Even though I don’t think laser hair removal is permanent, what if it is? I would hate to miss out! Or even if I saw a permanent reduction of 50% of my hair, that’s enough for me to get it again, because that’s better than nothing. I’m mostly interested in doing hair removal on my bikini area, and I’ve given up on other areas since I’m not real concerned about them. If you read the Real Self site, you will see that most readers think the treatment is worth it. I have a feeling most of these reviews were written right after the person was done with their treatments, so this was before the hair had a chance to come back. I also want to do hair removal again because, despite the pain, it’s sort of fun. I like seeing the hair fall out a few weeks later. I like experimenting with beauty treatments, and I want to know first-hand if they work. Since I know laser hair removal probably isn’t permanent, I’ll be sad if all the hair comes back, but I won’t be surprised, since I will sort of be expecting it.

Before I get laser hair removal again, here’s what I will do:
-Research different types of lasers and try to find out definitively which ones give the best results. This will involve me reading up on the internet about people’s accounts with different lasers. At this point I think Palomar and Lightsheer are good brands, and I will see if there are any other brands to consider.

-See if I can find a place that offers either a money-back guarantee, or a lifetime guarantee. Since I don’t think laser hair removal is permanent, it would be great if I could get ongoing treatments. This way I could do my initial 6 treatments, but then always go back if more hair comes in. I stopped by my old Medical Spa today, and couldn’t believe it when I found out the spa now offers free lifetime touchups, if you buy a package of 8! The price is a little more expensive than before, but this is a great value. The only catch is that spas are a pretty tough business, and I seriously doubt the company will be around in 5 years, let alone 2 years. So that’s a big gamble. I’ll also get this lifetime guarantee or money-back guarantee in writing.

-See if I can buy a package of treatments and pay each visit, rather than all at once. This is doubtful, but this way if a place does go out of business, I’m not out any money. Otherwise I will buy the whole package on my credit card, but if the company does go out of business, I doubt I’d be able to chargeback the sale to your credit card more than 6 months after the purchase.

-When I find the place to get my treatments, I will ask about the technicians and go with someone that has been doing laser hair removal for at least a few years. Remember that lasers can burn you, so you want someone with experience treating you.

-I’ll make sure I’m not on any photo-sensitizing medications before I start my treatments. I’m not planning on getting pregnant, but you can’t get laser treatments while pregnant, and since the whole process takes about a year, this is something some women will need to consider.

-To get a good deal, I’ll go to the spa toward the end of the month, when the sales associates are trying to make their month-end quota. If I can’t get a good deal then, I’ll ask for them to call me if they have new promotions in the future, or I’ll check back periodically until I find a great deal. I wrote that I can’t afford Botox right now (I can’t really afford laser treatments either), but if I came into some money, I might get a bigger discount if I buy Botox and laser treatments together. Finally, in the vein of getting rid of unwanted body issues, I wrote a post about stretch mark removal as well.

Related posts:

1. Laser Hair Removal Info
2. Celebs Get Free Laser Tattoo Removal at Vegas MTV VMAs
3. An Insider’s Guide to Medical Spas

What is Laser Hair Removal?
At my Medical Spa, we used Palomar machines for our treatments. Palomar uses top-of-the-line Intense Pulsed Light handpieces, rather than a ”true” laser, which other companies like LightSheer use. Both IPL and true lasers can be used for successful hair reduction. “Pulsed Light hair removal works by emitting pulses of intense light into the hair follicles. The light is absorbed by the pigment in the follicles and converted to heat. The heat then loosens the hair and disables the cells responsible for growing new hair.” When I first started my job, my company told me that laser hair removal was a permanent reduction of hair, and that up to 90% of treated hair follicles would be permanently killed, never to return. We told all of our clients this, and I thought this was the greatest thing ever.

What areas of the body can be treated? How does it work?
Just about everywhere you grow hair can be treated with a laser. At the Medical Spa, we would treat everywhere on the body, except the head and under the eyebrows, since it was too close to the eyes. You come to the spa shaved, and either an ultrasound gel, or a powdery lotion will be applied to your skin. Then the technician will put the laser handpiece on your skin and pulse the machine. About a two inch area is covered for each pulse. It can take anywhere from 5 minutes to treat your upper lip to an hour or two to do a full back. It takes about two weeks after each treatment before you start seeing results. Initially your hair will grow back in after you’ve shaved it, but it will then start to fall out! I loved seeing less and less hairs each day, until most of them were gone. Then when the new hair cycle starts up, new hairs will start coming back in.

Make sure your technician is thorough! After a few weeks, if you are noticing big patches of hair that look completely untreated, the technician could have missed that area. Based on my experience, I personally would call up the spa or doctor’s office and politely mention this to them, and ask if they could touch up the area. Or when you are buying your package, as if you are entitled to extra treatments if you don’t see good results after 6 treatments. The best thing to do is during the treatment explain exactly what areas you want lasered, and be specific.

How many treatments do you need? Who is a candidate?
For someone with fair skin and dark hair, a series of 6 treatments, 8 weeks apart is ideal if you are treating areas on your body, and 6 weeks apart if you are treating areas on your face. If you have darker skin, or lighter hair, you may need more treatments to see the same results. People with blonde, red, white, or gray hair are not the best candidates because the laser has a hard time “seeing” the pigment in the follicle, so hair reduction will be minimal. Also, since the laser doesn’t “see” gray or white hair, if you are male and have a chest or face full of half gray and half dark hairs, the gray hairs will still be there after the treatments, so that is probably not something that is appealing. A series of treatments is needed because hair grows in different cycles, so you need to target all of the cycles, since only hair in the growing phase will be treated.

Is Laser Hair Removal permanent?
Good question. We would tell clients that you would see a Permanent reduction of up to 90% of hairs. I was under the impression that Permanent meant for as long as you shall live, you will never see the hairs again that were treated with the laser. However, we had client after client come in that was treated by the company ours took over, and they had seen NO reduction in hair. The old company used a different laser, so I attributed this problem to the old laser. Then I had clients come in and say they had several treatments done with the Palomar laser, and saw absolutely no results. I had clients come in that had been treated successfully at other places, but that a few years later, all of their hair came back! A few women came in and claimed they had at least 12 treatments, but that all the hair eventually came back. I had one male client come in with a face-full of brown hair, and he had been getting continual treatments at our spa for three years on his beard, with only patchy results. He was upset because he now had to constantly shave because beard looked funny, but yet the hair just wouldn’t go away!

After seeing all of these problems, I finally started to research laser hair removal. Apparently companies are allowed to use the words “permanent reduction” but that doesn’t have to mean the hair will never return. “Permanent” apparently means the hair will be gone longer than its natural growth cycle. So that could explain why people were seeing great results for a year or two, only to find the hair coming back in. Our bodies are resilient, and hair follicles will do their best to try to repair themselves. Too bad the hair you don’t want is resilient, yet the hair on people’s heads is so susceptible to balding.

Does it hurt?
Laser hair removal is described as a snapping rubberband on your skin. On my underarms, I would describe it as a quick dull pinch. On my bikini area, I would describe it as a match quickly touching my skin, similar to how a Photo Facial feels for me. It is not a pleasant feeling, but I was able to tolerate it since the treatment took about 10 minutes. On my legs, I could barely feel it at all. The coarser and darker your hair, the more pain you will feel. As you have more and more treatments, there will be less hair, so the pain will be less.

Is Laser Hair Removal worth it? What is the cost?
I’ve had 5 treatments on my underarms, and while I have seen a reduction, I don’t think I’m at the point where I don’t need to shave anymore. I’ve had other areas treated with lackluster results, but my underarms are the only area that have been treated 5 times (remember 6 is how many treatments you are supposed to get). As much as I’ve heard about laser treatments not working, I still want to get more treatments to see what will happen. I think it’s worth it to try if you have a lot of money and you have dark hair and need to shave constantly. Countless women came into my Medical Spa with dark upper lip hair, and I personally would pay the money to get that lasered, even if the results weren’t permanent. With waxing and shaving as the other alternatives, I think laser hair removal is the best option, if you can afford it.

Treatments run from $300+ for a series of upper lip treatments to $6000 for a full-body series of treatments. A series of underarm or bikini treatments can cost you $1000 or more.

Maintenance
The last month I worked at the Medical Spa, we were finally telling clients they may need “maintenance touch-ups” to maintain their results. So after your initial 6 treatments, you may need to come in once or twice a year for more treatments. That gets expensive!

Precautions
Read my post about a Guide to Medical Spas, which talks about what you need to know before you have any cosmetic medical treatment done. There are a lot of potential dangers when it comes to getting laser treatments. True lasers, and IPL machines can burn you if you are in the hands of an unskilled technician. You do not want to tan before you have a treatment, or be on photo-sensitive medication, since the laser could burn your skin. Pregnant women should not get treated. If you are under the age of 20, or even 25, you are still growing, so there’s a chance that new hairs will grow that weren’t initially treated. Also, if you are going through hormonal fluctuations or menopause, new hairs can possibly grow that weren’t treated by the laser. That means you would later need additional treatments.

There are a lot of different brands of laser and IPL hair removal machines out there! Definitely do your research about the brand a place uses before you start treatments, and don’t take a place’s word for it that their laser is “the best.” I’ve heard that Palomar and Lightsheer are good, but I’ve also heard about other brands that don’t give good results. Also research true lasers vs. IPL hair reduction, since some people say true lasers work better for darker skin types.

What Laser Hair Removal has to do with me quitting my job
Before I knew anything, I thought laser reduction was the best thing ever! I was also getting free treatments, so I wanted to work at the spa long enough to complete my series of 6 treatments on all of the areas I was concerned about. After reading that treatments weren’t necessarily permanent, I didn’t have much motive to stay (except for the free Botox), and there were other reasons I wanted to quit as well. The biggest problem is that I felt we were misleading clients, and I don’t like to lie to people. The Medical Spa was very sales oriented, and I was not cut out for selling people $6000 laser hair removal packages, knowing they’d probably see results that weren’t really a 90% reduction, and from my research, I didn’t feel like the results would necessarily be permanent. I wasn’t allowed to tell people what I really thought, and my sales sucked because I wasn’t excited about what I was selling people. That’s why I started this website – to tell people what I think is the truth about skin care procedures.

Related posts:

1. Laser Hair Removal – Worth Another Chance?
2. Celebs Get Free Laser Tattoo Removal at Vegas MTV VMAs
3. Stretch Mark Removal

The purpose of a Medical Spa is to make money
Like any retail business, sales and the bottom line are the number one priority for a Medical Spa. Medical Spas want to sell you services and products. While many Dermatologists offer a lot of the same services, I have never had any Dermatologist office push their various services on me. I don’t know if they just don’t need the money or just don’t care, but I’ve always found this odd.

Many Medical Spa workers are paid on commission
Whether it’s a straight percentage of sales, or bonuses on selling specific treatments, it’s in the spa associate’s best interest to sell you something! If you are unfamiliar with the services being offered to you, go home and research them before committing to purchasing treatments. You want to be informed about what you’re really getting. Many Medical Spa associates are very helpful and honest (well I’d like to think I was), but a lot of associates also have a vested interest in selling you something, even if it’s not a service from which you could greatly benefit.

Prices are negotiable
While there may be “suggested” prices for various treatments, those prices are not set in stone. Certain treatments have a built-in cost to them (Botox and Restylane, for example, are not cheap to purchase from the manufacturer) so the markup on the actual product is maybe only 30%. Other treatments, like LipoSolution, have a very high markup value since the product itself is extremely inexpensive to purchase. Each Laser Hair Removal treatment or Photo Facial costs the Med Spa nothing, but of couse what you are paying for is the the lease on the $100k laser machine, the technician’s salary, and the costs of keeping the spa up and running.

Given this information, know that you can probably get a discount on most services, and my particular spa has given up to 60% off on most treatments, especially the ones that have high markup value. If the spa doesn’t want to haggle much on the price, ask for extra free services like a Microdermabrasion package if you purchase a Laser Hair Removal package. If you can’t get a good deal on a particular day, wait a week or a month. There are always new specials going on. Also, try going to the spa towards the end of the month to see if suddenly you can get a better deal. Like a car salesman with a quota, spas also have quotas, and if it’s a slow month, you could get a really good deal!

The Medical Spa may be here today and gone tomorrow
I’ve had customers come into my store. and after hearing about the prices of treatments, say “Ohhhh, I should open a Medical Spa and I’ll be so rich.” What they don’t know is that there are many fly-by-night spas out there, because like most businesses, it’s hard to make money and stay in business! The spa I worked for had bought out a previous company that went bankrupt, and that company had taken over another company before that! All within 3 years! Luckily my spa still honored the packages the customers of the previous spa bought, even though legally they didn’t have to. So before buying a long-term package (like a year’s worth of Laser Hair Removal), research the company and ask how long it’s been in business, and check its rating with the Better Business Bureau.

Get a money-back guarantee in writing
My spa doesn’t offer refunds. If I was purchasing a $7k full-body hair removal package, I would be more than a little nervous paying that kind of money, with no sort of guarantee or refund policy. First, I would make the purchase on my credit card, because at least you have some protection if the spa goes out of business tomorrow, or if something terrible happens and you need to charge back the purchase. If possible, I would also make monthly payments to the spa, rather than pay in one lump sum, because you won’t be out of as much money if something bad does happen. However, I would also try to find a spa that guarantees their work – if you aren’t happy, you don’t have to pay. If you don’t see the results you were promised, then you should either get another treatment for free, or a refund. Shop around for a spa that offers a guarantee, and get this in writing!

The Estheticians working on you may have a week of training
Where I live, in the state of Nevada, to run a laser machine, you only need to be a licensed Esthetician, and to inject Botox you only need to be a Medical Assistant. In other states, like California, you must be a nurse to perform either of these services. While many Estheticians are highly skilled and have been performing treatments for years, others might be right out of school, and as far as I know, Estheticians are not even taught Laser Hair Removal in school, nor are Medical Assistants taught Botox or Restylane injections. At my spa, Estheticians sometimes have only a week of training before they are performing all their own treatments. While this maybe normally be fine, know that Lasers have the potential to severely burn you. Ask how long the Esthetican has been doing treatments, and don’t hesitate to ask to be treated by the Esthetician with the most experience. When you are getting Botox or Restylane, you also want an injector with A LOT of experience. Even though dentists or various doctors can inject Botox, you still want to go with someone that has been doing it a while, rather than someone who took a weekend course and has no actual experience injecting. I’ll expand on this more in a separate post.

Also note that while Medical Spas must be under the direction of a doctor, that doesn’t mean there’s one on site. In my year at the Medical Spa, nothing bad really happened, so accidents are not that common, but consider whether or not you’d feel safer knowing there’s a doctor there at all times in case something does go wrong.

Check with your insurance to see if they will cover any treatments
While most treatments at a Medical Spa are solely cosmetic, a few treatments could possibly be covered by insurance. I know Botox for sweating is sometimes covered by insurance. Check with your insurance to see if you can send in a claim, or you may want to go straight to a Dermatologist to get it done there. Medical Spas don’t normally accept insurance. A lot of acne treatments can also be covered by insurance, so check on that too.

Some Medical Spas are better than others
Shop around to several Medical Spas before picking one. Ask questions, check out how clean the place is, see how friendly and knowledgeable the staff is, ask how soon you can get an appointment, and then of course research the spa as best you can. Even though I harped on getting great deals, you also get what you pay for, so if someone is practically giving away Botox or other treatments, that could signify a problem. It’s not cheap to run a Medical Spa, so you will definitely need to pay a lot more than $99 to get Botox, or $50 per session to get a Laser Hair Treatment. I’ll go over individual prices and treatments in the future.

Related posts:

1. Laser Hair Removal – Worth Another Chance?
2. Laser Hair Removal Info
3. Botox Tips