(1) Evaluate the experience of the technician actually treating you.
Ultimately you want to make sure the person treating you has at least 2 years of experience performing aesthetic laser treatments. Also, don’t fall for the “We only use RN’s or MD’s to do our treatments”. Just because they are an RN or MD doesn’t mean they have been properly trained or are experienced with aesthetic lasers. Burns or scarring can happen from anyone with little to no experience with laser treatments, regardless of their medical degree. Experience is most important when deciding who is capable of giving you the best laser hair removal treatments.
(2) Be cautious if there is a high employee turnover rate.
Unfortunately this industry typically experiences a lot of turnover making it very important to find a facility that doesn’t. If a facility has a high turnover rate you will typically end up with an inexperienced technician treating you. Some facilities will also limit their machines capabilities to prevent an inexperienced technician from accidentally treating you at the wrong settings, leaving you with burns or scars. This also means that an experienced provider in this facility cannot get to the proper settings that are needed for proper and great results. Some of the chains are notorious at this.
(3) Look for a company that is a member of the BBB.
Check for complaints with your local Better Business Bureau and check their rating. This will give you a good idea of their reputation and how they may handle things if an issue would arise.
(4) Check for reviews of the company on Google or Yahoo!
These reviews will also give you insight about the company’s reputation. It is usually pretty easy to spot a fake review, overly good or bad because it sticks out from the rest of the reviews. This is where using this along with your local BBB can help in giving you the whole picture.
(5) What lasers are being used?
Ultimately the laser is the most critical item in determining your results. As mentioned before even the most experienced technician can’t get acceptable results with an underpowered or limited laser. To ensure you are going to get a good treatment make sure you research the lasers being used. You want to look for a provider that has multiple lasers to be able to safely and efficiently treat all skin colors. The industry standard for laser hair removal are an Alexandrite(755nm) for lighter skin tones and an ND:Yag(1064nm) for darker skin tones. IPL (intense pulsed light) machines are not technically lasers, are usually too underpowered for laser hair removal and use mechanical filters to filter out all the light wavelengths that would be harmful to your skin type. If you are looking for permanent results don’t even bother with the at home machines. They don’t come anywhere near having enough power to provide results.
(6) Watch out for places offering life-time or long-term guarantees.
These are tactics used to sell you the same product at a much higher premium.
An actual example – I have seen the same package sell at 2 different places, both using the same machines. Package 1 – 6 treatments for $1750 with a life-time guarantee. This was after 50% off, signing a contract and a financing agreement. Package 2 – 6 treatments for $262.50 with no guarantee. This was after 25% off, no contract and no financing agreement.
The only difference was with Package 1 you are paying over 6 times the price for that guarantee which has fine print. The provider can determine when you have reached your maximum results and no longer will benefit from additional treatments. The guarantee becomes void if you miss or delay any appointments or any spacing requirements they may have for any reason (sickness, family emergency, travel, sun exposure…). With a reputable provider, unless you have a medical condition, it should never take a lifetime guarantee to achieve you maximum results. It is important to know and understand what laser hair removal is. Be involved in your treatment and never be afraid to ask questions.
(7) Beware if they have payment financing plans and contracts.
You should never be asked to sign a contract in this industry. This is only beneficial for a company that is trying to legally find a way to get out of providing you a service you paid for. For these services a financing agreement is also never a good idea. Once you sign the financing agreement the provider is paid in full for this and you now have a loan with a third party that doesn’t care how your treatments are going, only that you are making your payments. If you become unhappy with your services, realized you’ve been scammed, or have some other issue arise then you are stuck dealing with a provider and a lender. If you stop making your payments due to issues with your services, it will have an impact on your credit history, just like not paying a car or home loan.
(8) They should require a consultation and ask questions involving medical history, sun exposure and hair color.
In a consultation they should cover the following. Any company treating you should require you to provide your medical history. This information is needed to ensure there are not any contraindications with the services being provided. Some common ones would be tattoos in the area to be treated, Keloid Scarring, taking light sensitive medications, sun or tanning bed exposure, or allergies to any products they may be using. Make sure a provider is informing you of requirements for laser hair removal. Such as, you are not a candidate if your hair is blonde, gray, white, peach fuzz or you have recently been tanning or have tanned skin. If the provider is not requiring a consultation and asking for this information do not let them treat you and find another provider.
(9) Which is the better deal? 25%, 50%, 75% or 96% off?
To make sure you are getting a good deal, you need to know a few things.
First, what is the starting price? This is why most companies don’t post their pricing. It allows them to play games with the numbers. On a lot of the “Deal” sites they can inflate their prices for that service showing a bigger discount which makes the deal seem better. Keep in mind also on all the “Deal” sites. Whatever you are paying for the deal gets split 2 ways, typically 50% to the provider and 50% to the deal site. So if you see a 96% off deal, keep in mind the provider will only get half of the 4% or less after processing fees. A company cannot survive taking a 98% discount on their services on a regular basis. You can expect to have difficulty getting appointments scheduled and long delays due to the high volume and significant overbooking in an effort to keep up with the overselling required at these deep discounts.
(10) Be cautious of companies that do not reveal their prices over phone or web.
These companies are usually the chains. The main reason they don’t give pricing before a consultation is to get you in a room with their professional, high-pressure sales person. The price differs for everyone depending on what they can get you to commit to before you leave. Their only goal is to get you to sign a contract that day and make their commission for the sale.
