Hi Everyone,

It's been about six weeks since I started electrolysis on my face and I'm happy with how it's going so far!

I then made the decision to start Laser on my underarms.
My body hair grows very quickly and to be honest it does not bother me to be waxing my arms and legs every few weeks, even though by two weeks the hair is already back and then I have to leave it to grow to an appropriate length to wax again. My fiance doesn't mind either, lovely guy that he is.
BUT I can't stand my underarm and bikini hair. I have to wax my bikini area every 2-3 weeks and I epilate my underarms once a week and shave mid-week. My underarms are maybe properly hair free for 2 days? It's horrible. I don't mind showing my arms when the hair is growing back but underarms is just gross (to me).

So today I went for my first consultation at Renew Medica near Oxford Circus. I selected this clinic as back when I first started researching laser their only clinic in south London had 3 different laser types for different skins. Now they have expanded.
The consultation went well and I had a test patch. All my questions were answered. I was also surprised to be shown a picture of 'reactive growth' on the face in the possible side-effects. I thought this was uncommon and that most Laser places don't mention it as a possibility.
For the test patch she picked the Apogee Elite (Yag) and drew a box on my underarm and divided it into 4. She said she used a pulse width of 30ms and different joule settings with the maximum at 30J.

How does this sound to you knowledgeable people?

I will be going for my first treatment in two weeks and then going on holiday two weeks after that (not in the sun), so I'm really hoping it will start shedding at this time and give me a hair free 2 weeks while I'm away!

What is your skin type? Can't judge settings without that.

Have you read other posts discussing clinics on London here?

Sorry, yea forgot to put that. I'm Indian-Asian commonly mistaken for Mediterranean and I guess type IV or maybe between III-IV.

With that combination, you're at least a type IV, possibly type V if you're not very light for your enthnic backround.

30J on a Yag is pretty conservative. 20ms pulse is not bad. I would ask for test spots to see if you can handle higher joules.

i'm fair for my ethic background hence believing i'm on the border of type iv.

the pulse width was 30ms. she did do other joule settings but i believe they were all lower than 30J.

What should i be looking for on the Apogee Elite Nd:Yag in terms of joules?

thanks for your help lagirl.

It's impossible to tell you exact settings since we don't know what your skin can handle. But I would definitely not get treated at anything lower than 30J on this Yag. You can ask them to test spot at 5J increments to see how high you can go.

thanks, that's pretty much what i wanted to know. i had no idea what kind of range is appropriate for this laser so that's really helpful.

when i was having my test patch i was a bit :S as even the 30J wasn't much more painful than electrolysis current (if you can compare the two) and i was expecting laser to hurt a lot more.

i will ask if she can try some higher settings.

The fact that it doesn't hurt that much is also indicative of the settings being too low. There should definitely be some pain, especially on the coarse hair.

hi - i'm back.

i had my first laser treatment a while back. after 2 weeks i had a lot of shedding - all the thicker, darker hair shed, what was left was barely visible. i was hair free for a few weeks until thicker, regular underarm hairs started growing. by week 8 after treatment it looked like a full growth (first question, was this just hair that wasn't in the right phase to be treated the first time, so it had come back or could some of the 'right' hairs be back too if the settings weren't high enough?). i just had my second treatment at 8 weeks. the aesthetician told me that the shedding was a good sign that the treatment is working. is this true?

thanks for all your help my dears.

Shedding is a good sign. What your describing is normal.

Hairs grows in cycles. When the hair comes back in it is new, growing hair that is in the right phase to be killed by the laser. This is why it is important to keep a treatment schedule.