So Has Any Man At All Had Successful LHR On Chest/Back/Shoulders

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
61

as a man who’s having all those areas treated plus my back you guys are starting to scare me lol…

i finished my 2nd treatment about 3 weeks ago the whole experience so far is kinda weird for example it doesn’t all shed at once so the thought of having a good look after laser is out of the window…

i experienced alot of shedding on my chest but still have alot of pepper spots since they all grow at different times…

they are using an Alex machine on me and keep feeding me that alot of there clients are happy with the results even though i haven’t spoke to any of them…

im skeptical but this is still my 2nd treatment so its to early to tell…

but there are a few users on this board who actually have good results so its hard to tell and i guess it does vary from person to person…

anywayz this post has me confused on what to do with the rest of my money :(:(:frowning:

to the user who did 1 side of his back can u post the pictures please.

62

Norbit, after you blow alot of money. I would wait about 16 weeks after a treatment to see if you are actually seeing reduction rather than just shedding and “laser waxing”. Let all of the hair grow out and don’t come back for a while and evaluate what progress you might have. It may be too soon to tell after 2 treatments, but after 4 surely you would be able to notice some reduction. I would stray away from intervals any less than 9 weeks between treatments.

63

I agrew with Chuck in terms of figuring out if you’re getting results. You should space your treatments no closer than 8-12 weeks apart and make sure all hair either sheds or remains as pepperspots. get touch-ups at 4 weeks on any hair that is still growing at that point as usual. After 4 treatments at effective settings, you should wait 12-16 weeks and see what the reduction is like at that point. if treatments were effective, you should see a noticeabler reduction (i would say at least 40-50% being conservative)

64

WELL I WAITED 15 WEEKS TO GET MY 2ND TREATMENT and it kinda hurt. they told me it was because i let the hair get to coarse again and i should of been in at the 8 week mark they said as soon as i see the new stubble i should come in right away cause its not that coarse yet and it will hurt less plus its more affective

are those ducktales or what then again my hair grows at a very fast pace i mean shaving will bring me stubble the next day…

i only waited that long cause i didnt have the money and it sort of seemed like it got thicker…

maybe its just my mind playing tricks on me this is such a rollercoaster.

65

you were correct in waiting. laser is attracted to pigment and you’re trying to kill hair. the more coarse it is, the more effective the treatment will be. the fact that it would be less painful does nothing in terms of effectiveness, so that shouldn’t be a concern at all. like I said above, you need to go through at least 4 treatments like this to be able to judge reduction well because at treatment 2, you are only seeing the hair that was dormant before. it’s not the same hair.

66

I think 15 weeks is too long to wait, though. lagirl’s original estimate of 8-12 weeks is more on the mark. I tried to go every 10 weeks.

Sorry, laser hair removal is a long-term process (as is any hair removal because of the stages of hair growth). You need to keep going consistently for it to work.

67

Hopefully this will work. I’ve had 6 txts to only one side of my back (it should be obvious). I started them in 2000 and have been doing them at about a treatment every year and half. My last treatment was I think in late 2005 or early 2006. All the treatments were done at 16 joules with the last 3 being at 18 mm spot size. I had a couple of miss spots in the first few treatments. My plan is to get around to doing the other side.

This first picture shows my back at normal photo settings. This is the way my back looks nothing was done to the photo.

This picture is a close up of my upper back. I punched up the contrast so that the hairs are more noticeable, otherwise there is nothing done to the photo.

This picture shows the lower back. Again, I punched up the contrast to make the hairs more noticeable. In reality they are difficult to see unless you are looking closely.

the html tags didn’t work so I just put in the links.

68

Ya, reading other people’s experiences with respect to laser induced hair growth has me really concerned. Of course, I know now not to have them touch my shoulders/upper arms :slight_smile:

Anyways, I bolded the important statements in your post. I think a lot of people need to go look at the clinical data on laser hair removal. The vast majority of subjects are in the clearance range of between 40-75%. It’s rare to see figures above that mark with lasers. Also, it obviously takes more time and money to achieve results closer to that 75% figure. Of course, I’d be ecstatic to have at least 50% clearance, knowing full well that figures above 75% are very very uncommon.

69

Just so we have some scientific data backing up some claims the following are studies looking at laser induced hair growth. It seems like a phenomenon that is more common among us darker skin types. Damn, this is really disconcerting.

Hair induction after laser-assisted hair removal and its treatment.
Kontoes P, Vlachos S, Konstantinos M, Anastasia L, Myrto S.

LaserLight Clinic, Athens, Greece. [email protected]

BACKGROUND: Laser hair removal is a relatively safe procedure with limited side effects. Hair induction has been previously scarcely reported. OBJECTIVE: We sought to report the incidence of this strange side effect in a large number of patients treated for hair removal and to follow its course and treatment. METHODS: We conducted retrospective analysis of the files of all patients who underwent laser hair removal during the time period from May 1998 until May 2005 in a private institution in Athens, Greece. RESULTS: Hair induction occurs predominantly on the face and neck of female patients of Mediterranean ancestry with darker skin types. The percentage is quite low (4.5%). Laser treatment of the induced hair reduces the problem. LIMITATIONS: No control groups could be obtained in this study. Furthermore, the natural course of hair induction could not be studied because it was always treated or patients were lost to follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: Hair induction is a rare side effect of laser hair removal occurring in selected populations and body areas; however, it responds well to laser treatments.

Paradoxical hypertrichosis after laser epilation.
Alajlan A, Shapiro J, Rivers JK, MacDonald N, Wiggin J, Lui H.

Division of Dermatology, Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

OBJECTIVE: Hair removal using lasers or broadband intense pulsed light has become one of the most ubiquitous medical procedures. At our center a small proportion of patients have spontaneously reported what they believed to be increased hair growth at sites of previous laser epilation. We sought to retrospectively review the prevalence and features of this paradoxical effect. METHODS: This was a single center, retrospective study that included all patients who underwent laser hair removal during a 4-year period with a long-pulsed alexandrite laser. All cases of laser-induced hypertrichosis were assessed clinically by history, examination, and laboratory tests, and confirmed by review of serial clinical photographs taken during the course of the laser treatments. The clinical features of patients with postlaser hypertrichosis were compared with 50 patients randomly selected from among all those who had undergone laser hair removal at our center (n = 489). RESULTS: Of 489 patients, 3 (0.6%, 95% confidence interval: 0.01-1.9%) treated with the long-pulsed alexandrite laser (755 nm) reported increased hair after laser hair epilation. There was a trend for this adverse effect to occur in darker skin phototypes (IV) and with black hair as compared with the unaffected comparison group (n = 50). However, the small number of cases (n = 3) did not provide sufficient power to adequately test factors such as age, sex, treatment settings, and number of treatments statistically. CONCLUSION: Postlaser hair removal hypertrichosis is a real but rare occurrence in our experience.

Hair growth induced by diode laser treatment.
Bernstein EF.

Laser Surgery and Cosmetic Dermatology Centers, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, USA. [email protected]

BACKGROUND: Although hair reduction by long-pulsed red and infrared lasers and light sources is generally quite effective, paradoxical hair growth has rarely been observed following treatment. OBJECTIVE: To report a case of thick hair growth following 810 nm diode laser treatment and its subsequent treatment. METHODS. A 24-year-old man who had previously had laser hair reduction on his posterior neck was treated to a test area on his upper back. RESULTS: Thick terminal hair developed in the treated area subsequent to laser treatment. Further treatment of this area removed the terminal hair but resulted in terminal hair growth in an annular distribution surrounding the treatment site. CONCLUSIONS: Diode laser treatment rarely stimulates terminal hair growth. This phenomenon should be studied to better understand hair growth cycles and to help develop more effective treatments for hair loss and hair growth.

Pili bigemini and terminal hair growth induced by low-fluence alexandrite laser hair removal.
Bukhari IA.

Dermatology Department, King Faisal University, College of Medicine, Alkhobar, Saudi Arabia. [email protected]

BACKGROUND: Different types of lasers are used in the removal of undesirable hair by targeting the hair follicles, with the melanin pigment acting as the chromophore, and through the mechanism of selective photothermolysis. OBJECTIVES: This report documents an unusual increase in terminal hair growth after alexandrite laser hair removal in three female patients. CONCLUSION: Excessive hair growth after alexandrite laser hair removal must be listed as one of the complications resulting from the use of a laser with a fluence that is too low and can possibly be prevented if we use higher energy to fully destroy the hair follicles, with consideration given to the skin type and an effective cooling system.

PMID: 17241582 [PubMed - in process]

Maybe I should just stay the hell away from lasers altogether.

70

induced growth can be an issue if the following is met ONLY on men’s upper arms/shoulders and women’s faces:

  • higher chance if the skin is darker
  • higher chance if low settings are used

keep in mind that in all these studies, intervals and settings are either unknown or vary widely, which would affect results as well.

71

What are the dates on these studies?

72

Well, I think the reason why we are seeing a localized result on men’s back/upper arms/shoulders and women’s faces is because the hair there TENDS to be finer to begin with. Regardless, from just those studies alone you don’t see alarmingly high incidences of this kind of phenomenon. It just means for darker skinned/finer hair guys like myself I’m gonna have to really be careful with lasers.

73

Not sure, you can easily search for them on www.pubmed.com

Only the abstracts are available to me.

74

Thanks.

75

yes, if you have darker skin (mediterranean and darker) and finer hair on those areas, i would definitely recommend you go with electrolysis. those areas are hormonally stimulated slightly higher and different from other body areas, so that’s also a reason besides the hair being finer.

76

SO MANY MIXED REACTIONS in this post

yet cant find any evidence lol

77

run a search for “studies” or simply read through numerous posts on the forum with people’s experiences.

78

The evidence is definitely there.

Go to www.pubmed.com and search for “laser hair removal” or something to that effect without the quotations. Look at all those studies, go through the abstracts. The evidence indicates that laser hair removal can achieve permanent hair REDUCTION. Look at some of the figures. Most are around the 50-75% range of reduction. It’s rare to see anything higher than that.

LHR can work if you have all of the right variables in place to begin with. I understand people’s frustration when they get crappy treatments.

I’m in the process of getting LHR myself, feel free to look through my journal “my first session experience” in the electrolysis section to follow my progress.

79

I would say “HECK NO!” In fact, it induced hair growth! It’s an expensive wax treatment. Of course, this is just my experience.

80

Let me retract that statement - I did have SOME success on the lower part of the beard under the chin and also the groin area. Upper arms and shoulders is where it actually induced hair to grow where I NEVER had hair before. I still treat it and I think it’s actually even worse, but I do in anyway with both electrolysis and laser.