Hi,
I went for a test patch for my upper lip with Lightsheer diode and the setting used are the following:
For the coarse hair(1 cm both sides of lip): 10 mm spot size, 30 ms & 34 joules
For the fine brown/black hair (in the middle): 10mm spot size, auto means 17 ms and 34 joules.
Are these good settings? I am just concerned about induced hair growth because of low settings.
They are right to lower the pulse when treating finer hairs. The settings themselves otherwise aren’t amazingly high.
In regards to induced hair growth, are their any areas on your upper lip that have blonde hairs, velus hairs and so on? As these are the hairs that are stimulated most easily by laser.
Kind regards,
Benji
Thanks Benji for your honest answer.
Yes I have a tiny bit of fine blond hair but the brown/black is predominant.
Do you or anyone know what would be a good setting?
To be honest I did notexperienced pain.
Also I have the option to do it with the candela Gentlelase. I had a decent setting for the coarse hairs in the chin area: 15mm spot size 30 joules. The only think is that I read that lightsheer would be better for fine hairs, of course if the operator knows about adjusting settings.
A pulse below 20ms is good, although a lot of technicians using the diode aren’t confident enough to do so. The joules alright but not amazingly high either.
I find it odd that someone said that the Diode would be more effect than the GentleLASE. This is mainly because the GentleLASE has a lower pulse of 3 ms, where as the Diode can only go down to 5 ms. The GentleLASE also has a larger spot size and even if it was appropiate to use a small spot size such as 10mm, which sometimes it is, the GentleLASE’s spot size can be made smaller with the option of interchangeable heads.
30 Joules on a 15mm GentleLASE is pretty good setting, I think that it may be the maximum amount of on that spot size, but I’ll let one of the others clarify this, which would mean that your doing very well in terms of skin reaction.
As a side note, the GentleLASE is definatley the best for your skin type, there is no question of that.
The blonde hairs are a risk, what I would hate to see happening is the brown hairs being reduced, but then the blonde hairs becoming thicker and coarser. The fact that you felt no pain is also a indicator hat they aren’t using high enough settings.
Have you ever considered electrolysis? What area are you from? Maybe there will be a referral on the site of a good electrologist in your area.
Kind regards,
Benji
Those are good settings on LightSheer for your skin type. I would still not be too hopeful for the lightand finer hairs. Is there a reason you don’t want to do electrolysis on this area? How much coarse hair do you have there? I personally chose electrolysis for this area and it was easy and fast, only 8-10 treatments under 20 mins.
The hair on my upper lip is similar to Jessica (one of the contributor at hair tell who has website & pictures). I might have a couple of coarser hairs on both the side of the lip where the hair ends and overall the hairs are fine but a bit darker than Jessica.
The reason I will like to go with laser is that it’s cheaper: one session of laser is about the same price of a 20 min session of electrolysis and I will need more session of electrolysis than laser. I was planning to monitor the vellus hair and if there are becoming thicker and coarser I would then stop laser and/or ask to get 2 zaps on each side of the lip for the coarser hairs.
What about your happy trail Lagirl? I read your diary; did the vellus hair become thicker and coarser? What was the color of the fine hairs?
Thanks,
Muci
The abdomen hair didn’t change at all after laser treatments (but I wasn’t expecting them to as this usually only happens on a woman’s face and men’s upper arms/shoulders). However, laser only got the very coarse hair, and there wasn’t a lot of it. So after 4 treatments, I switched to electrolysis. I recently got done with this area and am very happy. Never have to think about it or worry about it.
You’re only paying $30 or so per treatment for your upper lip laser? One of the other reasons I didn’t want to do laser there was because I didn’t wan to deal with pepperspots on such a visible area.
It’s not the laser that is cheap, although it’s not expensive: about $45.00. Serious electrolysis with microscope (don’t even know if it works since no patch test was provided), in the city where I live cost around $40/treatment of 15 min.
Wow. That’s expensive. Where are you located? (you may want to add location to your profile)
I agree. Forty dollars for fifteen minutes is outrageously high for electrolysis.
I found a place for electrolysis and its $30.00 for 20 min. They use an Apilus (computerized one) and a microscope. I already booked an appointment for next week. Thanks for reminding me that laser work best on coarse hairs; you helped me to save time and money.
This sounds very promising, Muci.
Great!
Sounds like they have good visual equipment as well as the epilator. I can feel Max turning green 
Regards,
Benji
Well I must admit I cancelled my electrolysis appointment.
The reason is because of the test patch that was done on my left upper lip with Lightsheer diode. A week after, I went for to do my underarms at a place where they have the Candela GentleLASE and the lady did a free test past on the other right upper lip at 30 joules 15 mm. Therefore both sides of the upper lip had been lasered and there was no point of getting electrolysis (for now).
So far I must say I love the results: after 8 weeks I haven’t had re-growth so far and I had no major issues with pepper spots.
The only problem area was my chin. It looked like there were some missed spots. I went back to the Spa and told the lady I had a reception this week-end and that I look awful. Again, she was very courteous and fixed my chin at no cost by zapping at 30 joules 15 mm spot size the chin area. It felt the laser overlapping very closely and at the end I had shedding on the spot.
I ask her to do a test patch on my forearms at 18 joules on 18 mm spot size. She told me will try 20 joules and 20mm spot size as well. I was a bit hesitant because 20 joules is quite high but went ahead with it and it was not painful. She told me my skin is good for laser since I don’t burn. After, I negotiated with her to have my forearms done at $150.00 and she will include the linea for free.
There is no 20mm spot size. 18mm is as high as it goes.
Yes you are right it was a typo I meant 18 mm at 20 joules.
I just wanted to give you an update on my laser treatment. I know the title “Lightsheer setting for Lip” of this post is misleading but this is where I started my thread for the underarms, chin, upper lip (test patch) and now forearms and linea.
I just went this week-end for treatment #2 for underarms, treatment # 1 forearms and treatment # 1 linea. The technician used the same spot size 18 mm and 20 joules for all areas with the alexandrite machine Glentle LASE plus. I asked her to do good overlap. I am a bit confused because this is how she lasers the areas (here the O’s are the coin shape of the beam:
O O
O O
And then, she would go again and fill the other the other areas not filled (in reality there are no space between the 2 lines of O’s):
OOOO
OOOO
It does look like an overlapping technique. Am I wrong? Also, I think this is the reason why she missed spots. Anyway, I told her I could see a line (not a straight one but a zigzag type one) and she told me to come back if it shows and she will fix it.
Pain was minimal. I used no pain killers since I didn’t have time because I was running late. Forearms were red and itchy after; she lasered some places twice because she missed spots. Underarms were also itchy but not as much as forearms. At the end of the treatment we could see red little dots on the follicles. Most hair singed out of the follicles except the places she missed.
Hi Muci,
I have to admit I haven’t come across that tecnique with laser hair removal for over lapping and Iv’e been to 3 different clinics and treated by 6 different people. Does she do the entire area before filling in the gaps?
The settings are good on the GentleLASE and the maximum that can be used. If your skin can take it that is great. Although it’s interesting that you didn’t feel much pain, I can remember when I tried 20 joules with 18mm and the pain was quite a bit. How coarse is the hair on your arms and linea and how long has it been since your last treatment on your underarms?
Regards,
Benji
Hi Benji,
Yes she does the entire area before filling in the gaps.
My skin can take it and its’ not burn; but quite swollen and red especially around the follicles. I assume my pain threshold is high because the Yag laser I am used to (for my leg and bikini), hurts much more.
Apparently according to the laser tech. my pain tolerance is quite good compare to her other clients. First it was hurting but I tried to change my mind and by not thinking about the pain and it worked.
I have coarse hair on the linea, underarms and the forearms it’s a mix of both but mainly medium coarse and the hair is dark brown almost black. It has been 8 weeks since my last treatment for underarms.
Thanks for your feedback,
Muci