The only benefit that you get out of cell phone contract is that you can get your expensive phone at a discount price – but your provider will make up that discount a few times before your contract runs out. With laser treatment places it’s a bit different story. You actually do get a better deal on procedures – plus free (or significantly discounted) touch-ups for some time after that. Unlike cell phone providers that get you shafted either way you look at it, laser treatment places actually create a win-win situation for you and themselves.

Your benefits are obvious – you get a good discount, free or discounted touch-ups for up to a year or two and some nice perks if the place is good enough to provide them. The laser treatment place, in turn, gets their benefits – steady flow of your money for next 6 – 8 – 10 sessions, depending on your circumstances. Technicians get paid, place stays in business, everyone is happy.

You may think that the laser place is upselling you when they offer certain number of packages that you think you don’t need. In fact – you do. If you’re interested in math, here’s the breakdown. Imagine you want to do 6 sessions, but technician is trying to sell you a laser treatment package of 8 sessions. You think you’re better off getting individual 6 sessions at $1000 each than getting a lousy 15% discount on a package of 8. Here’s what math has to say:

6 sessions * $1000 = $6,000

8 sessions * ($1000 – 15%) = $6, 800

This doesn’t include tips or any other service surcharges, like shaving or pain numbing cream. Just pure laser treatment procedure pricing.

What do we see? We see that in case you buy into a package you get one session free and one with $200 discount – comparing to full price of a laser treatment session. Or you get two more sessions for just $800 more. For those same $800 more you also get that laser treatment place to call you when your appointment approaching. Follicles have to be hit at specific time periods, every 4 or 5 weeks, so if you miss your appointment by more than a week you significantly devaluing previous sessions. In addition to that, after your laser treatment is complete you can still come visit them for a free or significantly discounted (up to 60% off) touch up in case a hair or two pops up. Not a single laser place will do your free or heavily discounted touch up if you didn’t buy a package, they’ll still charge you – FULL PRICE of your laser treatment. So imagine you would do your 6 sessions and single touch-up during a year – and you already paying more than you would have got with a package.

Simply put – having a laser treatment package is more beneficial to you, laser treatment place and laser technician. Plus – and this goes offline – you get a bit more respect for knowing when to commit.

First and foremost: if you had a tan within last two weeks (or plan to get a tan in next two weeks after laser skin treatment) you shouldn’t be treated. Now, a lot of laser hair removal salons wouldn’t ask you or would treat you even if you did, but it’s your skin, not theirs. Of course you will be able to get your money back, but what good these money for if your skin will look 20 years older just because you were too busy to stop and think of consequences?

Second – if you have any kind of skin conditions or allergies you must let the technician know. The reason behind it is not to charge you more for different numbing cream (like some of people think), but to prevent a permanent damage of your skin. It may regrow or it may remain damaged, even doctor is unlikely to predict the outcome, so why risk it?

Third – if you have any other medical condition, you should ask if that might affect your treatment. Laser hair reduction and laser skin treatment are mostly medical, not cosmetical, procedures. Any laser treatment spa or laser hair removal center must operate under a medical supervision, you get skin soothing and numbing medication administered during the procedure, so you should think of it as a visit to a doctor – if you want a proper treatment.

There is a notion, quite noticeable in New York, less so in other places, that laser hair reduction and removal procedures are somewhat similar to hair styling. Like it’s something you can get between a tanning salon and a restaurant date tonight. Quite often it isn’t so, therefore being mindful about the consequences is greatly advised.

We highly recommend visiting a few spots, especially in New York, and provide your feedback. Feel free to tell us what worked and what didn’t.

1. What is my skin type?
Also known as Fitzpatrick skin type, it is basically telling how dark your skin is, its level of melanin and what settings the technician needs to use for your skin. The determination of your skin type is the first and most important step in any laser skin or hair reduction procedure, because almost all the settings are based on that. You might want to write down the type at each place you visit to see how they differ.

2. What is the laser treatment machine you plan to treat me on? Is it approved by FDA?
Depending on your skin type certain laser treatment machines will either burn your skin or just won’t do you any good. What you should expect is an explanation of the quality of treatment. There are many machines for each type of skin, so there could be a case when experienced technician can give you better laser skin treatment on the available laser machine than someone with three hours of the training on the best machine ever. It takes two (machine and technician) to get the best result, so keep that in mind.

3. What kind of pain should I expect?
Depending on the settings – speed, intensity and pain numbing gel applied before treatment your experience will vary. Note, however, that if it doesn’t hurt – you’re doing it wrong. There are, of course, cases, when laser treatment goes lightly on you, but it is not the rule. Your skin should give you some feedback, so if you are treated for the first three times and you don’t feel anything – chances are the technician isn’t killing follicles, but just burning hair on the surface. Which means you will keep coming back for treatments again and again.

4. What are the after-effects for this procedure?
Depending on the procedure, your skin type and amount of hair the after-effects could vary drastically. Ask and compare.

5. What if something goes wrong?
Ask what happens if you get burned (it is usually pretty obvious right away). Does the place have any cream or solution for burned skin? Will the doctor prescribe something or can they administer it right away? Things happen, so be cautious, pay attention to answers.

6. How many treatments should I get? What is your policy if I still have hair after these treatments?
Basically, the hair never goes away completely. After proper laser hair treatment the growth of hair is reduced dramatically and the remaining hair cannot be removed by laser anymore because it gets too light. However, some touch ups might be needed, depending on your individual skin and hormonal features. The way you will respond to treatments should tell your laser technician the outcome.

To conclude – please don’t forget that laser hair removal or reduction, laser skin treatment and other laser-administrered procedures can greatly damage your skin. It is in the hands of the technician who is treating you to give you either a smooth silky skin or burned and damaged one. You have to work with your technician to achieve the best results based on your individual skin features.

Actually, by spending quite some time on both sides of laser machine one could easily come up with things to ask. Think of it as of an interview. You are giving this specific technician your skin. Depending on how professional and knowledgeable they are your skin may look flawlessly great or desperately burning for next couple of weeks. Some procedures actually require the technician to give you a controlled burn, so you have to have trust in that technican. Go for a few smaller-scale procedures first, see how that works out.

Particular to Manhattan there are a few places where you really would pay almost nothing, but if you get just nothing in return – consider yourself lucky. This usually happens because of the business model these NYC laser spas are following. They hire one or two knowledgeable people, promising them everything and a kitchen sink. Then they hire a dozen off-the-street girls who undergo some vendor-based training (which would be a few hours at best) and around a week of sporadic hands-on training by those knowledgeable people. Whom they soon replace – in a matter of two-three months. In the next four to six months they keep treating clients, burning quite a few so that the spa is forced to either provide a money back or free sessions. Once the number of disgruntled clients gets high enough pretty much everyone is fired and the cycle starts again.

Most of these so-called “professionals” have little – if any – understanding of the actual physics of the procedure, therefore lacking the basic knowledge needed to determine the proper treatment. In oh so many cases in Manhattan the sale is made by receptionist who have no idea what exactly is that she’s selling. A lot of NYC laser spas and salons don’t let laser technician speak to prospective clients – because owners are afraid to loose clients to technicians’ side gigs. This rises mistrust between technicians and business owners to such a degree that technicians, in fact, do opt out for doing side gigs on owner’s machine. In these cases tips easily outweight salary while leaving owner totally unaware of the situation.

While not making any recommendations, the general advice here is if you find a laser technician that gives you a result you want – stick with her (or him). There’s plenty of laser skin treatment places in NYC so as long as that person is employed somewhere – you should be fine.

Almost on par with regular hair removal or reduction, comes acne, scar and pimple treatment and tattoo removal. These treatments are based on laser’s ability to penetrate the skin’s surface to get to the root of the problem. And while the actual effect differs in each treatment, the principle remains the same – laser either damages or destroys unwanted part of the skin and lets the body regenerate a healthy replacement. Similarly, laser beam damages the tattoo’s paint bubble contained in the depth of the skin and allows it to be washed away. Laser tattoo removal is fast, painless and yields great results. Similarly, laser pimple and acne treatment burns the root of the pimples’ out thus preventing them from reappearing. After just a few sessions, depending on how heavy the skin’s condition is, the skin may look almost flawless.

Another popular treatment is called smart lipo (derived from smart liposuction). This treatment, instead of actual painful sucking out of body fat, melts it out through the pores while stimulating the skin to rejuvenate. The result of the process is reduced fat while tighter skin and almost no need for recovery period. The procedure is minimally invasive (the small tube-like device is inserted under the skin) and is performed under local anestesia. Most doctors recommend smart lipo for people close to their ideal weight but still have some problematic areas that respond poorly to excersice, dieting and other methods of reducing body fat.

Not exactly the skin treatment, but still involves the use of cosmetic laser – laser teeth whitening. Using the argon laser to speed up the process of bleaching has become a more widespread technique, surpassing the use of arch lamp and chemical bleaching mostly due to reduced risk of heat or chemical burns and as generally more safe and accurate procedure. Since laser can target smaller areas the use of laser in teeth whitening process also preferred when certain areas are not responding to ordinary bleaching techniques.

Obviously, all of these treatments require different equipment, as different laser procedures have to be performed with lasers of various types, wavelengths and powers. Always consult with experienced laser technician or supervising doctor, since performing a laser procedure on a wrong equipment may result an injury to your skin.