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I had my fourth laser hair removal treatment about five weeks ago and my skin is very smooth.  I had to go back for touch ups in my bikini area.  I am waiting for those areas to shed, but other than that my skin is almost hairless.

When I returned for my touchup the technician noticed that the same areas that were 'missed' last time were 'missed' again.  She thinks that the hair in those areas may be on a different cycle than the rest of my hair; so, the areas are not being missed, but are not responding to the treatment.  Since I must take a break from my treatment she decided to retreat the areas anyway, because by time I return for the rest of my treatments the hair should be on a different schedule anyway.

I also found out some great and not so great news.  Ideal Image has changed the recommended settings for laser hair removal.  When I started treatments the recommended setting for type II skin was 14J at 18mm (I was misdiagnosed as type III so I started at 10J).  Now the initial setting for type II skin is 18J at 18mm!!  I can't believe this!!!  I have had four treatments and still haven't been treated at 18J, and now they are starting people off at 18J!!  I should have trusted the information I had read on the web and insisted on higher settings.  I was just so nervous about burning and scaring. 

Since I have published this laser hair removal journal I have had several people write me and say that I should use higher settings.  So, when I return for my 5th laser hair removal treatment I will be at 18J and 18mm spot size.

I hope I can see some results during my break from treatments.  The tech told me that 10 to 15% of the hair is killed after each treatment; therefore, after four treatments I should have about 50% hair reduction.  I reminded her that my first two treatments were at 10J and she said I probably wouldn't see 50% hair reduction.  It has only been a little over a month since my last treatment so I can't estimate my results yet.  From my experience and from what I have been told, most of the hair grows back after 9 to 10 weeks.  So come back in February to see how my results are coming along.

Since I am taking a break (about 6 months) from my treatments I will not update this journal weekly, but I will try to post updates about twice a month.