Laser Hair Removal is extremely intriguing because you’ll many times hear claims like “never have to shave again” or “be hair-free for life.” When I started my job at the Medical Spa, I had researched a lot about skin care, but I didn’t know anything about laser hair removal, which was the most popular treatment we offered. On my second day of work, an Esthetician ushered me into the treatment room and quickly zapped my underarms with the laser. I was extremely nervous (since I hate pain) but I could barely feel a quick heat sensation on my skin, and that was it. After working at the Medical Spa for 9 months, I learned a lot about laser hair removal, and it was actually one of several reasons why I quit my job there.

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.