How to get a touch up

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

So I was right in my suspicions about the doctor missing major spots on my legs. Most of the hair has shed, or is little pepperspots that aren’t growing.

But the entire top three inches of my lower legs and knees have never shed and the hair is growing as normal. I haven’t shaved since the treatment and the hair is easily a centimeter long now and looks healthy and happy. Because of the angle, he shot those hairs from far away and never touched the tip to my skin, but he said it was okay to do that. There are also about five strips of hair going allll the way down my leg in a perfect line (about an inch to two inches wide) in the exact areas I tried to tell him he missed. I saw that he didn’t hit those areas and they never turned pink at all, but he swears he did.

When I signed up they said they did free touchups, but when I inquired about making an appointment before my next session, they informed me they ONLY do laser every six weeks, because they have to “charge up the machine” and so they do all their laser appointments on the same day, and do not bring the machine into the office any other days.

If I wait three or four more weeks for my touch up, the hair won’t be “active” anymore and the other hair will have grown in, making it impossible for him to see what was missed anyway.

How do I handle this situation? Should I make a fuss about it since they promised they do touch ups for more than 10% missed (and he missed about 25% at least)? Or will that only piss them off and make them less eager to to a good job on me in the future? If he refuses, can I request a refund for my unused sessions? Am I being unreasonable?

#2

I don’t know much about how touch ups work but that sounds kind of weird. I have no idea what charging the machine means, you plug it into the wall and it’s good to go…

I understand how you feel though I just did my arms and one spot was missed, the exact size of the laser pulse. I pay as I go not package, they said touch ups are free with a package deal but they’d do it this time. To me I’m like, I paid for my arms, you didn’t do all my arms so I want what I paid for.

It sounds like you’ve already paid for all your sessions which is too bad. 25% though is a LOT. If they don’t have the laser there all the time then that’s fine, but I find it hard to believe they only treat people once every 4-6 weeks and that all their patients are just able to come at that time. If they refuse to do it then, I’d just be like when you bring your car in to get painted, you expect the whole thing painted, not everything but the hood for example. I’d just say listen I paid for full sessions and you only gave me 75% of one, and then maybe ask if they are completely unable to touch it up, then ask if you can have a partial refund even for your first session (in the range of 25% of the session value) since you didn’t get your full moneys worth. If they still refuse, then you may want to threaten to take them to the BBB to see if they would give you a full refund on remaining sessions just to get rid of you so you can go somewhere else…

#3

Thanks, I’m so glad to hear you agree that it’s fair of me to push for more sessions. They do only set up the machine one day every six weeks, because when I tried originally to schedule it he said they do all their laser appointments on one day (he’s a plastic surgeon, and he schedules surgeries for all the other days apparently)

#4

Pssst!
Can you keep a deep dark secret?
MANY practices don’t own the hair removal machine they use.
The thing may not even be on site other than once every six weeks :wink:
Frequently, the same person doing the treatments is rolling that $250,000 cart from place to place doing a day here and a day there, and after royalty payments per click, travel expenses, and what ever profit sharing agrements with the offices visited, they may have enough left over to pay the monthly mortgage payment on the home equity loan they used to buy the L.A.S.E.R. machine with… and change left over for a cup of coffee.

#5

Haha, I’m not sure how helpful that is to my situation right now, but thanks for the info anyway. :stuck_out_tongue: It’s a good thing to know, and it would definitely explain their hesitation.

Hey James, I dunno why but it’s listing each moderator’s name five times in a row for me (down at the bottom of the forums where it lists you and Andrea). Just thought you might want to know, in case I’m not the only one seeing that glitch.

#6

That makes sense but here’s my thoughts on that as well. They sold you a package saying if more than 10% is missed they’ll do a touch up treatment. You can ask them how they’d expect to do a touch up treatment then when the laser isn’t even there in betwen to actually do it. You can use that to your advantage if asking for a partial refund for session 1, as you can basically say you were lied to and only signed up because of that. You could tell them you were looking at other places but you went with them because of the touch ups in between sessions. Do you have anything in writing from them even an email that states about the touch ups?

#7

No, nothing in writing. The nurse didn’t even blink and said that of course touch ups are standard operating procedure in this industry (provided I don’t make them retouch 100% of my legs, because that implies I am resistant to laser and is not related to their shoddy work).

Since I read on here that touch ups were common for more than 10% missed, I just assumed that it wouldn’t be an issue. :frowning: I didn’t even consider that they’d refused to schedule intermediate treatments. I am sure they’d do the touch up at the 6 week mark if I pressed, but by then it’s too late, because the hair is in a new stage of growth, right?

If I point that out, he will probably insist it’s perfectly fine to have a touch up at the 6 week mark, but then the new hair will be growing in and I won’t even be able to tell where the missed chunks are anymore.

#8

Legs have long hair cycles. You shouldn’t need treatments more often than once every 10-12 weeks. 6 weeks is too early. You shouldn’t have anything to treat then. If they won’t do a touchup at 3 weeks, do it at 6 weeks. At least you get something out of it.

#9

Hi Everyone,

I have a similar situation. I have done my first chest and abdomen session 6 weeks ago. After about 3 weeks it was evident that a few spots were missed but I was out of town and could not go back to the clinic to ask for a touch up.

At the moment (6 weeks after the treatment) the new hair has started to grow and I’m quite happy with it (thinner and less dense, which is what I wanted). My intention with the treatment is to reduce thickness/density and not full hairlessness.

Questions:

1- If I ask for a touch up now (it is still very evident, due to difference in thickness, which are the old and new hair), I’m afraid the new hair (in areas where old hair still exists and touch up is required) will also be killed and I will end up with patches. Therefore, my intention is to treat the whole area. In other words, I will be advancing my second session to 6 weeks after the first one, in order to combine it with the touch up. Does that make sense? How effective (regardless the touch up) can a session after 6 weeks be on the chest and abdomen ?

2- Why is the new hair thinner if in theory it was not affected by the laser during the first session?

Cheers
Marcus

#10

Don’t do a “touchup” on this area at 6 weeks. You’ll throw off the hair cycles. Touchup should only be done at 3-4 weeks. If it’s not done then, just wait until your next full treatment.