From the comments, it seems I need to give more info on my laser hair removal experiment. I've been going to Pure Spa on 840 N. Michigan. They seem extremely competent and are very careful about how my skin is handling the treatments. I did say the upper lip smarted, but it's definitely MUCH less uncomfortable than waxing, to give you something to compare it to. If it hurt a bunch, I would be out of there. I don't really do pain.
As pointed out by Laura, yes, there are definite restrictions on who can do laser hair removal. Anyone on medication that makes them light sensitive is out (e.g. Acutane), if you're pregnant, etc. If you are very dark skinned or if your hair is very light it is hard because the laser cannot differentiate skin from hair. The ideal candidate is super pale with super dark hair. And that is a girl I feel sorry for.
No, electrolysis and laser hair removal are not the same thing. Electrolysis is a much longer, and more painful process. I should know as I've done electrolysis too. Full disclosure: I am really hairy. Or at least I used to be before all these fun hair removal processes. I have PCOS which leads to lots of unwanted facial hair. I used to have MANY dark and coarse hairs on my chin. It was embarassing. I was probably plucking out 30 hairs a day. This was about 10 years ago. My parents agreed something needed to be done. We looked into laser hair removal, but ten years ago the technology was very new and wasn't proven and my dad isn't into anything that isn't fully proven. So we went with the age-old, tried and true method of electrolysis.
Laser hair removal works by zapping a laser onto an area of skin and the laser goes down and kills the roots of the follicles (I am not an expert, this is just a very general understanding). Electrolysis works by sticking a needle into every follicle individually, and then zapping it with an electric shock to kill the root. If you look closely at your skin, there are millions of hair follicles in any given area, so this process takes a LONG time. It also hurt like crazy. It was like a needle being stuck in your skin over and over. I would put numbing cream on my chin and take ibuprofen before I went. It was also super costly. I paid about $60-100 per session and went weekly for FOUR YEARS. And that was just to do my chin, no other area. And it wasn't a complete process, while my chin is dramatically better, there are still a bunch of black hairs under there that pop up. So for an almost cleared up chin, my parents paid, over 4 years: almost $20,000. And this isn't covered by insurance.
So as costly as laser hair removal is, electrolysis will cost you more, and definitely hurt A LOT more. Now, that said, I can say that electrolysis definitely worked. I'm still new to laser hair removal so I can't tell you if I'm cured or not. While I can't vouch for it's success just yet, I can say it takes less time, hurts less, and costs a whole lot less.
I go every 5 weeks, so it'll be a while before I get my 8 sessions in. So keep reading here and I'll keep you updated as I go along.
