Info. and Experiences with Laser Hair Removal

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#21

Hiya again, Iv’e just had a my first treatment with Laser-active and all seems to have gone well. I ended up having full legs, chest and some other areas.

Gail was great, really friendly and chatty, but professional at the same time and just made the treatment so much easier and more comfortable. I found all of the treatment manageable even my ankles, and other areas I thought would be more sensitive. (Oh apart from one part, OMG THAT HURT LIKE HELL! I’ll save you the intricate details, but I got through it.)

The hair seemed to react well, especially my chest and bikini line as that’s where the hair is thickest. She also gave me some aloe vera to take home because I will most likely finish off the small bottle that I bought from Sk:n. The price was reasonable as mentioned above and the session took just over 2 hours, so nothing to strenuous.

To sum everything up, I’m very satisfied with how everything is going right now and the service given, so all to do now is wait and see how the shedding goes.

Kind regards,
Benji

#22

Wow, thats like reading my own story Benji…

I can also vouch for Laser active. They are the most pricey, but its a good setup and Gail has no probs with touch ups. Although when i went back, the missed patches of hair had grown to about 7-8mm and i thought they should be shaved. Gail just said to leave it that long and she zapped it anyway. :-/ Either way, its a pretty good service.

Benji - did you try Laser Clear in Liverpool street? They use a Gentlelase and are about half the price of Laser active.
However, they dont do touch ups and they dont do butts…
(Bit like a girl i know lol)

#23

Haven’t heard of them to tell the truth, it sounds rather odd that they don’t do buttocks (and nah it don’t sound like a girl, loads of my mates hate the hair on their buttocks, just don’t have the nads to go through with laser lol) and it’s strange they don’t do touch up’s, as the whole idea of hair removal is that it’s meant to be on the entire area not just the bits they managed to get first time. I’ll stick with Gail and see how it works out for the moment as she seems to be the best around.
Theres a couple of missed patches which have come through, I’m gonna trim them with electric trimmers and draw around them in white eyeliner for when I go back to have them touched up.

I think with Laser theres always going to be missed patches as it’s very difficult to get every patch, because it’s not like electrolysis where you take each hair at a time.
I’m gonna have another treatment on my chest, and legs. After that I’ll just clear up my few other areas.

Has the hair regrown at the same thickness as the rest of the hair that you had lasered since the touch up?

Kind regards,
Ben

#24

Thanks for the ongoing updates!

#25

Well I went back to Sk:n for my next treatment on my back and shoulders. My last nurse had already quit (2nd one to date) so I had a new girl doing it who only appeared a couple of years older than me, but very nice and seemed to know what she was doing.

She let me know that they had changed machines to the Cynosure Elite, with a maximum spot size of 15mm. This kind of annoyed me, but I can understand them wanting to target a larger section of the market as it has a dual wave length of 755nm or 1064nm, so it can treat darker skin types than the GentleLASE can.
The spot size of 15mm is not as large as the GentleLASE and I find 15mm’s much more painful, as it feels more like a pin prick and takes a little longer. They do have a new cooling system which shoots a continuous jet of cold air rather than blasts. It feels kind of wierd with the 15mm spotsize but at least I know when the nurse is about to fire the laser.

I will admit I am very bias when comparing different lasers to the GentleLASE. I made sure that the pulse was the same at 3ms, and I increased the joules to 20J, (maximum is 22J on the Cynosure) with a wavelength of 755nm and spot size of 15mm.

She drew lines on my back with white pencil as well which was good so I felt more confident than I did with other nurses about her getting the majority of the area and she seemed quite thorough with the treatment. Although she still tried to get me to come back in 6 weeks, but I booked the appointment for 8 weeks later and may extend it.

I also went back to laser-active to have the touch up’s which went well, there were a couple of little bits which were missed but Gail cleared tham all up and they seem to appear the same as the rest of the lasered hair which is great.

I’ll leave a brief update on how the shedding went in a couple of weeks in regards to my back.

Kind regards,
Benji

#26

My memory is that the Cynosure elite, like all the Cynosure machines has a variable pulse width and will only go down to 5 ms.

#27

Then I’m gonna go mental at the nurse when I’m in for my next treatment. I specifically asked if the pulse was the same and she replied yes. I’m fed up of the “shut the client up and get them out the door attitude”.

Arrrrgggghhh! I hate this company.

Eughh! 3 more treatments to go before I can get out of this contract.

Thanks for mentioning that sslhr.

Kind regards,
Benji

#28

I was wrong with the Cynosure Elite. I looked the laser up on Cynosure’s website and the specs are significantly different from what they use to be. It seems that that Elite, at least at some spot sizes, can go down to 0.5 milliseconds. So it is possible that the Elite can treat at 3 ms into a 15 mm spot size.

I was basing my response on my memory but that memory is several years out. Sorry. You may want to check with the center. Ask them to show you the settings when they get ready to treat you to satisfy your curiosity. You can tell them that some idiot on a web site told you that it can’t go down to 3 ms and you want to prove him wrong.

#29

This is a great thread for everyone in London. Thanks Benji for updating this so consistently.

#30

Well I’m back with the New Year update!

I’ll start with Sk:n, theyv’e missed a large chunk on my upper left shoulder, as in the nurse hasn’t treated that area not just missed it and I also have a smaller line over my right. Iv’e got several lines on my right upper arm (this isn’t stimulated hair growth as Iv’e had 4 treatments on my upper arms and theyr’e reacting well with full shedding) and I have other short lines all over my upper back where again, she’s missed.

I’m getting kind of fed up with this, but the problem is there isn’t many other nurses in the Harley Street Clinic that haven’t treated me. The first nurse, Sarah, left after my first treatment (who was great, although she was what they termed a Laser Hair Specialist, not just a nurse), the second one Lucy I refuse to have treatments with anymore, Aedelade quit and now I’m being treated by the new girl.
But anyway, I’m going to take photos of all the missed areas and keep myself to myself until I have finished the contract as it is pointless switching from nurse to nurse because they all appear to be the same. [I’ll post some photo’s in a day or two]

Now onto a more positive subject, Laser-active. I went back for another touch up just to make sure that everything comes out fine, we upped the Joules to 18 this time and if I can manage that setting for the next treatment I’m going to ask if we can bring it to 20 Joules. It all seems to be coming through uniformly although I can’t be sure because where the touch up’s are little bits are coming back at different rates, so I’m going to wait until it all comes through to make a decision, but I’m very happy so far.
The treatments itself wasn’t much more painful with the increased Joules and Gail was friendly and professional. I think once I finish my treatments with Sk:n I’m going to have Gail treat my full back, shoulders and upper arms once or twice, just to clear up what’s left behind by Sk:n.

So all in all its the usual really, I just have to wait and see how the areas I wanted reduced turn out.

Kind regards and a Happy New Year,
Benji

#31

Thank you friend Benji Boy for the feedback and we’ll look forward to your pictures soon.

I wonder why there is such a huge turnover of “nurses”/laser techincans at one particular clinic? Or, is this something that happens at many places?

#32

The staff turn over is quite common in most of the Sk:n clinics from what I have heard from other people on here and else where. Does raise a couple of questions eh?

Kind regards,
Benji

#33

Thanks for the update. Seems like this clinic has a similar turnover to most of the large national chains in the US.

#34

hi benjiboy its interesting reading your journey on here thanks for posting.

your experience at sk:n sounds quite bad, cant you change to a different branch? even though i read these things about sk:n, i am still tempted to try them simply because they are so much cheaper then anywhere else. i mean at the end of the day isnt the treatment still effective? as long as there is no long term damage to the skin :stuck_out_tongue:

you quoted it was £950 for 6 treatments, and did you say it was £600 for 1 treatment at laser active???

#35

The treatments at Sk:n were £950 for 6, this was under a deal, which is no longer on. They also segment body parts, for example, lower back, shoulders blades, shoulders. These are just a couple of examples.
At Laser-active I’m having over twice the size of the area treated that I’m having treated at Sk:n, Gail is also happy to do touch up’s, where as when I insisted I had one by Sk:n I had to speak to the manager, numerous call centre operators and different people along the way. The customer service is also better in Laser-active and I just generally feel more comfortable being treated by the same nurse each time, rather than 4 different ones in about 8 months.

In regards to quality of treatment, if your a good candidate GentleLASE’s work quite well, but I personally never get my hopes up for a completly clear treated area with my past experiences in mind. Sk:n (Harley Street) also changed machines to the Cynosure Elite, which I’m begining to think is not as effective as the GentleLASE. The smaller spot size also gives more potential to miss areas.

In regards to changing clinics, the only other Sk:n clinic in London uses an Apogee Elite (although I am not 100%, so don’t hold me to this), which again is a 15mm and in regards to skill and so on, Iv’e heard there pretty much the same. I’m not going outside of London as I’m not getting on numerous trains and spending more than two hours there and then again on the way back for a treatment I don’t consider to be worth effort for (I’d like to reitterate this is my opinion and others may have had a different experience and so feel welcome to forward).

So all in all, if you do your research carefully enough, my general opinion is you get what you pay for with this side of things, but I guess everyone needs to find out for themselves.
I’m just one of those people that would rather pay the full whack for a treatment in stead of a cheap rate for one that isn’t exactly what I want.

Kind regards,
Benji

#36

Benji_boy fantastic posts very informative. I the used Boston clinic a few years ago on my legs, Arms and underarms. The legs are still clear, the underarms could do with a touch up as I only had two sessions but a batch of underarm hair isn’t going to kill me. Think the hair on the top half of my arms got a little coarser so don’t want them touched again I’ll just use a razor or epilator instead. But I’ve got areas of long coarse hair left on my lower arms but not enough I think to justfiy paying for laser on a whole half arm. So might try and find an electrologist in London to remove them. Have been looking at the directory but have taken on board James W’s comments so am hoping to find a recommendation. And if they work out to be good get him/her to do the odd hairs on my chin.
The Boston the Pros- it had the Coolglide and was reasonably priced the Cons- but the nurses all varied as did their knowledge and they weren’t too brilliant with treating the more private parts. Also the reception area was so small there was no way you could have confidential conversation with them, even if you were just sitting in reception you’d get to hear the names and problems of people calling up with queries. The website has been down for months now not sure if that’s because they are too busy now (laser,Botox, lip enhancement you name it they seemed to do it)or if they’ve done a runner ;-). So after reading your comments about Laser active think i might drop them a note to see if they can help but my skin is IV and they are very expensive but if the job gets down it maybe worth it. I’ll give skin active a miss.

Once again great posts and all the best with getting the work.

#37

Pael Boy/Benji Boy - I dont if either of you know about Laser CLear in Liverpool Street? http://www.laser-clear.co.uk/

They use Gentlelase, and are pretty well priced. However, they are a bit funny about redoing missed areas… So, thats the downside.

I think other than Laser Active, this is the only place in London using Gentlelase.

#38

Yeah cheers mate, I had a look at them but I don’t like the fact that theyr’e funny about touch up’s, although I will have a consultation with them if I still need treatment on my back after Sk:n. I guess what I don’t like the idea of is that theyr’e not willing to correct errors that THEY have made and we then have to put up with it, especially when were paying the amount we do for laser treatments.

I’m just hoping that the hair left after my remaining treatments will be minimal and that if it can’t be justified by laser, it won’t cost to much with electrolysis (although I do know skilled electrologists can deal with most back hair, as long as they have good equipment and so on).

Side note: I’ll post the pictures I said I would soon, I’m just waiting for my digital camera to be returned after it went to camera hospital (suprisingly it doesn’t like being dropped :crazy:).

Kind regards,
Benji

#39

Okay guys and gals here’s some of the photos. There not amazing quality as it’s a little tough taking photos of your back yourself.

http://s218.photobucket.com/albums/cc122/joniesroxx/?action=view&current=Picture014.jpg

As a side note: Near the top of my kneck by my hairline, theres a couple of red dots, that also had the largest line of hair, however I had to shave otherwise it could be seen

http://s218.photobucket.com/albums/cc122/joniesroxx/?action=view&current=Picture013.jpg

http://s218.photobucket.com/albums/cc122/joniesroxx/?action=view&current=Picture012.jpg

Side note: With this picture, on the left hand side of my kneck/shoulder you can see a tiny bit of hair to the very corner, this was a strip all the way up to my hair line and was the bit I shaved

These photo’s don’t look that bad, however thats partly down to the camera and the fact that the hair is becoming much thinner than before. It is far more noticeable up close/in person. This is around 5 weeks since my laser session, so the hair shouldn’t be growing back that long, neither in the shape of lines/chunks.
The results from Laser active I’ll post in a couple of weeks when everythings grown back (as the legs take ages and I also have had touch up’s for hairs that didn’t react to the 16 Joules/18mm and the odd little missed patch). Although everythings looking good so far :slight_smile:

Anyways, I’m probabaly being a bit meladramatic in regards to Sk:n but it still drives me crazy. Oh yeah, and the hair on my shoulders hasn’t been stimulated, it’s actually got finer as it was as thick as the rest of the hair on my back. I guess I’m a lucky one.

Kind regards,
Benji

#40

Thanks for the pics (you’ll be glad you took them at some point in the future:) ), and also for helping out on the forum with your new knowledge.