So I went for another treatment at the beginning of July, which was my second treatment with the Cutera Coolglide (Yag).
My first one went very well and I had excellent results - everything shed and I was hair free for quite a while (don’t recall exactly how long, but a few weeks at least.)
My second treatment was at the same settings - 75-20-20 was on the machine display - as my first (I was told) but resulted in less consistent shedding and a few patches that didn’t shed at all (some parts shed completely, so on most areas the laser seems to have been effective.) The tech who did my first treatment did most of my second, and it was finished up by a different tech.
Today I went in for a touch up on the areas that didn’t seem to shed at all. The second tech did my touch up, as the girl I originally saw had a family emergency.
In talking to her, I’m now a little wary, because of some of the information she provided.
-
She said that they don’t usually like to do touch ups because hair cycles on those spots will be different than the rest of the areas being treated (not an issue for me - my appointments are spaced quite far apart because of the cost.) Is this a legitimate concern though?
-
I was concerned about laser induced hair growth because the hair on my thighs is not super dark and not super coarse (but darker and coarser than hair on say, my arms) and after my last treatment none of it shed out. She told me that laser induced hair growth was impossible and that I was 100% guaranteed not to have induced hair growth. I believe otherwise, but I didn’t feel like arguing with her. She said the absolute worst that could happen is that we treat my thighs and nothing happens at all.
BTW, laser induced hair growth was never even mentioned in my original consult with the other tech and I hadn’t done a lot of research prior to my first appointment.)
-
She said that not seeing any shedding sometimes happens because only hairs in the right phase are affected (I’m guessing she was referring to anagen, but she didn’t specifically say.) She even suggested that some people may not see any shedding or visibly noticeable reduction in hair density up to 5 treatments. This doesn’t sound right to me and was never suggested to me during my consult - I know I’d be freaking out badly if I’d gone & for two treatments, shelled out all that money and saw absolutely nothing in the way of results.
-
I picked up a Cutera brochure from the clinic and in the brochure it says that the Coolglide is just as effective on fine hair, like on a woman’s upper lip, as it is on coarse hair. This seems to contradict the wisdom on this forum and I’m more inclined to believe you guys, who don’t have any vested interest in selling a specific laser.
So… I don’t know. My first experience with this clinic was very good and a year later I still had noticeable reduction in the density of hair.
Now that I’m more educated I’m asking more questions and am more aware of all the different variables with laser that may make it more or less effective, and I got less consistent results on my second treatment, which is making me wary. The second tech has been doing this for 15 years, is an RN and Medical Esthetician on top of doing Laser. I know that those things don’t necessarily mean anything but this isn’t a fly by night operation with inexperienced techs or anything.
Any suggestions or thoughts? Is this tech being deceptive, is her education out of date or has she been provided with misleading information by Cutera? Both ladies seem very nice & professional, I wasn’t charged extra for my touch up and other than this info I haven’t really felt any reason to question their knowledge or experience.
I’m moving cities soon, so this may all be a moot point, but I will be back here semi-regularly, and I’d prefer to stick with one clinic if I can feel confident about them. (Also, I’m getting an excellent price, which I would be happy to keep taking advantage of, if I can be confident I’ll get good results for my money.)
