I was wondering, for those of you who have gotten or know someone who has gotten laser for facial hair removal only, what is the range in prices (per session and overall), what was their facial hair and skin color, how many sessions did it take?

I have very dark brown/black hair and facial hair.

$150 a pop.

Going for session #12 next month (started Jan '13) and only a small handful of dark ones remain.   I get to have more electro for the rest, which are gray, red and blonde.  Wheeee!  Shoot me.

(waves)

Back from bannedville.

Chic I just had my 1st laser session today. I'm paying about $150, getting 10 sessions. Also paying $75 for laser on my hands and knuckles. 6 sessions. And $75 for laser on a few stray hairs on my chest and the nip. 6 sessions.

So about $2,400 total plus tax.

BTW: I was on a high end laser machine, even with 10% topical lidocain spray (enough to completely numb the skin on my face) and even with a micro spurt of cyro cooling after each 'zap' - it still hurts.

YEOW

Stretch a rubber band around two fingers, pull that bitch back 4" or so, and let it snap your skin, hard. Now imagine that 40 or so times on each side of your face. That's what it feels like.

I see nsome pretty amazing groupon rates for laser, I am trying for that myself, but many times it is a fraction of the cost.

Some of those groupons especially in the cities are enticing. The problem is, trying to actually get an appointment because so many people jump on those. And the quality of their laser machines might not be the best. Might is the operative word.

They all hurt like hell anyway. So whatever.

I pay $75/session (full face). The women who does mine also teaches it at a school. You can even get it done cheaper if you let a student do it, but I (and even the teacher will tell you) would not recommend a student doing your face. I've had 6 sessions and great success. (Have one more left if even that.) I still have some pesky white hairs that electrolysis is being done on.

These are Australian prices, $350 for full face and neck on some fancy top end machine with cooling fans and does more than just dark hair types? I forget the name. Then a new shop is opening 200km away from me that uses IPL? They are $200 for full face and neck, but I know nothing about them sadly. I have yet to begin due to income problems as a single parent of two, travel costs of 200-500kms each way.

Quote from: Sydney_NYC on July 09, 2014, 08:35:15 PM
I pay $75/session (full face). The women who does mine also teaches it at a school. You can even get it done cheaper if you let a student do it, but I (and even the teacher will tell you) would not recommend a student doing your face. I've had 6 sessions and great success. (Have one more left if even that.) I still have some pesky white hairs that electrolysis is being done on.

In NYC? That *is* cheapo What % of hair would you say was perm gone after the 1st session?

Quote from: Evelyn K on July 09, 2014, 11:22:52 PM
In NYC? That *is* cheapo What % of hair would you say was perm gone after the 1st session?

(It's in Queens.) The first session kills a lot of hair, and it takes about 10-15 days before the hair falls out, but you can keep shaving the whole time. (Some people can't shave the next day after a treatment if their skin is too sensitive, but I never had that issue with the laser. After each session you want to put to Aloe Gel on it. The good pure stuff. My skin gets more irritation from razor burn than laser.) After the first session, there will be some dark patches here and there, but easily 60% of the dark hairs were gone after that 10-15 days. It's really after the second and third sessions when you get to see a huge different. After the 2nd session I no longer had a 5 o'clock shadow unless more than a day went by. (Prior, I would start to shadow within hours, but it was never dense in the face, it was just dense underneath the chin.)

After the 3rd session I was able to go full time and sometimes even without makeup I would pass. Right before the next session (I do a session every 6 weeks), a little shadow would creep in on the upper lips and chin. After each session, this becomes less and less. I just had my 7th session last week and right now even though not all that was done has had a chance to fall out, I hardly have any upper lip shadow. I've seen cis-women with darker upper lips than me.

Once thing to remember is that it takes about 3 sessions to hit ALL the hairs at least once, but many of them will get hit twice in that 3 session range. The upper lip is the pesky ones that just don't want to let go, but the laser eventually wins. I've been told that the average needed is about 8-10 sessions, but some have needed up to 12 or more. A good technician will tell you when that's all laser can do and mine will tell you when it's time.

The other cool thing about the place I get it done, is that it is at a school and they get a lot of new equipment all the time. She's has used 3 different machines on me since I started and the latest one (was only a week old when she used it on me last week) uses an invisible laser that uses a different wavelength that travels deeper. (The other two used a laser you could see even with you eyes closed and covered.) She didn't even have to tell me, I could feel the different and the pain from the laser was deeper than before and a little more intense. (Not as bad as electrolysis.) But she also cranked it up pretty good as she knows I have a higher pain tolerance than most of her patients.

Yeah I'm worried about my upper lip. That one was *really* painful. Keep squeezing that foam ball!

60% right off the bat is perty good. I have dark hairs and light asian skin.

I noticed I have a tiny birth mark on the back of my hand that was hit. I'm going to bring whiteout next time and paint it over. Don't want to be lasering that into a malignant melanoma or something.

My sessions are supposed to be $125 for face and neck. The first one was half off. It's every 4 weeks with a free touch up 2 weeks after each.

They couldn't fit me in for a touch up after the first session and she only charged me $95 for the second... maybe because I didn't need as much? Or maybe they just factored out the cost of the missed touchup?

Each new area that I could start laser on would get 50% off the first treatment.

The laser she uses can go all the way to a pretty dark olive skin, but it still won't do light colored hairs.

I got a groupon deal for a package of 6 sessions for a total of $399, which they claimed was normally $1250.  I am four sessions in and am very happy with the results so far.  My cheeks and neck are almost completely bare.  The upper lip and chin have not been as cooperative, but in those areas I would say about 2/3 of the hair have gone away.  When I finish this deal I plan on switching to electrolysis to get what's left.

I'm curious to find out about the process,
keep us update
good luck! ♥

My laser place charged me $600 total for my first 3 sessions, and then it was $150 a session after that. Now that I'm down to only needing a session every 4 months or so, they're only charging me $125 per session.

Hair's basically gone after 9 sessions. Mostly what's left is transparent mostly-invisible browns, and completely invisible little blonde whispys.

I forgot to mention my laser place (after the 8 or so major sessions) switches to a $5 per zap fee to clear up whatever is left over.

When the technician is zapping you and you're squeezing the foam ball, and your toes are curling from the pain, and she cheerfully asks, ... "so, what made you decide to remove your beard?"

What do you say?

Quote from: Evelyn K on July 10, 2014, 02:02:30 AM
When the technician is zapping you and you're squeezing the foam ball, and your toes are curling from the pain, and she cheerfully asks, ... "so, what made you decide to remove your beard?"

What do you say?

"I'm actually trans."

"Oh, wow! You know, you're going to think this is crazy, but my ex-husband was actually trans."

"Really? Wow! So, man, you really know about it then."

"Yeah. But now she's a woman and we all know her as ______, and that's it."

"Well that's good to know."

"Yeah... and actually, when we first opened this laser place, we only really had a few occassional trans people in here, and they were mostly middle-aged, but now we seem to have more and more young trans people coming in with every year."


True story...

Quote from: Evelyn K on July 10, 2014, 02:02:30 AM
When the technician is zapping you and you're squeezing the foam ball, and your toes are curling from the pain, and she cheerfully asks, ... "so, what made you decide to remove your beard?"

What do you say?

I only do a full body twitch/shudder with about 40% of the pulses. The longer apart they are the worse. She usually does 10 back to back each time to make It easier. She would do more but the laser has to cool ):

I do hate when she asks questions... how am I supposed to respond!? If I talk my face moves and I'll wind up with a bald patch in my hair or a singed tongue...

Quote from: Evelyn K on July 10, 2014, 12:48:12 AM
Yeah I'm worried about my upper lip. That one was *really* painful. Keep squeezing that foam ball!

I use a 20% benzocaine and 5% menthol solution on my upper lip before laser, makes me talk funny (apparently not being able to feel your face does that) but it stops you from feeling pain and doesn't last very long. I hear many clinics will sell you lidocaine as well which should be longer lasting. Last place I looked it was more expensive though, my benzocaine and plastic wrap solution was less than $5.

Hehe.

Me: "iiIi CanT ttALK nOW pAIN..."

Yep.

I think I tested new upper limits in jaw clenching power to the dismay of my molars.