To be really technical, a good dermatologist uses totally different equipment for hair removal than for skin treatments - you need a system designed specifically for hair if you want to see fast and effective results. All this equipment is extremely expensive, I'd guess and I have heard of clinics that just tell their patients that one machine does it all. IT DOES NOT. So if you are getting a consultation from a doctor, a major question you have to ask is whether they are using different equipment for hair and skin. It's nice that your parents are willing to treat you to expensive cosmetic procedures, but I went through that when I was younger too - my mother had had electrolysis done for hair removal so she pushed me to do it, even though I felt I really didn't need it at all. It was painful, time consuming and it wound up enlarging my pores. I was just being pushed into something unnecessary. The modern treatment techniques out there are so much better, but honestly I will have to say that the IPL for my skin was not something to just go into lightly - your skin seriously needs to do some healing afterwards and you have to be extremely careful to stay out of the sun and religiously use sunscreen for the healing process - if you don't, you could wind up damaging your skin even more than before you had the IPL. So, it really has to be something you personally feel you need, not what your parents think. If there are genetic factors involved, there is a limit to what any procedure can do. A responsible doctor discusses your potential to be a good candidate for procedures like this - some skin types and skin tones really do much much better with any type of laser or pulsed light than others (ESPECIALLY for hair removal, but also for skin) and also, some people have more tendency to hyper pigmentation after laser treatments. That happened once to me years ago with laser hair removal and it took years for it to fade - I was not happy about it. The equipment is better now, at least, but before we did the IPL, I raised all of these issues with my doctor so that we decided on just the spot treatment as a test and he also kept the settings very moderate, to do everything possible to avoid the hyper pigmentation side effect. As I was saying above - you need to find a doctor that uses equipment specifically for hair removal if you're going to do laser hair removal. You have to question them carefully to get a straight answer about this. Also you need to see if your doctor is being honest about the relative effectiveness of laser hair removal for you personally. The people who do best with it are light skinned with dark hair. Any other combo has much lesser results, so it's not going to be as worth it, or quite possibly pointless. I had it done on my legs below the knees, underarms and face/neck and all I needed was 2 treatments each and didn't need a follow-up on underarms or face for a few years. I never needed a follow-up on my legs at all - and it's been almost 10 years! The underarms and face do grow back in at a faster rate because they are hormonally related areas. This is what I call excellent results and as my doctor is a dermatologist who has a practice that is heavily focused on medical dermatology, as opposed to mostly cosmetic, I felt he is very careful, conservative in his suggestions and understood that the the right equipment was imperative and didn't skimp on equipping his practice with the right machines. Five or six years ago I complained about that dark spot to him and he just laughed me off and told me not to worry about it, hehe. Now, he felt I was old enough that it was valid to go through IPL for it, but he would not do a full face treatment on me to start with, just the spot removal, to make sure there wouldn't be any problems and also because I could tell he felt my skin didn't need him to bring out the big guns yet, so to speak. I'm glad I didn't do the full face, even though I had great results, because it does leave your skin feeling sensitive in a hard to describe way and is a serious procedure not to be taken lightly. I will probably do it eventually, but I can certainly wait a few more years. Laser hair removal definitely can hurt pretty bad, depending on the area of the body. The underarms and upper lip are supposed to be the most sensitive of all areas. You need to make sure you are in the middle of your menstrual cycle when you get it done, for the least pain sensitivity. There are numbing creams they can give you a prescription for in advance you can put on an hour before your treatment. Also, the technician's ability helps a lot - the last time I had it done, I had a great gal, who was extremely experienced and she had a fantastic trick of putting an ice pack on a spot opposite to the spot she was going to zap. It tricks your skin into not focussing as much on the heat plus it sort of numbs the next area to be worked on a little too. It worked so well and I had less discomfort than I'd ever had before - she was great. I did find the IPL for my face somewhat painful too, but it wasn't on the most sensitive part of my face, so that was good. The skin where it was done is still sometimes a little sensitive around that time of the month - it's only been less than two months since I had it done, though. Technology is great!
MAC just be gettin over on this stuff sometimes....my hubby say.." Hell..all that stuff be lookin the same once its on your lips and face....you dont look no different than last month or yesterday girl" LOL! ..he say: women be lookin no different and just wasting money...plus YOU know makeup gets old?...mascara- ONLY 3mths , lipstick -3-4 YRS, Eyeshadows- 2-4 yrs....foundation and blush - 3 YRS....so really u wanna throw out you makeup stash after 4-5 yrs...it builds bacteria we cannot see....and it can create chemical reactions to your eyes and skin...ppl have all this makeup...throw it out after a while...so im trying to not buy so much and use what i have. just saying
