The 'Before' Pictures

These are some fugly close ups

 on the left side of my chin in the above picture you can see what's left of my test patch.  Obviously the right side is untreated.  Gross.

 my sides - not that bad methinks

 my upper lip - a few man-hairs on the side but could be worse

You get a view of my eczema on my top lip - a bit inflamed.

 these pics show the what the test patch looks like after treatment - it gets scabbed over, heals after a couple of days and then the hairs fall out.

Did I mention I have eczema too?

You're probably thinking Russell Brand is an upgrade from my face but thankfully, you are wrong.

But I do suffer from eczema and it flares up on my upper lip, chin, neck, sideburns.  Pretty much all the areas I'm going to get treated.

What does this mean for me?  Hopefully nothing.

I went for a consultation at the Laser Clinic at The Royal Free Hospital and saw Dr Clayton there.  He said if anything I might see an improvement of my symptoms after treatment as the hairs make me itchy (don't I know it; this yeti phase is doing my skin no favours).  He said to carry on using my steroid creams as usual as well.  The last bit is interesting as the clinic where I am getting the treatment said to avoid laser treatment  for 10-12 days after using steroid creams  - but the good doctor couldn't see any sense in this, so I'll go with him.

He did warn that eczema can cause dark pigmentation in the skin (of which I'm painfully aware) and this could mean I'm more likely to burn/get further pigmentation here. Boo.

Do Your Homework and GET SOME TEST PATCHES

As I mentioned in my last entry, I narrowed my potential treatments down to two places that were recommended by friends.  One used the Nd:YAG laser and the other the Soprano diode laser -
http://www.hairlaserremoval.co.uk/laser-hair-removal-type.htm

Both friends had good success with their treatments - the Nd:YAG is known for its use with darker skins,but my friend who used the Soprano laser is actually darker skinned (fitzpatrick IV/V) than the one who used the YAG (fitzpatrick IV)and the Soprano worked well on her.

The YAG is more painful and it melts the hairs so you're left with little scabs over the follicles where they are zapped.  The scabs are gone in a couple of days and then over the next two weeks the hair in the follicle grows and then falls out.

I know this because I went for a couple of test patches, much to the clinic's bemusement.  She did two patches on my face and two weeks later, they are completely hair free and no funny pigmentation in sight.  Being paranoid, I went back for another one earlier this week - the scabs and hairs are still there but no burns.

It's probably more for my peace of mind rather than anything else.  But at least I'm confident that I've been zapped three times now and haven't been burnt - surely a sign the lady knows how to use the thing right?  We shall see.

Picking your Laser Treatment

Once I decided I was going to take the plunge, I had to decide where to do it.  I had narrowed it down to two places - both recommended by friends who were from the Indian sub continent, both of whom had had success with laser treatment.  One place used the Soprano laser, the other used the ND:Yag.  After some homework online, it seemed to me the ND:Yag was a newer generation laser designed for darker skins, with a higher success rate that the Soprano laser.  I'm no expert at this but ultimately I chose my clinic based on facts about the ND:Yag I'd found online and the clinic's recommendation from a friend.  Whilst everyone's results differ, my main priority was to go somewhere where they were used to treating dark skins and somewhere where I knew they had success.

In my next blog (tomorrow, pre treatment) I'm going to upload some photos so you can see before and after. The problem hairs are on my chin (thick, black 'man-hairs' as I affectionately term them), and on my upper lip - the man-hairs are fewer in number here and like to live at the edge - the hairs at the middle of my upper lip are fine.  Up until now I've been threading and plucking - on average twice a week but I restrict myself to that so as not to stimulate overgrowth.  The hairs are so dark you can see the bastards under the skin before they've even erupted through the skin, giving me a rather effeminate five o'clock shadow.  Sexy.

And then there's my sideburns - not as bad as some, but could be better.  Thankfully I'm not hugely hairy on my jawline, which is a small mercy.  And I've never tampered with this area so no freaky man-hairs in sight.

So it's all go tomorrow!  I've gone au naturel for the past three weeks, been staying out of the sun (surprisingly easy in England in July) and have essentially become a social recluse.  Here's hoping I shed my current persona (not a neat pun but a worth a shot).

Dark Skin + Laser Hair Removal = oh shit

Who are you?
I'm 27 and about to start laser hair removal treatment tomorrow.  On my face.

That's great but why the over-share?
Cos this is some scary shiz, and it would have been nice if someone had done this before

Er, they have - http://www.mylaserhairremovalstory.com
Ah, but I am brown. Nuff said.

Are you going to write the entire blog in this weird style?  It's a bit tedious
No.

So there you have it.  Well some of it anyway.

I'm what you would call a British-Asian.  It's a catchy term for someone who's ethnically South Asian (of the Indian sub-continent) but born/brought up in Britain.  Not to be confused with the 'Asian' that much of the western world associates this term with - someone of South-East Asian/Far Eastern/Chinese origin.

So basically I'm brown.  Fitzpatrick V to be precise, which is a way to classify skin colour and VI is the darkest.  According to http://www.hairremoval4guys.com/Fitzpatrick-classification.html, my compatriots of the Indian sub-continent are a Fitzpatrick IV but a Fitzpatrick V would make me a creole or a mulatto, although I'm not sure how comfortable I am with the latter term.  If you Google the Fitzpatrick classification, the first result comes from http://www.fairandflawlessskin.com/skintone.html#.  Remind me to vent my anger later.

Anyway I digress.

The relevance of this is that laser hair removal is perilous territory for the duskier tones.  Why?  Because laser targets melanin in the hair follicle, basically zaps it and then the hair sheds.  However, melanin is not only the pigment that makes my hair as black as charcoal, it's also responsible for giving me chocolatey, smooth skin. (Ok it does nothing for smoothness, but such is the power of advertising that it appears I'm unable to write the word 'chocolate' without some crap about it being smooth.  Oh the irony!  Never has there been a blog about hair removal with the word smooth in it so many times!) The laser indiscriminately targets melanin - be it in your skin or your hair - it's all about getting the right balance.

So us darkies face the rather terrifying prospect of laser skin burns/pigmentation. Oh you know I was about to put in a link but it's just freaking me out so just Google Image it please.  My treatment is in 16hours and 40 minutes.