Sure, the laser clinic is called Downtown Physicians Med Group. They are in (not surprisingly) Downtown LA, 801 Flower. There is way more than LHR there.
Pricing: http://www.alaserinstitute.com/index-3.html
It’s no frills, but I seem to get along with the people. It’s in and out in 30 minutes now anyway.
Totally inspiring diary Bryce many thanks.
I’m sorry to hear about your electrolysis provider passing away. I just started electrolysis recently. Tonight will be my fourth one hour appointment with her and I am looking forward to not only having more hair removed, but just visiting and catching up with her since our last appointment. She is awesome! I was just looking for one close to where I lived, and I really lucked out with her!
I just commented to her last week that all of these people who go pay hundereds of $$ an hour to therapist and psycologist have no idea what they are missing! I can go complain to her for an hour, shares some laughs, and THEN leave with less hair than I arrived with!
You got that down, Tommy!
I hear so many stories, funny and sad AND some things are said that I wish I had not heard because it is none of business. Something about that horizontal position that makes people talk more than they should. Electrolysis clients and electrologists become new best friends quickly. I think any electrologist reading this will agree that we wish we had a dollar for every time a client said to us that we are cheaper than going to a psychologist. Hair removal plus good listening skills what a deal!
Give Kelly a hug. I hope to meet her someday at a continuing ed program.
Dee
Bryce it seems like me you have super sensitive skin here is what worked for me and a few friends.
Stop using anything with perfume shower gel soap washing powder deodorant etc.Dr.Bronners baby mild is a good skin cleanser
Ensure you are getting enough water/hydration
Moisturise with extra virgin coconut and olive oil mixed 50:50 you dont need to use a lot but it really helps calm skin by providing the EFa’s it needs at the surface and Na-Pca spray for irritation
Take a good multivitamin and extra vit C 1000/2000mg a day best in time release formula
Stop consuming anything with hydrogenated vegetable oil and use butter olive or coconut oil for cooking etc avoid margarine .
Eat nuts brazil walnuts sunflower seeds and lots of berries
Take fish oil Omega 3 at least 1 teaspoon
Use lots of tomato puree or eat cooked tomatoes like 1 tablespoon per day for lycopene content
Use rosehip oil to help heal scars and as an anti ageing serum.
Make sure you have your vitamin D levels optimised your body needs about 4000iu per day if you avoid the sun.
hope this helps.
I will only add two things to this vitamin info. Most people throw away the watermelon rine when in fact this part has more lycopene than the rest of the fruit. It also has a viagara like effect if used in concentration. A blender can be handy to reduce this to a usable pulp that can be ingested as a drink, or added to other juices. This is a much less expensive source of lycopene than pills or a tomato
Next up, did you know that your body can store a year’s worth of vitamin D in the liver if you just give it enough to fill that storeage bill? make sure all your vitamin D is a natural usable form. D-3, or cholecalciferol is a very good bio-active form.
Today was my final laser treatment (#6). I do not think there will be very much result, but perhaps some on the mid and lower back.
Next steps are for me to find a new electrolysis provider. I probably will have to negotiate price some, because it seems most people around here want $80-$100 per hour. That’s hard to swallow after my last practitioner averaged $40. However, if someone was good and had the platinum machine (I feel there was a good benefit to that machine), I would pay a bit more for efficiency.
Of course, a proper update wouldn’t be complete without some photos. I have taken some real close-ups so you can see how my skin has improved over the last year. These photos make me very happy. I hope the skin will get even better over time. As you can see, there is a little cleanup left on the right side, but it’s actually tolerable even if I quit now.
I am very red because the laser treatment #6 was a few hours ago. Given how much edema there is, I think there hasn’t been much success. But I could be wrong.
You can always count on me for quality photos!
Back Year 2:
Right shoulder Year 2:
Close-up of back, Year 2:
Thanks for the update and photos. I’m curious to see an update in 3 weeks and then in 3-4 months after that. It’d be interesting to see a photo of both sides at that point.
Are you still regularly treating the right side that was treated with electrolysis? If not, how long ago did you stop?
Electrolysis stopped 27 September 2008, so 13 months ago.
What a great write up Bryce. Given that we have relatively the same skin type, I’m confident that I should gain the same results on my full face that you have with your back. I’m going to give that clinic a call and try to schedual something for this weekend.
Thanks!
Okay, over the next few weeks I have trial appointments with Robin Harris (she’s within walking distance!), Sabrena Smith, and a Laura Crawford in Venice. Wish me luck as I look for a new practitioner.
Hi Bryce,
I have just finished reading your thread. Wow, you’ve come so far, Bryce. All the best in your search for a new pracitioner.
Thank you for writing this, I have learnt a lot from your experience.
Hey Bryce,
I went yesterday to the clinic you recommended for a sample. The pain was equivelent to electrolysis, and I can’t see myself sitting through that much pain. She used 16J for the alexandrite and 30j for the Yag. I was wondering if you were taking any kind of pain relievers?
I laid there and took all 20J of it, without pain killers or anything. It sucked in certain spots. Some treatments were easier than others. Just kept thinking to myself, “it’ll be over soon,” and “I hate this hair.”
Bryce is a man of is word. He said he would keep us updated with pictures, and truly, he has been a very loyal poster about his hair removal adventure with both laser and electrolysis side by side comparisons. This thread, ‘A guy’s treatment diary’ is a piece of gold for consumers. His pictures are great because they record the progression of his hair removal experience in great detail in a scientific-like way.
It appears that that you started electrolysis on the right side of your back, shoulders and upper arms in September of 2007 and completed treatment in October of 2008? Do you have a cost estimate you can share for the electrolysis part? Also, how many hours did this take, approximately?
Thanks for any help you can give related to the cost and time part. Everybody wants to know this kind of information. By the way, it would be great if you could move your before picture up with a side by side comparison of what you look like today. If that is too much of a bother, I would urge anyone reading this to search for bryce’s pictures in 2006 and 2007.
The right-side electrolysis isn’t complete yet. I will be starting up 1-2 hour appointments probably in December every other week, and will be alternating the left and right sides. The right side is almost clear to the point that I want, and once it is done I will post cost and time totals.
Hey Bryce, did she apply gel to your body or were you bare skin?
She didn’t apply anything, just a straight zap to my bare skin. I’m wondering if that’s why it hurt so much.
Just bare skin, like all Candela products. The laser head shoots some cooling spray onto the skin just prior to the pulse. This is the normal method.
I’ve now had 3 appointments with 3 different practitioners for electrolysis. I wanted to get the community’s opinion about a different type of method I’ve just experienced.
One lady inserted the probe and I felt a continuous heat. It did not appear to be blend, because the treatment lasted between 1 and 3 seconds. It did not appear to be thermolysis/flash because there was no pulse. The hairs released without trouble. It was an ancient Hinkle machine, but I found the treatment to be very tolerable and maybe even prefer it to the jolting sensation of modern flash. She said the treatment was a combination of blend and thermolysis currents. Can someone help me figure out what this was? Is it as effective?
Are your hairs thin? She could be adding some galvanic current with a manual thermolysis. Manual thermolysis is defined as current for one second or more… Flash modes are well under a second. I’m not confident that the galvanic DC current does much for hair destruction in this case.