Facial hair follow on - 1 week

Just a follow on from last week. The company said I should see some shedding of hairs daily by this point, and since it's a month til the next treatment I should hope that starts soon.

In reality I haven't seen any hairs falling out to this point, it's been mainly just an overall reduction in beard shadow and density than "OMG, bare skin".

To this point I must be honest and say things look a little patchy in places. With some areas still at full pre-start thickness and others completely bare.

This also applies to shaving very closely. I had to shave against the grain (and accross / with) for a special event last weekend and the inconsistency is visible, even when going as close as I possibly can.

It's also becoming obvious that I will need to have at least a few sessions of electrolysis when I have some significant clearing to achive the desired effect. As it is the few gray hairs are very front and center immediately following treatment and will need to be eliminated prior to being completely smooth.

One note on the photos thus far. I'm aiming for photos taken after 48 hours growth to show any reduction as seen over time. If I take photos right after shaving than the results are not as obvious.

I'm still learning on doing self portraits, since from some angles it makes me look like a wookie and others do not.

On the next treatment, I am going to have to ask more about the output power levels they use. During the last session they mentioned that they start at 30-35 joules for the first 8 or 9 sessions and than crank it up to 40-50 when going after the last stranglers. This doesn't make sense to me since there should be a defined safe power range for my skin type, and since the method of action is to cause heat death of the hair follicle without disturbing the skin itself, the higher power level should be used to get a complete kill, rather than what I've been seeing.

I have read in the literature that sometimes the hair root is simply disabled by the laser, rather than destroyed. More heat = more death .. so a higher power for shorter durations seems more effective than lower power for longer durations.

Unfortunately the actual protocols used (like a simple chart of safe output power ranges by skin and hair type) seem to be proprietary, so any observations or conclusions I draw are anecdotal and subjective at best.

Third treatment

I had my third laser hair removal treatment today.

Things have changed significantly in the last week or so, there has been a large overall reduction in the density of the hair on my face.

More significantly, there are now patches of no hair whatsoever at various intervals over the course of my skin, with a notable reduction in the number of red bumps around my neck.

This presents a problem in a way, because I will have to shave closer than ever to avoid it looking odd by the fact of having some areas that are extremely dense and others that are hair free.

It is obvious that the technician missed treatment of some areas and retreated other areas.

There was quite a bit more pain than last time, even though the radiated power was less, but the duration of each pulse was slightly more. The machine was set to 32 joules for 40milliseconds with one pulse per second.

Next appointment is a month away. This companies protocol is different than most I've seen in another way. The inclusive cost of treatment is $800 and the method of collection is extremely easygoing. I've elected to pay $50 per treatment until this is paid off thinking that this would pay it off at the end of the projected treatment window. With no release forms or disclaimers, this seems to make the most sense.

second treatment

I got the second treatment on Oct 22.

I have not noticed any reduction in hair density or patterns to this point, since the first treatment was likely a "try to see if you can stand it" affair.

The treatment itself was at a power level of 32 and definately stung more for the brief instant they worked over that spot.

The woman doing the treatment was the trainee from the past session. She had apparently been there for a few years but not worked on male faces very much. She used what I would call an irregular pattern instead of the grid pattern the prior technician had used, with some areas getting treated twice and some areas going untreated.

There was some more smell of cinged hair and the skin was slightly red after the treatment. She did not offer to do the monobrow area.

The treatment only lasted 8 minutes and no additional information was given.


Here is a photo from that treatment, this is after 1 day of growth with no change in hair noted.

First treatment

I went in for my first treatment on October 8th.

The first treatment was at 24 power units and took around 15 minutes.

The technician had a trainee with her and some of the conversation got a little "interesting". They were describing the effects on my skin to the low laser power and at one point exclaiming "OOO, that follicle exploded!" and the like.

The actual treatment didn't really redden my skin any and the actual laser pulse felt and sounded more like small electric shocks than the "slap of a rubber band" feeling I've seen described elsewhere.

The technician surprised me when she asked if I wanted my "monobrow" zapped too. She handed me some lead eye covers and proceeded to treat the area between my eyebrows. At first brush this seemed fine, but in retrospect, putting a laser that close to your eyes probably isn't worth the risk since laser energy can move through tissue and this is 1-2CM from my eyes.

The technician went in a grid pattern over my lip, chin, cheeks, neck and sideburns. There was a small smell of burning hair, but nothing too bad at this level.

After the treatment they wiped off the aloe cooling gel and that was the end of that. The laser itself has a water cooled tip at the surface that is being treated (laser operates at point blank range against the skin and is operating via a foot petal for each "zap).


Here is my photo before the before the first treatment. This is about an hour after shaving.

Consultation

I had talked to this particular office in person for 20 minutes on October 1st.

She gave me the particulars that they use a ND:YAG Lyra laser by a company named LaserScope, which is a type of laser usually used on people of darker skin than I have. (I have type 3 skin on the Fitzpatrick skin type scale ) I chose this style of laser because for one the office I am going to uses it exclusively and also because it has a lower occurrence of pigmentation changes that can happen with other wavelengths of laser.

I had wanted to link to the medical extract that was very helpful on this selection, but it appears to have been pulled by the different medical sites and only a synopsis remains.

The technician had indicated they have done "a few dozen" men's faces with 6-7 currently being treated.

She was upfront with the information that it is a permanent reduction rather than removal and that the protocol used is slightly different than some other offices.

Specifically, the protocol is 10-15 sessions spaced at one month intervals with the first 3 at 2 week intervals with slowly escallating power output levels to "make sure" it's what I wanted.

I was provided a Lidocane 2.5% and Prilocaine 2.5% cream for some surface numbing to be applied 45 minutes ahead of the treatment.

I was a little surprised that she said a light tan was OK, since the darker the skin the more the energy is absorbed by the epidermis (surface) of the skin. Though with this 1064nm laser that isn't as much an issue as with some other options.

Introduction and purpose

This blog was created to hopefully fill a (very small) niche I haven't seen elsewhere on the net ..

First off, introductions. I am a 36 year old male in Kansas City, MO that is undergoing laser hair removal on my face and neck at a local doctor's office. My reasons for getting this procedure are pretty simple, I don't like having sandpaper face.

The appeal of not shaving is certainly strong. I'm one of these that still feel like sandpaper even right after shaving in a normal way (with the grain). I can get much closer by going against or across the grain, but that invariably leads to red dots and extremely irritated skin.

I don't expect laser to permanently remove all hairs forever because it simply doesn't work that way. For one I have a few gray hairs that wouldn't respond anyway and would have to be removed by electrolysis. So a simple (great) reduction in hairs would be the long term goal.

As for that specific niche I was speaking of. I haven't found any personal blogs out there with the level of detail I'd have liked before embarking on this path. Specifically before and after photos from each treatment session, radiated power levels for each session, frequency of treatment and information on the specific equipment used, and anecdotal information on how it feels and that sort of thing.