Will Three Sessions Be Enough?
July 15, 2011 6:42 AM Subscribe
Will 3 sessions of IPL (intense pulsed light) hair removal be enough to be satisfactory on my underarms?
One of the daily deals in my area is $99 for three IPL sessions on the underarm area. I am concerned that this will not be enough.
I have what is considered the 'ideal' for hair removal - very dark hair and light skin. Shaving is annoying and my hair grows back quickly. I would love for the hair at least to be 75% reduced. Is that likely with only three treatments? Is it worth it?
If you have had this type of procedure, what did your underarms look like after three sessions?
One of the daily deals in my area is $99 for three IPL sessions on the underarm area. I am concerned that this will not be enough.
I have what is considered the 'ideal' for hair removal - very dark hair and light skin. Shaving is annoying and my hair grows back quickly. I would love for the hair at least to be 75% reduced. Is that likely with only three treatments? Is it worth it?
If you have had this type of procedure, what did your underarms look like after three sessions?
I agree with k8t. My research shows all light treatments take quite a number of passes to get any reduction. From a business point of view, their 3 for $99 almost guarantees this is true. They wouldn't cut you a deal for three if they didn't already know you'll need a lot more.
They won't give you a coupon without an expected profit somewhere down the road.
posted by chairface at 7:37 AM on July 15, 2011
They won't give you a coupon without an expected profit somewhere down the road.
posted by chairface at 7:37 AM on July 15, 2011
What's the time limit on this coupon? Assuming a single zap kills every hair that's actively growing outside your skin (and I don't know if this is true), there are still a bunch of hair follicles in dormant stage that will start growing later. Here's more about hair growth cycle stages.
I don't know about this from the beauty treatment side but I tried to find how long the growth cycle is for axillary hairs - namely, how long you'd have to wait for a hair that just went dormant to re-emerge. (Well, actually, how long to go from dormant back to dormant, but it's a pretty good estimate of what you're really interested in, which is how long you'd have to wait between treatments to get most of the hairs).
This link implies that axillary hairs are similar to thigh hairs, which take around 88 - 141 days to regenerate. So you'd want to space your treatments out by several weeks or even months to catch hairs that are in different phases of their growth cycle. Somehow I doubt the coupon would be good for this, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.
posted by Quietgal at 10:09 AM on July 15, 2011
I don't know about this from the beauty treatment side but I tried to find how long the growth cycle is for axillary hairs - namely, how long you'd have to wait for a hair that just went dormant to re-emerge. (Well, actually, how long to go from dormant back to dormant, but it's a pretty good estimate of what you're really interested in, which is how long you'd have to wait between treatments to get most of the hairs).
This link implies that axillary hairs are similar to thigh hairs, which take around 88 - 141 days to regenerate. So you'd want to space your treatments out by several weeks or even months to catch hairs that are in different phases of their growth cycle. Somehow I doubt the coupon would be good for this, but it wouldn't hurt to ask.
posted by Quietgal at 10:09 AM on July 15, 2011
Quietgal - they always space the treatments out in order to catch as many hairs as possible.
I have had laser hair removal in several places. Three sessions would be on the short side but you probably wouldn't need as many as 10. Find out how much it is per session without the daily deal - even if it's $100/session, and you have 5 sessions, you're still getting a good deal.
What these places want is repeat customers, not cranky ones, so they're not going to give you a totally bad deal. What they're hoping is that you're so happy with your underams that you get your bikini line, upper lip, etc done.
posted by radioamy at 10:15 AM on July 15, 2011
I have had laser hair removal in several places. Three sessions would be on the short side but you probably wouldn't need as many as 10. Find out how much it is per session without the daily deal - even if it's $100/session, and you have 5 sessions, you're still getting a good deal.
What these places want is repeat customers, not cranky ones, so they're not going to give you a totally bad deal. What they're hoping is that you're so happy with your underams that you get your bikini line, upper lip, etc done.
posted by radioamy at 10:15 AM on July 15, 2011
If you're going to go ahead and do this anyway, then it's worth looking into getting the deal. Check how much their usual rate is. As a point of reference, the place I go to runs underarm specials for $59 per treatment, so $99/3 treatments sounds pretty good.
posted by Addlepated at 1:35 PM on July 15, 2011
posted by Addlepated at 1:35 PM on July 15, 2011
3 is not enough.. I've had 4 sessions and now end up shaving every 3-4 days (depending on level of yoga activities and frequency of sleeveless shirt wearing) instead of everyday... However, it's the best thing I've ever done for myself, seriously!! Now I only shave a few hairs that are barely visible unless you look close, and there's no irritation whatsoever. So get the daily deal to get started, you'll still love the results, or get 2 of the deals if you can (just call them to make sure that you can continue the sessions after the deal's expiration date once you start them) because you'll want more than 3 sessions once you see how awesome it is once you started.
posted by never.was.and.never.will.be. at 3:55 PM on July 15, 2011
posted by never.was.and.never.will.be. at 3:55 PM on July 15, 2011
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If you were for sure going to do this anyway and at this particular salon, go for it. Otherwise, I wouldn't...
posted by k8t at 6:55 AM on July 15, 2011