Reason for 4 stars: really kind technicians, sensitive to client when it comes to pain and nakedness. Very trans-friendly. Never had an issue with payment and, at the time I started, had best deals I could find.
Outcome: i went here for 3.5 years (2017-2021) and had every part of my body lasered (full body package). Only received laser for the full 3.5 years. Full body package lasted a year and some change. It's important to note I'm white and have brown hair. Also important to note that I'm a transwoman and went on estrogen around this time, which subtly thins existing body hair over a few years.
FACE: Had full, thickish, brown facial hair growing consistently throughout, lip, chin, cheek, sideburn, neck. It's 2022 now. Light, wispy, short, blonde hairs have replaced my sideburn area. Barely anything on my lip or cheeks. Most of my neck is gone or light and wispy. I'm now having some (10-25) thin, weak, brown hairs growing slowly amongst my upper neck, chin, and cheek. They are quickly dispatched with a regular razor once a week.
TORSO: as I said above, I had thick brown hairs, though I was moderately covered with them on my torso. My chest hair is now completely unnoticeable, except for a few small nipple hairs. My stomach has a couple light brown, thin wispy hairs that aren't that noticeable and easily shaved, but I don't care as much anymore.
ARMPITS: these were an ouchie spot. I haven't shaved in over a year. There are a handful of very thin, light blonde-to-brown hairs. It'd be simple to shave them but they're so unnoticeable I don't bother.
ARMS/HANDS: I had medium-thick brown hairs fully, but not densely, covering my forearms and back of hand. Some little brown hairs on my upper arm. Except for the hairs that grew out around my forearm tattoos (which they can't laser over), I'm more hairless than almost everyone I know. Centimeter-long, white-to-blonde hairs, thin, and more sparse. Haven't shaved in over a year.
BUTT: I had light, weaker brown hair, fully covering my butt and onto my lower back. I haven't noticed it since finishing my time there. Reaching back now, I can feel some hair, but it's similar to my arms in thinness, etc.
LEGS: I had thick, darker brown hairs here before. Full coverage. I would impulsively pluck them as an anxiety thing and the roots were strong. Now it's similar to my face. Most of it is thin, light, wispy. Much more sparse. I haven't shaved in 4 months and there's 30-50 individual hairs that are a darker brown, longer than the others, but still thinner and with a weaker root (which makes shaving them effortless)
FEET: before I had a little bit of longer, light brown hair. It gone now.
GENITALS: For some reason, the hair here is more resilient. I had bottom surgery near the end of my time going here, so I received laser with both sets of parts. It was vital that the hair be fully removed from this area for my surgery, so I was doubling up laser with electrolysis (more permanent but 20x more painful). So my current results reflect a combination of electrolysis and laser.
Where electrolysis didn't touch, such as the triangle between the waistband and the genitals, the hair is much more sparse, but still fairly dark and long. The hair on the genitals themselves are mostly still dark brown, but sparser. Went from very thick, strong roots to moderately thick, with thin roots. The rest of my genitals that received laser and electrolysis that are no longer seen because I turned my outie into an innie, I obviously can't observe it anymore. But my surgeon cleared me for surgery and during my checkups, she hasn't mentioned anything about hair growing inside causing complications.
During these treatments, technicians were gentle when literally handling my genitals, before and after. Wore gloves for all of the treatments (and masks during the first several months of the pandemic; don't know about now).
Reason for 1-star reduction: in my 3.5 years there, they burned me once on my genitals. I believe it was done by a newer technician. The store manager called me a handful of times to check-in on me once I reported the burn. She gave me care instructions for the area and reduced my next session cost by a healthy amount. I still kept coming back.
Qualifications: it's been a year since I've been there and I lasted longer as a client than most of my technicians. I'm not sure why they leave, but it's important to note that the people you will be treated by are most likely not the people I was treated by, except the store manager, perhaps.
Even with those qualifications, the store culture, the technology, the outcome, and the costs, when I went there, are still great reasons for me to happily recommend Affordable Laser. read more