darkladywolf

Since I seem to be spending a lot of time explaining this over and over I thought I'd post this here.

Firstly, how does the laser treatment work? In simplistic terms each hair transmits the heat of the laser into the follicle to kill it. The darker the hair the better the heat transmits. This means black works best, grey or white doesn't work at all.

The end result is burned out follicles, and skin that has essentially been badly sunburned (without that nasty UV component). Only some of the hairs are killed, those that are in the active stage of their growth. For me this appears to be about 80% of the original hairs, going by the test patch. YMMV.

Redness is certainly expected, as is puffiness. There may be some scabbing, and peeling. Though if it lasts longer than a week I'd be worried.

While the redness persists you wash the affected area only with tepid water, not hot or cold. No shaving, no using loofahs and no harsh scrubbing.

For about the first week you need to avoid sunlight, and wear an spf 30+ sunscreen to avoid pigmentation. For this same reason avoiding perfumes, and perfumed soaps is a good idea too.

4-6 weeks later I'll have another treatment to catch more of the hairs. If I'm lucky this will be the last treatment, if not, I'm hoping one more will do the job.

For about 2-3 weeks after the treatment I will need to shave to keep everything neat. However most of the hairs are now not growing, so much as being expelled from the body. If the test patch is anything to go by, I'll suddenly notice a difference, rather than gradually. I hope it works that way in this case.

Apparently next time I should see if they have the multi-lux, rather than the diode laser. Apparently that results in about 5 times the area being covered with each 'burst', and about 1/2 the pain. We'll see. However it's 2 months away from hitting their Canberra office, and I have to go back in 6 weeks at most.

(BTW, my mood is nothing to do with anything in particular. I'm just in an irritable mood)