Gonna try laser hair removal!

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

Hi everyone, I am a 21 year old male from the UK, Ive been for a few consultations for hair removal on my chest, abdomen, full back & back of my neck, Im gonna consider more areas if i get good results however at the minute these are the most important areas to me!

I naturally have very light skin but am using sunbeds at the minute, i realise i will have to let my tan fade before i star my treatments. All my hair is dark and very very very coarse especially on my chest & abdomen.

Both places i went to told me i would be a good candidate due to my skin & hair colour, one of them done a test patch on my inner forearm and the lady said she had the laser on a low power, and just off that most of the hair doesnt seem to be growing back, it hasnt fell out though, is this a good sign?

The price difference between the 2 places was unreal, the second place was almost double the price of the first place i went (1st place near enough £2000 and they offered me 6 treatments for this with an IPL laser, 2nd place was £3600 and they offered only 4 treatments with alexandrite laser)

The 1st place i went was transform cosmetic surgery group and the second place was the harley medical group, not sure if any of you have heard of them as from what i can see most of you are from the USA.

Are these prices any good? do you get what you pay for?

Any help would be great

Thanks!

#2

I’m sure that you will get more informative replies than this one but:

I don’t think anyone here would recommend IPL as the first (or even any) option - it’s just not as effective as Laser.

Alexandrite laser is fine as long as you’re the right skin type for it. However, I’ve never heard a positive thing about the Harley medical group. £900 for one set of treatments is a lot too. Chest, Abodmen, Full back and neck, shouldn’t cost much more than about £500.

Also, you need to read about ‘induced’ growth. Many men have experienced increased hair growth on the shoulder area (upper back) and upper arms.

#3

Not sure how that compares to $$$ is that for all those areas you said? Don’t do IPL it’s a waste of time as stopit&tidyup said. Alexandrite is definitely better but you cannot be tanned, you have to be as light as possible. Also hair must fall out, if the hair doesn’t fall out then the settings are too low and it won’t work so I’d look elsewhere.

#4

IPL will be a waste. IPL isn’t even laser, and despite what the IPL clinics say, the results are NOT the same as laser.

If you are light skinned, you need an alexandrite laser. If you’re medium or dark then you will need a diode or yag. Sounds like an alex will work for you once your tan fades (lucky you, because alexandrites tend to be the best of the best if you’re a candidate for them).

Can’t comment on the prices, sorry. For what it’s worth, 4 treatments with an alex will give you way better results than even 6 with an IPL machine, assuming the proper settings are used.

#5

Thanks for ur replies.

Stoppit&tidyup is there any info about induced growth on this site? and could you reccoment somewhere in the UK with a good rep?

Yeah that price was for all the areas i mentioned, thanks a lot for ur info ill stay well clear of IPL!

#6

Lots of info about induced growth here. You can do a search for it. Just be aware that the hair should not be SPARSE or THIN or LIGHT. Any one of these factors can increase your risk.

I think the biggest thing I can recommend is don’t let them use low settings on you. Low settings are strong enough to induce hair, but NOT strong enough to kill what you have. So you’re left worse than before. Strong settings may induce a small amount of growth, but it will be negligible compared to the amount that is removed and not even noticeable at that point.

#7

Run a search for London here. There are several threads outlining differences between various clinics in the area and prices. Benjiboy was a poster who went to several of them.

I would start on one smaller area and see how things go before commiting to a huge package for all areas.

Be careful about not treating any patches which do not have dense coarse growth to avoid stimulating new hair there. This is all in our FAQs at the link below.

Using high settings is important. Good settings hurt. A lot. A numbing cream might even be necessary.

Be aware that you may develop new hair into your late 20s. So you may need some touchups later in life.

#8

Thanks, Ive found a couple of places which im gonna go to for consultations, quite far for me to travel but i dont care i just want the hair gone.

The places are
http://parksidebeautycentre.com/

and

http://www.renewmedica.com/default.aspx?PageID=1

Ive only read about people having good experiences with electrolysis from these places though, can anyone shed any light as to wether they are a good place for laser removal aswell?

#9

Hi SG1000 - I expect you found those places by searching these forums?

Both were primarily recommended by myself. If you search back a bit further in time, I’m sure that you will find more Laser clinics.

Parkside only does electrolysis (and very well at that). It’s the only place in London that has glowing recommendations.

Renew Medica is where I have my Laser treatments. I have no idea about the quality of their electrolysis.
I have had very successful treatment with their Apogee Elite Laser. It does both Nd:Yag and Alexandrite. I have treatment with the Yag. A number of my friends/family have since started treatment there as well, all with the Yag, and everyone is progressing well.
However, another user on these boards ‘peace1’ has had some concerns - they decided to treat her with the Lightsheer Diode.

In my opinion, if you are going to be treated with either the Alex or the Yag, it’s a good clinic and I’m sure the treatments will be fine. Effective treatment settings for the Alex and Yag are well known. Their prices are very reasonable, especially if you go off-peak.

Consultations at both places are free, so the best way to get a feel for the clinics are to go for them.

#10

Use the Advanced Search feature at the top right and expand the search for 1 year. The automatic search only searches posts from the past week.

#11

Alright stoppit&tidyup, yeah i found these places by searching this site, gonna book my free consultation at renew medica today, I am from newcastle and the closest clinic to me is in barnet, do all clinics use the same lasers do you know?

Thanks LAgirl, ill do another search see if i can dig up a few more.

#12

woah, that’s far!

I would recommend searching the forums more thoroughly for recommendations closer to you.

If you can’t find any, then find clinics in Newcastle that use the Alexandrite and go for consultations. You should be able to get a feel for the quality of treatment they will offer.

In my opinion, there really is quite a lot you need to know about laser if you want good treatment. I’d spend a few days reading through people’s threads, going back in time as far as you can. You will learn a lot about the process and what sort of things to look out for… i.e. is the clinic undertreating? etc. All this will help you cut your losses, if you find the treatment isn’t up to scratch.

I’d also read threads by other men who have had the same areas treated, so that you can get an idea of the sort of results they achieved.

And yes, as far as I know, all the Renew Medica clinics use the same Lasers.

#13

There are links in the third link below. One is a search engine for the UK. Call and ask what type of laser they use before you go anywhere in person.