Soprano XL consultation thursday!

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

Hi all,

I’ve finally got sick of dealing with unwanted body hair and am going for a consultation in Southampton, on thursday.

I just wanted a bit of advice from you guys on prices. I want my underarms done, but noticed they have an offer on where you have six bikini treatments done, and get six underarm ones free. This would cost £450 altogether. Does this seem like a good deal?

Bearing in mind bikini line is literally what is outside the v shape, and for me that is not much, im not sure whether to go for it?

Thanks for your advice.

#2

It seems reasonable to me. I’d inquire what they are separately. That works out to $686 Canadian which would be $114 per session. I know at my clinic they do the same but it’s not a package deal it’s just individually and it’s $99 for Bikini with free underarms so somewhat similar. I think if you wanted to treat the bikini area it’s not a bad price. Just be careful with packages, reason being you don’t want to buy 6 packages up front and then have the clinic use low settings or not treat you properly :slight_smile:

#3

How much would 6 underarm treatments alone cost?

I spent about £350 on my 6 underarm treatments, so £100 for bikini line seems pretty good.

I only needed 3 treatments to get almost complete hair removal on my bikini line though.

Please read the faqs and the threads where the Soprano is mentioned. They will help you determine if the treatment is going well, what settings should be used and what sort of time periods to leave between treatments. Just stick “Soprano” into the search box.

I’d say about 6-8 weeks for underarms and 10-12 weeks for the bikini line.

#4

Thanks for the quick replies, im so glad this site exists, otherwise I think I would be clueless!

Yeah, the price for 6 underarms alone is £350, so I know its only basically £100 extra for bikini line, so I am very tempted.

The place I am looking at is here:

http://www.elizafacialist.com/pain_free_laser_hair_removal_pricelist.htm

Im going to have a look into Soprano a little more. I would say I am a skin type II (pale with dark hair), and I want to make sure I am picking the right machine/practitioner!

#5

Sounds good. You’re approaching this the right way. There are so many people who just can’t be bothered to research even when they know they really should.

There’s no harm in going for the consult and test patches either. Just as long as you don’t let them make you sign up to anything just then :slight_smile:

#6

Make sure you’ve read our FAQs in detail. Link below.

Don’t settle for anything until you’ve had consultations and compared everything else besides the price (least important as it’ll cost a lot more in the long run if you don’t get results the first time around).

#7

So I went on the thursday, and the appointment went well. She did a whole underarm in about 2/3 mins…its been a few days, and Im dying to see some fall out! I know its way too early yet but im keen!

I’ve decided to go elsewhere as well - she seemed quite pushy about the offer she had on, and I dont think I can quite afford it yet. She also gave me zero advice on aftercare/staying out of the sun etc.

Im gonna try a sk:in clinic. Theyre a chain of laser hair and cosmetic places in the UK. Has anyone ever been, or has any advice?

#8

Search for Sk:n on these boards, I think I remember a user or two mentioning them a year or so ago.

#9

That’s the good thing about the Soprano XL, there is no after care.
Give it a few weeks and see what happens, specially if you’re tight on money.

#10

I think going to a clinic who is concerned about getting you the best results possible is important. This includes explaining how laser works and that staying out of the sun is important.

#11

Hey everyone! Not trying to hijack this thread just don’t think a new one is necessary. I just went to Odi’s clinic today for the Soprano XL, did my underarms and also my full legs. Everyone there was super nice so if you want to use the Soprano XL I highly recommend it.

For all the skeptics, I have to say, the Soprano XL really IS pain free, like literally. We did my underarms first, and at first I felt absolutely nothing just the handpiece going back and forth. After several passes it started to feel a bit warmer, then after a couple of minutes it definitely really started to feel warm/hot especially right in the centre. Nothing unbearable but you definitely felt heat, but still not “pain” just heat. We then did my legs which was similar, felt heat, not as bad though. Some areas I felt it a lot more than others, like my left thigh I felt it a lot but my right one not as much. I also felt a pricking sensation a lot BUT I think that was slight stubble on my legs! I am male so I have dark coarse hair which I never shave on my legs, so it’s definitely driving me nuts right now. I thought it was the laser, but if I use my knuckles and rub them similar to the laser, I feel the same thing right now! So it really is just heat.

Can’t wait to see how the shedding goes, but put it this way, if the Soprano XL is as effective as any other laser, then it’s WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY better than the others since it really is pain free. Def a great experience, thanks Odi!

#12

I’ll be really interested to see your long-term results. From my experience with laser hair removal (from present day to over 8 years ago), no pain = no long term results.

I’m pretty sure it was a soprano (not sure if it was XL) where I had about 10 treatments on my underarms and 6 treatments on my upper legs and saw maybe a 10% hair reduction. Under arm hair became finer and lighter - which is actually worse because now it’s harder to hit with an effective laser.
And yes I realize part of this could be due to the operator, but she cranked the machine (used the highest setting possible) and I still didn’t feel anything or have any amount of redness or swelling.
The hair shed - but grew back a few months later.

#13

Well few things about that, first is that from what I understand Soprano XL is only 2 or 3 years old. Found a press release from Alma Lasers introducing it, but it has 2 dates one in 2007 and one in 2009. Either way, it definitely wasn’t out 8 years ago. However, there was an original Soprano which was just a standard diode laser. The “pain free” method is from the XL only not the original Soprano. So if you had treatments with the original Soprano and it was pain free, then the settings basically were too low, since the original Soprano from what I understand is similar to LightSheer or really any other laser in that it fires one pulse at a time, doesn’t use in-motion technology, and should hurt. Even with a machine like GentleLASE or Apogee Elite, if it doesn’t hurt then the settings are too low and therefore not permanent.

#14

Sorry - should have clarified…
I have been having laser hair removal for over 8 years on various body parts… the Soprano was the only machine that DIDN’T work for me. The treatments with the Soprano were late 2008/early 2009 so it probably was the XL. It was perfectly pain free and perfectly useless. As one of the moderators described a similar situation to mine “a very expensive wax job”.

I am unsure which laser my dermatologists office used 8 years ago on my bikini line, but I know it was a ruby diode and it hurt like heck but it worked amazingly! (I have posted my successes under the success story thread).

Please do continue to post as I am genuinely curious to see your long-term results… at least a year and a half out with no treatments for 3 months. Maybe it was just poor operation of the laser on my technicians part.

#15

Ohhh okay makes sense. Easy way to tell, was it like a typical laser firing shots, or did they pass the wand back and forth over the same area while it fired multiple shots really fast?

#16

Hmmm - kind of neither, but closer to the second description.
They used a whole mess of ultrasound gel and glided the laser tip over the area and did multiple passes…I guess the laser was firing reasonably fast, maybe 2 times a second?

They had 2 lasers: 1 Soprano and 1 Harmony. I did have a couple of treatments on the Harmony because they had another client on the Soprano and the hair didn’t even shed with the Harmony on it’s highest setting. I refused to let them use that laser on me after that…
On the second last treatment I went for at this particular establishment the technician used the max settings, when I came back in she said very tentatively “so were you burned after last session?” When I told her that I didn’t even have any redness she was shocked. Once again… maybe it was the technician as I know from reading on this forum there is more than one setting that can be adjusted on most lasers - maybe she only adjusted the amount of energy?

Anyhoo - since then, I am suspicious if it doesn’t hurt and doesn’t have some degree of redness and swelling after the treatment. Every time I have had long term successful treatments they have hurt (at least on the last couple of appointments) and I have had noticable redness and swelling for a few hours after treatment.

#17

You are somewhat correct. The Harmony uses IPL and from my experience with Alma’s IPL machine, they actually cause more damage to the hair.

I had an IPL similar to the Harmony by Alma which was useless sadly, and cause of that we bought the Soprano XL instead. The difference between those who had IPL before and those who didn’t was HUGE. All those that did IPL before had much less shedding and results were pretty bad, or to be more specific, if for someone who didn’t do IPL before took 4 treatments to see good reduction in hair, those who did IPL needed 10+ to see the same.

BTW: The XL fires 10 pulses per second.

#18

I just thought about it and the Harmony XL which uses the same “in motion” mode as the Soprano XL fires 3 pulses per second which is very close to what you said you had. The main difference is that the Harmony uses IPL.

If you did the Harmony before you did the Soprano your results somewhat make sense to me.

#19

Thanks Odi,
That information sucks for me… but thanks! Guess I’ll be spending even more to get rid of my upper leg hair now!

I 'm sure this Harmony machine and the other variety of IPL’s that are out there are the reason why so many people think LHR doesn’t work.
I know for a fact that LHR works for the long term (posted my success stories in that thread), but having the right technician and the right laser are CRITICAL. Guess that’s why all of the moderators keep saying this ; )

Oh and sorry for hi-jacking this hi-jacked thread! hahaha

#20

Harmony is generally considered one of the better IPLs. Is the hair on your upper legs coarse and dense?