Should I continue treatment?

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
1

Hi everyone, I’m new to this forum, but I’ve been reading a lot of your posts and it’s really comforting to know I’m not the only person that has had a less than stellar experience with laser hair removal. I wish I had found this forum before I had started treatment.

Some background on me, I originally had some light growth of dark hair on my shoulders, upper back near my neckline, and patches of hair beneath my shoulder blades. I’m probably a type II or III skin type, as I have light caucasian skin but I tan easily. I have dark brown hair.

I went to a laser hair removal chain called Ideal Image about a year ago and purchased a 9 treatment package. Looking back, I don’t know if I had bad technicians performing the treatments, or if I just personally had a bad experience with lasers.

My first treatments seemed to go well, but the nurse performing it applied the laser treatment to my entire back and shoulders, including areas I didn’t have hair. I think this was a huge mistake as I noticed fine, but dark hair growing all over my back now, in places I know for a fact I didn’t have hair before. Nonetheless, I continued through all my treatments because the nurse assured me it was normal and that most of the hair would be gone by the end of my total treatment. I was reluctant to believe her, but I was panicking about the new hair growth so I continued on with treatments and prayed they’d work.

My treatments were initially 10 weeks apart. Each treatment would stop the hair from growing for about 5 weeks, and around the 6th week, I’d always notice full regrowth. Towards the last two treatments, I was afraid that waiting 10 weeks was a mistake and that by shortening my intervals, I’d see better results because maybe the laser would be more effective if the hairs were still in a weakened state.

Suffice it to say, I did notice that when I shortened my intervals to only 5 weeks, the hair is less dense.

It’s been about 9 weeks since my final treatment. I notice that the few areas I had treated at 5 week intervals have shown seemingly permanent improvement, whereas the areas that received 10 week interval treatments have more hair than before I began my treatment.

I’m now considering going to a different provider and getting another round of treatment, but at 5 week intervals instead of 10 week intervals. I’d really appreciate some feedback from some of you on this as I’m miserable with the new hair growth and desperate to get rid of it.

Also, does anyone have solutions for getting rid of the dead hair follicles that show up a few days after treatments? I always have hundreds of little black spots where the hairs were zapped and it’s the remnants of the hair that was lasered. They seem to take weeks to go away and they’re very unsightly.

Thanks

2

So what did they say at the end when you went back and showed her your results?

3

I hear ya. Same thing happened to me. I’m absolutely miserable now. The doctor (MD) who consulted me and performed the treatment said I was a good candidate and lo and behold I’m worse off now than before I started. Absolute BS. You know what the funny part about it is? Nobody has an answer for our situation. Seems risky to keep treating as you read about people who have had 20 treatments with absolutely no progress. Electrolysis? Not ideally suited for large areas and hard to find a good practioner. As far as I can tell those are you options at this point.

I actually went to see a doctor who has written on this concept of stimulation after laser epilation. She told me I’m in a tough spot because 1) hairs aren’t thick enough, 2) with my skin tone I run the risk of burns. Basically she said I’m out of luck. Here is her article describing her study:

She told me to just wax. I want and demand something better. People like us have paid too much and invested too much time to have our lives ruined by something that should never have happened in the first place. To make matters worse, nobody really knows why it happens. Just that it does and there’s not much to be done. PLEASE SOMEBODY TELL ME THAT THERE IS A WAY TO FIX THIS. Anyone? Has anyone kept treating and seen progress? What are you recommending people do?

4

Yes, it is quite possible to make progress but it takes quite a bit of commitment and willingness to really understand what is happening and how to manage it. It isn’t easy and most practitioners don’t want to be bothered.

5

There is no advantage to having treatments only 5 weeks apart. What is happening is that you’re not letting the hair fully grow in, so it looks like there is less hair. For this area, 10 weeks is minimum. You can actually wait 14-16 weeks at this point. Laser affects hair that is coarse best. Is any of your hair actually coarse and dense at this point? Do you know what setting they’re using at Ideal Image and whether it’s on the GentleLASE alex or GentleYAG yag machine?

Stimulated growth is an issue on this area. That’s why we don’t recommend treating fine and sparse hair on those areas with laser, which is what happened in this case. Can you post pictures? We can try to weigh in on whether the hair is coarse enough now to be affected by laser. Also, your settings are very important.

Ideal Image uses some of the best machines. I don’t see the value in switching. You need to figure out what the problem is, which may lay in the technician and/or settings etc, which can be adjusted.

6

Thanks for the link to that article. I really wish I had read it before I went for treatment.

I’ll post some pictures when the hair grows back in, I’ve been shaving and bleaching so it’s not photogenic right now