Cutera CoolGlide or Soprano XL?

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

There’s lots of packages I’ve been looking at and 2 have a great price and consultation went really well. I’m a high skin type 3, in summer more like 4 as I tan easily. My leg hair is typical guy hair I’m 28/m, it’s dark dark brown, as coarse as leg hair can get I guess. Was looking at 2 places, one is Soprano XL the other is Cutera CoolGlide.

I know Yag is better for very dark coarse hair but how would that compare to the diode on Soprano XL or even LightSheer? I just tried LightSheer but only had like 80% shedding or so so not sure if that’s good or not. Soprano I want to stay away from but is it a waste of money doing a Yag do you think? I’ve used a Yag on my legs before with Apogee Elite MPX and only had maybe 40% shedding each time. The tech told me that’s normal but I’m not too sure. Even on my forearms when I’ve used it before I’d get maybe 80% shedding vs 95-100 when I’d used an alexandrite. The problem is the few places I know of that use an alex here are soooooooo expensive compared to the other laser types so it’s out of the budget. What’s your thoughts?

#2

To be honest, I wouldn’t go with any of these; Soprano, Coolglide (small spot size) etc.

It sounds like you need an Alexandrite. You need to have that 95-100% shedding to even approach effective treatment. And if you’re in between or want treatments when you’re tan, then you need a clinic that uses the MPX and can blend well. They can use both the YAG and the Alex wavelengths tailored to you.
You can use the Cynosure website to find what clinics have their Lasers, and yes it will be a lot more expensive as the machine is a lot more expensive.

I wouldn’t phrase it quite like that either “Yag is better for very dark coarse hair”. Rather, I would say that a YAG is only good on coarse dark hair, it’s not effective on medium hairs. Alexandrite can treat the coarse, dark hairs just as well as the YAG (providing you are up to type III) and it can treat the not so thick ones to a better extent.

I would always wait until shedding completes before deciding if I wanted to go with a particular clinic.

#3

Well the problem with the MPX is that when I’ve used it before, they only use the Yag saying I’m always too dark even when I’m not really. The dual alex/yag mode as well they never want to use, saying that’s for after you’ve had many treatments and are in the final stages of treatment. I’ll keep looking around and figure it out. It’s frustrating because last time she said my legs were too dark but upper were a bit lighter so she did one upper leg with alex then said the machine broke and had to switch to Yag. On that area I had I’d say 90% shedding, but anywhere the yag was used it was around 20%. She kept trying to tell me that it doesn’t always shed which I know is wrong, especially when the alex made it shed 90% more than the yag side.

#4

I find that strange. Maybe you need to go somewhere else that has it. I recently had my sister go to a consult at a clinic with the MPX. The reason I was encouraged is because they said Asian people (like ourselves) have a wide variety of skin tones and many can do blended treatment with the Alex, and this may need tailoring depending on the body area.

If you are normally type III, then there is even more reason to blend with the Alex.

#5

I know when you do the combo mode the pulse width has to be higher, and you’re basically setting the same settings as you would for alex and yag. So you wouldn’t do like a high joules on the alex and the yag, but lower for both. I haven’t found anywhere else with it. My biggest challenge is for my legs, I don’t mind the hair there at all since I’m male. I’d just like less of it. So because of that I hate spending $250-350 on a single session when it really doesn’t bother me. That’s why I keep checking these deal sites where it’s $199 or $250 etc for a year of unlimited laser. Providing they do a half decent job, I mean that’s 5-10 sessions for so cheap. Even if the end result is the same as what I’d get with 3 or 4 at $350 a session it’s still a great deal since again I’m not trying to be 100% hair free. It’s more finding places that are decent, EVERYONE uses Soprano XL. The place I went to now was okay using LightSheer but I only had maybe 80% shedding. She just bought a Soprano XL and said last time the benefit is that they can do full legs in 10 minutes!!! So I’m trying to get a refund to get out of there lol.

#6

  • 80% shedding is good. You can get a touchup on the rest, or have them be more careful when treating in order not to miss spots. Some outline areas with a white pencil.

  • Soprano doesn’t get great feedback here, but it may be due to operator use. You would get good results on coarse growth with any of those machines as long as they use good settings and technique.

  • I don’t know whether you’re light enough for an alex. You’d have to test the skin.

#7

Oh I know, the problem is more that when I say 80% shedding I don’t mean there’s like big clumps that were missed or anything. Some areas are worse than others but I mean it’s a pretty much 80% reduction evenly all over. Like if there were 30 hairs in a square inch or something now there’s maybe 4 or 5. So it’s not so much spots that are missed it’s pretty even. That’s what happens when I’m treated with the yag as well, only difference is that LightSheer was somewhat painful where yag wasn’t at all. So I don’t know maybe the results aren’t that bad? In winter I’m light enough for alex, I’ve had tons of treatments on it, and even just did my face last week, it’s just the place I go that has the MPX refuses to use it on me except underarms etc and only uses the yag.

The package I bought was $249 for unlimited for a year on full legs forearms and chest. Even at 10 weeks apart that’s roughly 5 sessions I could do in 1 year. So I mean $50 for all those ares a session really aren’t that bad, so might as well try it out for the year see how it goes.

#8

If the 80% shedding is due to the other 20% of hairs being too fine to treat, then fair enough. But if it was because 20% hairs were missed, then I would not be happy. The clinic should definitely honour free touch ups but preferably, they should undertake a very thorough treatment so that doesn’t happen. If a clinic isn’t doing the latter, I don’t think they are taking it seriously enough.

However, in my case, even with all my treatments being with the YAG, all the hair shed. Even the fine hair, although it wasn’t permanently disabled and came back later. There amount if missed spots were tiny and just a few hairs here and there. I could always tell because they would be in a straight line.

#9

It’s not that they’re too fine, and it’s not that they are missed either. It’s almost like if the settings were too low so not all the hairs are affected, because it’s even shedding.

I’ve used the Yag on my forearms once before, and it was really painful and I had about 85% shedding, same scenario nothing missed just of every 5 hairs, maybe 4 would shed. I then had Yag twice on my legs, and it didn’t hurt at ALL and it was a similar scenario but I’d say it was maybe 2 of every 5 hairs shed evenly.

With LightSheer on my legs it hurt much more than when I had the yag, which to me should mean settings are fairly high, but again similar thing 3-4 of every 5 hairs would shed. I used it on my forearms as well and similar result, it hurt but not all hair shed but again it’s not “missed” if that makes any sense, so I don’t know.

My one clinic I go to I love and is really good, uses apogee elite and will do alex on me but it’s 15mm and would take forever. The problem is legs are $350 a session which is so expensive. The other place I go to has the MPX, and their package was something like $350 a session for 6, but because I bought an underarms package I got 50% off legs, so worked out to something like $1100 for 6 that you pay as you go. It’s just she never wants to use alex on me.

I have that unlimited deal at the one clinic and I can’t return it, so might as well keep going. Then maybe in the winter I’ll ask my newer place how many months out of the sun I’d need to do alex on my legs and then go there again.

If I didn’t go in the sun for months, and I’m a type 3, olive type skin tans very easily etc, how long would you say after my last sun exposure until it’s safe to use alex? Like lets say I went on vacation down south, a week in the sun and I’m as tanned as my body could possibly get. If I was to cover up and NEVER expose to the sun at all, how many months would it realistically take to lose all that tan? I’m just trying to get an idea because it would be nice to at least be able to say to the clinic if they tell me I’m too dark “Listen it’s been 2 months since I’ve even seen the sun” so I know they’re being stupid or whatever.

#10

They could miss sparse hairs here and there depending on the technique they’re using. If they’re gliding for example, it’s not uncommon.