I just had my first treatment with the Soprano XL in motion and unfortunately I have to say I’m disappointed. First of all, it hurt! This is supposed to be “virtually pain free”, they really are stretching the use of “virtually”. I had it done on my face and upper lip and it felt like thin little needles stabbing, thankfully, it was not unbearable. With this laser it looks like it will depend on the area you have done whether or not there will be pain. Months ago I had my upper lip done with a Candela GentleLase laser and it hurt much less and my skin was very smooth afterwards, it removed hair with that first treatment, while the Soprano LX did not. If I had known then what I know now I would have continued with the GentleLase laser, but because Soprano XL advertises how pain free it is so I switched and am now regretting it. The beam to the GentleLase is thicker and hits your skin harder than the Soprano XL, but it wasn’t a sharp pain and was more tolerable than the Soprano XL, it’s also louder than the Soprano. I’m hoping with time I get some benefit of hair removal with the Soprano, as I’m contracted for 5 move treatments. I also had my chest done, and that was not painful at all but the doctor indicated that was because of the area, not the laser. I’m going to request the rest of my treatments to be done on an area not so painful and going back and getting my face done by the Candela GentleLase, hopefully I’ll have the best of both worlds. By the way before both treatments I used numbing cream. Hope this review helps!
Hi Suza. The FDA issued an advisory regarding the use of topical anesthetics on large areas of the body, http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm095147.htm
I use the Soprano XL in my practice, there are two different modalities, SHR which is painless on most people, I have some fitz 5 skin types that find it uncomfortable, but for most people it is painless. The other modality is the HR mode which feels like a conventional laser.
A few questions for you? What skin type are you? How dense is the hair on the chest area?
I do not recommend laser for facial hair, is ther a reason you are using laser over electrolysis?
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Please read the FAQs at the link below ASAP.
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Any laser treatment that is painless is most likely ineffective unless you’re using a very good numbing cream. In order for it to be painless, the settings have to be very low and low settings don’t remove hair permanently.
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We have yet to see anyone with results on the Soprano machine on these forums. It’s not clear if it’s the result of the machine operators or the machine itself.
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Hair is rarely removed right away at the treatment. It takes 3 weeks to shed. So it’s too early to judge effectiveness of this treatment.
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Is any of your hair coarse and dense? Female facial hair should be treated with laser with caution as it’s common to get induced growth after laser instead of removal if the hair is not coarse and dense. Please read our FAQs where this is described in detail.
The first red flag i see (assuming you are a female) is that they used SHR mode on your face. The in motion mode is only suppose to be for large areas where you can move around, small areas must be treated with single pulse mode or doing both if possible.
I’m sorry I took so long to reply, never got notification of a response and have been very busy. Anyway, to answer your questions I have very pale skin (my mother was a red head) and I have very dark brown hair, so according to all accounts a perfect candidate for laser. My hair on my chest is not very thick but enough to have to shave every other day or it is noticed. I did try electrolysis when I was a teenager, but it did not work at all for me and I did not tolerate the pain well either. Since the time has passed I can now give you all an update because I’ve finished my treatments. My chest and arms I can say I have about a 40% reduction, so not a total waste but I’m still disappointed in it, does not feel smooth at all. I can say that it did a fabulous job on my nipples and one mole that was growing hair, I have 95% success there, so it seems to do well on those types of individual hairs. I never got back to trying the Candela again but I still plan to because it did do an overall better job than the Soprano if I can just find a way to deal with the pain aspect. Thanks for all your replies.