hair removal (merged)

HelenYorkshire

2 quick questions if I may

1 - Doooo tell us about this laser for blondes please! Who, where, how etc lol

2 - Moneysaving or stupidity? Electrolysis by beauty school students (under full supervision one assumes). £3 a session, I'm assuming a very short session, worth it to see if it does anything? Or is it such a skilled task that even a competent student wouldn't make any difference to hair?
I'm "brave" in the sense that I have haircuts from students etc and am happy to hang around while they take their time, have tutor come check etc...

I had my eyebrows threaded with good results, however got a few ingrown hairs back. Nothing dramatic, would definitely recommend it. But would be too embarrassed to go into salon, point at face, and say "thread it all!!" lol

lostinrates

Can anyone who has had laser answer a question?

A friend of mine is having laser at a ''medical clinic'' and has had three treatments with no/minimal loss. She seemed to feel the hair would first drop out ten days after the first treatment, then they told her maybe the laser was ''switched on to low'' and turned it up the second time, and still nothing. Is this normal? She's very upset about it though I'll tell her about the skin problems and that will make her feel better, as her skin has actually got better with the laser (the only change noticed).

faithless

Veet cream was on offer in the supermarket the other week so I decided to try it, and I was quickly convinced about using it on my legs - it's a bit more awkward and time consuming than shaving but does leave them much smoother, and less prickly when they regrow!

However, today I decided to try using it under my arms, as it says you can on the tube, but it took ages to work and now the area's tender and irritated. I think it's partly because you have to scrape the cream off using a piece of plastic shaped like a razor, which isn't so bad on your legs but is on the softer underarm skin.
Has anyone got any tips on good removal creams for the underarm/sensitive areas? (I was thinking of doing my bikini line, but not trying that with this cream after this afternoon!)

dieselhead

I tried nair wax on my legs and bikini line and have to say I was really impressed, it didn't work too well on my legs but was brilliant for bikini line. It comes in a tub and you heat it in the microwave, you spread it on with a wooden stick and then pull it off you don't need the muslin strips.

I think the reason it worked well on my bikini line is it seemed to grab the thicker hair well but really struggled with the finer hair on my legs. I was so pleased as I have only had my bikini line waxed at a salon before and it took a few days to heal (very read and blotchy for a few days) but this was much better. I have used the cream on my bikini line before but found you have to leave it for the maximum allowed time to avoid having to scrape to hard with the plastic razor and even then it started to grow back within a few days. So I am really really pleased with the nair wax!

Lady_Tara

HelenYorkshire: I had my treatment from a doctor in the midlands, the blurb says "IPL is the first photoepilation technology proven to treat unwanted hair safely on any skin type – from very white to very black." and although she did mention pigmentation as a possible side effect, she said it would fade. Its now 18 months since my last session and my upper lip has very noticeable darker skin. Also I have found that even though I had six sessions, it grows back the same as before!
The clinic I went to is registered with the health care commission and run by a husband and wife team both doctors who carry out the treatments themselves.
I really wish I'd stayed with monthly waxing, but I thought if I could zap it completely it would save the monthly hassle. Now I'm having threading or shaving it myself, and having electrolysis on my chin. God I sound hideous!!!!:eek:

suki1964

I had electrolysis under the hospital many years ago - and just couldnt bear the pain after the fourth time so stopped attending. Im not a wuss btw - I epilate my bikini line to a Brazillian, just the pain around the nose and along the lip was just too much

Threading Ive tried to do that myself - with no luck so far lol. I cant seem to get the thread right and end up in a tangle.

Im just ignoring the downy hair and just worry about the thick dark wee !!!!!!s. A 10x magnifyer and sharp pointy tweezermans grab them before they are more then wee dots, I just accept it now as part and parcel of putting my face on.

Im loathe to epilate on my face because I dont want to make the problem worse then it is. Im convinced the lip and chin became worse AFTER I stopped with the electrolyisis

ali1972

Plucking, waxing, sugaring - anything that yanks the hair out - tends to make the hair come back thicker and darker for a great many women with a hormonal tendency (such as PCOS) to be hairy. It might be fine for women without PCOS but for many of us it exacerbates the problem. The mechanical trauma of pulling the hair out increases the blood flow to the follicle and "nourishes" it, encouraging it grow "healthy and strong" it would seem. That's one of the reasons why it's important to have a good electrolysis operator who is patient and will probe the hair several times until it pops out of it's own accord - unfortunately there are many who are not very good at it and just end up pulling the hair out. One of the reasons I ended up looking into laser treatment in the first place was because my therapist left the area and I was finding it hard to get another one who was actually really good at it. Also, I found it harder to find someone qualified to use Blend electrolysis (uses electricity as well as heat - most "electrolysis" is not really electrolysis, but "thermolysis") which tends to have better results for people like me with PCOS.

@HelenYorkshire - at £3 a session it might well be worth seeing if the students do any good, especially if they train them in the Blend method? I guess the only way they become good at it is if they get practice...

@Lady Tara - Am I right in thinking IPL is not the same as Laser? - could be why it hasn't been effective? All I know is that I am treated with an Alexandrite laser (which is supposed to be the most effective for people with pale skin and dark hair) but I know that conventional laser treatment is not suitable for light hair so I am supposing that IPL is different.

@lostinrates - I certainly was seeing a marked difference after 3 treatments. They were very strict about me coming back exactly 4 weeks after each treatment - to catch the hairs coming through at the same stage of the growth cycle. They said I would be wasting my money if I didn't come at the right time. I did have some stubborn hairs on my neck which had been made worse by waxing before I started laser treatments. They were finer but still coming through a lot - so the nurse fiddled with the settings (she said it was more complicated than just turning up the intensity) and my goodness did she zapp those hairs. It was the first and only time I've gone away from a treatment thinking "Oww!" but that area has been clear for about 8 months.

Lady_Tara

ali1972 wrote: »

@Lady Tara - Am I right in thinking IPL is not the same as Laser? - could be why it hasn't been effective? All I know is that I am treated with an Alexandrite laser (which is supposed to be the most effective for people with pale skin and dark hair) but I know that conventional laser treatment is not suitable for light hair so I am supposing that IPL is different.

That's a good point that I'd not considered - IPL is intense pulsed light - which is supposed to be good for all skin types/hair colours, which is why they recommended it for me as fair/blonde, so maybe it is not as good as the conventional laser method. I think I am going to go back to the clinic and see what they say about my pigmentation (I'd not gone back to show them how its turned out).;)

lostinrates

ali1972 wrote: »

@lostinrates - I certainly was seeing a marked difference after 3 treatments. They were very strict about me coming back exactly 4 weeks after each treatment - to catch the hairs coming through at the same stage of the growth cycle. They said I would be wasting my money if I didn't come at the right time. I did have some stubborn hairs on my neck which had been made worse by waxing before I started laser treatments. They were finer but still coming through a lot - so the nurse fiddled with the settings (she said it was more complicated than just turning up the intensity) and my goodness did she zapp those hairs. It was the first and only time I've gone away from a treatment thinking "Oww!" but that area has been clear for about 8 months.

Thnk you. I emailed my chum a link to this yesterday evening and she has written this morning saying that she has been advised to go between 2 and 3 weeks in intervals for best results. And yet your results seem to have been better.

Can I ask, for anyne else, what intervals were recommended, is the 4 week gap more nomal and is this something she should be persuing with them?

ali1972

At sk:n clinics (where I go) I was recommended to go, ideally, at 4 weekly intervals. I think 2 to 3 weeks intervals would mean you're going at different phases of the growth cycle, whereas you want to get them at the same stage. 2 to 3 weeks also means you're spending more money of course (she said cynically) I'll look into it and see if I can find any more info. Failing that I'll ask my nurse next time I go in - although that probably won't be for a month or 2.

Edit: I've had a good old trawl through the internet looking for recommendations on intervals between treatments. I feel like I've read more pages than I can shake a box of Jolen at! The average answer seems to be between 4 and 8 weeks, some even saying up to 12 weeks, 6 weeks is also popular. It seems the point is to let hairs start growing through before the next treatment so that you are zapping actively growing hairs. I found hardly any FAQ pages suggesting less than 4 weeks. Hope that is helpful!