Well I figured I’d share the journal with the people here in case they were considering getting LHR performed and wanted to see my experiences.
I have Type II / III skin with dark coarse hair. I am going to a local dermatology clinic that is only charging me $650 for 6 sessions. They are using a Candela GentleLase. I am having LHR performed on my face/neck.
I had a test patch done a month ago. I had my first session performed today. I will try and update with pics at least once per week.
thanks a lot. these are great. so few people document their progress, which makes it difficult to say what the reduction is like after a while as you get used to less hair with more treatments. i hope you keep it up! it should be very helpful for everyone here.
Glad to be of help. Don’t worry, I’m an LJ whore so I’ll be taking pictures/posting often in it. I’ll try to make a note in this thread every so often when I update so new people will see it as well <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
Thanks for the post. I really like to see other people going through the procedure. It looks like your test spot did an excellent job. I also have a journal. I go for my third treatment on Thursday, so I’ll update it over the weekend. If you want to see my pictures go to
Jessica, these are great as well. I’m glad people are doing this. My 2 cents would be that you can pretty easily remove the upper lip hair with electrolysis. there isn’t a lot and it’s on the finer side and sparse. I personally would choose that over laser on this area. The other comment would be : did you let the hair on your underarm grow out to shed? if you continued shaving everyday, it probably made it more difficult for hair to shed, so you end up with some dead hairs stuck in the follicles instead. I always let it grow out a bit after the treatment so that almost everything shed.
yes, it’s hard to tell if you’re shedding if you’re shaving through those 3 weeks. hairs need to rub on something to help them out of the follicle. I even slightly tug on them to help them out when they slide out easily.
if you’re a type II-III, somewhere in the range of 25 joules and up on LightSheer should be used and short pulse, which is important, as well as compression. but they should test your skin, not assume settings.
I don’t let the hair in my underarms grow out. I didn’t realize it was a problem. But I feel like the hair comes out. I still have the week or two of smoothness. I do quit shaving during the smooth and re-growth phase. Maybe after my next apt (rescheduled to Tuesday) I will try to let it grow, but I don’t know — I hate the feel of hair. Thank you for the tip.
Well here I am a week and 2 days later and the hair is driving me nuts >_< I updated the journal with pics so you can see my pain haha. I’m always clean shaven, like every day shaving and to have this much hair on my face is driving me insane…
I didn’t want to shave so it wouldn’t have any problems falling out and it is slowly shedding. Every time I scratch my face I get 2-3 hairs under my nails and when I exfoliate in the shower I have a couple dozen hairs on the loufa. But you can’t really tell yet since I have so much hair.
I was wondering if it would hurt the shedding if I shaved? I could just shave down and not up maybe? Or perhaps just use my beard trimmer thingy to trim it down to the skin? I dunno I just can’t stand talking and feeling the hair on my lip and then getting little hairs caught on my shirt collar at work and ugh I hate hair… sighs
i would clip with the trimmer if i were you. you can also shave if you really want to. it’s my personal preference not to and i’ve noticed a few people here who don’t realize that they shed if they shave because they don’t see long hairs falling out.
Thanks <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> As always you’re a great help! I’m gonna see if I can go a few more days >_< I’m excited it’s already shedding after just 1 week tho <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Guess I’ve been doing something right
I will try to avoid the razor and use the trimmer if I can’t stand it much longer. I might just trim around my mouth cuz that’s what is driving me the most crazy especially since alot of the hair around my mouth is blondish grrrr
i shave after treatments because i have to (i work with the public and am a female) it actually helps me with shedding because the razor pulls the hairs out (and also exfoliates to a degree) and you can see them in the razor blade. i can always tell when its hair that has shed opposed to hair i’m just still shaving. moisturizing and exfoiliating is the best thing you can do to speed up shedding.
i just looked at your pictures and i DEFINITELY recommend shaving! first time i had laser my face was very irritated and i tried not to shave for a few days but my face felt sooo much better once i finally shaved. i swear it will also speed up/help shedding! shave already! shaving will not effect shedding negatively at all, the hair will shed no matter what.
Well yesterday I had my 3rd treatment. It was 12 weeks after my 2nd session so I think I waited too long :-/ A LOT of hair regrew and I was almost as bad as before I went in for the first treatment. This made me very sad and I hope these treatments are actually working.
Well new pictures are up. I will post another set after a week or so and whatnot.
you’re still in the beginning stages and catching the hair in various growth phases. most of the hair you’re seeing is most likely different hair from what was treated earlier. remember, whatever you see at any point is at MOST 30% of the total hair follicles you actually have.
i took a year off lol. i had some issues. financial as well as emotional/mental.
i’m back in the game though and had a session done today. they used a candela gentleYAG which was not my top choice but the only thing i could find local since moving.
the lady who performed the lhr was very thorough and hit a lot of places twice (double ouch) at first she had the settings too high and i could not take the pain so she changed them around and it was bearable.
i went in for just a consult but after showing her pics and giving her all the info of my previous sessions she decided it was ok to hit me today with it. i had let my hair grow out since thursday and brought my razor but she said she prefered if i left it alone because i explained to her how the hair becomes invisible when i shave and she needed to know where it was.
it took about an hour to complete. i called her on my way home to get the settings on the machine and the only thing i remember is her saying 40 joules. 3ms. 10ms. not sure what that meant other than the joules but she did not get me a total amount of pulses. with her touching up it felt like she did my face twice so i’m going to guestimate about 500 pulses. it was about equal to my first ever treatment.
so yea not sure how a YAG is going to work. paid $200 for the session which i thought was fair. if it works like the gentlelase worked i’ll go back and sign up for 4 sessions (pay for 3 up front, 4th one is free and all sessions after that are half price)
The Yag should be fine for now since this hair is very coarse. It sounds like she used 40j. Can you confirm the spot size (10-18mm) and pulse (3-100ms)?
maybe it was 10mm size and 3ms pulses? i will try to call her tomorrow and write down all the info.
glad to note all the red went away as usual. it hurt so bad even 2 hours after she finished it i was worried something was wrong but now 6 hours later my skin looks normal and i can go to work with no worry
