Laser Hair Removal Results

Hello there,

I was wondering if i could rack your brains as you seem to know your stuff and are very honest about Laser Hair removal results. I'm male Asian. I'm currently having Lazer Hair removal on upper arms and upper back/shoulder area but not really seeing any results.

I have had 5 sessions so far, majority of the hair does not even shed? It should shouldn't it?


Uses Nd:Yag cynosure apogee elite, 7mm spot (person treating says to get fluence up for permanency) I'm going in about every 8 weeks initially now 10 weeks to give more hair the chance to be in anagen stage.


I initially thought the hair was too fine and hence not shedding almost just singed like then growing out the skin as if the laser did nothing for it, but i was seeing perifollicular edema so operator informed me hair was coarse enough?

Should I continue with treatments even though i don't see full shedding or maybe try the soprano?

I would also like a reduction on full legs and feet, 50% is this possible?


what about patchy regrowth?


I have included a pic of my leg after my patch test with Nd:YAG again most the hair never shed, but just so you can assess the growth for soprano.

What kind of settings would you use for my skin type? ideally I would like to be treated at high settings so as to try and achieve the best possible reduction?


Also how many passes do you make over the area typically, i.e. do you stop when patient says it too hot or just stop when you think its had enough?

The soprano website shows maximum fluence of 120j, but if the machine only goes up to 10j?

How did they get 120, should it not be 100j.cm2 if for example it is an area of 10 x 10?

Please forgive me for asking so many questions lol, should i wish to come in for a consultation which clinic are you yourself based?


Thank you

Sufyan

Reply

Not 100% sure with the Cynosure apogee elite ND YAG as we use the ND YAG Candela.

With the Candela laser some of the hairs will shed and some of them will not but once you’ve shaved them the new hair growth is normally patchy so you should start seeing in around two to three weeks that the hair growth coming back patchy.

If you are not getting any hairs back patchy or hair growth is normal after two to three weeks I suggest you go back and speak to whoever has done your treatment with our Candela YAG clients they see patches after their treatment normally about two to three weeks later.

With the treatment times it normally depends on your re-growth so if you are going in at 8 weeks and now you are going in at 10 weeks I assume the reason why is because you don’t have much hair growth at 8 weeks.

The way we do it, if a client is booked in at 6 weeks and they don’t really have much hair growth then there is no point for them to come in for a treatment unless the hair has started to come back through as that is the new hair growth coming back.

That’s when we will do a treatment so I am assuming that your therapist is extending the time because you are getting some sort of laser hair removal result where the hair is taking longer to grow back.

My question is do you shave prior to your treatment? Because the hair should not actually be singed as the area should be clean shaven for better results.

If you are seeing the perifollicular adema that is actually good. We do need to see a bit of the adema with the NDYAG because if you don’t see much the settings are not that high enough so they will normally increase it slightly.

Regarding continuing the treatments – it depends how much laser hair removal results you’ve seen. I mean the majority of clients should be seeing some sort of results after 5 sessions. If you are concerned my advice is speak with your therapist.

NDYAG is a very good laser machine especially for the Asians and you do see good laser hair removal results. If you do want to switch to the soprano I suggest you actually have a patch test done prior to your treatment.

With the soprano you will see shedding because the heat is gradually being pumped into the area, shrinking the hair follicle so you see shedding at a faster rate .

Regarding how many passes we make over the typical area? It really depends on your skin type and the area of the size. We don’t stop when the patient says it’s too hot because we have to put the correct energy in and with the Soprano Xl Laser there is an inbuilt cooling system that cools the skin which allows us to carry on treating without burning the client.


Soprano settings are very different from the NDYAG settings and being a diode laser this is done slightly different so for me to go into details is quite confusing.

To give you an idea on settings for the Soprano laser if you do a small patch 10 * 10 cm Asian skin type 5 we will normally put you on a fluency of 7 or 8 and the energy we will input in the area will vary from 8 kilojoules to 10 kilojoules. It is very different from the NDYAG because the reason the energy is less is because it is actually fired slower. This may sound confusing the best thing for you to do is come in for a FREE consultation and we can discuss this further.

Manroop