Allergic Reaction to Laser Hair Removal - Candela GentleLASE Alexandrite Laser. Narre Warren, AU

Skin is still red/brown from the laser. The spots where the laser hit still feel swollen like old mosquito bites, but are not too itchy anymore.

Skin is still VERY itchy, and if i itch it, it swells up like a balloon. It doesn't itch all the time, just some times - i don't know what triggers it, maybe i have just gotten good at ignoring it. I have my next Brazilian and underarm appt next week. I am going to take an antihistamine the night before, and then one an hour before my appt. Hopefully if i keep myself dosed up on antihistamines, it will minimise the swelling and itchiness.

So I am at the beginning of my laser hair removal journey. I have reasonably fair skin with very dark (almost black) thick hair. I have already had one session at a different laser clinic on my under arms and Brazilian bikini area. This was using the same laser – Candela GentleLASE Alexandrite. She put the laser strength to 12 joules for both my underarm and Brazilian. My underarms had absolutely no allergic reaction. But my bikini line certainly did. Basically every area where the laser had touched the skin, swelled up like a mosquito bite and became SO itchy!!! Like unbearably. I called the laser clinic and was told to take antihistamines. That seemed to help. I was told that my skin has basically reacted like it had been stung by a mozzie or a bee – it was now treating the little burnt hairs like foreign bodies and trying to heal the area. The swelling took a good week to go down – at one stage it was so swollen it looked like I had a fat apron!

Now I have changed clinics to Myskin laser. I had my first test patch done yesterday. I have taken before and after photos, so you can see how my skin reacts to the laser. The swelling is quite impressive, and the itching even more so. I will take a photo each day to see the progress. She had the setting for the test patch on my ankle on 8 joules.