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#405
by
Mazzle
on 01 May, 2010 22:09
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Oops, forgot the picture.
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#406
by
kokyman
on 02 May, 2010 08:02
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Its 6-12 mos old. The whole top was lasered off. I cant do it all cause I have a lot of gray/white hair. Ahhh.....if I were 25 again, Id have done every strand. LOL Of course B Dangerous still doesnt have a pic up.
I don't understand - what's the point of lasering the top of your head, and omitting sides?? Even with a lot of gray hairs, you could still remove the dark ones and thus reduce the shadow to min. The sides are, imho, most important ones - they're the shadow.
Why did you laser only the top, it would've gone anyway because of MPB?
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#407
by
marty22
on 02 May, 2010 09:50
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thanks for asking...not like the other wise-ass. If u read my posts over the last 3 years, u will understand that I have hair transplant scars in the back. In addition to the gray/white hairs, it would be pretty much a nasty look with a lot of scar tissue exposed, if I went and lasered everything. My laser tech and I have discussed this numerous times and came up with his plan of attack. I go for follow-up treatments once each year.
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#408
by
kokyman
on 02 May, 2010 14:35
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thanks for asking...not like the other wise-ass. If u read my posts over the last 3 years, u will understand that I have hair transplant scars in the back. In addition to the gray/white hairs, it would be pretty much a nasty look with a lot of scar tissue exposed. if I went and lasered everything. My laser tech and I have discusse fthis umerous times and came up with his plan of attack.
Oh, I see. That's completely different story then. Thanx for your explanations, and also for the valuable contributions in this thread! Hope you've found your own model of "attacking" and wish you a lot of sucess!
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#409
by
Jez
on 03 May, 2010 05:27
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I feel like i should also mention a rare side effect of laser hair removal but an increasingly reported one. Paradoxical hair growth. Basically when, after said number of treatments hair in the area being treated and surrounding area can start re-growing thicker and longer than what was previously there. I only bring this up because i think it may be happening to me. 6 or so weeks after my 6th treatment it was looking pretty good with only a couple of patches to deal with on the back, but all of a sudden i started seeing re-growth on pretty much my whole head. Although its still no where near as dense and thick as it used to be, the hairs that are growing back aren't particularly weak and are all black. I'm hoping that another session is going to do some good, but ive read that if you do experience Paradoxical hair growth its extremely difficult to treat and lasers have no effect on it. This is a link to a good document i found regarding the issue, and ways that it may be prevented.
http://www.dermitek.com/noticias/estimulacionpelo2007.pdf
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#410
by
Common
on 03 May, 2010 08:07
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I suspect you're over-thinking this, Jez. Some of the hair grows back after 6-8 weeks. After your next treatment, it will go away again and come back even thinner in an additional 6-8 weeks. Unfortunately, the 6-8 week time horizon is the true indicator of where you stand in the process. It's easy to think "Hey, I'm nearly finished!" before that, when you actually may have 3-4 additional treatments to go.
At least that's my observation/hypothesis so far.
I feel like i should also mention a rare side effect of laser hair removal but an increasingly reported one. Paradoxical hair growth. Basically when, after said number of treatments hair in the area being treated and surrounding area can start re-growing thicker and longer than what was previously there. I only bring this up because i think it may be happening to me. 6 or so weeks after my 6th treatment it was looking pretty good with only a couple of patches to deal with on the back, but all of a sudden i started seeing re-growth on pretty much my whole head. Although its still no where near as dense and thick as it used to be, the hairs that are growing back aren't particularly weak and are all black. I'm hoping that another session is going to do some good, but ive read that if you do experience Paradoxical hair growth its extremely difficult to treat and lasers have no effect on it. This is a link to a good document i found regarding the issue, and ways that it may be prevented. http://www.dermitek.com/noticias/estimulacionpelo2007.pdf
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#411
by
Mazzle
on 03 May, 2010 10:05
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That's an interesting study, Jez. I think the summary contains a few things that might be of interest to us:
Of the 543 patients who received laser/IPL hair photoepilation, 57 (10.49%) demonstrated an increase in hair growth compared to baseline. The increased hair growth occurred within the area that was treated and also in the areas bordering the treated area, and appeared thicker and darker than the hairs initially treated (Figs. 1 and 2). An additional 44 (8.10%) patients demonstrated no apparent reduction in hair growth following treatment. Four hundred twenty-four patients (78.08%) demonstrated a decrease in hair growth with ongoing treatments. Only 14 patients (2.5%) were discharged from the clinic due to near complete hair reduction. These results are summarized in Table 2.
The increased terminal hair growth occurred mostly in areas in which fine hair or both fine and coarse hair was
present prior to initiation of treatment. Hair growth occurred with greater frequency in patients treated with
the Alexandrite and IPL devices compared those treated with the Nd:YAG, however, the later device was used less
frequently. Patients that developed terminal hair growth were in the following age groups: 19–31 years, 44 patients; 30–40 years, 8 patients; greater than 40 years, 5 patients. The onset of increased terminal hair growth was noted between the third and tenth treatment in 39 (72.2%) of 57 patients, and 11 (19%) of 57 between the third and fourth treatment. Most patients had a normal hormonal history. Sixteen patients had irregular menses or documented ovarian cysts.
Because the terminal hair growth occurred both within the treated areas and also at the periphery of treated areas
it was thought that sub-therapeutic thermal energy delivered to nearby follicles induced terminal hair growth.
Subsequent application of cold packs surrounding the treatment area during treatments and treating all
patients with two passes has minimized the incidence of terminal hair growth (Fig. 3). Since we have instituted this
method in our clinic 2 years ago, we have treated over 200 patients and have not had any patients with hair growth stimulation.
Fortunately, my nurse does have me applying an icepack before and after each zap. Do yours? Also, 90% of the patients in that study did not use the IPL lasers that we're all using, so it's applicability may not be all that great to our treatments. Still, it's interesting.
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#412
by
Jez
on 03 May, 2010 10:20
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Ye you may be right Common, this is the first time i've gone without a treatment after 6 weeks, I'm on my 11th week at the moment. Hopefully I'm just being paranoid.
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#413
by
bhead1986
on 04 May, 2010 14:31
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Glad to help out, Bradey. General advice:
(a) Take 3-4 Advils 45 minutes before your treatment
(b) Loofah your head every time you shower 3-15 days after your treatment
(c) Use LOTS of moisturizer or aloe gel and keep out of the sun
(d) Make sure they laser your eyebrows, ears, and nose while you're there--AT NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE
Advice for your technician: Be thorough. Don't be afraid to cause me pain.
Regarding your concerns about "cheaping out..." My technician (a registered nurse) is probably also the cheapest in town. Going to an expensive aesthetics doctors office is NO GUARANTEE of quality. You want someone who has had experience lasering men's heads. Again, that's experience lasering HEADS. That's probably not going to be a high end place. My advice: save your money.
What treatment am I on? My 8th. I took my avatar pic after my 3rd visit.
Horseshoe visibility. Horseshoe is pretty invisible for 5-7 days after shaving for 6-8 weeks after each treatment.
Good luck!
Thanks alot Common, I'll definitly be putting your advice to good practice. A through C.. i'll definitly work on D too LOL
So your saying after 6-8 weeks after your treatment it starts to get more and more noticable?
And those pictures that you posted earlier what treatment were you on when you took those cause those are awesome pictures, No horseshoe whatsoever. Thats what i want.
Thanks Again
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#414
by
Common
on 05 May, 2010 20:29
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My Mar 10 pics were approximately four weeks after my seventh laser treatment. I started getting a little hairier mid-April until I got another treatment last week. (Also, somewhere in the middle there, I tried a Duet treatment that had no effect.) However, even at my worse, I was only a *little hairier*. Nothing like where I started. At this point, my standards are pretty high.
I'm beginning to think that I may need 10-12 treatments before I'm permanently where I want to be. I just completed treatment eight.
This is another good reason to make sure that you're not starting this process with a provider that charges too much! I paid approx $150/session originally and now that I have less hair it's $100/session. If I'd begun this process paying $300-$500/session, this journey would be a lot more frustrating.
Thanks alot Common, I'll definitly be putting your advice to good practice. A through C.. i'll definitly work on D too LOL
So your saying after 6-8 weeks after your treatment it starts to get more and more noticable?
And those pictures that you posted earlier what treatment were you on when you took those cause those are awesome pictures, No horseshoe whatsoever. Thats what i want.
Thanks Again
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#415
by
bhead1986
on 06 May, 2010 15:37
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yeah i'm paying 250 a treatment, i donno if thats high or not seeing as i live in Canada. They also are going to be using the GentleLase Machine for my scalp. Hopefully i can bring them down a little bit or maybe get a free one after so many visits, and once i get less hair. I'll try haggle them a bit anyway.
i'll be glad once i get to 6 or 7 treatments and no shadow will exist for awhile between shaves, then i can take er easy between visits and save up my money again
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#416
by
marty22
on 06 May, 2010 16:06
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good luck b head!
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#417
by
bhead1986
on 06 May, 2010 18:07
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thanks Marty, I'm so glad im doing this... i was stuck in such a rut before i finally decided to do this. Plus i really like the feel and look of a freshly shaved head too hopefully the girls feel the same way lol
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#418
by
marty22
on 06 May, 2010 19:24
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I wish I had done it at 25 before the transplant thing.
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#419
by
baldfireguy25
on 06 May, 2010 19:35
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Hey Bhead1986... I had my second treatment today. 5 weeks after my first and I have to tell you that after the first treatment I almost didn't go back due to the pain!! But after 2 weeks my hair started falling out and I lost approx 40-50% of my hair after the first treatment. It was my motivating factor to go back!!! I was only thin on the top of my head and had full hair on the sides. What was left after the first treatment were a few patchy areas on the side and a 2" wide strip along the back of my head from ear to ear. The hair that I had left on the top of my head is gone from the first treatment as well as 70% of the hair on my sides and the lower part of my neck line. They used the Gentlase on me as well. The treatment I had today they gave me lidocaine cream for and it wasn't nearly as bad!!! As for cost... it was $500 for the first treatment of the whole head and $125 each additional treatment because she said that we will only be hitting the regrowth areas from here on out!! My nurse said that with the Gentlase you don't have to worry about regrowth like what was spoke about in the previous heads!! I hope she is right!! Anyway... Good Luck with your treatment I will be curious to see how you will do!!