I have had 4 treatments with the Aurora Laser at ALC every 12 weeks. I have fair skin and dark thik hair. I am treating full legs and bikini. A couple weeks after each treatment almost all of the hair falls out but as the weeks pass, it all grows back. I’m due for another treatment next week and Im sure it will be the same cycle all over again. I have that 2 year guarantee but i’m afraid of what will happen at the end of two years and its not gone. Has anybody else experienced this?
Oda, what’s going to happen in this thread is this; I’m going to tell you my experiences and advice, then another may post telling of their experiences and advice. The two, or three, or four opinions may differ, and it’s up to you to decide what’s best for you. That is, you need to look at the whole situation logically, and put your health, time, and money into what will give you true results.
I’m a fitzpatrick 3 skin tone, dark hair, light skin w/beige hue, burn, peel, then tan. I was treated same as you, full legs, five treatments, with the Syneron Comet, the more advanced version of the Aurora. I was treated at very solid effective levels. Same as you, the hair shed a bit, and kept coming back. After five treatments, spaced at six weeks apart, I realized I was wasting my money to a technology that has never been proven. I had hoped, and wished that it would work since the Comet was the newest technology, but the claims just didn’t deliver.
Now, some things you should remember, if a hair sheds 1) hairs shed anyway, and shedding by no means, means permanent loss. It is a gross misconception in the laser community. 2) Hairs that have came out in their active cycle, won’t reappear that quick as in the next few weeks, it takes time for the hair to regenerate a bulb, sometimes months, sometimes four months. But, if a hair was ready to shed, and was helped along by the Aurora treatment, then a new from that same follical can be seen within two weeks.
So you see, there’s a lot of approximating involved in judging whether a treatment is by any means successful. And, I myself, realized this at about the same point in time you are questioning this. But you are getting treatments at twelve weeks apart. Some would say this is too far of a time split. Me, I say it’s not if the laser truly works. Why? Because active hairs are active hairs and it doesn’t matter what time fram you give them. If the laser works it should take them out permanently.
Now, like I say, I started to question this too. So, I thought, lets give these treatments a moment of truth. Let’s wait a few months, like four or six, and see how many hairs comeback. I mean, why keep giving the practitioner money when you are not ABSOLUTELY sure you are getting what they promise. So I waited and held off on my sixth treatment. …And much to my surprise, almost all the hair eventually grew back. A total waste of money, more than $2,000.
So my advice to you is: Wait. Just wait about four months. I know it’s difficult delaying plans. But be sure. If you are not sure, do not procede. That is what I did, and it was a hugely smart decision. After I really looked into some of the others that have experienced the same thing. I chose to seek a good electrolysis treatment. I have gone to four sessions at a fraction of the price of laser and have had solid, clear hair removal. I am happy. It is slower than wat the laser people promise, but what if the promises are never realized? Who cares! I’m so enthusiastic about Electrolysis that I’m now in the process of buying my own machine and learning to do simple areas on myself to both learn the trade, and speed my treatment along with professional visits.
Be smart with your health. Don’t think that somebody passing a high powered laser unit that also gives out high doses of micro radio wave energy will not effect your skin. The micro radio waves are not directed and may be prematurely aging your skin. Further, although some may claim that the laser only targets your hair, that is not true. A laser targets nothing, it’s the hair that absorbs the energy, but that sameenergy is also bouncing around your other skin cells as well, being absorbed in varying degrees by other molecular level components. I don’t want to get too scientific, but what I say is true. The bottom line: use common sense, put your money into what’s proven, guard your health.
Mantaray
what settings are they using? what is your skin and hair type? what hair removal method did you use before? if you are experiencing shedding, it’s a good thing already, but settings might be not high enough to kill the hair, only to damage it, especially since you’re using an IPL, not a true hair removal laser. also, you should count on at least 6-8 treatments with an IPL. it takes longer than with a true laser. plus, hair cycles are only getting in synch at around treatment 3-4. so you might be seeing much better results after treatment 5-6.
Mantaray, could you please stop hunting down every person who’s looking for answers during their treatments (and that’s why finding these forums) to prove your personal theory. No, hair doesn’t grow back for everyone and it’s not normal. It’s been 6 months and nothing has grown back on my bikini area after only 6 treatments with an alex laser. Comet is not an advanced Aurora. Aurora is an IPL with RF and Comet is supposed to be a diode with RF. IPL and diode are not the same. Also, Comet is not a proven effective laser. There is yet one person on any of these forums to see any results from it. Also, your treatments were too close together at 6 weeks. If your hair actually shed, you shouldn’t have had much to treat at 6 weeks. Meaning that your 5 treatments should have only been at most 3 treatments and too little to judge results due to hair cycles not doing full circle yet through that short time period. There is no scientific or any kind of evidence of any effect on the skin from any hair removal lasers. Finally, ALC has her prepay for treatments with a 2 yr guarantee anyways. She’s not losing money by having more treatments.
I might add that I’ve had treatments with the Aurora and got some fairly good results. I had five treatments with the Aurora and one with the CoolGlide on my legs and lost at least 60 percent and the last treatment was over a year ago. I’ve also had Aurora treatments on the bikini line and happy trail and the loss is much more significant.
Not sure what settings they are using. I will find out on my next treatment. I guess I’m having more regrowth on my bikini due to the fact that the treatment is so painfull, she has to turn it down. I have a very high concentration of hair, two and three hairs growing from each folicle.
I will take the pain and see if the results are better.
Thanks for your input. Please keep them coming. I am interested to hear about other peoples experiences.
I have so much hair that I jumped at the chance of “permanent hair reduction” and like many, I am getting nervous. $5,000 is a lot to spend.
Oda
wow, $5k for full legs and bikini? how much of bikini are you getting done? I can’t believe ALC charges prices like this WHILE making customers pay up front. It’s an average price and I would expect a bit better if I went somewhere else and paid up front, especially with an Aurora. Where are you located? I paid $100 per bikini treatment and although I haven’t done it yet the charge for legs is $500 for full legs per treatment. These prices are per treatment, no committments or packages and they’re about average here. So, given 6 treatments, the total would be around $3600. $5k is not horrible, but I just can’t believe they market their services to consumers as some kind of a “steal” and make you pay up front. (btw, you can find a thread here about ALC in general and others’ experiences with it in various locations).
Oda, my advice to you if you’ve paid up front and can’t get out of the deal, is to definitely use as high of settings as your skin can handle. It’s in your best interests to get the most effective treatment. Take an Ibuprofen and drink lots of water beforehand. There is also a numbing cream available if it’s really too much to handle, although I haven’t had the need to ever use it.
Lagirl,
You posted:
Mantaray, could you please stop hunting down every person who’s looking for answers during their treatments (and that’s why finding these forums) to prove your personal theory.
I’m not even going to even begin entertaining your other misleading remarks, but this sentence displays pretty base, rude behavior. I made no mention of you. You came here and attacked me. If you want to tally how many posts you hunt down and I answer, go ahead. Anyone. Go ahead. Please do.
I have no ‘personal theories’. See, I went to an American medical school. I understand the science behind this, and sometimes by the way you give out recommendations on treatment levels and for people to get their hormones checked, I think you are really going beyond even what a licensed technician would do. I think you should conduct yourself like a responsible adult and stop attacking every post I make in the laser forum with such rude sarcasm. This is a forum, not your soapbox.
Mantaray
I don’t hunt anything down. I only answer the question that is asked, which is what the person is looking for (basically reiterating what the professionals in laser hair removal agree on – and as you saw from many posts, it’s much appreciated that I take the time to do that. I don’t push any personal beliefs). What you do instead of answering the question is provide your personal theory based on your personal beliefs without providing your personal story to every specific person, so making it sound like a general fact that professionals agree on, instead of a “consumer with bad experience”'s opinion – which is what it is.
p.s. Look up all the bad experiences/burns from those consumers who were treated by those who have degrees from an “American Medical School”. You obviously don’t understand the science behind this. You simply haven’t done enough research. What you say happens when laser is applied is your personal opinion. Can you send a link to what YOU say happens? No. Meaning, it’s YOUR personal assumption/conclusion. There are many laser scientists and doctors who have tested the lasers when they got patented and before they went to market who probably have a little bit more experience than you.
Lagirl, You are mistaken:
You posted:
I only answer the question that is asked
…And the truth is you retaliated to my posting.
You obviously don’t understand the science behind this.
…Uhh, yes I do. In fact, I corrected you in your misuse of the basic meaning of nanometers. You infered it was a rating of power. It is not. You do not understand. People who know the science, know I speak the truth. Sorry, but you can’t refute this.
Personal experiences
…Actually there are people here asking for dvice because THEIR laser treatments have failed.
who were treated by those who have degrees from an “American Medical School”.
…Actually many of the treatments are done by others. An M.D. only has to be ‘onsite’ in some states.
Can you send a link to what YOU say happens? No.
…YES. It’s called www.hairtell.com or try www.hairfacts.com
There are many laser scientists and doctors who have tested the lasers when they got patented and before they went to market
…Testing and patenting are two different things. And they’re not cleared for efficacy. Meaning, they don’t have to actually work, just show that they don’t maim people.
Try to go about your way without causing unnecessary arguements. Really, try to be respectful of the opinions of others.
Mantaray
I’m tired of this back and forth. I’d rather use my time to help those looking for answers. The ONLY reason I feel the need to reply to your posts when you state your OPINION is because you DON’T STATE that it is just YOUR OPINION and newbies do not know that. This wouldn’t be necessary if you added “based on my personal bad experience, I think…” to your postings. I am respectful of opinions. Just stop stating it and writing in a manner that purposely and mistakenly portrays it as a fact to newbies.
Oda,
Here’s my experience with ALC. It’s long but please read it before making your decision:
I’m early 20s, male, fitzpatrick type II, with dark course hair. I paid $2100 upfront to ALC for unlimited treatments to my beard hair. I was told I was an ideal candidate and given a “3 year guarantee” as well as “permanent hair removal” in writing. I was told if I followed the regimen of 6 treatments, 6 weeks apart, then I’d be hair-free.
Altogether I had 11 painful treatments at American Laser Center. The first 9 with the Aurora and the last 2 with the Comet.
I am completely dissatisfied and stopped about 4 months ago. Like you, after every treatment I had heavy shedding followed by heavy regrowth.
At first I was mainly concerned with the patchiness (or grid like pattern of hairs) which looked bizarre. The first explanations ALC kept giving me were standard replies; something like “the patchiness is because only some hairs were in the growth phase to be targeted.” This obviously didn’t make sense. The bald patches were the exact size of the laser head. The remaining hairs were always a maze-like pattern of thin lines outlining the circular shape of the laser head. After the hair regrew, the patches and lines also moved around after each treatment.
I persisted and got ALC to admit that the patchiness was due to "missed spots and “not enough overlapping” by the technician. They agreed to do reshoots of missed spots at 3 weeks. (Theory being: at three weeks, the lasered hair should have shed and the missed hairs can be zapped.) We tried this once. It gave a false positive result for a week or two. I became very excited that I was almost hair free (still some patches but much less). But after a week or so of being almost hair free the hair started growing back again.
By this time I was up to nine treatments on the Aurora. The regrowing hair was slightly less course in texture. But it was still course terminal hair. It was difficult to determine overall reduction at this point since I did not wait several months to cycle through a couple growth cycles.
(ASIDE: there is a reason I didn’t wait: through my arbitrating with ALC I found out that if you do not stick to the treatment regimen ALC advises then it voids the contract and they claim no responsibility, efficacy of treatment, etc.)
I then switched to a different branch of ALC which supposedly had a newer and stronger “laser” the “Comet.” I had two sessions on this about six weeks apart.
(ASIDE: It was always difficult to get an ALC appointment at the appropriate time intervals, but after I started advocating for myself I found it near impossible. Three separate times I even called to confirm a day before the appointment and was told they did not have me down for any future appointments! They usually made me reschedule for a week or two later!)
The Comet treatments were especially painful since this branch of ALC did not allow the use of topical lidocaine (apparently it got into a patient’s bloodstream and stopped her heart). I experienced an extra long “sunburn” of about a week following treatments on the Comet. I also got some hypopigmentation that has not gone away.
Between these adverse reactions, the acne-form reactions, the ingrown hair, pain, time, etc. that laser hair removal was giving me I decided to stop.
It’s been almost 4 months since my last treatment. If I were to estimate the total reduction as a percentage, I’d say it’s less than 1/3. Some people might be happy with 1/3 less hair. Unfortunately that one-third is mostly bald patches rather than a uniform reduction in hair density. It might be my imagination, but about 1 month ago the bald patches seemed to fill in a bit. Not really any noticeable regrowth since then. And there are still some patches that haven’t filled in at all.
I recently saw some hair doctors who though I’d continue to see slow regrowth every cyle and maybe complete regrowth in a few years. Perhaps they were just reassuring me; I posted my conversation with them on here and I got kinda nasty posts from pro-laser people.
I really wish I stopped treatment earlier before I had so much trauma and side effects. My skin has not been the same since. It is ultrasensitive, acne-prone, oily and flaky, and just does not look healthy. With the increased sun lately I also noticed some new hypopigmentation that has me worried. At this point I’m taking care of my skin and hair as best I can and just hoping with time it returns to normal.
Its actually not that bad. Its full legs, brazilian extended bikini, and underarms. I priced it per treatment with several other places assuming I would need about 8-9 treatments and 5k was the cheapest.
Has anybody ever won a fight against ALC? If it all grows back do I have a chance of winning against them, or will I just be out a bunch of money?
unless you have something in writing that states any kind of promise, you can’t hold anything against them. jimmyjames has their old materials I believe where they claim “permanent hair REMOVAL” instead of “reduction” which is what they can claim by law. So he can sue based on that technicality.
The problem with this specific company is that even people who signed up but haven’t had any treatments cannot get their money back and complain about it here. a lot of other places actually refund unused portion if you decide to stop.