I recently went on holiday to Italy with my friend Grace and we
were both moaning about shaving our legs every few days. We both have quite
pale skin, and dark hair (yes, despite the fact I’m blonde-ish, well, more of a
mousey brown before it’s highlighted, my leg hair is actually darker than my
head hair). Therefore, even a little bit of leg stubble shows up straight away.
So, as we’re moaning about shaving our legs, and how much waxing hurts – and the fact that it doesn’t last up to 6 weeks I decided that enough was enough and maybe laser hair removal or IPL on my legs was a better idea? Sure it’s expensive, but over a lifetime, must be cheaper than waxing and/or shaving anyway? The numbers…
Shaving from age 25-75 years, twice a week, so that’s probably 2 new razor
blades a month? Say £8 for 2 averagely good razors and shaving foam… over a
year, £8 x 12 months = £96 x 50 years… you’re looking at £4,800! I’ve double
checked my calculations, and that’s actually correct! Then there’s the time and
effort of shaving your legs, the annoyance when you nick your leg, or you’ve
missed a patch.
Waxing for 50 years… imagining your waxed legs do actually last a while, let’s say a month for the purpose of this calculation. A full leg wax is usually about £25, over a year, £25 x 12 months = £300 x 50 years… £15,000!!
6 sessions of laser hair removal or IPL for full legs is around £1,000 – and pretty much permanent hair removal, from what I’ve read up, you might have to have the odd top up session throughout your life – but it’s pretty much a fuzz free life.
Having worked these astronomical figures out for hair removal, and comparing with the costs of laser hair removal it seems a no-brainer to choose the permanent option. The upfront cost does seem a lot, but working that out over a lifetime of hair removal you’re quids in. Buying your laser hair removal in courses seems to be cheaper at all clinics, so save your pennies and buy it in one hit - paying per session seems around 15-20% more expensive than buying a course.
What clinic should I use? I think one of the most important things about choosing where to have your laser hair removal isn’t just finding the cheapest place, look for clinics rather than beauticians and always look up reviews. You should always be given an assessment and a patch test before any laser treatment, if this isn’t offered – walk away, you might not be suitable for the treatment and you don’t want to damage your skin.
Once I’ve had my first treatment I’ll post up some pictures – may not want to see my fuzzy legs, but that’s the sort of blog post I love to read! Not sure yet if I’ll be having IPL or laser, during my consultation the clinician will decide which is best for my skin and hair type.
Laser hair removal works by delivering a specific wavelength of light to the hair, heating the hair follicle to reduce hair growth. The technology uses lasers of different wavelengths of light to target melanin under the skin and selectively heats the follicle, damaging and stunting hair growth whilst not affecting the surrounding skin. Whereas IPL (intensive pulsed light) is a high energy, broad spectrum light which is delivered to the skin in a short period of time. When the light energy hits the hair follicle, the energy turns to heat which vanishes the hair follicle. After 3-4 cycles all follicles in the targeted area will be destroyed permanently.
I’m booked in to DestinationSkin for my leg laser hair removal/IPL, I’ve been to one of their Clinics before and had a facial treatment which I was really impressed with (read my review here). DestinationSkin is a national chain of registered clinics specialising in non-invasive, advanced technological treatments for anti ageing, permanent hair reduction and skin concerns. They’ve been around for over 10 years, and had really great reviews with the slogan “bringing Harley Street treatments to the High street in conveniently located clinics nationwide”.
So, as we’re moaning about shaving our legs, and how much waxing hurts – and the fact that it doesn’t last up to 6 weeks I decided that enough was enough and maybe laser hair removal or IPL on my legs was a better idea? Sure it’s expensive, but over a lifetime, must be cheaper than waxing and/or shaving anyway? The numbers…
Shaving from age 25-75 years, twice a week, so that’s probably 2 new razor
blades a month? Say £8 for 2 averagely good razors and shaving foam… over a
year, £8 x 12 months = £96 x 50 years… you’re looking at £4,800! I’ve double
checked my calculations, and that’s actually correct! Then there’s the time and
effort of shaving your legs, the annoyance when you nick your leg, or you’ve
missed a patch.Waxing for 50 years… imagining your waxed legs do actually last a while, let’s say a month for the purpose of this calculation. A full leg wax is usually about £25, over a year, £25 x 12 months = £300 x 50 years… £15,000!!
6 sessions of laser hair removal or IPL for full legs is around £1,000 – and pretty much permanent hair removal, from what I’ve read up, you might have to have the odd top up session throughout your life – but it’s pretty much a fuzz free life.
Having worked these astronomical figures out for hair removal, and comparing with the costs of laser hair removal it seems a no-brainer to choose the permanent option. The upfront cost does seem a lot, but working that out over a lifetime of hair removal you’re quids in. Buying your laser hair removal in courses seems to be cheaper at all clinics, so save your pennies and buy it in one hit - paying per session seems around 15-20% more expensive than buying a course.
What clinic should I use? I think one of the most important things about choosing where to have your laser hair removal isn’t just finding the cheapest place, look for clinics rather than beauticians and always look up reviews. You should always be given an assessment and a patch test before any laser treatment, if this isn’t offered – walk away, you might not be suitable for the treatment and you don’t want to damage your skin.
Once I’ve had my first treatment I’ll post up some pictures – may not want to see my fuzzy legs, but that’s the sort of blog post I love to read! Not sure yet if I’ll be having IPL or laser, during my consultation the clinician will decide which is best for my skin and hair type.
Laser hair removal works by delivering a specific wavelength of light to the hair, heating the hair follicle to reduce hair growth. The technology uses lasers of different wavelengths of light to target melanin under the skin and selectively heats the follicle, damaging and stunting hair growth whilst not affecting the surrounding skin. Whereas IPL (intensive pulsed light) is a high energy, broad spectrum light which is delivered to the skin in a short period of time. When the light energy hits the hair follicle, the energy turns to heat which vanishes the hair follicle. After 3-4 cycles all follicles in the targeted area will be destroyed permanently.
I’m booked in to DestinationSkin for my leg laser hair removal/IPL, I’ve been to one of their Clinics before and had a facial treatment which I was really impressed with (read my review here). DestinationSkin is a national chain of registered clinics specialising in non-invasive, advanced technological treatments for anti ageing, permanent hair reduction and skin concerns. They’ve been around for over 10 years, and had really great reviews with the slogan “bringing Harley Street treatments to the High street in conveniently located clinics nationwide”.
You can read up on laser hair removal here,
as well as view some before and after pictures.
