After lurking around these forums for months I finally had my first session.

I did my underarms and abdomen this morning.

It was a Lightsheer Diode laser with Coolglide and the spot size was 12mm. I am somewhere between a type III and IV, but more so on the IV side.

My armpits were done at about 20 joules...it hurt. Not everywhere, but especially towards the middle it was rather uncomfortable.

The abdomen was pale in comparison painwise. The "trail" area hurt more but the area above the naval and then perimeter of the ab region was pretty painless. The hairs get finer the further away they get from the center.

On the areas where it didnt hurt as bad does that mean it was ineffective?

My right armpit is killing me. My abs were painfree almost right after the treatment. I am excited to see the results.

Are you male or female?

What was the pulse setting? This is important as 20J is not very high on LightSheer.

How much coarse hair do you have on your stomach? I would advise to only treat the very coarse hair. The rest will probably not be affected anyway, so you can save money on that.

You shouldn't have any pain after laser, only during. Use ice and clear aloe vera gel on treated areas for a few days. If pain persists on your underarm, let your technician know. There may be a slight burn.

Coarse dark hair hurts most. You don't know for sure what was affected until shedding completes in 3 weeks.

I am a female.

What do you mean by pulse setting?

On my stomach it is most course around my belly button and then under in the trail area. Above the belly isnt necessarily so coarse like the stubble i see under my belly button but it is longer and it is definately quite visible. On the sides of my ab area is isnt so visible.

You know how some hair are blasted out of the follicle area right away and the technician wipes them away? What causes that? Also, is it ok to pull out the ones that are hanging around?

- "Settings" on a laser involve 3 variables including joules, spot size, and pulse. So it makes a difference in the strength of settings and effectiveness of treatment.

- I wouldn't have high expectations for the hair above your belly button and on the sides. I actually wouldn't treat the sides at all to avoid potential induced growth. Laser will only really affect the coarsest hair. It won't affect the type of hair you describe on these two areas. I had this done myself and switched to electrolysis after 3 treatments. In terms of settings, lowest pulse you can handle is most effective on less coarse hair and in general. Also, on LightSheer, anything under 25J is usually not very effective for permanent results, especially if the pulse is not very low.

- Hair that was treated sheds within 3 weeks. Some gets blasted out right away, some comes out slower within the next 3 weeks. It's ok to pull out hairs as long as you're not pulling anything out that gives resistance, i.e. you shouldn't be plucking.

Hi Lagirl:

I have some experience with Lightsheer and was considering
having it done on my stomach. After reading your post I
will stick with electrolysis for that area.

I've been working my way down, and had my first
electrolysis on the stomach area 2 weeks ago.
It's been working pretty well on the area above
the stomach so far which is allowing us to
move on down.

If you have enough coarse hair there, it will definitely help. But if it's mostly fine, then I wouldn't bother. My 3 treaments did get rid of the most coarse hair right in the middle. They just didn't affect the sides and the part above the belly button.

Well its been one day since my treatment.

I am looking at the trail area and am alittle worried. While there isn't as much regrowth as there typically would be in one days time it appears like maybe the hair is growing back...only slower? Is this genuine regrowth or something else?

My pits stopped aching but on the contrary my trail area is alittle enflamed and tender.

Also one more thing,
the hair that I pull that resists, is that unaffected hair that was missed?

Since all the dark hair should absorb laser energy, they should either get burned or turn into some sort of rubbery and elastic string. They may even stretch outwards if pulled out. If none of these it means then the shaft above the skin or very close to the skin surface is not effected well, but there is still a good chance the root gets affected. If that is the case, taking into account the friction between the hair and the skin, and the loose attachment of the root to the dermis, it may take up to week for the hair to get loose enough to be easily pulled off without any resistance.


But, if it seems to be perfectly healthy trimmed hair, then the bad news is that it will stay that way and keep growing.

Actually, it is WAY too early to judge anything. It takes around 3 weeks for shedding to complete, and it doesn't start until week 1 or even 1.5. At this point, you just need to be patient and wait. Apply pure clear aloe vera to soothe the skin meanwhile.

i disagree about anything under 25j being ineffective. that's just plain false and also possibly dangerous. 25j+ on a diode even on very pale skin can burn the skin. i had 23j done on my face, i am a type II-III and this burned my skin a bit, but it also killed the hair that was there.

Settings don't just depend on the joules. There is a spot size and pulse involve which make a huge difference. However, even at relatively low pulse, you shouldn't be burning at 23J if you're truly a type II-III. There is likely something else involved here...a slight tan, medication, etc. Or you're a darker skin type than you think. What is your ethnicity? If you look on the forum, people with a type II-III usually handle even 35-40J just fine on a LightSheer most of the time.

Also, my point was and is that if you can't handle high enough settings to actually kill the hair on a diode (i.e. those above 25J), you probably should be using a Yag laser instead.

i am eatern european caucasean. no meds, no tan at the time of laser. 35j would burn my skin off, i can guarantee you that. and as i said, the lightsheer worked, probably better than the gentlelase, at killing the hair i had. (at 23j) i do not know the other settings but i started at 25j and it burned then went down to 23 and even that burned a bit but it killed that cycle of hair growing.

Do you know the pulse that was used? It sounds like you're darker than a type III or have underlying pigment in your skin. Or you have at least some tan (unless you're using SPF sunblock every day on your face, your face is getting some sun and tan). 23J could work just fine, but for many, it doesn't produce permanent results because it's not high enough to actually disable the hair permanently, rather than just damage it. However, it's really hard to say the exact minimum here without knowing the pulse and spot size as they make a big difference in the overall strength of the settings. If they used 10ms pulse on a 12mm machine, 23J is pretty high. However, at 50ms and 9mm machine, it's not.

GentleLASE is a more powerful laser overall since it's an alexandrite. At settings that are similar to the power of the settings used on you with LightSheer, it would have worked better due to the fact that it's a more powerful machine in the first place with a much bigger spot size (18mm) and a much lower pulse (3ms).

I am still watching the hairs and I have yet to shave them.

I still have no luck trying to pull them out because they resist. However, the hair hasnt really grown so much. I have a short stubble that appeared about 3 days afterwards and is still there, at the same length. Is this a good thing?

I really dont think I could have handled much more in terms of fluency that what I did in my armpits that day. I cant imagine it it already hurt quite a bit.

You need to give it 3 weeks. Please be patient.