Hi All
Having already tried the Boston Clinic in past but wanting less of a production line place but with a yag and female staff I’ve been doing my usual bit of wasting my life away googling laser clinics and I’ve come across a webpage for a clinic in South London Gypsy Hill I think called Northwood clinic wonder has anyone come across them before. Have done a search on here and found nothing - but you never know it might ring a bell with someone.
Can’t say I have to tell the truth. Have you tried using this website: http://www.skinlaserdirectory.org.uk/UnitedKingdom.htm
This site gives you a list of clinics that offer Laser treatments in your area and the type of lasers they use. Maybe worth a look to see if any use the nd:YAG.
Regards,
Benji
Hi
Do you have a darker skin type and is this the reason you are looking specifically for a Yag?
You could try contacting Candela UK, manufacturers of the Gentlelase as they now have the Gentlemax which is an Alex and Yag combined - fantastic machine. 08455210698 or candelalaser.co.uk. They will tell you where their lasers are.
P
I believe the only two places in london using Gentlelase are…
Laser active and Laser clear.
Laser clear is the cheaper of the two, but dont do touch ups (well not last year anyway) They are at Liverpool street.
Laser Active is at Cannons health club in Cannon street. Most costly, but better service all round really.
Yes I do have dark skin III/IV but having been burnt by a Dr. who was convinced my skin was on the very light side rather than dark I don’t want to risk it again and the coolglide on my legs was good. Morrissey after reading the posts here I dropped Laser active an email to check because their web says that they use a Gentlelase Plus which from what I understand from other posts isn’t totally ok for dark skin and Laser Active’s own website doesn’t sound wholly convincing either re: darker skin and at that point I was thinking of having work done on my face. But I didn’t hear back from them which didn’t seem very professional to me.
I’ve since decided that laser,fine hair and face are a no no - too risky. Will try electrolysis instead.
But for the body am happy to go with laser the better option for speed and coverage.
I assume the Gentlase Plus and the Gentlemax are different machines though Candela’s website makes no reference to a Gentlelase Plus and it states that Gentlelase can treat all types of skin but the blurb for the max has a slightly greater emphasis on being better for all skins with Gentleyag stating its specifically for dark skin. You find yourself reading between the lines all the time!
Pea will call the Candela people tomorrow thanks and check who has which brand of Candela machines and draw up a list of potentials. So will look for the GentleMax or the GentleYag
Benji I’ve seen skinlaser directory page before but not come across the list of practitioners - there seem to be loads of them in London! Including Dr. Rustin he’s been my dermatologist in the past(acne)and later I went to him to show him my burnt legs. I didn’t know he did laser at the Royal Free but I do know he would be way too expensive plus he has a bit of brusque manner about him not a sympathetic man though he did ask at the time if I wanted to sue the other Dr. Its a small world sometimes.
On the touch up front I’m was always too embarrassed about being so hairy and almost grateful that they are willing to anything for me that I don’t have the nerve to argue so just assume they won’t be part of the deal.
Many thanks guys
Yes, do look for GentleMAX or GentleYAG. GentleLASE is an alex and too powerful for your skin based on what you describe.
What machine and settings were used on your when you were burned? Can you find out and share? This will help us help you better. If you were burned at normal settings on an alex laser, then you’re not a type III, but probably IV or darker.
I’m sorry to hear that you got burnt by laser, Anothergo.
I know this is easier said than done but try not to feel embarassed when going to a Laser clinic. We pay a lot for LHR so therefore it doesn’t hurt to get the best treatment with all the areas cleared. Just remember, your giving them your business so they should be greatful for it.
In regards to the machine Laser-active use, it’s the GentleLASE Alexanderlite.
If you manage to find someone with the Candella GentleMax or GentleYAG in the South East, would be wonderful if you could let us know, as lagirl said. As I’m sure theres more people out there in the South East and surroudning areas looking for someone who uses one of them.
Regards,
Benji
Thanks guys for all the support and yes Benji I must hold on to the mantra that they need more than I need them!
Thanks to Pea I dropped an email to Candela but didn’t hear back (I don’t seem to have much luck with my emails!)so called them today the girl on the other end did her best to find me Gentle Yag owners I think their database is not set up to do instant searches after she’d found me five names in London and one in Essex I stopped her. But she told me come back if I don’t have have any success with them. I need to go back to her to ask who actually has the Gentle Max.
I have been looking them up, websites etc. and decided that as I don’t have time to visit them all the best way to try and judge them as a practices generally is to look at the Health Commissions reports (ok reports are not the be all and end all but you have to start somewhere!)and what a variation I found. I’ve picked the one with the best report. I will drop them an email! tonight to arrange a chat/visit. But I suspect this place might require me to take out a mortgage causing me to scuttle back to a cheaper and lower rated name on the list! will report back on how I get on.
By the way on the email front Laser Active have contacted me since and I’ll be emailing back. Morrisey I think their laser will be wrong for my dark skin similarly Laser clear has a Gentlelase.
LA girl I was going to send scanned pictures of my legs but they are too horrible and would just scare people. It happened seven years ago. I don’t have a note of the settings used but a yag was used on my lower legs which included a patch test weeks earlier. But when it come to the top half of my legs to try and speed things up and because my legs were supposed to be so pale the laser was switched to an Alex (an Apogee Cynosure I think) and whilst the work was going on the power was increased a couple of times without any wait to test how my skin was reacting to the increased settings. To make things worse Vaseline was applied to my legs at the end with instructions to add more when I got home. Talk about basting a turkey!. I almost collapsed on my way home and went to A+E two days later because I was so worried and still in pain. Sorry I can’t provide any more details re: the machine and settings but 7y years ago talk about settings etc wasn’t really discussed plus I was in no condition to ask. But I’d like to think that no one goes through it anymore now that practitioners should have a much better idea of what they are doing 
Don’t assume that just because it’s been 7 years, everyone knows what they’re doing. There are new clinics that pop up on every corner for a little while, and there is no telling what they do and don’t know. I would also not count on reports that much. Never know how this data is updated and what is and is not included.
The best thing you can do to narrow these down is to call each one and ask questions like how much experience the person who will actually be treating you has, and how much on that specific machine. There is a sticky post on this forum indicating a bunch of questions that you can ask to gather if they know what they’re doing. See what kind of feeling you get from each one. That will narrow the choices down already. And once you do, I would still visit 2-3 clinics at minimum. I think you need to do this the right way this time to avoid disappointment. Cutting corners at this stage won’t do it.
Thanks LAGirl just cut and pasted your list of questions I can see them hanging up on me before I’ve even got to question 7. On a serious note its a good cover all points list. Ta
well it’s almost midnight here so I will wish you good night have a good day.
You don’t have to ask all of them. Pick the important ones that you know the answer to and see how they tackle them