I understand what you’re saying LAgirl, the EMLA cream doesn’t work well on me. I figured the Soprano XL would be less painful, since that’s how they advertise it.
Maybe you’re right, the pain is a lot to withstand and my side effects take a pretty long time to heal. I suppose I can always wait for some other miracle wonder to pop up.
Thanks for your time.
How do you figure EMLA doesn’t work? Usually when people say that they figure out that they didn’t apply it thick enough and left it on long enough.
It’s not strong enough. I’ve used it with saran wrap too.
I’m gonna go to the consultation for sake of pricing and interest in how the laser feels.
It will get better after more treatments, once you get rid of the coarse hair. Using EMLA will help for sure versus not using it. I didn’t use anything on my first treatment with GentleLASE and it was not fun at all. I switched clinics to one with Apogee Elite and she forced me to use numbing cream which is good. I still felt it but it wasn’t unbearable, wasn’t pleasant but you want it to hurt so it’s killing the hair. She had the settings fairly high and said without the cream I wouldn’t have been able to do it. You honestly can’t expect pain free laser though, think of what it’s doing, it’s frying the hair follicle and destroying it so it never grows back, you can’t expect that not to hurt!
It will get better though and 100% the more coarse the hair the more it hurts. I did my 5th session on my abdomen using Apogee with no numbing cream. I don’t have much hair there, the more coarse hair is in the middle then it gets really fine to the edge. She started on the edge and I felt nothing so she upped it. Still felt nothing so she upped it more and told me its because the hair is so fine and not much is there but when it hits the coarse hair I’ll feel it. She kept it on that setting and as she moved more to the centre of my stomach, it got more painful. Right in the centre of it it was very strong, not excruciating but it definitely did hurt, so I can guarantee the more coarse the more pain.
She also said that most places on your body have around 500 hair follicles per square centimetre but on the face it’s double around 1000 so face is always more painful.
Well my face definitely has some coarse hair. ~Thanks Edokid~
I just got back from Flash Laser Aesthetics. It had to be the cleanest/nicest hair removal place I’ve ever seen. The R.N. (Judy Hiscox) was polite and very knowledgable. She placed this machine on my face that could see extremely close into my pores. I could even see the teeny tiny veins in my cheeks, super cool. She was checking to see how my hairs grew out. She told me that she had been working with the Soprano XL for little over two years and before that she was using the lightsheer? She explained how much more she loved this laser over the all the others she tried and has had amazing results with it. We did a test run on my forearm, it felt cool and then heated up with each pass. As the passes increase I would feel a sense of tugging on my hairs. The pain was mild, however, she explained it would be more painful on my face. She offered to sell 5%lidocaine although, she said she barely uses numbing cream on any of her patients due to the pain being so mild.
We talked some more and then she showed me the pricing. It was $250 per session with a 15% discount for 3 sessions and 20% discount for 6. So it would be $1200 total for 6 sessions.
I’m contemplating on going through with it. It would be the first Soprano XL overview for Hairtell.
odi’s clinic uses Soprano XL I’m sure he can tell you more about it as well.
I wouldn’t pay for a package up front. It will be worth in the longrun to do one treatment without committments and then make a decision based on results from that. You’ll need more than 6 treatments on the face anyway.
Good Point.
So I’ve just finished my first session of laser beard removal with the Soprano Xl. The swelling is very minimul which is a change compared to the other machines.The pain was bearable and I used %5 lidocaine prior to my treatment which helped a little.
The more strokes, the more it burns.
I felt the session was a bit hasty and kinda feeling like they didn’t get all the spots. When I asked about touch-ups they said they didn’t do touch-ups… Kinda worried me. Makes me feel like the more they miss, the more they charge for additional sessions…
Well in any case, it will take about 1-2 weeks for my hair to fully shed, at least that’s how it went when I tried the gentlemax.
Did they use SHR mode or regular single pulse mode?
I don’t know? How can I tell? The laser would constantly flash…
That would mean SHR then. It’s kinda hard to miss a spot using this method since your gliding over the area several times without removing the hand piece from the skin.
On any other laser when you shoot one pulse at a time you need to remember where you hit the last time and then move on to the next spot you think you didn’t hit before. When you do that you can get missed spots because it depends on the ability of the technician not to miss any spots.
Is the area warm to the touch?
I’ve seen that happen sometimes, usually either you lower the joules abit or just try again the same and see if it happens again.
This is just how my face reacts to lasers, I had the same issue when I got the sample of Gentlemax done. The thing that’s really making me upset is that the hair is still attached to the bulb. When I pull it out it looks as if the tips where only burnt and not the root. The root is still jelly like…
When I tried the Gentlemax the hair would easily slide out and be fully crisp.
Why would that make you upset? Wait 3 weeks and see how it goes. Even then if there isn’t any shedding it still doesn’t mean that the treatment didn’t work, just wait and see.
You should wait full 3 weeks to judge shedding. I think all clinics should offer touchups if they miss 10%+ of hair, but that’s not always the case.
Ice the area to make the swelling and redness go down. Witch hazel should help as well or pure clear aloe vera (the kind you buy for sunburns).
I would disagree that the treatment worked if the hair doesn’t shed.
Well today was my first day of shaving after 4 days of letting my hair grow out, and boy let me tell you, I looked like a mess. I have to use an electric razor or else I’ll brake out, it cuts as close as a razor but without the irritation. However, today there were many hairs it couldn’t get and I had to go to work like chea-pet. It now seems that some of the fried hairs are coming to the surface. Kinda like the laser got all the ones under the surface of my skin pretty good but the stubble I had on my face when I went in was too long for it to completely damage. I believe if I shave right before my appointment this may help with killing more hairs.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed and still have hope the XL
That’s completely normal. The first 2 weeks after laser on the face SUCK trust me. Your hair looks like its growing normally, but its like it’s been changed. Because when you shave it, it looks awful. I find it’s impossible to get a close shave, it always looks like a days worth of stubble, but it doesn’t even look like stubble. This isn’t the reason, but I was describing it to my friend as that it’s almost as though before laser your hair sticks straight out. So when you shave it can easily chop the hair off. But after doing laser for that first week or so, it’s like the hair still grows but is lying flat instead of sticking straight up. So when you shave it gets some hair but misses others, and even the ones it gets it’s not a clean shave.
That’s not the reason as far as I know but that was my best explanation of trying to explain how it acts differently after. Only for a week though once you start shedding it’s the best because then shaving is so easy!
I think I’m starting to see the good side of hair removal, my hair has really started to fall out now!!! YESSS!!! Sweeeeet!
I’ll try and post some pictures within the next week.
