i’m a light skinned white dude who wants to remove dark back hair. i’m looking for some recommendations in Philadelphia, pa.
Is your hair coarse and dense (a picture would be helpful)? Does this include your shoulders and upper arms?
What area? Dark is not enough. Is it coarse and dense?
i’m hoping to hear of some positive experiences at facilities in philadelphia. i’d prefer down town cause its easy to get to but i’ll hop a bus or whatever. i wouldn’t say its particularly dense or coarse.
You can’t laser hair that’s not dense and coarse (like underarm/bikini hair and oftentimes lower leg hair). With thin hair you can actually induce extra growth instead. It’s very common on male shoulders/back/upper-arms and female faces, but it can happen anywhere.
I really suggest uploading a photo so we can tell you if you’re a candidate (the clinics will always say you are, if you grow more hair they get to charge you for more treatments and by the time you realize what’s happened it’s far too late to get a refund through your CC company). If you browse our forums you’ll see that this is a pretty common complaint here.
We can take a look and see if it’s a good idea for you or if you should spend some time on electrolysis instead.
You didn’t answer our questions.
you asked if it was dense and coarse and i said not particularly. you asked what area and i had initially stated my back. yes i would like shoulders and a little arm but i was asking for a business recommendation from folks who know about philly.
the hair might not even be considered dark but more dark brown. i’m not able to take a picture - i don’t have a camera but after a quick image search on google for back hair i’m not as thick and dark as what came up.
if someone knows of a reputable place then that place can see me in person and tell me whats up. is it really that hard to get honest advice from a laser business.
You seem very hopeful that laser reduction will be the answer for you. Without a quality picture, it is impossible to give you a better answer. Get this principle ingrained in your mind : If the hair is not coarse, dense and dark, you will be wasting money. Brown hair is not good enough. People who are excellent candidates have been disappointed and you are saying you don’t meet the criteria to begin with.
I don’t know of a reputable place in Philedelphia, but I’m sure there are some? many?. You can go on a search yourself and use your instincts as to who is BS’ing and who is being honest about what they see.
I wish more people gave electrolysis the benefit of the doubt like they do laser reduction. Good luck and be careful who you give your hard earned money to.
Dee
No, you probably won’t get told “what’s up” by the clinic. They make no money by turning you away, duh. Many of them aren’t even educated enough to know that induced (worsened) hair growth is a side effect! And any side effects you suffer will appear after it’s too late to get a refund or take more serious action. That’s why we have so many people here complaining that they wish they had known because now their hair is worse. This forum promotes educated consumers, not blind excitement over magical hair cures.
But you don’t want our help, so do whatever you want. Hopefully you get a good recommendation.
Unfortunately, most clinics are only interested in your money. So most will tell you you’re a great candidate, will take your money up front, and then explain to you a year later that not everyone gets good results and they don’t know why. You can try this place that was started by someone who was on another forum years ago: http://www.gethairless.com/
Good thing you found this forum first because we can help you avoid this waste of time and money.
The hair you describe is not suitable for laser treatments. They will not work. Laser only works on coarse dense growth. On the growth you describe, you may actually get induced growth, i.e. more hair that what you started with.
Please post a photo if you want an answer that is specifically catered to your hair situation since descriptions are subjective. But it doesn’t sound like you’re a good candidate, which means you’d need electrolysis, not laser.
Well, I have been heartened to hear from some in my client base that they were turned away because they were not good candidates. One lady went as far to say she thought the person at the clinic was being a racist and did not want to treat black people, when in actuality, they did not have a laser appropriate for people of color and were being truthful in protecting her. So, there are reputable clinics that steer away from profits and give advice based on what they can safely accomplish. I mean, why would you make a money grab to put your business’s reputation at risk and expose yourself to a law suit or time consuming phone calls and e-mails from a consumer who is ready to kill you for screwing up what they thought would be their dream to be hair-free? When you know someone is on the iffy side of laser, why take chances and go ahead with treatments? People get enraged when they spend a lot of money only to look worse or the same after laser reduction. A business doesn’t need an endless fight on their hands in order to get a couple thousand dollars.
I do agree that most laser places seem to know little about induced hair stimulation and what causes it, but maybe their slowly coming around to be honest about that.
They turn away dark-skinned people because they could be sued for burning them. But induced growth is not something that can come back to bite them in the ass the way a burn can, it only hurts the customer, never the company.
Sure, they MIGHT have an angry customer on their hands, but most customers won’t even see the extra growth until a year later and by then it’s way too late to get a refund or even prove that the growth is related to laser. The customer might not even KNOW it’s related to the laser and just assume the laser didn’t work.
I said I was in agreement with you on that point in my previous post.
I’d like to see this potential side effect written into the contract the consumer signs. I heard that some places have done this. Any of you LHR consumers out there ever seen this (laser hair stimulation) written on anything you signed or have you even been told that this can happen??
We’ve definitely had reports here that certain clinics mention induced growth at consultations and in the paperwork now. Probably still a minority though.
That’s been a while ago, if I’m thinking correctly, LAgirl. I am curious as to what is going on now. 
My current clinic never mentioned induced growth to me, but she DID inspect my arm and did some deep thinking for a few minutes before concluding that she thinks I will get pretty good results there. My first clinic didn’t even want to see my arm, they just assured me arm hair was perfect for laser.
The place I’m at now sounded like they were on the fence about my arm (which I respected a lot actually since I already knew my hair was borderline), but after treating me and seeing how well I reacted she said she bets I’ll have results better than I even expected. But only time will tell us for sure.
So to me, I feel they were being responsible about not treating overly-fine hair and being cautious about promising ridiculous results.
It’s been mentioned more than once. I’ve also seen it mentioned on websites of some LHR centers in NYC.