Laser Hair Removal Day One

Today, I had my first laser hair removal treatment. I have fairly light skin with dark hair (a lot of it.) A local med spa had a pretty good package deal so I decided to splurge. Although I most want to get my face done, I'm too nervous to start with my face given the horror stories I've read about people getting burned! So I decided to start with my underarms.

I went in for a free consultation a few weeks ago, when the nurse ran through the packages and did a few test spots using GentleLase. Or at least I think it was GentleLase, I asked later in an email follow up and this is what the staff told me. I was really scared about the pain, especially since the nurse had talked up the numbing cream I would be able to buy before my actual treatment, leading into "now we will test the laser on your chin without any numbing creme. It will be fine."

It wasn't that bad on my chin. I think she tested different joules but I didn't get a clear explaination of what she was doing. It felt more like a little warm pin prick than the rubber band snap that was explained. Or like a really tight pinch. But quick and not really painful. Just uncomfortable. The worst was the burning hair smell, but that I could get over.

So I decided to go for the full "5 treatment" package for my underarms. They're supposed to be the most painful area, so I figured if I could survive getting them done I could handle more later. And hopefully a payraise will factor in at some point down the line.

I went into the office about an hour before my appointment and put the numbing cream on that they had for sale at the office. The office worker brought me ceran wrap and gave me a room to apply the stuff to my pits, wrap and repeat for the next hour. I also took 2 extra strengh tylenol 2 hours before my appointment and one more 45 minutes before. The numbing cream started to tingle, then to burn a bit, and the woman doing my laser hair removal was apparently running late so I started to worry I was going to end up poisioned by the numbing cream.

Finally she showed up with a machine. She took one look at my armpit and said that she had a better machine to use on me... which was the GentleLase... so now I'm confused because I was told that was what used during the test, but then I was also told that they would use the same laser on me even if a different nurse did the treatment. Well, either way, this time I took notes. She used the GentleLase at 12 joules. I don't know the mm size.

So the armpits hurt a little more than the chin test area, but it really wasn't bad. Not nearly as bad as I was anticipating. The center of the armpit stung the most, but it wasn't as bad as waxing. She seemed to lift the laser up and put it down on each spot. I hope she got it all - I can't tell if she did a good job or not, this is all new to me so I don't know. It's kind of frustrating not to know for $420 (for the 5 armpit treatments) but that's better than the $1200 for the face, or any of the other costly package deals that are intreging (full legs? Yes please.)

I'm concerned that the joules weren't high enough, and I'm not sure how to figure that out. I guess if I don't start to "shed" in a few weeks that means it didn't work.