First laser session

[Dee Marshall]

As for what remains after a session, what I do is let the hair break the surface of the skin, then just rub it a little with my finger.  In most cases, the hair will come out, but if it doesn't, I just try again the next day.  That's worked really well for me; Much better than when I used to shave after a session or when I would use regular exfoliation.

Great tip! I have to try that... when I actually get to start laser.

[Sophie Lou]

Ok, a few thoughts after my 3rd session yesterday.

1)the 5% lidocaine is much more effective using Saran Wrap over my beard area so that it doesn't dry up immediately.

2)for those with high anxiety and worry(I know none of you TransWomen have anxiety [emoji6]), a great trick to distract your mind is to dig your nail a little into you arm, hand, or fingers between each shot. Dig into a different area after each zap. It takes your brain's attention away from the fear about the anticipated zap and brings your consciousness to the area where you are pushing into. It's the same idea as biting your lip if you get a foot cramp when you are swimming in deep waters etc. it really helped me stopped worrying and go into a zone.

3) if it still hurts like hell, why are we not getting a prescription for stronger lidocaine from our doctors?! Seriously. I'm seeing my doc on Monday and I'm getting stronger stuff. I'm done suffering. There is no reason not to.




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[awilliams1701]

I'm not sure what's worse. The brief pain or the long lasting smell of burning hair and flesh. I'm just glad I didn't go the tria route. I've heard it hurts less, but takes long and needs to be exposed longer. I had trouble with the epilator the first few times. I can't imagine lasering my own face.

So far my hair hasn't fallen out yet. I'm looking forward to when it does. Oh and the worst thing was between the eyebrows. That hurt the worst by far. The area just under the nose was a close second.

[iKate]

I am 3 sessions in and it hurts less, maybe because I have less hair to deal with or maybe because I got used to it.

6-7 days before I could pull hairs out and 14 days for most to shed seems to be what has been happening.

[awilliams1701]

I think its a little of both actually. There is going to be a lot less hair each time. Also if you receive pain in the same area over and over again, it becomes de-sensatised.

[Urban Christina]

I don't use any numbing cream or anything prior to my sessions. I just want to ensure that nothing will affect the effectiveness of laser. It's most the painful thing I've ever did to myself so far but so worth it! Just keep mental images of celebrites you wanna look like, it works for me. Haha!

[amber roskamp]

I had my first laser session for facial hair removal today.

And oh well... I think it is the most painful thing I have ever chosen to do. But now 2-3 hours later, the pain seems bearable, although my face is all red.

So it started with a brief consultation with the dermatologist. It lasted barely 10 minutes, followed by a few more minutes with the 'clinic manager', who started by saying they only do 'beard shaping' and not full removal. When I said that the lady who fixed my appointment as well as the dermatologist had both said full removal can be done, she went out and came back after a few minutes and confirmed it could be done.
I still don't know if that was because they never had a 'male' client before asking for full beard removal or some other reason.

Anyway, on to the session itself, which started with a shave that seemed more painful than my daily ones, and then heaps of xylocaine which I was left with for almost an hour. Thank heavens for that, because I was really numb by then and still the laser was so painful. I can't imagine what it's like without that numbing gel. The lasering itself took about 30-40 minutes I think, and I only stopped it a few times for a few seconds when it got too painful.
The dermatologist came by to see what was going on, and asked me a few times if I was ok. I kept saying yes, even though I was visibly shaking and grimacing at every zap.

Finally it got done and I came back with a face that's red all over. Although it feels smooth, I'm looking forward to 3-4 days from now, when hopefully the hair will fall out and the redness will go away.

Ok my redness was gone by the end of the day. Also it takes longer then 3-4 days for  your hair to fall out.1-2 weeks is more accurate. It sounds like they have an antique laser. I didn't have any kind of pain meds and yes my face hurt but it wasn't unbearable. I did tear up, but hey it only lasted five  minutes. You might want to look into a different place with a better laser.

[Sophie Lou]

I don't use any numbing cream or anything prior to my sessions. I just want to ensure that nothing will affect the effectiveness of laser. It's most the painful thing I've ever did to myself so far but so worth it! Just keep mental images of celebrites you wanna look like, it works for me. Haha!

Just to be clear, numbing cream has no effect on the effectiveness of the laser. If anything, not wearing numbing cream could reduce the effectiveness, since numbing cream will allow the technician to turn up the laser to a higher setting, or cover more area, since the pain tolerance of the customer will be higher.

I don't want people to skip numbing cream, for no reason, and be in pain because they think it will somehow inhibit the effectiveness of the laser...


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[awilliams1701]

I didn't have any and while it hurt, I never asked her to stop either. I would say about half of it is gone 4 days later.

[iKate]

Just to be clear, numbing cream has no effect on the effectiveness of the laser. If anything, not wearing numbing cream could reduce the effectiveness, since numbing cream will allow the technician to turn up the laser to a higher setting, or cover more area, since the pain tolerance of the customer will be higher.

I don't want people to skip numbing cream, for no reason, and be in pain because they think it will somehow inhibit the effectiveness of the laser...


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Absolutely this.

Without the numbing cream my sessions would still be at the lower setting. With the cream she was able to turn it up and do longer pulses for a more complete and effective kill.

Numbing cream works and works well.

[Aoife]

I don't know the details of the laser that is used at the place I go to, but it is called "Cynosure Elite".
I havn't been using a cream before (3 sessions from January until now) and my next appointment is on this Friday and I will try a cream, so I will let you all know my feelings afterwards.
I allow take 6 weeks between appointments because I also do Electro between sessions.
The electro machine is called "Apilus Platinum Pure 27MHz" and I usually get between 30-60 minutes done at a time.
I do the electro about 2 weeks roughly after the hairs start to fall out and at first the lady would just get the clear or white hairs but now she just gets whatever is leftover.
The upper lip and chin are still stubborn and the hardest to keep clear, but my neck and cheeks are basically smooth and clear now. there is still a shadow but it only appears closer to the laser appointment. I am hoping it will not appear ever again soon.
As for pain, it is pretty painful but  I have survived so far. LOL

[SarahSchilling]

I've done 5 alexandrite laser session on my whole face, and then 5 more on just my upper/lower lip. It got rid of pretty much everything. (Felt like getting popped by rubber bands all over my face. Rubber bands on fire.)

A couple of months later, 15% or so came back in. I've done 18 hours of electrolysis by a skilled operator using the (amazing) 24 mhz Apilus Platinum machine to clear that (and the blondes that laser couldn't get). It hurts, but not nearly as bad as laser. (Unless you do the bikini line. I cried, literally.) I've read that it's much more painful with more primitive machines, and with blend or galvanic modalities. A modern thermolysis machine is the way to go, imo. You really need to do your homework here, because in many states electrolysis isnt regulated at all, and there are a lot of hacks out there.

I think laser first is a good idea to thin things out, if you have dark hair and light skin. Doing electrolysis with no laser first would have been horrible.


Hair removal is expensive and frustratingly slow, but totally worth it in the long run! Good luck

Oh, and I've never used any numbing cream or anything. *Shrugs*

[amber roskamp]

My doctor has been increasing the power of the lasers each time and I had my 3rd session last night and omg it hurt so bad... I'm gonna have to get pain meds for sure next time. Also my face broke out some this time. O well it's totally worth it.

[cindy16]

Ok my redness was gone by the end of the day. Also it takes longer then 3-4 days for  your hair to fall out.1-2 weeks is more accurate. It sounds like they have an antique laser. I didn't have any kind of pain meds and yes my face hurt but it wasn't unbearable. I did tear up, but hey it only lasted five  minutes. You might want to look into a different place with a better laser.

For me, the pain went away that night itself, the redness in about 1-2 days, and the hair fell out in about 2 weeks.
However, I think they had missed some parts last time so I was left with a weirdly shaped beard shadow which became more apparent when the burnt hair fell out. Even with a close shave twice a day, it was visible. I had friends and family asking about it (not out to them yet) and I just made up some excuses.

I had my second session yesterday so hopefully it will disappear in 1-2 weeks now. This session seemed more painful though, as they turned up the power, and even though my face looked clear before going in, it felt as if a lot of hair still got zapped. I won't say the pain was unbearable, but I did shake and grimace a lot and tear up as well.

[Gabrielle_22]

One somewhat minor thing I've noticed that I wanted to add to this thread: HRT may have a small effect on how long the shedding phase lasts, since spiro + some form of oestrogen (Estradiol for me) will often have an effect on body hair growth. I'm not sure if this affects how quickly hair follicles grow in. However, my last laser session was the first I've had while being on HRT (just entering my second month of HRT, and on my seventh laser session), and it does seem like the individual hairs on my face are taking longer to be pushed up so that they can be shed, which has extended the shedding phase for me by a little longer. I may be imagining it, but it feels like the hairs are taking an extra half-day to a day to appear, whereas it was much more consistent before I started HRT.

The negative effect of this is that, though I have very little facial hair left, the small bits of greenish shadow have been lasting a little longer than I would like them to. Again, I'm not sure if this is due to HRT, especially since I'm so early into it, but it's definitely the first time I'm noticing the hairs behaving in this way.

It's also a little frustrating because HRT makes your skin smoother, as has begun to happen for me, and I find shaving has to be done more delicately than before; it hurts a little more to do it, and I've nicked myself more than usual.

[Dee Marshall]

What you say is plausible, Gabrielle. My facial hair takes twice as long to come in now. Some hopeful news for you. I had the same issue with softer skin and cutting myself, but some time in the last 8 months of HRT my facial hair has become less course and shaves off more easily. Haven't started later or electro yet. Been out of work a while looking forward to it anxiously.

[iKate]

My doctor has been increasing the power of the lasers each time and I had my 3rd session last night and omg it hurt so bad... I'm gonna have to get pain meds for sure next time. Also my face broke out some this time. O well it's totally worth it.

The tech turned up the heat and gave longer pulses last time. Oh baby it was so hot but so good! This was my 3rd session.

I really broke out with pepperspots all over.

But now it's all shredded, I am not shaven for a few days and all I have is a light fuzz and a few strays.

[cindy16]

I'm not sure what's worse. The brief pain or the long lasting smell of burning hair and flesh.

For me, the pain and that smell both go away by the next morning.

Oh and the worst thing was between the eyebrows. That hurt the worst by far. The area just under the nose was a close second.

I've only got my eyebrows threaded, and shave the rest of my body hair. They asked if I wanted any of it lasered but I said 'no, thanks'. Lasering the face is painful enough as it is.

[amber roskamp]

The worst part is waiting for them to fall out talk about torture. Ugh!

[cindy16]

The worst part is waiting for them to fall out talk about torture. Ugh!

I agree. I am not out yet so I didn't mind that unshaveable stubble after the first session last month, but after this session, I am just waiting for that weird pattern on my face to disappear. Having patches of such stubble is far worse.. it gets noticed much more