Quote from: staciM on January 28, 2017, 10:45:06 AM
From you girls that have some experience...as mentioned above, I'm going to my first laser appointment this Wednesday and I'm curious what I can expect. Not as much about the pain or discomfort but what about regrowth? I'm 50/50 dark/white and will also need electrolysis. The day of the laser appointment I've been asked to shave, but what can I expect the days after? Will only white hair come back with spotty dark bunches that didn't die? Will it all come back but eventually fallout? Just curious....thanks girls.
Hi Staci
Do yourself a favour and get some Aloe Vera gel and have it in the refrigerator. Take it with you when you go to the appointment. Your face will be hot and feel a little sunburnt (maybe). Once the treatment is finished apply the gel liberally to your face to help cool it down. Other than that you need to be patient.
When you study your face you may have what appear to be brown squiggles or slight pigmentation of the skin...this goes away for me after about a week. Laser is excellent for evening out your skin tone as a side effect. You may well see the actual hair size increase in the follicle so your follicle may look like the hair just got bigger. This is part of the dying process and all hairs that have been dealt to will enlarge even if only slightly. If you have left any longer hairs these will appear shrivelled and come out immediately, unfortunately although satisfying they are likely to grow back as the laser has unlikely done enough to the follicle nodule to kill it hence the importance of a close shave.
About the 7- 14 day (YMMV) you should start seeing the odd facial hair having fallen out. Exfoliating is the best(and only way IMHO) way to remove them, I can't state this with enough importance DO NOT under any circumstances pluck the "dead ones" It is so tempting and I have heard so many people say this or similar "most of them slide right out with very little discomfort and in most cases no real discomfort at all...its (cathartic) like popping pimples. "
If, when you slide out the hair painlessly, you leave even the minutest bit of follicle and I mean miniscule, it will grow back. On each hair is a small "bulb" that contains cells similar to stem cells. If any of this is not dead when the hair comes out then it will regrow. It will come back almost immediately...it doesn't seem to take that long before it is visible again.
Over a period of time you will start to see patchy area's where the dark hair has died off almost completely. My top lip area down to the corner of my mouth has almost nothing maybe a dozen black hairs, had 3 hrs of electrolysis on it as well so almost done. I have gone from every 4 weeks to every 6 weeks for next two treatments and next time it is likely to be 12 weeks as I have nothing much left. So after 3 more treatments I am likely to let Electrolysis pick up the last few stragglers but in my case it will have dealt with over 60% of my facial hair.
Hopefully that helps answer your question
Liz