respond?
Hi LA Girl
Can I ask when you had your stomach lasered - did the fine hairs vaporise on contact with the laser (i.e. did they burn away entirely as far as you could tell by eye) and how long did they take to grow back after… just trying to compare your experience with mine!
Thanks
Yes, they were vaporized. The hairs don’t “grow back” since hair grows in cycles.
If anything was killed on that area, it was maybe 30-40%, mostly the more coarse hairs right in the middle. I started electrolysis right after, so it’s hard to judge much else.