Question:
There is a great deal of
interested in our community about laser hair removal as an
alternative to electrolysis, but little long-term information
is available about its permanence. If you have entirely
completed a laser removal program, and one year or more has
passed since your last treatment, I would be most grateful
for your response to the following:
What kind of laser was used? (Ruby, alexandrite, etc)
What wavelength, power setting, aperature?
What area of the body? (beard, chest, other)
What is your skin tone?
What was your hair color/texture?
How many treatments? How far apart?
How many months since your last treatment?
What was the total cost?
Any skin reaction, pain or irritation?
Any scarring or skin damage?
How much regrowth after one year or more?
Are you satisfied with the results?
Would you recommend laser removal to other TGs?
Answer:
A laser salesperson posted a link to her sales site:
http://www.lightspeed-electrology.com/photo
Let's take the male back hair at this laser sales site as an example. I've
translated the days into dates for illustration.
January 1: First treatment
February 17: Second treatment (7 weeks after first treatment)
April 14: Third treatment (15 weeks after first treatment)
July 14: Fourth treatment (27 weeks after first treatment)
In just over half a year, this person had four treatments.
According to prices on another laser sales site
(http://www.permalase.com/faq.html), this cost him "$1500 or less per treatment
based on extent of hair and time involved." I'm assuming this guy in the
pictures is at the high end of things.
After four treatments, he's still going in about as often as someone who waxed.
Check out the discoloration on that guy's back, too. Would you want those
splotches on your face?
So, this guy was in for something like $4,000 to $6,000 in the first six
months. It will be interesting to follow his progress and see if he has to keep
coming in every 7 to 12 weeks.
At that rate, two years of laser would cost him about as much as fifteen or
twenty years of salon waxing. And there's no clinical proof that the laser will
remove the hair permanently, so he might be paying for laser maintenance the
rest of his life. Ch-ching!
