Has anyone had laser hair removal?

Question

is it effective? painful? Ive heard it only takes four sessions, but a lady at work has had 15 treatments.....

Answer 1

BEFORE COMMITTING TO IT:
1. Find a reputable salon/clinic with properly trained staff (people with a background in nursing are the best)
2. Go for a consultation and get all the facts before you make a decision. They might do a free test for you on your arm so that you can experience the sensation (it ain't a walk in the park for some people - everyone's got a different pain threshold)

FAST FACTS:
* Laser hair removal typically requires multiple sessions (between 4 and 6 minimum) because hair grows in a cycles.
* You may be required to pay a high price PER session and then after the minimum number, you can either be put on a maintenance program (where you pay per zap) or go back to them for free treatments (pricing purely depends on the salon/clinic).
* It's fine for you to wax/shave inbetween sessions
* The laser works best on dark hair on light skin
* For fine hair (like on your upper lip), the minimum number of sessions can be up to 10
* Skin on different parts of the body has different sensitivity levels (i.e. your eyelid skin is different to the skin on your back, right?). Having your underarms lasered might be almost painless while having your bikini lasered could leaving your skin burning for a while afterwards.
* To help with the pain during the treatment, you can go to a pharmacy and get an anaesthetic cream (ask the clinic/salon to recommend a good one to you). This cream has to be applied a short time before the treatment.

THE PROCESS:
- You and the nurse/beautician will be required to wear special goggles during the procedure
- The nurse/beautician will spread a gel over the affected area.
- While using the laser, a jet blowing cold air will make the gel icy cold in order to help numb the pain once the nurse/beautician starts "firing away".
- Once treatment of the area is complete, the nurse will wipe away the gel and apply a soothing cream/lotion.
- Afterwards, you may be given a coldpack to put on the affected area to help numb any lingering pain you might experience.

BOTTOM LINE:
- The results are very much worth the pain.
- DON'T go for 1 or 2 sessions then give up ("pain" is not a reason to quit). Commit yourself to going for the minimum number of sessions (even if you decide to spread the sessions out over a longer period).

Answer 2

Hair Removal: Temporary and Permanent Solution
http://www.askaquery.com/Answers/qn1664.html