laser hair removal

[daniellalee]

i have been considering going in for laser hair removal for my beard. I wanted some information from anyone who has any experience with this. I need to know what to expect. Is it worth it? how painful is it and do u have lots of irritation after the treatment, what is the level of satisfaction from those who have had this treatment and are the specialist usually comfortable with trying to remove a mans beard. it seems like it would be one of the hardest places to do laser hair removal and succeed. what do u think? should i even bother? my greatest wish as a crossdresser is to be rid of this awful beard. cry

[KatieZ]

From what I've heard, it takes at least 20 and up to 30 treatments to get it all. And that is if the hair is all dark. Light and grey hair may never be successfully removed.

At roughly $200-$250 per treatment=$4000-7500.

Hugs

[Wenda]

I have done some online reading, which is consistent with Katies comments. I look forward to reading replies from anyone with firsthand experience.

[JoannaDees]

I've been having it done. I got it cheaper than 200 per session, and got about 6. The first two were not a great success. A little bit of reduction, but not as much as I hoped, and some degree of pain. I wasn't sure what I would do after six sessions, maybe some more, maybe not and just have less beard.

But they did get a new laser. This one does not need the gel and is not pushed right against the skin. Now that laser really works very good, but it is serious pain. My beard reduction was a lot, you cannot really see much beard growth the second day. I do have light hair, but there is gray, so that could be why no shadow ... the dark hairs are going away. The dark hair is really reduced, maybe some of the gray is reduced, but typically the gray is not affected by the laser. I'll have to ask the Nurse if the new laser is effective on gray hair ... in CA only an RN can do the procedure.

All in all, I'm much happier with the new laser and the results. Will all beard be gone, even the gray? Maybe not, but the dark hair is less and makes a difference.

I will note that after the first session with the new laser (OUCH! Really OUCH! Really really OUCH, like holding the bed and clenching fists and waiting for it) my face was not pretty. Very bumpy and red, and the dark hairs seemed to be emphasized. I thought, OH NO, I've really messed up my face. But it did go away, I think it was just the dark hair follicles getting ready to fall out.

All in all, I'm happy with it.

[x_girl]

daniellalee,

There is some pain when the laser is destroying the hair follicle, but it only lasts for a fraction of a second and it can be lessened with a topical anesthetic. The darker your hair is the more you will feel the pulse of the laser.

Skin irritation is common, but any swelling or redness will go away within a couple of days. I found that driving around for a couple of hours with the air conditioner on and the vents directed at the treated area will dissipate the heat from your skin.

Your level of satisfaction and amount of treatments required will vary depending on the quality of the laser and the skill of the technician.

The lady who treats me has had a lot of guys come in for facial/neck hair removal, so don’t worry about embarrassment.

Your best bet is to go in for an evaluation.

[LanaLana]

I have had back/shoulders/legs/arms done.

The back after 4 goes has subsided a lot, but virtually full regrowth after the first 2 treatments within a few months. I will probalby have another 2 on the back. The grey hair is still growing but I knew that would happen when I started.

The arms only one time so far - ouch around the elbows, it burnt my left elbow and I have a scar there. The skin is too thin there so request they don't do that bit. It blistered and took weeks to heal. I have to wait for the suntan to fade on the arms now - I am in Australia and it is summer.

The legs ok but ouch behind the knees.

The laser was an IPL. Joanna what is the name of the new laser you had?

I wil post about my future treatments.

Lana

[Liberty]

I have just had my second laser appt. Having done my underarms, legs, feet, chest, belly, Brazilian bikini, and yes my face. Having my chin and jaw line done was by far one of the most painful experiences I have ever gone through. The rest of my body was no big deal, but my beard area!! Ouch
The whole time while in that area, I would brace myself for each and every pulse of the laser. My technician said that a tattoo is worse in regards to pain, so that gave me some comfort knowing how popular tattoos are these days. So far, I am very satisfied with the results and wish that I had done it long ago. It's like having a whole new body, much cleaner and sexy too. My female technician thinks that what I am doing is "awesome", I'd have to agree. My male technician is very thorough, fast and has somewhat more empathy while doing my face. I am using a yag laser called the candera, gentlease, (I think thats what its called). Remember, the pain is only temporary and it's ok to shed a few tears, they are used to that at the laser place. I think I paid about $170 for a face treatment. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance in providing more real time experience on this subject. ~Liberty

**********

One more thing, how does the pain feel? It feels like someone putting thier cigarette out on you, I'm not kidding. Burns like heck for a fraction of a second. The rest of the body is a piece of cake, not very painfull, maybe even a tickle. But the face! Do a shot of whiskey first, see if they have a hunk of leather to bite down on!
One thing is important, avoid caffeine/coffee prior to the treatment as it makes you more sensitive to pain while enduring the laser.
Hope this all helps, cooling aloe helps alot afterwards.
~Liberty

[daniellalee]

i would love to know what type of new laser they used on you Joanne. As far as the pain goes, i'm not too scared. I have had a tatoo before and that was nothing. i also once plucked my beard to reduce speed of regrowth. That was when i was too young and ignorant of the fact that hair grows in cycles. the hairs that grow back after plucking are not the same ones you plucked. thats why laser hair removal takes alot of treatments. The hair that grows back is not the same as what the laser kills but a whole new cycle of growth. i've heard that it usually takes six treatments to target all growth cycles but that of course depends. i'm sure that the laser could not be much worse than plucking your facial hair "mega ouch!"or even getting a tatoo. which, btw, is nothing compared to plucking out your beard. not to mention the ingrown hairs that came up after. My biggest fear is that the laser will leave my face
very red and swollen for a long time. i don't want it to be too noticeable when i have to return to work. I don't want people saying "omg what happened to your face?" I wonder if aloe would speed the healing process? aloe is the best for sunburns so it would seem a likely choice but i really don't know. Maybe you girls can try it after your next treatment and let me know. there is a place near me that charges $2000 for six treatments of facial hair removal but that is prob. for women who just need to have the little fuzz that appears after menopause removed and not for a guy with a full beard to make his face look like a girls. keep me updated and i'll just go in for a consultation to see what they say.

[x_girl]

daniellalee
I have used aloe and it does help, but not much. I have had better results with Vitamin E cream (white or clear only) and Polysprorin.

If you are worried about redness, you can blend some foundation with moisturizer to sheer it out. If it is the right shade, you wont even see it.

The laser treatments are expensive, but you'll need to spend less on makeup

[monicawyer]

Daniellalee,

If you want guaranteed results on any part of your body, Electrolysis is the only way to go. As you will find, companies offering laser treatment will claim it as being permanent and painless. It's neither. At best it can be described as 'hair management' and as other have already said it can be excruciatingly painfull.

I had laser on my arms and chest twice and my body was virtually convulsing as a result of the pain!! It's like haviing a small,, very hot iron moved across your body. There are different types of laser (Yag and Diode are the more common ones) and some are more painfull than others. My SO uses a Yag and it's light beam fires twice a second onto a very small area (maybe 2 mm square). The pain is more bearable as it comes only twice a second and on a small area. The Diode laser (you might find people offering treatment on a Lightsheer, that's a Diode laser) fires upto three times a second onto an area maybe 1cm square. Boy that hurts! But it's the more painfull ones that are better (typical eh?) If you go the laser route you can get topical aneasthetics (bet I spelt that wrong) to help. Emla is quite good at taking the edge off the pain.

General opinion is that electrolysis is more painful but in my own experience (currently clearing my face) it's not. It takes longer but the results are worthwhile. You are virtually guaranteed permanent removal. It's more expensive (maybe £10,000 to clear your face) and takes longer (maybe 300-400 hours) but it works.

The other option currently available is IPL which stands for Intense Pulsed Light. This is lower power than Laser and still unproven.

I hope this is of some help to you. Good luck, whichever route you take!

M x

[tvgirl4fun]

I have to agree with monicawyer, laser is not permanent. Electrolysis is. I've been having electrolysis done and my beard is almost all gone. I have to go three days without shaving before you can see anything. And when I do shave, it's very quick and easy. Is it worth is? Just earlier tonight I was walking into the mens' room at the local casino in boy mode and some guy coming out says, "Lady, you're going the wrong way!" I get "Mame'd" a lot of times while in boy mode. J

[lela]

Laser hair removal involves some pain, and is very expensive. To have the hair removed from your face is going to be very costly. I looked into at my dermatologist's office, and the tech told me that my initial treatment would be $250.00. Then about every six weeks I'd pay $125.00 per treatment. How many treatments? You won't know because hair grows in stages. The laser
kills the hair as it grows out of the folical under the skin. If there is no hair coming out of that folical at the time of treatment, you'll have to go back. Think about the amount of hair you have on your face and neck. By the way, if your beard is light (blonde or gray) the laser will not work because the laser is attracted to dark colored hair. She did a couple of tests spots on my beard and it really did sting.

[Michelle Hart]

I went in today for a consultation with my girlfriend. We both want to get it done.

If we both do it we can get it for 2700.00 each, full body. I thought that was odd since they wanted 880.00 for just my face and neak and 1100.00 for my legs.

The girl said this was for 5 treatments and any followups. This seems a little high but since nobody publishes their prices it's hard to judge.

3000.00 for a full body laser treatment just seems to expensive.

[Genifer Teal]

I've read many posts regarding laser hair removal. Based on my experience, I feel that many who try it and are quickly dissapointed are lacking patience. I heard many times that I should expect it to take from 8 to 12 session to kill all the hairs. This is due to hair growth patterns. The important thisng to know is that hair can only be killed when it is in the growing phase which generally last 3 months then waits a few months before growing again.

After 12, then 13 sessions on my face I was disapointed that I still had many hairs on my lower chin. Well, session # 14 hit pay dirt. Many hairs finally died on that session. I am going for #15 tomorrow and I expect (hope) to get most of the rest. Then I will wait to see how long it lasts.

I recently started taking Avodart, both for my hair loss and enlarged prostrate. Lets see how that effects things. For those who don't know, Avodart is known to increase hair growth. It's primary purpose is to treat an elarged prostrate. Fortunately (?) I have one so the drug is covered by my insurance.

The laser I am using is the Candella Gentle Lase Is it painful? YES! The best way to convey this is that a friend who had FFS and SRS said that hair removal was still the most painfull proceess. My cost for laser treatment on my face, is $800/$400/$200 for the first 3 sessions, then $100 for as many sessions after that as I want. The last part is what sold me on this practice. When I did the math and compared it to other places, they were similar in price for 12 sessions, but each session was at a higher average price making touch ups more costly in the long run.

I'd also like to mention that this place also has the previous model of the same machine. For other parts of my body, we use the older machine. I believe that because it has a lesser penetration, it may just be hitting the other hair right where it needs to. What ever the reason, it works better so we use it. It just goes to show that newer isn't always the best.

I like the idea behind the light sheer laser better. http://www.aesthetic.lumenis.com/wt/...lightsheer_two The primary difference is that it contacts the skin when in use. The tip has cooling built into it which continuously cools the skin before during and after firing the laser. This is very important to prevent damage to the skin during use. I also believe it allows for higher settings to be used safely which may more effectively kill the hairs. Another difference is that it uses a diode laser. This may or may not mean much. I don't know enough about it to say, just note that it is a difference. I believe the other uses a Yag laser.

Good luck with your choices. Let us know how it turns out. Don't hesitate to ask any questions you may have.

Hugs - Genifer

[Liberty]

I've been getting the laser on my face in the early morning appt. and within three hours went out with everyone and nobody seemed to notice anything or didn't say anything about my face being red and swollen, I looked into the mirror thinking that I might be in no condition to go out, but I looked fine. Hard to imagin that three hours earlier I was holding tight to cushioned table having it done, for me it hurt so bad that I have total respect now for all who endure, and the results I am happy with. I may have to follow up on the few grey hairs with electrolysis, or use this root darkening product the technician told me about. I am paying about $165 I think, for each treatment. My third appt is coming up on March 2nd, and I am excited! Just make sure it is true laser and not "epilight" (needing Gel)...