Hair Today...
LASERS AREN'T JUST FOR MOVIE BADDIES
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Laser hair removal. Never something I have considered since the thought of being zapped by a laser isn't terribly appealing. Lasers should be the domain of bald men with cats, ransoming the world for one million dollars.
I've heard it feels like getting snapped by a bunch of elastic bands. Well, that sounds awful. I'll stick with waxing thank you very much. Until....
We received an email inviting us to try out pain free laser hair removal, courtesy of the shiny new Thérapie Clinic in Glasgow which opened in October last year. Pain free? I was skeptical.
Out of curiosity I asked them to expand on the pain-free aspect and I was told that, unlike IPL, the laser hair removal process used by Thérapie is indeed pain free as the lasers are more targeted so the old fashioned elastic bands snapping on your skin sensation is all but eliminated.
I decided to give it a go. What's the worst that could happen? I get zapped, it hurts and I don't continue with the treatment.
The Treatment
I admit, sitting in the waiting room I almost bottled out of it about 5 times but then I was greeted by Fiona, the Manager and Heimen, my Therapist, who took me through the whole process step by step. After being talked through what was going to happen. I was much calmer and never felt pressured at any point at all.
So what's involved with the actual treatment?
The area you are having lasered is cleansed and a cold gel applied. Heimen drew a little grid on me of where she was going to be directing the laser, talking me through each step as she did it. It was then time to apply the laser. By this point I was just about hyperventilating and she hadn't even done anything yet! (did I mention I'm a total wimp?). But I put on my big girl pants and told her to fire up that laser and zap me.
The laser has a freezing cold tip which touches the skin directly. This chills the skin preparing it for the laser, which heats up to about 50 degrees. When the skin is suitably cooled, Heimen then switches on the laser. You feel a strange cold and hot sensation simultaneously. You are asked to grade the feeling between 0 - 5, with 5 being too hot. The aim is to hover
around the 2 mark. Your Therapist will constantly ask you how each zap feels and if it ever gets too hot, she stops and cools the skin down again. But is it pain free? Mostly yes. I only experienced one 5 which was during my patch test which, to be honest, gave me more of a fright than actual pain, but the actual treatment was entirely pain free. Result!
Thérapie use high end, medical grade lasers and you will normally need about 6 treatments, unlike IPL where you need about 12 treatments. You might wonder why you need multiple treatments at all. It's because the laser can only work if the hair follicle is attached to a blood
supply. Since the growth cycle of each hair is different, only some are attached to a blood supply at any given time. Therefore in each treatment you might get around 20% of the hair, so you need several treatments to ensure all the hair is zapped.
Why choose Thérapie
So what makes Thérapie different? Well, apart from using pain free lasers, the other reason is cost. Therapie believe in fair pricing. And it is very fair. For example, getting your top lip lasered will normally cost you around £600 however with Thérapie it will only cost you £114. That makes treatment a very real option for many people who would otherwise have to discount it. This is especially valuable if you have PCOS and other hormonal issues causing
unwanted hair, as the NHS no longer offer patients hair removal. Excess hair caused by hormonal syndromes is distressing, so for Thérapie to offer a very affordable option is incredibly valuable.
So I have to get another 5 treatments, each 4 weeks apart. I will of course be reporting back on the final results!
