Hi All,
What is the highest setting on Candela GentleYAG?? I had 4 treatments so far, at 18J, 20J, 22J, 24J and 18mm. Alotugh the hair is a lot lighter on my chin I feel it is growing back much thicker on my upper neck.
Why is it growing thicker??Can I ask the lady to increase the settings even further??The hair on my neck used to be very fine…and is growing thicker now.I am sking type IV. I am really concerned bcos it is on my face…
Please advise.
What is your skin color? Since you are being treated with a YAG, I’m assuming that you are a person of color? Are you saying that the laser never touched your neck area, but now course hair is growing there? What does your laser practitioner say about your neck?
are you female? induced growth can be a side effect on women’s faces if you are a type IV and darker like you, AND if the hair is not very coarse on that area and the settings are somewhat low (which they are in this case). The max for 18mm is 30 joules on GentleYAG. On a type IV, they should be using higher settings than 18-20 if your skin can handle it. Also, I wouldn’t treat anywhere on your face where the hair is not coarse. Leave those for electrolysis. Also, keep in mind that at 4 treatments, your hair has just synchronized, so you are seeing the biggest sprout of growth right now.
Either way, my advice is to raise the settings to 26 joules at least if your skin can handle it and also not to treat the fine hair on your face. What is your ethnicity?
also, what did you experience each time? shedding of all hair?
No. I am getting my upper neck treated as well as my chin. The hair on my chin was thick but the neck on my upper neck was lighter before I started the treatments.
after 4 treatments the hair on my chin is thinner but the ones on my neck are comparitively pretty thick.
My Skin type is of Type IV. I am asian.
My practitioner seems to imply that the higher settings treat only really thin hair, but it is better to stcik to lower settings for a bit thick hair. I already had 4 treatments and the 5th one is supposed to be the last and 4 more touch ups…So I am really not sure if higher settings only treat lighter hair?
higher settings treat all hair well and are best to use to achieve good removal. there is no reason to use low settings if your skin handles high settings just fine.
how far apart are your treatments spaced?
The first tow treatments were about 5 to 6 weeks apart and the next 2 were 6 to 7 weeks apart…I had the last one on April1st and am having the 5th one on June10th…and yes I am female…
I did ask her to increase the settings from 22 to 26 last time, but she did not want to bcos the hair was coarser then she wanted.
Also how do I know if I will get burnt at 30J?? Should I bug her about giving me test spots at 30J?
yes, i would suggest getting a few test spots at 24, 26, and 28.
I did not experience complete shedding all 4 times…every time there would be atleast 6 -10 hairs left out in each area…when i asked her abt it she did not say they might have been missed…when iasked if i could come back after 2 weeks to treat those left out hairs she said that would consume of my treatments i paid for…I am really not sure I am being a 100% treated…
Do yourself a favor and get electrolysis. You will actually save money in the long run. Your problem will probably only get worse with laser and you end up ALWAYS getting laser. At least with electrolyis you know it’s permanently gone. You just have to be patient and after 6 months or so, you will start really seeing the difference. TRUST ME!!!
6-10 hairs left is fine. that’s basically complete shedding. if you had patches of hair left, then that would be a problem. however, I think you are still being undertreated and even though the hair falls out, the setting is not strong enough to actually kill the hair, and it’s actually make the fine hair stronger. you need to have them increase the settings or switch to electrolysis.
So say 28J or 30J does not burn me,. does this mean that when I get a new area treated I would get best results if 28/30J is used from my very first treatment?
yes. i wouldn’t jump that high. do some test spots to see how high you can go safely. if you can use 28-30 joules on a Yag with 18mm, you would probably be better off using GentleLASE in the first place.
what would be the best place to get a test spot…since the skin on the face is more sensitive, which area would you suggest I get a 28J done at.
Also is a couple of hours enough to decide if that energy level burns me??I could not get another time…other than a couple of hours before my actual treatment…
Thanks for your help!
you can try the back of your neck, inner thigh etc. you should try it somewhere where the skin color is similar. a couple hours could be ok. if they’re experienced, they should be able to tell if the skin is burned. usually, redness goes down within a couple hours.
i called up my technician who does the treatments and she says she can give me the test spot only in the areas i am gettign treated.which are my upper neck, upper lip and chin…she said i will definitely get burnt if she gives me a test spot in an untreated area…
i am not sure what she says makes sense…what if i do get burnt…why is she insisting on testing on my face??what is the point of the test spot…i am so confused. also if what she says is true…then does skin get used to the laser??My last treatment was at 24J…so next time if 24J is applied to an untreated area, she says it will get burnt…I’ve never been given a chance to speak to their doctor.and im really nervous this time…
any suggestions?
the less hair you have, the less irritation you get. so some techs think it’s better to get treated at lower settings and work their way up so that they cause less irritation. personally, my results are more important to me than 1 day irritation that goes away.
24 joules at 18mm are ok settings. If you can handle 26-28, great. But that would also mean that you could handle an alex laser for even better results, especially on the finer hair. Most of your problem is that you’re treating hair that’s not coarse enough as I said above (and the fact that your first 2-3 treatments were probably pretty ineffective at those settings, so if you technically count only the effective treatments, you’ve only had one and will still see results with 24 joules even at 18mm, but only on coarse hair).