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.