I recently went to Here Today Gone Tomorrow for a consolation. The company is using Epilite IPL in my local location, and the affiliated doctor’s specialty is eye surgery. To put it simply, I was unimpressed. I’ve basically read the Epilite IPL is be ineffective compared to the newer alternative laser machines, and HTGT has never been praised for its results. Also the pricing and promotions are strangely inexpensive.
So, anyway, I am a skin type three and have dark hair which is corse in the areas I want to remove. Basically these are areas that I cannot seem to get good results with shaving or waxing, like underarms or lower back. Ideally, I’d like to remove my male beard.
Nonetheless, this brings me to the questions for this post. What is the most effective laser device for type III dark hair currently on the market that I should be looking for a clinic with. Regarding male beard removal, I know the results are most dependent on the skill of the operator (ie. patchiness, etc). Is it wise to try Laser before finishing beard removal with electrolysis? Is laser likely to significantly reduce the time and expense of electrolysis?
I would never try electrolysis for that much hair. It is a waste of time money and too much pain. Electrolysis is for around the eyes only.
I have done numerous men (for beard and other areas) successfully but really alter my protocol for men.
#1 I start with a much lower treatment level as the density of follicles in the area are great so just heating up that many follicles at once can injure the skin. (for a man’s beard - body isn’t any different than womans protocol)
#2That being said I do the face in two treatments a couple weeks apart. I don’t overlap during my first treatment as overlapping in a very dense follicle setting isn’t wise.
#3 I have the gentleman come in for a second top up treatment to kill the hair missed during the first treatment. It is very obvious where it was missed as usually there isn’t much growth anywhere else.
#4 As the life cycle of a gentleman’s beard is really long. (look how long a man’s beard can grow in comparison to woman’s facial hair). I have the treatments set up about every 3 months. As men need more treatments than women - having them done far enough apart reduces the number of sessions required. Typically you don’t shave much for a month or two after each treatment anyway.
#5 Don’t buy a package at first. Check each clinic out. Some have good technology and bad technicians. Some have mediocre technology but maximize their protocols.
I use a Syneron machine and have great results but there are other machines out their that are great. Coarse hair is an easy kill you have to find something out there that is comfortable. My machine has a chiller built in so I do the treatments slow so it is less pain full. DON"T use anything without a chiller.
You have the right idea J M, many people start with laser and then finish with electrolysis if they are good candidates for LHR. The reas6n being, especially for men, is that laser cannot always remove 100% of all hair, hence why the FDA terms it as permanent hair reduction. It is possible to treat the male face soley with electrolysis, but the length of time depends greatly on skill, speed, equipment and so forth of the practitioner and it would be more economically viable to have it treated with laser first, unless you have someone like James or Dee close by.
If you are skin type 3, the lasers you want to look into are either the GentleLASE, GentleMAX, Cynosure Elite and maybe one or two others. The reason why I suggest these 3 machines is that the GentleLASE+MAX have 18mm spot sizes and the Cynosure Elite has a 15mm. This makes treatment times quicker and the power can penetrate deeper into the skin. They also have very low pulses, the GentleLASE+MAX is set at 3ms and the Cynosure has the capability of going down to 5ms (the lower the pulse the more effective).
They all also have built in cooling devices, the CYnosure shoots out a constant stream of cool air where as the GentleLASE+MAX shoot a sharp short burst of cooling agent onto the skin miliseconds before and after the pulse.
As a note on the EpiLight machines, these are not good choices for hair removal. IPL’s use several different wavelengths, where as true lasers only use one. The problem with this is, if you are of a darker skin type (and even skin type 3 can pose a problem) you are at much more risk of side effect such as hypo/hyperpigmentation and so forth, which is why IPL’s are seldom recommended for anyone over Skin type 3 (and even then the practitioner must treat the area very cautiously). There are also other problems with the designs of these IPL’s, but I would advise to run a search on the forum for further information on this. The results themselves very rarely last, I believe dfahey met one man who managed to get a good reduction with an IPL, but I highly doubt it was an EpiLight. Other than that I haven’t really found any success stories on the Internet (excluding the “testimonials” in the glossy brouchures).
I think you are being less than honest. Feedback on the the Aurora has not been positive. Am I assuming wrongly that you are talking about the Aurora by Syneron??
Some of your advise is good, but it is clear that you know very little about what a skilled, modern electrologist can do for any gender, any skin color or any area. Electrolysis is not only for the area around the eye. You appear territorial and untruthful with that statement alone. We protect consumers here from such outrageous, deceitful claims and will call people like you on those claims everytime.
What happens when your system leaves a man patchy and swirly like a marble cake? What happens when there are thousands of light colored, red or clear hairs left behind? How do you dance away from those outcomes? Whose going to clean up those messes? I’ll tell you the answer: It’s the skilled, modern electrologist who could have handle the beard, with all hair colors that are present, in the first place - permanently.
Light-based systems (usually laser and some IPL’) and electrolysis can work beautifully together, but all light-based systems have limitations and eventually one will need a good electrologist to complete the hair removal process. I know this because I am an electrologist that works pretty much seven days a week on many laser failures and many satisfied, but not totally pleased laser/IPL clients.
Hello! I´m in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and I´m about to buy an IPL machine for an aesthetic center. I´m not decided yet as I have a lot of offers from differnt companies. i¨m doubting between Harmony from almalasers and e style from syneron. Which one would you reccomend most? I will use it for skin rejuvenation, skin tightening and hair removal.
Are you looking for the customers money or their satisfaction as well?
If your intentions are the latter I would suggest looking into a true laser rather than an IPL. As a note on the IPL’s you mentioned, neither are very good.
and which one would you recomend? Don´t forget that here in argentina we don´t have a lot of representations, just almalasers, lumenis and syneron, as far as I know. On the other hand, I also want to do skin rejuvenation and kin tihgtnening, not just hair removal.
Harmony is one of the better IPLs. Go with that one if IPL is your only option. You may want to post a new thread since it’s a new topic.
To address the OP’s question:
you should look into someone with an alex laser like GentleLASE for your skin type
Please read the FAQs at the link below first if you haven’t already
do check out at least 3-4 clinics with the right machine before making any decisions
Start with one area first and see how things go
Keep realistic expectations. You won’t get 100% removal with laser alone on any area. You can get close, at much at 99% on coarse hair with good treatments. However, that’s just not possible for a male face. I wouldn’t expect anything more than being able to shave easily without much of a shadow with laser alone on this area, after after a good number of treatments. If you want more removal than that, than you would have to committ to some serious time and money invested in electrolysis. But even then, unless you are on hormonal medication like TG individuals, your body will continue developing NEW hair with time. So you will need touchups once in a while no matter what.
Where are you located? You may want to run a search here for your city to see if others have recommended clinics in your area
The harmony is more focused owards skin treatments rather than hair removal, this is a side product of this machine and does not yield good results in regards to hair removal. The Syneron is even worse.
I did notice that you mentioned Lumenis, if you are able to purchase a Lightsheer Diode by Lumenis this wil give you much better hair removal options, it will also be safer to use on darker skin types such as skin type III and IV (although if you do choose this option make sure you have sound knowledge of this laser, as it should be used with extreme caution skin type IV’s). IPL’s on the other hand, should not be used on any skin type darker than skin type III. I cannot comment on skin treatments as I don’t have enough knowledge of it to be comfortable to comment on it.