I am thinking of booking an appointment at Renew Medica (Muswell Hill branch) and was wondering what people’s experiences have been of their service? I have read a couple of posts which seem to be both good and bad.
Also at the consultation should I go in assuming no knowledge of laser and hoping they do what is best for my skin type or should I be questioning what machine, what settings are used etc? This is all completely new to me so any help is much appreciated.
Thanks 
Stoppit went before me and recommended me the place because her treatments are going well (as you can tell from her posts and she will probably mention it here too). She also knows people who go there.
I went too but they treated me with a different machines with low settings (not high enough for good results) perhaps because my skin is lighter they treated me with a Lightsheer. When I informed them of what I know about laser I didn’t get another word because they don’t think I was good enough to research.
If you get treated with a gentlelase you might be okay. There is on the other hand the hospital in London who do laser who have good reviews but I’m not sure because I haven’t been there myself although I plan to. With renew medica, I guess you just have to be lucky. Theyd idn’t switch machines for me and from this forum I found the reasons they gave for not putting higher settings or changing the machine were useless.
Which branch did you go to out of interest? I can’t tell if the clinics are just a bit hit and miss.
How is your underarm treatment going? That is what I am planning on getting done but my pain tolerance is not great, I can just about handle waxing so think I’m in for a lot of pain!
Dunno anything about the clinics, but just use a numbing cream for the underarms. I had mine done recently and I expected it to hurt so badly, but I couldn’t even feel it (literally). Numbing cream must work very well in this area, because compared to legs or bikini line, it was a picnic!
Don’t worry about the pain. Treating one underarm takes about 1 minute. It’s just a few zaps. Even if it hurts like it’s supposed to, it’s over so quickly, it doesn’t really matter.
Well I have booked my consultation(ahhh!) I will let you all know how it goes.
MagicalPrincessKitty which numbing cream did you use? Do you need a prescription for it?
Thanks LAgirl, you have made the idea seem more bearable if it only lasts 1 minute per underarm!
They gave it to me at the clinic when I arrived. It is stronger than EMLA, but honestly I think a mild cream or even some advil would be enough. Just something to take the edge off, because the pain only lasts a split second, then you feel perfectly normal again. Like LAgirl said, it’s only going to take a few zaps so it’s quite tolerable.
Also, you only feel pain during that zap. It doesn’t last.
I’ve had my underarms done, and I find while it seems to hurt more over time, the actual pain is less than a waxing. If you can bear getting waxed, then you should really wait and see - take advil or panadol before you go, but don’t get hooked up on the pain issue. Numbing cream is kinda expensive and seems superfulous when you can just grin and bear it! 
I went to the Oxford Street branch.
I went to Santi in South Kensington - amazing place and real experts when it comes to discussing lasers and different types. Defo worth a try.
The clinic I go to says not to use EMLA or other creams as it can distort results or can be harmful. I go to Santi in South Ken…
There is no problem using numbing creams properly. But you shouldn’t use it unless it’s really necessary. For underarms, it’s really not.
It wont distort the results. You wash it off before they start, of course. But it can be harmful in large doses, especially if it’s very strong. I do not use it for legs or arms, but I have to use it for the bikini area. I used it on my underarms the first time because I thought it would be unbearable, but it wasn’t so I will not be needing it in the future.
http://clinic2.co.uk/contact.html
Has anyone tried this place? They have a good range of lasers and have published papers.
It does say something about needing a referal from a doctor, but might be worth looking in to?
Edit: this is the patient site, http://www.northwestlasers.co.uk/index.php