So i got my first laser treatment on my face and lower abdominal area. I’m skin type IV according to my electrologist even though i’m pretty light toned according my ethnic standards. My electrologist told me I’d start to shed as soon as i’m done. I did shed a little bit and by shedding i mean, if i took a tweezer and slightly pull my hair would fall without any forceful tugging. But I still have hair that have not shed and its been 3 days since my laser treatment. I haven’t shed at all in my abdominal area and i’m growing hair like i would after a shave. Except my hair look like ingrown hair sort of pepper shot like. The same can be said about some areas of my upper lip and chin area. Is this normal? How long should i wait for the shedding process. What should I do in the meantime… specially on my upper lip and chin area? I hate having a forever five a clock shadow on that area. My work involves meeting people ALL the time… this is really emberassing? Should I tweez the left out hair? I’m soo tempted.
Also, my electrologist works under a doctor but there was no doctor on the site. Should i opt for a laser clinic with doctors on site… there is one in my town with Gentle Yag. The clinic I went to didnt tell me the settings. WHat should the settings be? How do i know they are not ripping me off? I’ve been ripped off earlier when a cosmetic surgeon treated me with an alexandrite machine instead of a Yag. I don’t want to commit the same mistake again.
It takes 3 weeks for shedding to occur. You can exfoliate for now to speed up the process, but it’ll still take up to 3 weeks. You need to be patient. If this is not something you’re ok with for a visible area, you should consider getting electrolysis instead which removes hair right away one by one. It’s usually better for the face anyway and the only method for hair that’s not coarse
Laser operator is not the same as an electrologist. An electrologist performs electrolysis, which is a different type of hair removal.
Please call and find out the settings that were used on you. It’s impossible to give you settings for your skin type over the internet. This is something that an experienced technician should do in person after seeing you. We can only tell you if the settings are too low in general to kill the hair. Find out the joules, pulse, and spot size used.
It doesn’t matter than much whether a doctor is on site. Most doctors are not experienced in hair removal. The most knowledgeable person is someone who does hair removal all day long and for at least several years.
Please read the FAQs at the link below.
What happened with your other treatments with an alexandrite? Were the settings too low to avoid burning your skin and didn’t produce results? Or did you get burned?
Alright, i’m willing to be patient… the thing is when i asked the laser operator (sorry used the wrong word) she said for my hair type and amount since i have a lot, laser is better.
Alexandrite wasn’t right for my skin type…didn’t produce any results.
It’s not that laser is better than electrolysis. Laser works best on coarse hair. So if the hair is coarse, it makes more sense financially to start with it to get rid of the majority of the hair. However, as the hair gets finer with more treatments, you’ll still have to finish with electrolysis if you want 100% removal and total clearance. You will reach a point where the hair that’s left is too fine for laser too target.
It sounds like they used low settings on an alexandrite to avoid burning you, which in turn didn’t produce results
I’ve had one go of the gentleyag but I didn’t ask about the settings. I did ask in another clinic and was told we don’t tell clients the settings we are the experts if we tell them the settings they start trying to tell us what settings to use.
Maybe Hairfacts has been too successful and caused droves of us to turn up at clinics wanting to talk settings!
Back to the gentleyag the dr. seemed more concerned that it would not be effective on areas with fine hair.
I don’t see any reason to not disclose the settings. If you’re getting surgery, you have the right to know all the information pertaining to it. This is no different. It’s your body and you’re paying them. And you usually assign all responsibility to yourself anyway in their paperwork and contracts.
LA girl good point re: assigning all responsibility in paperwork and contracts to us yes we end with only having ourselves to blame!! Also I think the women at Sk:n (Holborn London)came across in such a surprisingly knowledgeable fashion that i found myself not being able to question her logic! But it may also have been tempered by the fact that I am not a beginner and am down to the last remaining stragglers mostly fine hairs and I know that getting rid of them is going to be difficult so I just judge by the pain!
The Dr with the Yag did keep asking if I was ok with the level of discomfort and adjusted her settings in response to my comments.
But joking aside if Hairfacts has caused people to go off and question settings then that is a good thing. It lets the clinic know that you are more informed than they expected from you and mote likely to pick up on bad practice designed to keep the money rolling in with lots of repeat visits.
That’s exactly it, with my last nurse I can remember the second time she treated me she jokely said “this is like treating one of the other nurses”. Basically because instead of going in their blind, I was asking about the joules, pulse, spot size, my PFO reaction, the use of Alovera Gel during treatment, cryogen blasts vs. constant flow of air and so on.
Some get put off by it and basically say in a politer way “I’m the one with the white piece of paper saying I’m capable of using this machine - so shut ya’ mouth and like it or lump it”. Where as others take it in their stride and it becomes a good working relationship.