Hi everyone. I want to share my experiences of laser hair removal and ask advice. After 7 sessions of laser hair removal I have only lost about half or 2/3 at the most of my facial hair. I still have to shave everyday as a result. One of the things that I have noticed is that most of the hair that was removed was quite thick hair compared to the rest of it. It doesn't even hurt that much anymore when I have it done. I think it has made my hair so fine that it can't easily be removed. At the moment I am thinking that I should skip shaving for a day or so before my treatments in the hope that the hair will be big enough for the laser to kill it. Does anyone else have this experience? If so what could you recommend? I have considered electrolysis although I can't really afford it and also it would make me very dysphoric having to grow my hair long enough to be plucked out. Thanks xxxx

It wasn't until my 12th session that I was 95% clear. I can go weeks without shaving. Try asking your technician to up the power each session.

Oh okay. That would make sense considering that it doesn't hurt that much. I guess they are not using it on a high enough setting xxx

Hi Tess,

I noticed considerable reduction in beard growth after two or three sessions.  It sounds like things are coming along for you, though.  The length of the hair is not important, in fact a close shave is preferred for laser.  The effectiveness of the treatment depends on zapping the hair follicles during the anagen phase of the growth cycle, when there is the most melanin in the root.  Unfortunately there is no way to tell, and your hairs are all on their own cycles, so it is luck of the draw which ones are effectively destroyed.

Terri

I wasn't able to go weeks without shaving until after about my 9th laser session.  If you're making good progress, just keep it up.  In my experience, some areas have needed up to 12 sessions for permanent, total clearance, so I wouldn't worry yet.

I feel that it is not working very well though. Unless more hair is removed in the later sessions. It could be that I am having the sessions too close together. I have them 6 weeks apart. Maybe this isn't long enough for my hairs to be in the anagen phase. I am feeling a bit depressed about it. My face is still prickly about a day after shaving. My therapist says that I have very few folicles but I don't believe it. Hair keeps coming back too. It's my neck hair that really irritates me. I can't even see it that well anymore but I can really feel it. Like I said, next time I will tell them to turn up the machine. Maybe she is being too careful with me. I estimate from what I have experienced so far that I will probably need about 15 sessions to clear my face. I find that I don't lose any hair after some sessions. Again maybe my hair is not in the right phase. I feel distressed over this. It costs me a fortune and I am not seeing improvements. I have really bad dysphoria over my facial hair and it was the first thing I did in my transition.

I didn't really begin to see a significant reduction with laser until around the 8th round. I had about 13 sessions in total spread over a year or so and was mostly clear afterward except for the gray/white ones. I'm getting those zapped with electrolysis now and it's a much, much slower process and more painful than laser with less gain each time - at considerably more cost to boot *sigh*......

Hair does have a growth cycle - your laser technician should tell you how often to show up to best maximize your experience.

Quote from: tesseract49 on October 14, 2015, 11:37:24 PM
I feel that it is not working very well though. Unless more hair is removed in the later sessions. It could be that I am having the sessions too close together. I have them 6 weeks apart. Maybe this isn't long enough for my hairs to be in the anagen phase.

I think you're right.  I made this mistake too my first few treatments.  I was so eager to have it done, I would go back at the very soonest (6 weeks) instead of the recommended 8+ weeks.  It definitely helps to go later (8-9 weeks).  Once I switched to that schedule I made much better progress.