Question
I have brown skin with coarse black hair. After a consultation, the practioner advised me to that I am a suitable candidate for LightSheer diode and said that I should not worry about my skin burning as she was a professional. She did a test patch at 15 joules and it didnt really hurt or swell up. After 1 week, nothing really happened during/after the spot test. The area that was tested (4 shots to the upper back area) is the same as the larger area that was shaved (ie u couldnt tell that anything was done - the hair is growing back normally and the skin had no reaction)
I guess the girl, decided to use an extremely low seting (15 joules) thinking that Id be happy that my skin was not affected and then decide to move forward with the Lightsheer treatments.
A few questions come to mind:
- What is the minimum setting one should use with Lightsheer diode for it to be effective on the back area?
- Should i insist on a higher joule setting?
- If she started with 15 joules without any effects, how high do you think she will increase the settings by?
- Do the intervals increase significantly or only by a few joules (ie if she started at 15, will she increase by 5 after every treatment or would say 20 be the max setting ever used?)
Im afraid that she is scamming me to get my money and that I wont see any results? help

Answer
I have brown skin with coarse black hair. After a consultation, the practioner advised me to that I am a suitable candidate for LightSheer diode and said that I should not worry about my skin burning as she was a professional. She did a test patch at 15 joules and it didnt really hurt or swell up. After 1 week, nothing really happened during/after the spot test. The area that was tested (4 shots to the upper back area) is the same as the larger area that was shaved (ie u couldnt tell that anything was done - the hair is growing back normally and the skin had no reaction)
I guess the girl, decided to use an extremely low seting (15 joules) thinking that Id be happy that my skin was not affected and then decide to move forward with the Lightsheer treatments.
A few questions come to mind:
- What is the minimum setting one should use with Lightsheer diode for it to be effective on the back area?
- Should i insist on a higher joule setting?
- If she started with 15 joules without any effects, how high do you think she will increase the settings by?
- Do the intervals increase significantly or only by a few joules (ie if she started at 15, will she increase by 5 after every treatment or would say 20 be the max setting ever used?)
Im afraid that she is scamming me to get my money and that I wont see any results? help

Answer
In my personal opinion, 15j is far too low. You will likely get minimal hair reduction if any at all and the amount of treatments needed would be a lot more also. I am being treated with Lightsheer at settings 32-40J. Unlike you I am fair skinned, so the settings can be higher as I have less chance of burning. If the tech did increase the settings for you, it's likely your skin will burn or lose pigment. I believe there is a laser especially used for dark skin, try the Gentleyag. They do say Lightsheer is effective on dark skin people, but I think with settings that low you would be in for disappointment. Keep researching and look into another type of laser.

Answer
I agree with jajabazar. I am being treated with Lightsheer as well, and I am fair skinned (low type 3 on the skin chart). I think in order for Lightsheer to be effective, it needs to be set higher, but in your case it sounds like you could be burned. I would definitely check around and see if you can find a place that uses lasers designed more for your skin type. If you saw no change in your patch test, I'd say that's a sign the Lightsheer isn't the correct laser you should be treated with. If it were me, I wouldn't waste the time and money. Good luck with your decision.

Answer
Shedding takes 2-3 weeks. You need to give it that long first to see results. Any Yag is good for darker skins, GentleYag is one of the Yags on the market and there are others. Sciton has scanning tecnhology, so it works faster than others for example.
I would say for LightSheer, settings need to be at least 25-30 joules for effective treatment.