Here’s my experience with laser hair removal. I had it done in Chicago, and paid $1500 for six treatments done at six-week intervals. The areas I had treated are my underarms, bikini area, and full legs.
First, it doesn’t work on light colored hair. Since I have both fine blond and coarser dark hair on my legs, the process was effective only on the dark hair. So I still have to shave my legs.
Second point: I found the treatments extremely painful, especially in the underarm and bikini areas. The energy can be turned down so that the process is less painful, but then it’s also less effective. The pain is not just discomfort. It is both more intense and longer-lasting than the pain of waxing. If waxing is a three on the pain scale, laser hair removal for me was a 10. Be warned.
Results: Other than the blond hair on my legs, the hair everywhere is substantially reduced. Shaving is easier and faster and I don’t need to do it more than once every ten days or so. But I still must shave if I want smooth legs.
One reason I wanted to have this done on my legs is that my skin is pale, but some of the hair on my legs is very dark. The result is that it’s visible beneath the surface of my skin even when I’ve just shaved. This always created the appearance of litle black dots on my white skin, and wasn’t very attractive. This problem is very much reduced, because I have less hair and the hair that remains is finer and less noticeable. I plan to go back for one or two more treatments on my lower legs, where this problem is the most pronounced.
I don’t ever want to have my underarms or bikini treated again. It was just too painful. Fortunately, the procedure worked well in those areas and they are largely (but not completely) hair-free.
One more word of advice: I found that my legs were blotchy and red for two to three days after the first treatment (it was also the most painful). The redness and blotchiness went away after a day or so after the rest of the treatments.