Janet Cash, MD

Well I never knew my issue with what was going on with my body until I was much older . I have PCOS. If anyone can relate, I struggle with my weight, facial hair and some skin discoloration. The discoloration has improved a lot once i figured out what products I could and couldn't use and also I had to change my diet up.

So anyways. My facial hair issue has gotten worse Over the years and I started to get ingrown hair . Honestly trying to pick them out became a hassel and caused lots of dark spots.
Imagine the embarrassment when dating . I would never want anyone to touch my face because they'd feel stubble . But because my face is so light , the hair and/or dark spots were obvious unless wearing concealer .

I have always been hesitant about going to a dermatologist but decided to recently to get some help because I can't continue to live like this. I don't want needing to pluck, shave to control me .

I never thought it laser hair removal because I thought it would be expensive .
Yes $150 is a lot but that's only every 4-6 weeks . I had to just cut back on a few other things .

It only took about 5 minutes to do the laser . It felt like a quick burn and pop with a rubber band . The pain lasted about 1 second after each zap.

The smell of burning hair was strong.
Afterwards they used a cold wet paper towel to soothe my skin.
No follow up pain but some slight swelling wear I had ingrown hair.

I go back in one month and will share my experience to
She said that I cannot pluck or wax but I can shave ! The spots should go away according to her.
Sigh. Wish me luck

Updated on 14 Jul 2015:
If anybody is like me, you'll understand how Ive expected to see some super drastic changes . Not quite ... At least not with hair growth anyways. I do notice that I don't have as many ingrown hairs since my first round of LHR. It's really been a struggle to not pluck though. Again, they ask you not to pluck but only shave because the hair follicle had to actually be there in order for the laser to zap it . I HATE SHAVING. Once the hair starts to grow back, of course it's thicker and more noticeable but I'm following the rules cause I want to best results. I haven't had much shedding and there still hasn't been any side effects. My face never felt like anything had been done. I had some slight swelling and I mean only noticeable to me. I'm going to post a picture on Thursday which is a week actually so you can see the difference if any

Updated on 15 Jul 2015:
Soooo clearly this process is kinda slow. Ugh!can it just go away yesterday!! I guess not. Again, less in grown hair but still noticeable growth. She said that as the hairs go away the dark spots will fade. I also use a fade cream that's RX but I buy from my derm.
But I'm praying and hanging in there and hoping for the best . As i stated in a comment , I wish I had taken better "before" pics but we'll work with what we have.

Also if any of you struggle with PCOS and have dark spots due to the insulin resistance (ex: the darkness on my neck) I will say that the topical cream I was given for that has really really improved my skin on my neck, face and back. It's called Desonate and my skin is not so irritated and the breakout is cleaning up... In its own time and pace of course :)
Any questions!?! Please feel free to ask me, I'd love to help others in any way I can.
I also appreciate your support very much

Updated on 23 Jul 2015:
Good news! Finally

So i had some hair on my face(cheek area) that I pretty much had to shave constantly and hair on my neck /chin line that tended to have the most ingrown hair issues,
I am happy to report that I am not seeing that hair grow at all . Progress!! And I am noticing that the overall growth rate has slowed .
Praying for all of u having to deal with anything like this

Updated on 26 Jul 2015:
I am starting to notice that the hair isn't growing much. My left side of my chin is growing a lot slower than the right. After shaving Friday I'm not feeling any stubble on the left but a little more noticeable amount on the right. The right has always been more of a problem so I guess it'll take slightly longer to respond fully to treatment. So far so good. I feel better and I'm having no side effects or complications

Hope yall have a blessed week

Updated on 6 Aug 2015:
Hello all! So I was super excited today because I was getting my second treatment. This time went a little better than the previous time because I knew what to expect. Also, it hurt a little less than before. So again, she started by wiping off my make up but I think it is best if you go ahead and wash your face to make sure everything is removed. I laid back and before she would zap an area she would place her finger there so I would know where she would be doing The laser. It took about one minute on the first setting and she adjusted according to where she saw that as still had a good amount of growth. Yes adjusting made her a little more, but not much. As I said before one side of my chin seems to have stopped growing much at all but the other side has slowed down but is still slightly noticeable. She said it looked really good before she started and I have better results than most people have after one treatment . So after she adjusted the settings and went over the areas again and that took about two minutes. Then she put some cold wet gauze on my face to calm down the irritation and redness. And then I was good to go after about another minute. I plan to post a picture soon but I wanted to wait to some of the puffiness went down
otherwise you won't be able to tell much of a difference. I have had no more issues like I said with ingrown hair and I feel that some of the dark spots that were caused by the ingrown hair are fading away. Another thing I did notice was that it was more painful on the area on my chin that's my trouble spot or more difficult area. So maybe there's some truth to what she said about the more active hair follicles would be more painful. Overall I still think its a great thing and I can't wait to get my third treatment in one month. And again I'll be posting pictures soon but if you guys have any questions you know that you can ask and I'll try my best to answer them as soon as possible. Thank you again for your support!

Updated on 11 Aug 2015:
So if you can't tell the pic is a side by side comparison from 3 weeks ago til now . I'm improving more on my left side( which is on the right side of each pic)

The other side is just slow and it's frustrating but I hope after 2 more treatments over the next 7 weeks will create much better results .

The hair is growing slower but I'm not sure how long it should take for the dark spots

I'm gonna continue to try the fade cream prescription

Updated on 22 Aug 2015:
Things are getting better! Hair growth in my right has finally slowed down and thinned out . I haven't shaved in about 3 days and it just feels like a few soft hairs. Definitely not at all coarse and thick how it was . On my left side , I probably have 2 mini soft hairs. I think after treatment 3 I shouldn't see any hairs. Fingers are crossed !!

Just waiting on some more of these dark spots to clear up. They are but not that fast

Updated on 27 Aug 2015:
Things are going a lot better.. I don't think I've shaved since last Friday , maybe even Saturday . Before the treatments I pretty much would pluck everyday and then that wouldn't work so it'll be shaving every other day . Also, let's not forget the makeup .... Trying to find a concealer that would hide the dark spots and stubble and then applying foundation and powder to somewhat make me think if wasn't noticeable ..

Proudly now I dust a dab of powder on and I'm out the door and it does The job . No more concealer or liquid foundation for me . Just a few swoops of powder foundation for a smooth look but I'm getting to the point where the spots are pretty much gone ...

I don't know why I didn't go for this sooner .

I'll post pics after my 3rd treatment :)
Praying for any one of you thinking about for trying it or actually in the process of it .

Let me know if you have any questions

Updated on 1 Sep 2015:
Hey everyone! So due to some stuff going on at my doctors office. I had to reschedule my appointment till today. My treatment went good it was less painful than the first two times. I'm assuming that's because I have less hair growth. I didn't remember to ask her the type of laser that she uses, it is called Candela. And I think she said the Stras number was TN 2 I have less hair growth. I didn't remember to ask her the type of laser that she uses, it is called Candela. And I think she said the number was 1024 cool touch

. She said that most people like it better than the laser that they were using which was a 520 I think.
She said that I was responding really good and I was having good results and I agree. Considering the fact that I have not shaved in almost 2 weeks and I only have About four hairs, I would say that is great!

I just wanted to give a quick update, I will keep you all posted.

Updated on 2 Sep 2015:
Okay, I don't know why my post earlier was so choppy and wrongly autocorrected but it sounded all over the place . Sorry about that. Basically no hair but still working in those dark spots

Basically my treatment was supposed to be this coming Thursday but do to construction they asked me to come in earlier so I went Tuesday .

I DID remember to ask her the laser type. Candela cool touch 1020?
She said this was liked far better than the 520(?) laser they were using and this one has a low chance of you being burned.

Very painless for me this time :)

I'm debating on whether or not my next treatment will be my last or not . I think after about a week from now , if the pattern continues, I will see a drastic change from when I first started .... And dare I say I possibly won't have any hair! Let's pray about that.

So I can imagine after a 4th treatment in October how wonderful the results will really be...
This question will be to do a 5th.


Well I'll keep yall posted and give me a few days and I'll post a pics in a few weeks too

Updated on 10 Sep 2015:
Hey everyone! Things are going good. No complaints! Loving that my skin is smoother where I had hair and not bumpy at all from those ugly ingrown hairs that I used to have. I'm not shaving at all . Still working on these dark spots .
Any questions? Let me know

Updated on 4 Oct 2015:
Soooo. I was not able to get my 4th treatment last week due to me forgetting, some dental work coming up and not having the money to pay. Omgoodness I was sooooo sad.
Praying that I'll be able to get it this Thursday .

Okay . So I called and checked to see how long was too long to wait between treatments . She said that you shouldn't go past 4 to 6 weeks so this Thursday would make it 5 weeks since my last one.

I am having an issue tough. So unknowingly as I've said before, i plucked my hair before my 1st treatment and so I had minimal amount of hair to really work with. The problem is it seemed as if the things seemed to be going okay and I was all clear but now the hair that I had plucked is now back in the growing stage so although very faint, it seems that i have more hair than I need about 6 weeks ago.

What looked like maybe 2 more treatments may end up being 3 more.
I'm praying that I'll be able to afford that !

Hope you all are doing well. I'll keep you posted

Updated on 13 Oct 2015:
So I finally got to go get my 4th laser and i was concerned that hair was starting to grow that was previously plucked so she cranked up the strength. My face was fine with it, but my neck not so much . When I tell you it hurt so bad!!! For some reason when she did my neck it burned me .yep! Those ugly rings you see on ppl , I now have. Not only was it burning but it was a loud pop in those areas and she couldn't figure out why. She even turned it down and it burned me again so she finished my face and said that she'd just charge me half since we didn't do a full treatment. She went to my dermatologist who gave me Halog cream to put on the burns but they seem to still be getting darker.
Pics are below.

Just let me know if you have any questions

Updated on 17 Oct 2015:
Honestly I just don't feel that last treatment went well at all. I'm not feeling the results and I'm not sure she hit all areas. She kinda got off track after I got burned but i don't think at that point she went over all the places. Y'all please pray for me.
I'm not sure if it'll get better and a lot of this could be stress related

Updated on 29 Nov 2015:
Hey friends. Sorry it's been forever. I've been dealing with a lot and haven't been back for a treatment since October. I was supposed to go on the 10th of November but financially it's not working out. Please be praying about that. I hate for all I have paid to have been a waste.

The hair growth had stopped but I am seeing a few pop back up and I shave those once a week. I feel like since I'm not too consistent then it may prolong the results I want.

The burn marks aren't awful but they are still visible and I'm gonna talk to her about them whenever I can go back. I hate that happened to me .

I hope that things are going good for you all and I'll try to post some pics tomorrow

Updated on 4 Dec 2015:
Just wanted to follow up with some pictures ... My last treatment was around 10/11/15 and I haven't been able to go back since because of some things that have come up and it's not in my budget. I do not recommend going past your treatments if you can help it because I think the lack of consistency makes it worse . I am starting to have some hair growth but I'm not sure if that's because I haven't been back or because it was just not finish being treated (not killed).
No issue with ingrown hairs yet but I think that if I don't hurry up and get my next treatment , then it'll be an issue again. The burn marks on my neck aren't as visible and I'm glad they're clearing up . Not much to update really but I definitely will once I finish my next appointment... Maybe Santa will give me some cash for an early Christmas gift . Lol

Updated on 8 Mar 2016:
Hope everyone is enjoying their year so far. I've really been planning to start laser back but just can't at the moment. The hair kinda is growing back but not as bad... But judge for yourself . It's not very noticeable but I'm shaving every 4 days or so .
The most frustrating part is the hair bumps it in grown hairs. Although they are not as bad and deep as they were , I feel like if I shave wrong I'll get them .

I still recommend the laser because it's not nearly as bad as it was in my opinion but I would say to go every 5-6 weeks instead of every 4. I think solving it out may provide better results .

Would love to know if any of you have started and just how everyone is doing .

Updated on 21 Apr 2016:
Hope everyone has been enjoying spring so far. I just realized that soon it'll be a year since I started my laser !! Just thought I'd give a short update... So not sure why but maybe the grace of God but I've recently had little hair growth. It's very sparingly that i notice it and when I do it very fine and not easy to see. Maybe will shave twice a month and pluck just randomly if I happen to want to get rid of something I think is noticeable ..
I would also say that it could be that I've been a little more active and did start to eat somewhat better ..... Which I think helps a lot !
I haven't had any ingrown problems either.
I do plan on getting laser again in a couple of months just to see if eventually it'll stop growing .

I would love to hear any updates on y'all .
If anything changes with me, I surely will post !

Updated on 10 Oct 2017:
It's been awhile since I posted. I have an appointment this week to have laser treatment. My hair is started to grow back but not as bad. The ingrown hairs are starting to come back and so are a few of the dark marks i had a problem with. I plan to try to stand 4 treatments. Last time I was burned so I pray they fixed their stuff.

Updated on 10 Oct 2017:


Updated on 12 Oct 2017:
I was so excited I was able to get back into my laser hair removal process todau. It has been awhile. It was not the best experience because it hurts like hell. But I got used to it after about a minute. I think the areas that have coarser hair and thicker hair and that maybe grows faster is the area that hurts the worst.

Updated on 28 Oct 2017:
No more ingrown hairs and no hair growing out at the moment. Going back in 4 weeks. Need to do something about the dark spots