Just sick about prepaid services at NuU MedSpa

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
1

This is my first post and I am shaking I am so upset at myself for being so incredibly stupid.

I prepaid for full face, chin, arms and legs at the NuU in Chicago. According to a bit of research, they are using the PPX laser. I am the kind of person that researches things to the point of annoyance to anyone who knows me before I make a decision. I did not this time because I was completely desperate to make something happen.

I have had 2 treatments 8 weeks apart on my full arms and legs and they have gone very well. I was shaving at least once a day(as a female)in the summer and do not have to shave except a every 3rd day or so and it’s not at all thick anymore.

But my desperation came from the facial hair that is so bad I truly have a 5 o’clock shadow immediately after shaving. I would have most of a full beard if I did not work hard at plucking, shaving, waxing, etc.

I stopped all tweezing/waxing about 4 weeks before I even started looking which was excruitating! My first treatment I saw no results on my face but did not really expect any. The tech did not mention I would want to go with 4 weeks between treatments on my face. She was fired and the new one seems to be good BUT…I mentioned to her the hair seemed thicker on my face. She said it was just because I was not tweezing anymore. Sounded reasonable at first. She turned up the machine to what she says is the max for my skin and even double zapped the chin.

But I have had the 3rd treatment, with 4 weeks from the 2nd, and I am convinced the hair is worse. I can shave it off and it will be back before I am out the door. I have never experienced this ever. The chin is the worst by far but my upper lip and neck are out of control too. To be fair, it has been less than a week from the last treatment. However, I have never had any shedding on my face and it’s just so out of control I do not know what to do!

I paid just short of 4000.00 for a series of 8 treatments.

This was so important to me I spent what I could(actually in the long run could not)afford and do not have the ability to pay for another method.

If there happen to be some slight effective will it be ruined if I start tweezing now? Does anyone know if I will have to have less treatment with a more effective laser when I can restore my savings?

I have had this problem since high school. I am afraid to stand close to people, I will not let someone touch my face and actually do not date anymore because I cannot risk the overnights or any contact with my face. Sad I know but this is could be a full beard and not just a few hairs.

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions?

Thank you.

2

That is awful. I started doing laser on the face and neck, but then gave up and just switched over to electrolysis. I had some permanent hair loss on my neck area, but the last time I went in, they fried my neck bad - still waiting for the scarring to go away. :frowning:

3

a couple things on your post

  • yes, unfortunately you should have done research in this case. PPX is somewhat of a gimmick if you run a search on this forum and read past posts. it claims to be painless, when in fact it’s mostly ineffective and that is why it’s painless. we have yet to see any positive posts on this machine.

  • since you only had your treatment last week, you need to wait 3 weeks for the hair to shed. it doesn’t happen immediately. what you’re seeing now should be hair coming out to shed, not simply growing. try pulling on random hairs in another week and see if they slide out easily. also, treating every 4 weeks is way too soon and the fact that you have hair to treat at 4 weeks only shows that the treatment before that was ineffective. if you have an effective treatment, all hair should shed in 3 weeks and you shouldn’t have enough hair grow in to treat again at 4 weeks yet.

  • how much hair do you have on your face? how coarse? what color? what’s the color of your skin? have you seen an Endocrinologist and had tests done for PCOS or other hormonal disorders? Considering that your situation sounds somewhat severe, I would strongly to recommend for you to do this. Any hair removal method can only remove hair that’s currently present. It can’t prevent new hair from growing in. Google PCOS as well and see if you think you have other symptoms too.

  • Is PPX the only machine they have? Have you seen any shedding at all? What about the other areas you’re treating? can you describe in more detail the coarseness and color of your hair and skin on other areas?

-$4000 seems like a lot of money for those areas. How man treatments does that include?

  • In my personal opinion, you should forget this place (or convert your money into other skin treatments if they offer any) and start your search for a reputable clinic with a good laser for all your coarse dark hair.
4

Thanks for the replies! Nikki I hope you are healing!

lagirl I am completely at fault for not doing the research. I cannot believe I did not.

I have a great deal of hair on my face. If it is unshaved and unplucked it is very visable from normal conversation distance. I do not know the number but once I counted 120 hairs and was not done plucking. The worst is the chin and neck. The sideburns are not complete but are there. I had managed the upper lip with strictly tweezing before and now the shaving is really making it wild as well. These are extremely coarse hairs and if you rub your hand across it the areas sound exactly like a beard.

The hair is black and I have pretty light skin. Very pale legs. I use to tan easily but more recently will burn then get some color if exposed to the sun. My regular hair is dark brown.

I do have PCOS that has been very well controlled for about 6 years with glucophage. My endo and gyn both believed it was at the point where I could start treatments as they track the hair growth as well and thought the new growth was at a minimum. They both consider the hair to be severe.

I have seen shedding on my arms and legs. But on my face perhaps 1 or 2 hairs that I pulled on lightly came out after about a week after the first treatment.

What is so noticeable is that the hair on my arms and legs can be shaved after a treatment and does NOT grow back at anywhere close to the same rate as before. But my face is worse. I literally cannot get it shaved clean.

It’s just under 4000–3700.00 And it’s for 8 treatments of full arms, full legs, full face, and full neck.

I called today and they are not at all interested in converting to other services. They offer photorejuvination, of course with the PPX, and said I could add these as it would be turned up higher for this treatment and I would get double the effect. Of course for the low low price of 150.00 per treatment. Um no.

I am still just sick. Of course, I know it is my fault. I just hate the whole thing when they see how people want to get rid of this so badly and play off of that with their sales pitch. I guess I will have to finish out the treatments and just wait for my face until I have more money.

5

that’s good to hear that you already found out that you have PCOS and are getting treatments for it.

Btw, shaving doesn’t cause any changes to the hair. Plucking and waxing can and does for many. If you have under 400-500 hairs on your face, you can also tackle it with electrolysis. If there is nothing that can be done with your package, I wouldn’t touch your face anymore. you can transer that money possibly to underarms, which is one of the easiest areas to treat, and/or bikini. If you have the money, you can start electrolysis on your face, neck and sideburns, especially if any of the hair is not very coarse and wouldn’t be suited for any type of laser anyway. Other than that, shaving for now would be your best solution. $3700 is not too bad for 8 treatments on all those areas, however of course, if they’re not EFFECTIVE treatments, it doesn’t matter. But it sounds like it’s working somewhat on the other areas.

6

Please allow me to butt in here and declare that there are many skilled electrologists that can easily get 400-500 hairs per hour. That is not a large amount of hair. It is the norm for a genetic female to come in with thousands of stimulated hairs and get a first full clearance in 3-5 hours. Not a big hurdle for the electrolgist that has invested in the newer equipment and has the ability to use that equipment with extreme know-how.

I think you have made your point and have truly confessed to all that you should have researched this better. It’s all okay now and the problem at hand is trying to afford a way to get the hair off permanently.

I would not mess around with laser, pseudolaser or true lasers, on my face anymore. This is a story that is repeated too often, unfortunately, and anyone that reads this has got to feel just awful for you. I get personally ticked at the laser hypers who promise everything or imply great hair-free results. All these laser websites show well-toned, hairless, skimpily dressed men and women and people fall for it thinking their bodies will look like those shiny pictures, if they just plop down $2,000-$4,000 dollars.

My message is clear: Just know that electrolysis is not limited to people that have under 400-500 hairs on their face. It is very possible that no matter what the amount of hair you have, it can be taken care of handily by a professional, modern electrologist who isn’t intimidated by a mere 400-500 hairs.

I hope you have someone like that in your area and you at least will give electrolysis some thought. I believe it’s the only thing left for you to do and you don’t have to pay $3,700 up front. Electrolysis cleans up the mess others leave behind. Shame on this company for not giving you a refund.

Dee

7

A recent post by a hairtell poster who visited me confirmed that we removed well over 10,000 hairs in less than 24 hours (as in less than one day, not 24 treatment hours)

Had I been the electrologist faced with your work, I would have spent more time on the consultation and question and answer session than the time spent on getting you to First Clearance.

Furthermore, $4,000 might have gotten you your face, underarms, and legs permanently cleared too :mad:

8

I agree that this place wasn’t very honest and shouldn’t have treated her face. Electrolysis definitely better for her face. But for underarms and legs, if they have coarse black hair, a PROPER laser treatment would have provided results in far less treatments than electrolysis.

The main problem here is what we see here constantly (too bad people search out these forums AFTER they have prepaid). The problems are: the LASER MACHINE used AND this SPECIFIC CLINIC. This could have happened with a bad electrologist as well with a lot more time in hours wasted.

9

Thanks everyone!

I am in Chicago so I will be making contact with the recommendations I have found on this site.

I had electrolysis done probably 10 years ago and it was just so incredibly painful I gave it up.

I was so focused on lasers that I did not even think about doing electrolysis!! I get so emotional about this I lose any common sense I might have had.

Completely agree too that I can afford to electrolysis since it would not be pay upfront! Is this done with lasers to provide operating capital for these places? It would seem to make sense to collect each time too.

Do any of you think that with the electrolysis it would also be a good indicator if the hair is not all new growth from the PCOS if it is not under some control?

10

for any hair removal treatment, your growth should be under control with medication if you have PCOS. permanent removal methods only remove the hair that’s currenly active and growing. they do not prevent your body from activating new follicles.

11

Check out electrologists that have invested in the newer technologies,meaning a good computerized epilator, vision and lighting equipment. These things make a huge difference in the sensation department and time to completion department if they are well-trained and skilled.

Proper laser treatment is incredibly painful as well. Did you find that to be the case? All my clients said they were never prepared for how painful it could be and actually prefer electrolysis over laser as far as sensation goes.

Dee

12

Since LASER places tend to be more high rent, and the machines frequently are morgaged at a rates of up to $3,000 a month, and many are paying “royalty fees” on top of their monthly payments… YEAH, they need those big cash layouts to just keep treading water and do the debt service. Imagine if you will that you are a one person business needing to make a $3,000 payment even before supplies, rent or utilities can be paid? :crazy:

Near me, some doctors decided to pay off their LASER debts by offering a limited time “Lifetime, Full Body Deal” to anyone who came in and gave them $2,000.00 each. It seems the thinking was, the stampede of people would give them the cash to pay off the machine in a month or two. Going forward they would only have to pay the service tech to operate the machine. They also figured their expense going forward would only be paying the tech to operate the machine and most people who bought the “packages” would most likely give up, or feel they got their money’s worth in a year or so anyway.

13

Thank you all again for the information!

I still have not had any shedding and the hair is still growing like mad on my face. Their most recent explination was it’s hot and that’s what happens in the heat.

To answer the question about the pain, I have not had hardly any pain with the PPX except right around my top lip. But otherwise nothing.

They really push it as pain free–that should have been the tip off but really wasn’t that big of a factor in my decision. Not many sound factors in my decision though either…!

14

Huh? You know that is a silly explanation now don’t you?

My new best friend, lagirl, always says that laser hurts and it is suppose to. Otherwise, hair is probably not being destroyed and it sounds like your having a growing problem. The hypers are sure hopping out there. Consumer be aware. I’m glad you are here checking out information. Maybe lagirl can offer some extra information later.

Dee

15

LOL dfahey I was baffled by the claim about the heat and asked if they could direct me to the scientific information that would explain that because I would stay inside in the air conditioner if this was true. Imagine that they said they didn’t know but this is common knowledge–in a tone that I did happen to be the stupidest person they haven spoken with to date. Well yes but only because I purchased their services;)

I contacted the attorney general’s office–not because I think I am not to blame for voluntarily paying for these services–but because I wanted to find out if marketing something as one product when it is not quite that is a problem.

They said there have been extensive complaints about laser hair removal that is not really laser. They asked for the details in writing and I will send tomorrow.

If anything happens with that I will post.

16

Thanks. We are all ears on this one. Do you want to reveal what state you live in? Some people are okay stating their location and some are not.

17

there are many posts on this forum regarding Aesthera PPX. the makers supposedly created a “better” laser that doesn’t hurt like the other EFFECTIVE ones. of course, you can judge the validity of this information by the total number of zero posts on any of the forums regarding positive results with it (there are plenty negative ones). there was even a clinic owner on another forum who tested the machine out for free for several months (the manufacturers do this) and said it was useless. at this point, permanent removal is pretty much always painful (true even though it’s not great for marketing LHR:) )

18

I am in Chicago.

Does anyone know if it is at all possible for the PPX to take the pigment out of hair? I am sure I am not asking this question correctly!

I have never had white or grey facial hair. Yesterday I started sprouting these stark white really coarse hairs. This would be disasterous if this is at all possible as I do not want to end up looking like a female Santa!

19

As has been discussed in many places on the site, one of the frequent side effects of LASER and “Light Based” hair removal treatments is the hair turns white, lighter, or clear. Just ask all the twentysomethings who have had treatment and ended up with white beards, and black hair on their heads.

20

AND… this is why I thank God everyday for laser hair removal. Laser hair removal has been great for my business, but I don’t relish in the fact that they are coming after they have spent a good deal of money on laser that didn’t complete the job. That part is not fun to think about.