Advice on What to do about unsucessful treatments.

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

Hi all,

I’ve been browsing the forums for quite some time and mid last year finally decided to take the plunge with LHR treatments.

After seeing people have positive reviews with the Soprano XL laser.

Anyway, I have Dark coarse hair on relatively fair light skin. After discussing pricing plans and treatment options with a local LHR center I decided to move forward for a package of 6 treatments spaced 5-6 weeks apart.

After each treatment there was always an area missed, forearm, shoulder, side of stomach. Each time I brought this to the attention of the operator I was simply told that some hairs just don’t respond and that was that.

I felt that this wasn’t the case because the “Stubborn hairs” resembled more of a patchy quality in areas. But against my better judgement, I deferred to the nurse.

halfway through the treatment, every time I brought up the situation of areas being missed, or growing back and not being effective I was told that it’s IMPOSSIBLE and that the hair would “die off”

6 treatments later and it seems like all the hair is growing back, I have never had 1 day of 100% hair free, save the days I had to shave just before the treatments.

I am waiting for more hair to grow back (which is happening by the day) It’s been about 7 weeks since my last treatment and hair growth is showing no signs of slowing nor any signs of reduction. I’m waiting a bit longer to make a final assessment but I’m unsure of what to do now.

I’ve paid over $5,000 for these treatments. Upon the last treatment I was proposed “maintenance treatments” 3 for the price of 1, 9 for the price of 3 usable anytime over the next 3 years. My problem with this is that if they want to call it “maintenance treatments” don’t you think the hair should be at least 50% reduced if not more??

I’m unsure of what direction to go in, I can see this taking more than another 6 - 10 treatments to work given the minute reduction if any the 6 have provided. Should I ask for my money back? Should I ask for continued treatments free of cost?

After years of reading on these forums I thought I wouldn’t get caught in something like this, but I suppose I was just too optimistic, I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt.

I don’t want to have to pay 20,000 dollars for LHR. Any advice on what to do would be appreciated. Has anyone else been in a situation like this before?

Please help!

#2

A good example while it is not wise to buy treatments in packages: You are bound to the supplier and cannot change without massive financial loss.

Changing the supplier would, however, the least i would do in Your situation. The behavior of these people seems to indicate that they are more interested in selling treatments than in effectiveness of the treatments.

BTW: IMO this is a major problem of too many offerings which also makes it hard to recommend the otherwise ideal combination of a few (4 ?) sessions of photoepilation followed by electrolysis to thoroughly clear the rest, where photoepilation will be uneconomic.

#3

Hi there,

I believe if you had read these forums thoroughly, you would not let yourself be convinced to go for a package. Especially, since you had no prior treatments with this clinic to assess whether you would get results or not.

The 5-6 week period between treatments also sounds far too short. Again, there are a lot of posts in this forum with approximate time scales and how to assess when to go back for treatment. The way to do it is to have treatment, wait for shedding (or at least no hair growing in the case of pepperspots), enjoy the hair free period and only go back when you have the next cycle of growth coming through and there is enough hair to justify another treatment. If you’re going back after every 6 weeks (without waiting for shedding and the hair free period), there’s no way to tell what sort of reduction each treatment is giving you.
I’m my opinion, after 3 treatments, you should start to notice a good reduction i.e. If treatment #2 is 10 weeks after #1, 10 weeks after #2, you should be seeing less hairs than 10 weeks after #1.

I’m not sure what to advise you other than looking elsewhere for treatment. Maintenance treatments should be just that and to me, it sounds as though you will just be paying for more ineffective treatments.

Also, I hope you have had realistic goals for each area by reading these forums. For example, I’m not sure what sort of reduction you can expect to see on the shoulders if it works but you must be aware that induced growth is a possibility in that area.

#4

Hi LAguy, any relation to our poster LAgirl? :stuck_out_tongue:

Sounds like you’re getting ripped off. Buying packages is a big no-no until you’ve had a few treatments with the clinic first to assess their skill (many people buy cheap a la carte treatments to test a clinic out, like a $60 underarm treatment or similar). Based on what I know about the Soprano XL, it can be kind of tricky to use. We have a poster here now who tried it out recently to compare it to the other laser types, and he didn’t get very good shedding at all in some areas.

That doesn’t mean it doesn’t work, but it does mean a really skilled technician is probably required to avoid missing spots. Of course, they ALL tell you they are skilled, so you need to test them out before giving them $5000. D: That is like half of a down payment on a condo! I’m so sorry you wasted that much money.

#5

No relation, though I know she’s a super poster.

I did actually try out my neck area first with them and waited for shedding, and it was successful in a reduction. But now after 7 treatments on the nape of my neck, the hair growth is no less.

It seems that I’m just stuck with my decision and I’ll go back to square one.

Thanks for the advice all

#6

When testing out an area, you need to do more than wait for shedding. You need a few treatments to make sure there really is a reduction… or better still, even stop for a few months to see if it’s permanent.

For example, let’s say I have a Treatment #1, hair sheds at week 2, for a few weeks I am hair free, at week 5 new hair starts to come through, I go for treatment at week 6. The main reason why it would appear to be a ‘reduction’ is because you have gone back for further treatments too soon without waiting for the full cycle to come through.

For most people in most areas, if they wait the appropriate time, by the time they go back for their 2nd treatment the area will appear to have almost a ‘full growth’.

It’s only after a few treatments that you really start to see a reduction over the same time scale.

I hope I’m making sense?

It sounds like a long process and one that I’m sure people dealing with hair don’t want to waste time with. However, in the long run it saves time and money and will get you better results.

#7

What specific areas cost you $5k? That seems like a lot of money. Also, why did you choose the Soprano? LA has a gazillion options and we always recommend an alex laser here first and foremost (over the Soprano or any other diode). And as mentioned, treatment spacing should be 8-12 weeks, not 5-6.

Either way, my suggestion would be to let the hair grow out and reassess the situation. Most men’s hair on at least some of those areas is not normally coarse enough for laser. Can you grow it out a bit and post photos here? That will help us help you better.

If we determine that the hair is coarse enough still, I would recommend to find a clinic with a good alex laser like GentleLASE and do the treatments again without any packages, making sure high settings are used. We can help you with this. There are also several clinic recommendations in the LA area on the forum.

#8

5k for entire upper body, from navel to neck. The hair was fairly coarse, here are 3 pictures trimmed. This was before treatment 1: http://imgur.com/iBbQQl&P2md5&S2lWF

I’ll wait a few more months to get a good baseline to report back.

I can’t remember what originally pushed me to the Soprano, but I remember it was particularly compelling. I think it was a set of before/after pictures with someone who had a very similar hair/skin type as me.

Thanks for everyone’s help, I’ll report back in a month or two with some updated pictures.

#9

That is pretty coarse, I think you should have received good results by now in most of those areas. There’s definitely a problem.

#10

Soprano XL is a piece of junk and gimmick, I have no intention of ever being treated by it again. Just waxed my legs a few days ago to fix the botch job that was done on them. GentleLASE or Apogee Elite is much better.

#11

The chest and stomach area is coarse and would be great for a good alex laser. The hair on your shoulder and upper arms is too fine for laser and laser would probably stimulate more growth. That hair is best left for electrolysis. This is another reason why that’s a lot of money to pay. You should only be paying for areas that actually have dense coarse growth like your chest.