You know the scenario – your cousin’s best friend’s sister has just found this great salon that’s really ‘reasonably priced’ and does every conceivable beauty treatment from eyelash tinting to paraffin wax pedicures, and they’ve just started doing that laser hair removal. Brilliant.
Or Sarah in accounts has confided over the coffee machine that she’s just invested in an absolutely foolproof way of getting rid of body hair, forever, at home, painlessly and with no side effects.
Sounds too good to be true? In our experience, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Laser hair removal has become incredibly popular over the last decade. And we can understand why – procedures performed correctly can have really effective outcomes and result in many happy clients. So, what’s the problem? The scary thing is that performed incorrectly these treatments can cause blistering, persistent pain, darkening or lightening of the skin and severe burns in sensitive areas. The perception by most people is that, armed with the right equipment, anyone can carry out such treatments. But there are so many more vital factors than ‘just’ the laser. Equipment is incredibly important (and the investment that we have made in our Soprano ICE lasers was a no-brainer for us) but the real work is done by the person wielding the machine. It’s the operator who has to make such important and individual decisions about skin type, hair type, timing of repeat sessions and even lifestyle.
We consistently read so many awful stories about people who have been damaged by poorly or even non-trained laser operators that it simply begs the question where was the sense in the deregulation of this industry in the UK? In the right hands laser hair removal can be a great investment – the time and expense (and hassle) it can ultimately save when compared to other types of hair removal is well worth it. But please, if you or anyone you know are considering embarking on a course of treatment make sure you do your research. Ensure that you will be treated by medically trained professionals in a safe, clinical environment. Don’t be afraid to ask some probing questions about the practitioners and the treatment you are looking to receive. Here at The Doctor’s Laser Clinic we have worked hard to achieve Save Face accreditation, a fact of which we are justifiably proud.
You are entrusting your body to a stranger to undergo treatments designed to leave you full of confidence – so make sure that’s all they leave you with.
