I am really leaning toward electrolysis over laser for hair removal on my bikini and legs but I was wondering if using laser to reduce the amount of hair before electrolysis would be a good idea. My bikini area is very dense and I’m just worried I’m going to end up spending way too much just on the first clearance. Has anyone used laser and electrolysis together and recommend it?
If you have coarse, dense, very dark hair on pale skin, laser can definitely be of value. If you are satisfied with the reduction, you may not need to refine the areas with electrolysis. Having been here on HairTell since 2003, I can tell you that many laser consumers have had great outcome for legs and bikini areas,as long as they were treated with a real LASER with a competent laser specialist. I’d definitely go for it.
I think if I had to do this over, I would have probably got laser first just to have the reduction of time. Now for me it would be pointless, the hairs that grow are no longer very coarse. They’re still (mostly) dark but much finer.
To summarise, if the electrologists in your locality cannot do large areas then you may want to go with Laser first. However, if you have a skilled electrologist and one that can give you a total treatment time estimation COUGH MICHAEL BONO COUGH then prior Laser is a waste of your time and money. One electrolysis clearing will probably get you better results than a bunch of Laser sessions.
When I joined these forums, I was specifically looking for Laser info for my face and body. I quickly realised that Laser was a bad option for the face, so found an electrologist. I started Laser for the coarse areas and followed the suggestions for treatment spacing and other tips from HairTell.
I’ve had excellent Laser results (yes, these are excellent for Laser as it cannot give you complete hair removal), so you would think I am very pro-Laser. But it’s really not that easy. It seems to vary from individual to individual and definitely depends on the technician too. I am basing this on the people who I have helped and have been to the same clinic as me (my sister, my cousins, my friends). Whereas, with a skilled electrologist you KNOW you are going to get permanent hair removal and it can be ‘complete’ too.
I achieved 85-90% hair removal on the lower legs in 3 treatments. About 70-80% on the front thighs in 4 treatments (what remains is finer). Over 90% on the bikini line in 3 treatments (I only have a few random hairs remaining) but the downside is that the shape is not very neat.
I had 6 treatments on the underarms but only about 70% reduction… I’ve since had almost everything else cleared with electrolysis (just a few hairs remaining). I had 5 treatments on my lower 3-quarter arms.for about 70-80% removal and the remaining hair is mostly fine. I also had my hands treated along with my arms but I don’t think it made any difference, which was expected.
I’ve since had just one electrolysis clearing on my hands and fingers with Josefa and the results on my hands are better than the results on my arms (from Laser). So if I had done just 1 clearance with her on my arms, I’d be better off in terms of hair removal than those 5 Laser sessions.
My sister has a similar story. She started later than me and had 3 treatments on her underarms and 3 on her 3-quarter arms and hands. The results were nothing to shout about. By this time, she had seen Josefa for her face, so we decided to start electro instead. Again, one clearing on her hands and fingers and 7 months later and she hardly has any hairs remaining there.
We tried to start the legs with laser last year but it was a big failure (you can read about it in the last few pages on my Laser diary)… the situation we faced is very common with Laser. So after that one treatment we decided prior reduction with Laser was not worth it. One clearance with Josefa when we get around to it will surely get her much better results and I imagine in a lower cost than if she does have 4 effective Laser treatments.
[I mentioned Michael as he was suggested in another thread as not being too far]