Laser is fine for what it does, as long as we are honest about its limitations. The problem is, practitioners routinely overstate what laser is likely to do while understating its limitations and this is most true of the people that do laser and only laser, and, at least in my area, particularly of the chain laser places that exist only to sell you a contract/package/whatever. They will tell you anything you want to hear to get you to commit to spending thousands of dollars before you ever see any results.
Part of this is, because laser is unlicensed where I’m at and the people working at those chain places have very little training so, despite being “experts,” they don’t know anything more than consumers… and part of it, is because those places exist to sell those contracts. They need to, in order to afford their fancy spa storefronts in expensive strip malls.
People don’t get told that laser can cause hair growth instead of removing it… and you’ve stated yourself that you don’t think it really happens because your goal is to defend laser because you feel it is being unfairly maligned by electrologists that aren’t impartial.
The reality is, most electrologists that take our business seriously would be happy if laser worked the way the hype says. I’d love if I could tell my clients they could be hairless in 6-12 months in as little as 15 minutes per month… but that doesn’t happen. Sure, as Michael pointed out, largely our experience with clients that have had laser are with the people where laser didn’t work as well as they expected and we aren’t seeing the success cases… but those are the exact people that you aren’t seeing because their experience doesn’t match yours. By far, the worst part, is having to deal with the trust issues because these people were lied to and I need them to trust me, because they aren’t going to see the results that they were hoping for before they started laser until we’re well into treatment. I’ve had people come into my office and cry because of their previous laser treatment (and then some cry again when we’re all done).
When I have a consult with someone that is just thinking about getting hair removed and is trying to learn more before making a decision, we talk about the benefits and drawbacks of both laser and electrolysis, I do 10-15 minutes worth of work for free on them and then I refer them to one of the two laser places in town that I know of that don’t lie. I found these places on my own and I don’t get paid for those referrals, but I give them out because I’m honest and I love having informed consumers. 90% of these people still end up wanting me to work on them after they’ve done their homework.