Confessions of a Beauty Novice

I’ve never really been into beauty. I don’t keep up with the latest fashion trends. I wear the same makeup every day. I have the lowest maintenance hair style possible. I was unlike most of the job applicants at Satori Laser. I had no background in skin care, hair care or any other part of the professional beauty industry. However, I did have extensive customer service experience, and I needed a job as I had recently moved to Philadelphia. So, I applied to their job listing for receptionist.

Newly employed as a receptionist in a world I knew not much about, management insisted that I try at least a single laser hair removal treatment so I could describe to clients how it felt and what the process was like. I was skeptical about it all. I was a bit apprehensive that it would be painful, and not sure it’d see any difference after a single session.

Thanks to some unbalanced hormones and some unfortunate genetics, I had been plucking out coarse, dark hair on my chin and upper neck for years. I plucked on the daily and I always carried tweezers on hand in case I missed a hair and spotted it while in a public restroom. Sometimes, one particularly thick hair would become ingrown and I’d walk around with a bright red dot on my chin for months. It was the definition of a nuisance. So, I figured I’d take the plunge and see what getting a treatment to my chin and neck would do.

The process was relatively simple. I had to stop tweezing for two weeks before the first treatment. I didn’t want to walk around with a goatee, so I shaved for the two weeks while I was waiting. I applied SPF and walked on the shady side of the street to avoid sun exposure. I also stopped using the vitamin C moisturizer I liked as acidic skin products can set you up for irritation. These are the basics that I’d been informing clients of for weeks during my training.   

The day arrived when I could receive my first treatment. I lay down on the papered table and slid on the green protective goggles everyone must wear in the treatment room. My coworker, one of our licensed technicians, wiped off my makeup with a wet cloth. She shaved any hairs that were too long. For treatments to the face for women, it’s better to come in without shaving so the technicians can locate the hair easily.

I heard her calibrate the laser to the proper setting. She lifted the hose and lay the lens against my skin. She let me know she was going to start. I was ready. The first pulse went off. I felt a hot pinch on my chin followed by an intense cooling. The sensation was a little startling, but completely tolerable. She quickly placed her finger over the area which immediately cut any lingering discomfort. She continued on, each pulse of the laser making a stereotypical zapping noise.In a matter of a few minutes and 33 pulses later I had completed my first treatment.

The technician applied some clear aloe to the area. Admittedly the area did feel a little irritated, like a mild sunburn. When I popped into the bathroom to assess the damage I was a little red. Nothing too terrible. As promised the redness faded after a few minutes. To my surprise though, all that dark, thick hair was gone. It looked like it had never existed in the first place. The laser had eliminated it completely.

Two weeks later I noticed thick hair growing back in on my chin and neck. I was told that this wasn’t new hair, but the old hair still left in my skin shedding off. I exfoliated the area and gradually the hair began to fall out. Around the time I would have had an appointment, four weeks after my initial treatment, I noticed some new hair growth. It was so much finer and lighter than before. I was amazed that a single treatment made such a huge difference. To top it off I hadn’t had a single ingrown for the entire month.

I’m about five treatments in now. I’m getting close to the recommended minimum of six. I’ll probably need a few more than six because the chin and neck are hormonally related. Even so, the difference is night and day. Much of my hair has become baby soft and blond. I do have a few spots where some dark hair is still growing in, but the hair there has become so fine that it doesn’t get ingrown or cause me acne anymore.

It’s been completely life changing. This thing that used to control my morning routine has evaporated from my life. My skin is clear. The dark spots from constant plucking have faded. Satori Laser has made this skeptic a believer. If you have unwanted hair, laser hair removal is the solution.