Perhaps the message gets distorted around here because of all the back and forth. The beef between LASER and Electrolysis is that while Electrolysis is permanent hair removal, and proper treatment will kill every hair every time given the correct treatment schedule, LASER has a very different potential and less predictability. Form a marketing point, LASER advertising always makes sure that one can mistake what they are saying to mean “Come get LASER, or Light Based Treatment, and get permanent hair removal of all your unwanted hairs, at speeds electrolysis can’t match, and at a price that is worth it considering you will get the same or better results than electrolysis.” The truth is that most science says that the best you can do in the perfect situation is to get a 60% reduction of your hair problem, and then you will need to get electrolysis to finish anyway. A cost analysis sometimes (often?) says that one could have done the whole thing in electrolysis for what one paid the LASER person to do a portion of the job. On top of this, they call electrolysis outdated, and silly, when they are NOT ABLE TO MATCH OR BEAT what electrolysis offers.
Lastly, most places never tell those coming to their door what possible negative side effects they could experience until one happens to the client/patient. At least most electrologists tell their clients up front (though no one listens) that it will take time, one needs to keep the schedule to keep the treatment as cost effective as possible, and if anything goes wrong with either treatment or after care, some skin distress, including some long term (3 months?) problems can develope.
With weasle words and carful jumbling of sentences, LASER ads often say “LASER is your PERMANENT SOLUTION for your hair removal problem” without making it clear that they can’t remove all your hair, nor can they avoid treating skin that doesn’t need it when the problem is scattered hairs, which is what most people are seeking when they lay their money down. Hair Removal Clients want full removal of all the unwanted hairs, with no lasting side effect other than loss of the offending hair! When they find out about the Ifs Ands, and Buts of LASER treatment, they say, WHY DIDN’T ANYONE TELL ME THAT BEFORE I PAID $X.00 for a guarantee that means little in the real world?
If they advertised it as what it is, and not an idealized view of what people want it to be, we would not have such heated arguments here. For some people, LASER is an effective way to shortcut their journey to being totally hair free. It just won’t happen without a trip to the electrologist in the end.
I just don’t like the way that no one can tell you how the treatment will effect your skin prior to treatment with any certainty, and what ever happens is just something you will have to live with when it is done.
