$249 for 1 year unlimited LightSheer?

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

Hey everyone there’s a team buy thing in my area right now, it’s $249 and is for 1 year unlimited laser hair removal (seems like the 1 year unlimited is the new big thing). It’s on 4 body parts, and the only stipulation is that you have to wait 5 weeks between treatments. Almost every part of the body counts as 1 part, except full legs count as 2, and I think back also counts as 2. Things like forearms, underarms, neck, hands, feet, chest etc are all 1. A lot of times these things seem to be with some random laser, or IPL, or Soprano XL but this one is with the actual LightSheer. I know LightSheer is harder to use but for that price, assuming it’s not impossible to get in every 5 weeks, doesn’t that seem like a pretty decent deal? It says doesn’t include tax or gratuities which is one thing I don’t get, I’ve never had to tip for laser before, so if it’s a prepaid package it seems a bit weird to me to just tip when not actually paying…

I figure even if it’s not that great that’s roughly 8-10 sessions in a year or $24.90 a session. If I did legs, chest and forearms, that’s literally $8.30 for each of those areas so seems worth trying?

#2

It’s up to you. I personally wouldn’t want to invest even $5 if I don’t know that they at least know how to operate the machine. I assume they’re doing the special in order to upsell people on other services once they’re in the office. Otherwise, they’d be losing lots of money fast.

You wouldn’t need to come in more often than once every 8-12 weeks, so the 5-weeks stipulation is irrelevant, unless they miss a lot of spots of course and you’re therefore not allowed to get touchups.

#3

Thanks! Yeah there’s lots of deals like this but I find most seem to be some random place like a tanning salon and now they have unlimited laser or something. This place only does laser hair removal and their website looks professional and what not. I figured with 8-12 weeks, 10 would be right in the middle of that, so it wouldn’t really hurt to go every 5 weeks even if the treatment isn’t doing much. Either way even every 10 weeks is still a fairly good deal, so might check it out.

#4

First of all, the Soprano XL is a good laser, it was made by the same people who made the LightSheer, they are almost the same inside.

Let’s say you get 10 sessions and as you said $24.9 each. Each session according to the areas you said takes about 2 hours (to make it easy)
If you calculate wage of the technician cost of the machine and running costs of the place that’s probably AT LEAST $30 an hour (i’m being very conservative here)
So we have 2 hours at $30 that’s $60 per session that costs the place to do and you pay for that $24.9 which half goes to the team buy site which means the medspa gets $12.45 for every $60 it spends. As you mentioned before for that deal you can get 10 sessions which means (12.45-60)X 10 = -$475.5

If you take into account that another 100 people like you will go for that deal that means the place will suffer losses of almost $5000.

Now, i can only imagine, why would a business do that? A normal business can’t function when you take all their space and equipment and use it to lose money. So either they are planning on losing money (which i doubt because you can’t sustain it usually even for a month) or they are planning on evening the play field by giving you what you paid for which is a lot less of what you expected to get.

#5

Well I’ve used Soprano XL and it’s crap doesn’t work at all so wouldn’t use it. It must be cheap since 99% of the laser hair removal deals on these sites use it. I think businesses use these for marketing and advertising. Most people aren’t going to do every 5 weeks, they’ll probably go a few times and then quit, or there’s hopes that they will do more treatments after starting the ones they’re doing, who knows. Either way a lot of companies seem to do it…

#6

First of all, i already said how much the Soprano XL costs, so you can’t say it’s cheap.

If you check the founders of Alma and Lumenis you will see the same names.

Of course i’m biased but what i’m saying is based on what i see and know and of course common sense.

When they started to roll out the Soprano XL they let places who used a Lightsheer have the Soprano too, that’s why it’s easy to compare the two, over time they said they give the same results only that the treatment is easier with the Soprano.

You think Alms Lasers is good at marketing? They are by far the worst company to work with i’ve seen over the years.

#7

What I wanna know is why I haven’t heard a single success story about the Soprano XL? On these forums and from other people who have had treatment with it. So many clinics have it as well.

#8

I would guess that it has to do with clinics not knowing how to use it properly. The marketing reps advertize painfree treatments, which require low settings, instead of focusing on aggressive treatments to get results.

#9

Only recently many places have it.

#10

I’m no laser type expert. I’ll just say that to the OP, it’s hard enough to make sure you’re getting top notch treatment when you’re paying full price, in these deals they have no incentive to get you results, only to get your year over with. Not all deals are bad, but LAgirl is right as usual in that it’s always better to find a highly rated, aggressive clinician.

#11

I had typed a reply to this but I guess I never hit send, just wanted to follow up. So I bought the deal and went to the clinic 7 days ago, the girl there was really nice and said she’d owned the place 4 years and has been working at other clinics before that. She uses the LightSheer because she thinks its fast and works well on most skin types. We did my full chest, full legs, and forearms. She mentioned about needing higher settings for good results, and that right now I’m sort of tanned and look like a type 4 but that she would use settings for a type 3 on me and see if I get a good reaction.

One thing I noticed is that it does hurt, which is of course good since I’ve had other treatments before where it doesn’t hurt then nothing happens. Doing lower legs really hurt, not unbearable but definitely almost at the max I could handle. The area was also red when I finished. I find diode feels very different from yag or alexandrite. Yag/Alex feel almost the same more like a shock or burst of energy but I feel like diode is almost like pin pricks or something.

Although I know LightSheer has a smaller spot size, I found the treatment to be really fast since she would push down then glide with it vs having to keep lifting it up like other machines. I know there’s pros and cons to each and that gliding sometimes isn’t the best, but she said she’s always used LightSheer and knows it inside and out which is good. I’ll see how shedding goes in a few days.

Also if this helps anyone, on a lot of the group buy sites, it says tax + gratuity not included on laser. I’ve never gone to a place that expects a tip for laser so I didn’t know what to expect. I asked her what she expected, as I figured it’s best to just ask her than to give too little or what not. She told me thats personal and up to me whatever I want and that the deal sites say to tip generously because they just want the laser clinic to do more deals with them in the future but that it’s not expected. She also booked my next appointment for 6 weeks from the last one right away. I know that’s a bit soon for legs but I figure it’s unlimited so can’t hurt anything, might get any hairs that were missed or what not anyway so we’ll see how it goes. Either way I definitely enjoyed the LightSheer treatment!

#12

No idea what settings, I don’t really care though to be honest providing the hair sheds since it was only $249. That’s also why I don’t care if I go every 6 weeks, whether there’s hair there or not it’s not going to hurt anything so might as well get my money worth. I’d say it took an hour and a half to do the whole treatment? Chest was very small just pecs area as I hardly have hair there. I’ll check settings next time just to be sure but if previous machines are any indication, when it hurts it’s generally good and when it doesn’t that’s when it usually doesn’t shed. I’d say this hurt just as much as when I’ve had alexandrite treatments so the settings definitely weren’t low. Didn’t even think to check the settings but I will next time. She was very through though, she’d go over some areas a couple times, not gliding but firing individual pulses if she wanted to hit something better.

#13

And why do you go there if you dont care about sheds? :smiley: Without sheds you dont even have hairfree period, not mentioning hair reduction … Maybe just to have a chat with the lady? :smiley:

#14

I said I don’t care providing the hair DOES shed. If it doesn’t shed then I’ll take it as a $249 treatment for full legs arms and chest and not go back. If the hair does shed as expected then I mean I’m not too concerned about settings or how often I go. If the treatments work then every 6 weeks is whatever really. Only thing is she just bought a Soprano XL and said we can use it next time or if I prefer we can stick to LightSheer which is the whole reason I bought this package. Unlimited laser comes up 2 or 3 times a week on these sites but it’s always Soprano XL.

#15

That’s not entirely true, all hair won’t shed if treated. I’ve had several treatments where the hair hasn’t shed due to whatever reason. When I use an alexandrite I always have shedding. When I use a Yag, I’d say it’s about 60%. And the one time I used Soprano XL it was maybe 10% if that. Been to 5 clinics, 2 of them say all hair should shed if it worked, and 3 said it doesn’t always shed. I know it doesn’t guarantee permanent reduction just because it sheds but I’ve had several treatments now where there hasn’t been shedding.

#16

I think the point is that you SHOULD have almost total shedding. Hairs that don’t shed are either missed or they are too fine to absorb enough energy to cause any damage that will result in them shedding, or the treatment settings were too low to cause enough damage.

The 3 that told you it doesn’t always shed are wrong and covering themselves for providing ineffective treatment.

The info in your post tells me that your most effective treatment was with the Alexandrite. The YAG is really for skin types IV upwards. You can use it if you are below IV but you could max out in settings and it will only get the coarsest hairs.

Those treatments you had with no shedding were worthless.

#17

Oh no that I definitely know I’m not arguing that or anything, I know that it needs to shed. All my effective treatments are when it fully shed and alexandrite is the best for me. Problem is I’m a high type 3 low 4, so if I go in the sun even just driving to work or what not I get color so fast and then they never want to treat me with the alexandrite, I have to force them to. So that’s the big challenge. I stopped going to the places that said it wouldn’t shed since I know that’s wrong. So far the odd hair I tug on right now is sliding out, it’s been 9 days so far but usually seems to start around 10-12 so we’ll see what happens.

#18

Shedding doesn’t guarantee results. The hair can be temporarily stunned. If you want permanent results, you should know the setting and make sure you’re being treated at highest settings your skin can handle.

#19

I just got some insider info from a place in my area that sold over 2000 coupons through one of those deal sites.
I know for a fact that full legs for example they do in 25 minutes, something that for comparison my technicians do in probably 60-90 minutes depending on size.

#20

Not sure how to insert a link on here keeps giving an error but according to “edokid” from a very old post, he said he went to your clinic and it was less than 30 minutes to do his full legs and had no shedding.