Laser Hair Removal Diary: Consultation

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Background: A few months ago, I took advantage of one of the LivingSocial deals you probably saw me tweet about and purchased six laser hair removal treatments for one area for $70 from Body Sculpt MD in northeast Portland. The deal seemed too good to pass up, considering single treatments are usually hundreds of dollars.

I don’t know how much you know about laser hair removal (I knew almost nothing before this), but to my dismay, hairless-ness is NOT guaranteed. The best candidates for laser hair removal are people with light skin and dark hair. And they recommend having at least six treatments in order to yield maximum results. You’re also supposed to wait eight weeks in between treatments, so the whole thing takes about a year.

Anyway, I decided to just go for it and the area I choose to have my treatments done on is my Brazilian area.

This is the first post in my diary of my laser hair removal experience. Because these diary posts will have months in between them, you can search for all of them in the Tags on the right side of my blog. Look for “Laser Hair Removal Diary.”

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Today I went in for my consultation for laser hair removal at Body Sculpt MD. The purpose of this appointment was to: 1) Inform me about the laser hair removal process. 2) Make me aware of what I need to do to prepare for it. 3) Use the laser on a test area to find out how I react to it. 4) And for the doctor to get a feel for whether or not I’m a good candidate for this treatment.

What I didn’t consider before going to my consultation was that what I’m about to get is an actual medical treatment. I get to Body Sculpt MD and realize that I’m at a major hospital in Portland. After asking numerous people in the oh-so-confusing lobby where Body Sculpt MD is located, I get my answer: room 511. I go up to the fifth floor and when I look around and see all the “before” and “after” pictures filling the lobby that I’ve entered an actual plastic surgery office.

The woman at the front desk was polite and knew who I was right when I walked in the door (they were expecting me). I filled out some paperwork and was immediately admitted into my appointment by a nice (but very young-looking) doctor who was also named Sarah.

Sarah sat me down and asked me where I wanted to get hair removed. I said the Brazilian area. She told me that was a popular choice. She handed me a piece of paper titled Laser Hair Removal Patient Care Guide (see image).

It told me what I should expect pre and post treatment. Here are some highlights from the handout.

How to prepare for laser hair removal:
+Clean shave the area prior to coming in
+Don’t pluck or wax before
+No tanning two weeks prior to the treatment
+Feel free to take painkillers before treatment or use a topical numbing cream

I immediately asked Sarah if the treatment would hurt. She said, “I’m not going to lie to you, yes it hurts.” But then she explained to me that I’m a really good candidate for this procedure because I have light skin and dark hair. Apparently this is ideal because there is more contrast between my skin and hair, which makes it easier for the laser to detect the hair follicles. It’s possible to do laser hair removal on people with less contrast, but it’s not as effective and their risk of scarring is much higher.

After this conversation and a few more chats about the whole procedure, she had me pull down the top of my pants so she could do a test laser on a strip of my skin. She showed me the laser, which is about half the size of a penny, but shaped like a rectangle. I’d imagined something more needle like, so this was reassuring to see.

It’s difficult to describe the pain from the laser. I’ve gotten tattoos and body parts pierced, so I guess the feeling of the laser is fairly comparable to that pain. In other words, holy #@%& it hurts!

But… it’s bearable. Then again, at this point she has only done a tiny strip of my skin. When she gets down into my extremely private areas, I don’t know how excited I’ll be about this whole procedure. But only time will tell.

She recommended my buying a numbing cream called Plum Numb for $20 for tomorrow’s appointment, which I did with zero hesitation. (See image below)

Tomorrow is a big day for me – I’m taking half the day off from work to get my hair done and then to go back to Body Sculpt MD for my first official laser hair removal session. Wish me luck! I’ll keep you posted!