I would say that laser hair removal 100% failed for me and was a waste of money, unfortunately. Am I upset? Somewhat. But at least I had the balls to try to better myself for once.

So the real reason I’m updating this blog is because tomorrow I’m hitting an electrolysis center up and having an experiment done on my upper arm(s). I’m going to be testing both the blend and thermolysis methods in a small area on both of my upper arms. The goal here, is to see if this small area shows any lasting results after a few months and to see how my skin reacts.

I have high expectations for electrolysis, unfortunately, because it is the ONLY method that is approved as PERMANENT hair removal. I don’t expect my arm to be hairless in the treated area, but I do expect some noticeable, lasting results if this technician does this properly. For the record, I’m in NH and having this done at a center here. I haven’t had much luck linking up with any electrolysis places in the Miami or South Florida area, so if you know of a recommended person down there, I’d love to know about them since I’ll be heading back down to Miami in a month or two.

BTW, the rate for the electrolysis here in NH is $62 an hour. Not bad at all, since I was paying $1000 for my arms and legs in Miami and that did absolutely NOTHING in the long term. Not sure what the going rate in Miami/Ft Lauderdale/South Florida would be, but I’m guessing it’s probably going to be higher.

Wish me luck, please! I’ve been really disappointed and self conscious with my hairy arms over the past 2 years, so I’m going to need all the luck I can get here! Crossing my fingers. Again….

Update: I had a short electrolysis session this morning to test it out and see how it compares to laser. Electrolysis, it turns out, is much less painful than laser hair removal. It’s not like being snapped with a rubber band every few seconds. This applies to both the blend and flash thermolysis methods. It is much slower, but thermolysis is still surprisingly fast. I had a quarter sized area cleared in 15 minutes with thermolysis and a nickel sized area cleared in 15 minutes with the blend method.

I was very, very stressed out about the hair situation this winter. I went up north for a couple days back in February on a ski trip and went down to NYC back to Romeo and Juliette Laser Hair Removal to see Chris before heading back to Florida. He understood my situation and really wanted to help me continue my laser hair removal treatments. He gave me a great discount because he just wanted to help and try to make this work for me. So I went back in and had my full arms and full legs done again. I realized that I didn’t have my real digital camera with me before I went to shave, so I ended up taking these photos from my iPhones. In these pictures it has been about 6 and a half months since my last full arms/full legs treatment.

So now its been exactly 6 weeks since I had this last treatment with Chris at Romeo and Juliette. How have things been going? Well, first of all it was fantastic to be lasered again and be completely hairless. I can’t express how much greater I feel about myself and how much better I think it looks. My mind was really screwed up because of the hair. I know it seems crazy, but it’s true. Sad, but very true. The downside, as I’ve begun to remember, is the itching associated with the hair growing back! Hair is starting to grow back now and my legs are itching like crazy! I believe that because I hadn’t had laser hair removal in a while, that the hair is not growing back as thin and light as it was before after, say, the 3rd or 4th treatment. So the “pricklyness” is pretty bad right now! I’m really debating whether or not I should shave my legs. I know if I do I will have to keep at it or go back to NYC for more treatments and avoid having to do it for another 6 weeks or so.

I am going to make an effort to do at least another couple treatments this spring/summer and see how everything is going. I am especially concerned about my arm hair at this point. At first it was my leg hair, but then the laser hair removal did actually seem to improve my legs a bit, even after 6 months, but now I’m really stressed and concerned about my arms. So I am definitely going to listen to Chris and try to pound away at my arms and hope that we see some improvements. I’ll figure out what to do about the legs again shorty.

Things are getting very interesting and I’m still hoping for the best even though I know its going to take a while before I will be able to see how things are really going in the long run. Chris at Romeo and Juliette has been great and its great to know hes out there to really try to help me instead of just making a buck.

So I will have more info and updates in the next couple weeks since I’m due for another treatment soon!

These are the pics on February 26, 2009 before my first laser treatment in 6.5 months.

I’m incredibly disappointed and discouraged. I’m really not sure what to do at this point. Do I keep having my upper arms blasted away and hope that the lasers actually have a long term effect? Do I stop now and cut my losses? Do we go full blast at these things and hope that they get better after 10+ sessions or so?

I don’t know what to do. And on top of it all, this recession is hurting everyone. I’m not so sure I want to invest $1,000 per session anymore when the long term results aren’t looking so promosing. Do I try to get some sort of guarantee or some sort of package to drive the price down? I’m in Florida currently, and I noticed that the recession hit South Beach hard, and the Dermacare laser hair removal location I used to go to closed. I’m not so sure that I would go back there anyways, seeing how they seemed to have used improper millisecond settings on the lasers that I became aware of afterwards. I’ve been looking for places down here with the GentleLASE machines, but haven’t found anything that looks to great. So, should I fly up to New York to go to Romeo and Juliette in NYC?

I’ve been very, very stressed out over this situation for the past two months. I really can’t believe that I have the growth that I do on my upper arms now. I had to trim everything down with my Norelco BodyGroom the other day because it was so embarassing to me. I get very bummed when I look at my arms these days and think about how great they looked last spring and summer with little hair. My legs aren’t as bad, but it looks like they might be back to the way they were in another month or two.

What is wrong with me? Am I really this resistant to laser hair removal? Do we just need to use much stronger settings to make sure things actually work for the long term? You can tell I’m confused at this point.

I will update this post and upload pictures soon. Until then, anyone have any suggestions or insight?

I think I need to go back for more sessions SOON and continue to hammer away at the issue for the next couple months and not let up for 4 months at a time like I’ve been doing.

Click the images for a larger version.

The big news about this treatment is that it may be my last laser hair removal treatment in New York City for some time now. I’m headed back to Florida for the winter so I may end up going back to Dermacare South Beach for my treatments. Although, I’m a little hesitant now after going to Romeo and Julliette and getting great service and having laser techs who know their laser settings. I’m still a little confused as to why Dermacare used such a high millisecond setting during my treatment. I’m extremely happy with Romeo and Juliette after going there three times now.

So how did my fifth laser hair removal session go? It was quick. Just having your upper arms done only takes about 15 minutes. I was in an out of their office in probably 25 minutes. It only ended up costing me $150 too – $900 cheaper than having full legs and full arms done! The laser tech did a great job and we ended up using 18 joules, at 3 milliseconds with a 15mm spot size.

I had a few other things to do in NYC this trip so I didn’t get to go home and take pictures after this session. I still haven’t taken pictures but I will be sure to do so tomorrow and post them along with some more photos of my lower arms and legs, as I’m interested in documenting everything, every week now, to see if things get much hairer or not!

My upper arms definitely have hairs that need to be taken care of but the hairs are pretty thin. They may be somewhat dark but they’re thin enough that I’m not freaking out over them. (If they were dark and coarse like before I WOULD be freaking out over them.)

So I think I’m going to make an appointment for laser hair removal on my upper arms next week in NYC. This time I’m JUST going to get my upper arms done. I’m pretty satisfied with the results on my legs and lower arms for the time being. If, 24 weeks in, things start to get bad I will setup another appointment! But I think I’m done with my legs for now! The best part is that my legs were running around $700 a session so I’m going to be saving a ton of money now too! My upper arms should only cost around $150-$200 to get done this time. Additionally, this will be the last time I get laser hair removal before I go back to Florida for the winter. So if I go again, I will probably be going back to Dermacare in South Beach, where I went before.

I will keep you updated on things on a weekly basis again, with pictures, now that I have a nice new digital camera. Below are some pictures from from, 10.5 weeks after my 4th laser hair removal session. Click the pictures for a larger image.

I probably should have gone back last week or this week for another treatment but I’m going to hold off until 12 or so weeks like I did last time so I can see the results thus far. My upper arms are looking good, except for one thin horizontal line that they missed, so I’m not too stressed about going back at this point. All the hairs on my upper arms are very short, light and thin at this point, which is awesome!

My legs really only have a few hairs at all. Everything is still very light, short and thin at this point as well. The two small areas that they skipped (a cut) or missed last time don’t look that bad. I’m really excited about how good my legs look right now! Laser hair removal is turning out to be a worthwhile investment for sure….but it’s still a little early to really be claiming that until I’m 12+ weeks in between sessions.

I just went to try to tak pictures for the site and I think my digital camera is now officially dead. Sorry guys. Guess I need to get a new digicam or borrow someone elses for this week and/or next weeks update!

Until then, why not have a look through the archives going all the way back to February when I started my laser hair removal story?!

The more and more people I see visiting our site the happier I get about doing this blog. I want to help inform as many people as possible and with your help, I can succeed. Thanks!