i hope i didnt drive down there for nothing…i dont know why she would only do it at 12j if its not powerful enough… i guess if it doesnt completely shed in a couple weeks ill have her go over it again on 16j (free touchups)…and if that doesnt work then try the YAG… is that what you would suggest LAGirl?
i am really am scared at this point. the biggest mistake of my life…i dont know how long this is gonna take , it seems like many months and thats assuming it all comes out which at this point i am really frightened that its gonna just get more and more spotting without taking it all out evenly… can u just give it to me straight…?? is this where I am headed? 
12j is too low especially on the alexandrite. I’d be surprised if any hair sheds on your chin or upper lip with those settings. I’m also surprised they would use 18mm on your face since that’s much larger than your upper lip would be. I’m not quite sure how they can get the upper lip plus then get along the edge of your nose with such a clunky spot size. Yag is better on the face but you still have nothing to worry about, you’re not going to have any big noticeable difference after only a few treatments.
Don’t worry about it right now. There is a good chance that 12J on 18mm will make the hair shed just fine. Just wait 3 weeks and see how it goes. You can always go back and get that free touchup. You can potentially ask for a Yag treatment too. 12J is not terrible at all on this area given the coarseness of your hair.
To be honest, you can ask a million questions here and get a million responses. 12J at 18mm may shed for you and work, or it may not. I was treated with 15mm and 20 or 22 joules on alexandrite which is high, yet my upper lip and chin wouldn’t shed. So from my experience it’s too low but for someone else it might work. Everyone is different so there’s no right or wrong answer. The point is you need to do a treatment and wait 3 weeks for all the hair to fall out. If it doesn’t then you have issues, if it does then there’s a good chance things are working well, it’s as simple as that.
i didnt have them do my moustache area… ive already done it twice and it shed the first time… so no need. also my chin area is pretty cleared as well… its on the sides along the jawline that hasnt cleared well…
if u look at the 2nd set of pictures u can clearly see the moustache is cleared and the chin is basically cleared… u can see the areas that are still dense and havent yet shed…
the 1st treatment got a huge amount of the hairs.
when u compare the 1st set of pics to the 2nd set u can see it did get quite a bit more … so maybe it is working, maybe i just need like 5-8 treatments to get 95% of it… its just so horrifying right now and to think its gonna be like this for many months still scares me to the core…
Just dab on some of that flesh-colored makeup stuff that looks like a tube of chapstick but isn’t.
yea i tried concealer… doesnt fix anthing… the coarse areas are too dark…
You just have to wait, face isn’t easy to treat, it will also take more than 5-8 treatments. I’ve had 7 or so and my results are similar to other body parts after around 4. Maybe you’re playing with it too much to irritate it. Whenever I go, immediately after treatment my face is puffy and red, but about 15 minutes later when I’m leaving, it’s mostly come down, to the point that no one on the street would look at me funny when I walk by or whatever. By the time I get home an hour or so later it’s mostly down. The first few days are the worst because the hair looks like it’s growing but it looks more singed and shaving does nothing, you can’t get rid of the stubble no matter how close you shave. After 3 days or so it’s usually back to being normal, but I prefer to let it grow if possible because it sheds easier when it’s longer. After 2 weeks or so, you can use those Biore pore strips on the area, or just white school glue. I put it on and let it dry then peel it off and out comes all the loose hair with it. I do this on all areas of the body, it’s gentle enough it’s not pulling out hairs that aren’t ready, but it’s strong enough to remove any that are ready to shed and speeds it up a lot.
I think most of your problem is sloppy treatment where they missed those areas. This treatment you just had probably took care of it, so you just need to be patient right now and wait 3 weeks for the hair to shed. There is no way around that time frame. You can exfoliate after about a week to help the hair out. But patience is key at this point. You started the correction/touchup process in time to avoid bad patchiness issues in the future.
i really dont think they ‘missed’ on the 1st and 2nd treatment… she went over it all both times…but some areas never shed…
It’s hard to tell since you can’t see it. Laser head is often circular, which requires a lot of good overlapping on this area. The other option is that the settings were too low.
Hi there,
A clinic that is closer to Vancouver, Canada that you might contact if you’re interested is Little Mountain Laser located in Mount Vernon, WA. This would definitely be a shorter drive than going to Bellevue, WA.
I had my beard done there and had a really good result. They know what they’re doing and they’re probably less expensive than what you would pay in Seattle or Bellevue:
http://littlemountainlaser.com/
My skin was really reactive and because of that the technician missed some spots during my first visit - there was definitely some patchiness. For future treatments they drew a graph on my skin so that no spots were missed and there would be adequate overlapping.
I also had a mini freak out at the time, but LAGirl and Edokid talked me down. They know their stuff - so if they say the joules are too low then they’re too low.
i am being told by some people that I should contact a lawyer here and see about bringing forward a case against this Spa in vancouver because clearly they messed up bigtime, either by missing areas or using the wrong settings…
22justin, I looked at your postings and here is the story:
You should have never had your first treatment with a 12 mm spot size. Apogee Elite has a 15 mm max spot size, so they should have used 15 mm with perhaps 16 Joules and perhaps 10 msc pulse width. An 18 mm spot size with MINIMUM settinghs of 14 Joules would work as well. I do not think anything was missed but the depth of penetration was too little so certain areas did not shed. Now, you need to use a big spot size, combination of Alex AND Yag settings and you can clear EVERYTHING within 1-2 more sessions. Then let EVERYTHING grow back, see where you are and then corrective laser action can be taken. Nothing to worry about.
do u think this 3rd treatment at caddell’s in bellevue will clear the remaining hairs? i am very worried that it wont. its 1 week now since this last treatment and nothing has shed yet, i try to tug on some with tweezers and a few do slip out easy , but the dense areas are still snugly in there
now lets just assume that i do manage to clear everything…what % likelihood do you figure that it will grow back evenly? or do you think because of the mistakes of the first 2 treatments, its likely not gonna regrow back even now?
if your saying that “corrective laser action” may need to be taken… i would call that a pretty big worry…
sorry if im being rude but when i wake up for the last 4 weeks looking like this, you can understand that i am in absolute panic mode, worried to death that I am never gonna get my face looking normal or proper ever again
Well, you are very lucky to have one of THE BEST laser specialists coming here to give you his advice, complete with parameters, justin. Chris sounds pretty sure that you will be fine and I would be very reassured with his words above. Do you think you will give it another try?
Dee thank you for your kind words.
Justin, you can go back to the Clinic that treated you with the Elite Laser and tell them to use the YAG portion ONLY ON THE AREAS that DID NOT SHED with a 12 mm spot size. Have them do the treatment and 3-5 days after that treatment, go back to them and have them treat you with the ALEXANDRITE portion with a 15 mm spot size, 10 msec pulse width and 16 Joules. They will need to treat you at short intervals with both wavelengths until this clears. Once it does, it will go brack evenly.
Again, it is important to do your research before you jump into these type of treatments. Face is one of the HARDEST AREAS to treat and in the wrong hands, you can get less than stellar results.