So, my first appointment was August 12. I know - much time has lapsed. But that means I get to tell you about how the lasering went AND what the results are after a week and a half have passed! Tee hee.
Ok - I arrived, and Mara and I walked across the street to purchase a package of disposable razors so that I could shave some of my longer facial hairs. This helps the process because the actual hairs don't get in the way. The benefit of this will become more apparent later on. I shaved the hairs from my sideburn areas, chin, upper and lower lip, and jawline. Let me just say that I went through some serious psychological dissonance to shave my face. But I digress.
We then went into a client room (like a medical exam room but nicer) and she cleaned the equipment. Very cool. She then got a huge icepack out of the freezer. I lay down, I placed the ice pack on the first area Mara was going to laser to numb the skin, and then we were in business.
The first area she did was my sideburns. She glided the laser handpiece along my skin in lines, like if you were highlighting a document or mowing a lawn. The sensation of the laser penetrating the hair shafts was that of someone snapping a small rubberband against your skin for a moment and then the snap fades away. Truthfully, because you know I wouldn't lie to you, the whole process didn't hurt all that much. Not any more than waxing would anyway, and I'm very used to that. The zap/snap sensation was the worst of it, and Mara said that it hurts more where the hairs are darker because more energy from the laser is absorbed. So interesting! The areas that hurt the most were my sideburns, the corners of my upper lip and right between my eyebrows. Mara said that was pretty typical.
As each area was completed, we would "freeze" another area and again, the laser would glide along in rows, covering all the surface area. As we continued, I noted a burning smell - like the smell when your hair gets trapped in a hair dryer on high heat. Hairs that were not shaved off got kind of singed, so that was the smell. Hence the benefit of shaving as much of it off as you can stand to shave.
When we were done, there was no lingering pain or discomfort at all. We slathered my face with clear aloe gel to prevent irritation, Mara advised me to stay out of the sun for a few days and keep my skin hydrated and then gave me a lovely hug as I left. That was the completion of the first round! Yippee!
There was some redness to my skin as I left, but that went away after about 2 hours. I had no bumpiness or discoloration at all. I kept my skin hydrated with aloe and moisturizers applied a couple of times a day. (Elizabeth Arden products are SO nice for soothing skin, but that's another entry.) Within a week, a neat thing started to happen. As the hairs began to grow back, they would just fall out as I exfoliated at night. So, if I scratched a particular spot, any hairs that were zapped would just come out, never to return again!
So far so good. Round two is September 9. I will faithfully update you once again after the second session. Until then...
So, I'm having some hair removed by laser. Actually, Mara is removing the hair, but she's using a laser to do it. And I'm chronicling my experience as it unfolds so that you all may learn and benefit. Just call me GP for short. (guinea pig, just in case the reference was too obscure.)
At first you might ask, "Oh my gosh, doesn't that hurt?" And I'd like to report that it really doesn't. Not any more than waxing hurts, anyway. (Although I must admit I have a pretty high pain threshold.) And "Is it really permanent?" We'll get to that. But let's start from the top.
I have lived most of my life with what I consider to be more than average amounts of facial hair. And, thanks to my cultural heritage, it's really dark hair. I mean, REALLY dark! Does being called "gorilla face" as a child give you a hint? In addition to the peach fuzz we all have on our faces, I have dark, coarse hairs that grow above my lip, between my brows, along my cheeks as sideburns (Elvis had nothing on me!) and most recently on my chin and jaw line. And I have never liked it.
I have tweezed, waxed, bleached and even threaded to remove said hair. I've settled on a combination of waxing (the troubling coarse hairs) and bleaching (the fuzz-like hairs that are not as noticeable) that works pretty well to keep the gorilla comments at bay. And the combo works. That is, as long as I have time to keep it up during the week - which, if you have been reading my blog as of late, has been a rare thing. I barely have time to exercise much less banish hairs from my face.
Enter laser hair removal. The idea that in a relatively short amount of time and with a somewhat reasonable amount of money I could be rid of my lovely facial companions "forever" and "permanently" was INCREDIBLY appealing to me. So I started looking into it about a year ago.
I scheduled an appointment with one of the leading dermatologists in the Chicago area. He put a magnifying lens with BRIGHT lights up to my face and gazed at me with eyes that were now 100 times bigger than normal. He explained the process of laser hair removal a bit and quoted me an obnoxious price (down payment on a car comes to mind) for removing all the facial hair I so desperately wanted to shed. He was also a bit abrupt in his manner, leaving me less than confident in our partnership as hair banishers. So I walked out of his office a bit disheartened since the cost was way out of my league.
Fast forward to June of this year - at a summer barbecue, a friend mentioned that her real estate agent (and a fabulous one at that!) shared that she has been very happy with the results from her experience with laser hair removal. She has had her legs, arms and face "lasered" and was SO glad that she made that choice. No more shaving in the shower every day, no more plucking and tweezing between waxings.
I got her contact info and called. She referred me to the fabulous and wonderful Mara (who is one of the nicest people I have met, aside from being very good at what she does) with whom I immediately scheduled a consultation. During our first meeting, Mara began by cleaning the laser equipment with medical strength disinfectant in front of me. She explained that she always cleans the equipment prior to laser appointments while her client is there so that she/he has peace of mind about hygiene. I immediately felt at ease.
We then discussed all the ins and outs of lasering - that it is really called permanent hair "reduction" and not "removal" as it is not entirely true to say that 100% of your hairs are permanently gone for all of eternity. The laser actually penetrates the skin layers and targets the blood vessels at the hair follicles, stopping the blood supply to the follicle and thereby reducing the hairs that grow back. To be most effective, the process takes several visits, she explained, since hair grows in cycles. So, to make sure we've zapped all the hairs, we need to allow their growth cycle to run its course.
She shared VERY detailed information about possible effects (such as mild skin irritation, redness, bumpiness, and in very rare cases change in pigmentation in the areas that are lasered) and answered any and all questions I had. We also talked about cost (which was WAY less than the original quote I had gotten a year prior) and I was sold.
We scheduled my first session, and, just to tease you, I will share how that went in part II.
Well speak of the devil, the famed "Q" section (the delight of every Sunday edition) of the Trib did a whole front page section on waxing. Check that out here. Also, check out the inside article, which delves more into waxing, and even included a handy-dandy guide to various waxing terminology. (login: girlieblog, pass: girlie)
Speaking of hair...i'm starting to think that we may need a new category called "hair removal."
Hair removal is the ignored, underappreciated topic among beauty magazines and girlietalk. Why aren't we more open about this matter? How much time is spent shaving, plucking, waxing, exfoliating, bleaching, carefully releasing ingrown hairs...worrying that you CAN'T go to the beach tomorrow unless you can get an appointment with Olga today in enough time for the irritation to heal and not cause any attention to your upper thigh area? And if you factor in time, energy and money, how much do you spend doing so? A heck of a lot of resources are spent grooming unwanted hair. But I don't hear enough about it.
Of all the topics I discuss with girlfriends, the most uncomfortable that of hair removal...ESPECIALLY "down there." Some of my friends are blessed with blondness and say they just don't get it...what is all the fuss? just shave daily. I could write volumes in response, but not today. Let's just say this is clearly a case of the "haves" and the "have nots" and this time, the latter has the privilege. When I ask other girlfriends, they give me short responses like "I'll give you my waxer's number" or "Don't ask me, I just can't be bothered to upkeep anymore." Some are lucky enough to laser and be done with it. We will spend hours talking about hair color, the latest fragrance, and just the right shade of lipstick, but hair removal conversations remain short. I haven't figured out why.
Perhaps I am a wee bit sensitive to this question right now because after spending 10 years and 120 hours, and an estimated $4800 on leg waxing, I have just discovered the EMJOI GOLD CARESS CORDLESS EPILATOR (I promise this is not an infomercial). This handydandy item is not for the faint at heart, but if you have ever given yourself a bikini wax, you possess the pain threshold and this is the item for you!!! Of all the epilators, it is better than Silk-epil, Satinelle, and the Epilady (I have tried all).
Why it rocks:
1) A one-time cost of $75 - it is cheap, cheap, cheap
2) Can be used anytime. you can capriciously decide to go to the beach tomorrow, worryfree of flashing anyone.
3) Experiement with hair removal in places you've always been curious about without telling a soul or paying big bucks (disclaimer: i have not done this myself, and can't vouch for pain threshold).
Here's the catch. You can't buy it in stores. Yes, folks. Parallel to the topic of hair removal itself, this little item is inaccessable except through the internet (try shavers.com or emjoi.com).
So, if you can't talk to your girlfriends about it you can read about it here :)