My laser hair removal journey with Therapie Clinic

Hello my loves,

I hope you are all well!

So as many of you know I am currently receiving Laser hair removal from Therapie clinic and I have gotten a lot questions about the treatment ranging from the price, to the pain, and everything in-between! And all the questions I am getting are the exact same questions I had before I started the treatment myself.

I decided to do this post as a diary type entry because I think it'll really help for you all to see how the journey of the treatment is and what you can expect etc! I'll update this post after each session so check back for all the info!

First off though lets talk about me, my hair and I -

 hair removal has literally been the bane of my life and I am not exaggerating with this. Being a dark haired girl, my hair from my lashes, to my brows and my legs, is just off jet black and it is coarse and  grows at lightening speed - not to be T.M.I but I could shave my legs in the morning and have enough hair growth by 4 pm to justify shaving them again. 

I always laughed at those tans that would instruct you to shave your legs before application so you wouldn't have to shave them the next day when taking off the guide colour and remove your tan - I could literally NEVER not shave my legs the next morning if I was having legs out.

To add insult to injury I also have the most sensitive skin on my legs - I get shaving rashes all over my legs 90% of the time I shave, ingrown hairs constantly and I could never dream of using hair removal cream on my legs because the strong one for coarse hair would give me the worst rashes ever and burn my legs so badly.

Am I painting this picture well for you all?!

There have been many times I have planned to wear a dress and have had to change outfits last minute to cover my legs because of the shaving rash that has appeared - it has made me very conscious my whole life and it has gotten to a point where it was dictating my life which is completely ridiculous. I'm sure there are a few of you out there who can really relate to what I'm saying.

So at the end of last year I decided to bite the bullet and try Laser hair removal and I am getting three areas lasered - full legs, under arms and the bikini area, and it should take 6 sessions for full results to be visible due to the hair growth cycle and how the laser catches the hairs (it's all very science-y!)

The Consultation

 Before you start your treatment you do need to have consultation in Therapie where they will explain the scientific way in which Laser hair removal works which is extremely interesting and really helps you to understand it and they will also check your hair to see if you are a candidate for laser hair removal as unfortunately there are some people are not.

They will also go through some steps you have to adhere to over the treatment. Then you are booked in and assigned a laser specialist for the course of your treatment - they try to keep you with the same specialist which I think is great. Each appointment you have will be roughly 6 weeks apart.

Your guide for during the treatment 

• Before each session you need to make sure your skin is 100% free from fake OR a real tan (i.e. from holidays etc.) because the laser machine picks up on pigment and the tan will effect the results. 
• You also need to have shaved your legs minimum 24 hours before hand and wear loose fitting clothes (or have loose fitting clothes with you for after)  so as not to irritate the lasered area after the session. 
• There is also certain medication that you cannot take within a certain time before your treatments like ibuprofen so you need to take note of all these things as they are very important. 
• You can also cannot wax, tweeze or epilate the areas during the full course of the treatment.  

Session 1

*The Session:

On my way to my first session I was nervous about going in because I was apprehensive as whether it would painful or not - I have a decent pain threshold but for some reason in my mind I was expecting it to hurt in some way!

Thankfully it did not at all - more about that in a few minutes!

Upon my arrival to the Therapie Molesworth Street clinic (this is the clinic I attend for all my treatments but they have loads of clinics throughout the country) I was introduced to my therapist who is the lovely Sinead. 

The treatment itself was absolutely pain-free for me. The machine that Therapie uses is medical grade and the best that you can get and gives the best results which is called the Alma Soprano ice Platinum - it is the safest and most comprehensive hair removal available AND is apparently what the Kardashians use when they have been lasered.

To prep the areas for the laser your skin is mapped out into sections to ensure every single area is covered and then the lasering begins. You and your therapist will be wearing goggles for the treatment to ensure your eyes are protected. You are also advised to let your therapist know how painful the laser is each time and let them know if it goes to a point that it is worse than a small elastic band flick. For me though, I literally felt absolutely nothing, it didn't even register as a '1' on my pain threshold! The treatment in whole took about 40 minutes which was so quick and I felt I was in and out in no time.

As part of aftercare you will need to apply an Aloe Vera gel (which you get in Therapie) and an acid exfoliator that you will need to use also to maximize results.

*5 weeks later:

Your therapist will tell you to keep an eye on the hair growth over the time between your appointments and try gauge in percentage the reduction in hair growth - I have now noticed a 70% reduction of hair growth, some areas have completely not grown back over the past 5 weeks, there are only a few very small areas that have and these are predominately where my hair is lighter or not as coarse i.e. top of the legs and even with these areas the hair is taking a lot longer to grow back so it is amazing. I am literally OVER THE MOON to have results like this already! I honestly did not expect to see any results after the first session, I thought you would have to wait till session 3 so I am delighted and I cannot wait for my next session!

(this is picture of my leg showing the hair growth 5 weeks after my first laser session - you can see where there is a small amount of regrowth but a lot of the leg is completely smooth. This was after shaving 5 days ago.)

Session 2

*The Session:

So unfortunately for me those snow storms got me good and I had to reschedule my second treatment out in Newbridge because of the chaos with buses and the roads etc. but as always, when you call up Therapie with any questions or to reschedule they bend over backwards to help you in every way that they can.
For this session, as I had be tested for a stronger ( and quicker) laser strength during my first appointment that was what I would be getting today. This means that the treatment would be done faster in areas like my legs but I was also told it might be slightly more painful - but hand on my heart, it was absolutely not painful in any way, like the first session it was probably a '1' out of '10' pain.
One thing you might want to note though is relation to pain is that during your 'time of the month' the laser can hurt a little more as your pain receptors are heightened. So if you are someone who does suffer from a low pain threshold, I'd take this into account when booking especially if you're getting the bikini area done. 

*5 weeks later:

This time round I didn't notice any extra reduction in hair growth - but after seeing such a high reduction from session 1 I didn't expect to. Some parts where the hair had gone after the first session had started to grow back and then other new areas were not and this is all to expected and perfectly normal. Unfortunately I am some who is prone to ingrown hair (life is unfair) so I have to be extra vigilant with my exfoliating to make sure I avoid getting them and if I do, I'm under strict instruction to not pick them - which is harder than it seems so I'm trying to avoid them even popping up!

Session 3

*The Session:

So, unfortunately for my third session I had my time of the month and I couldn't switch the appointment because I was going away for my birthday the following week. But the silver lining to this is that I can give you guys a little more insight into what the pain was like. For me the pain wasn't excruciating - I mainly only noticed a heighten pain in the creases of my underarms, the back of my knees and then the bikini area. I would say the pain for me was maybe a 2/3 out of 10 - nothing unbearable but like I said before the pain would be similar to a small elastic band flick. The sections are over so quickly though that for me I can get through that small amount of pain easily.

*5 weeks later:

As the weeks went on I could notice some more areas growing back slightly but there was some areas that had indefinitely stopped growing hair at all and all of this is 100% normal. Under my arms there is now only a slight amount of hair growth in the middle section which is fantastic and then on my legs there are patches where there is no hair at all. If we go back to my evaluation 5 weeks after the first session I said I had a 70% reduction; I was made aware that most of the time that is due to the area being shocked and then the following sessions would have a more true reflection of the hair growth reduction. At the moment I would say I have a 40% reduction - and most of the areas that still have hair definitely feel less dense and coarse and I am getting longer without shaving still which is amazing.

List of Therapie Clinics

1. Therapie Clinic Dublin    

8-9 Molesworth St, Dublin 2

2. Therapie Clinic Dublin

52 Henry Street, Dublin 1

(Opening soon)

3. Therapie Clinic Dublin

Unit 151, Blanchardstown S/C, Dublin 15

4. Therapie Clinic Malahide

Main St, Malahide

5. Therapie Clinic Tallaght

Level 1, The Square, Tallaght

6. Therapie Clinic Liffey Valley

Liffey Valley Shopping Centre

(Opening soon)

7. Therapie Clinic Kildare

4 Edward Street

8. Therapie Clinic Wexford

19 North Main Street

(Opening soon)

9. Therapie Clinic Waterford

31 Barronstrand Street

10. Therapie Clinic Cork

17B Opera Lane 

11. Therapie Clinic Tralee

Lower Castle Street

12. Therapie Clinic Limerick

32a Cruises Street

13. Therapie Clinic Limerick

Crescent Centre

14. Therapie Clinic Galway

42 William St (off Shop Street)

15. Therapie Clinic Athlone

4 Fairview Terrace, Garden Vale

16. Therapie Clinic Sligo

40 O’Connell Street

17. Therapie Clinic Enniskillen

County Fermanagh BT74 6JQ

18. Therapie Clinic L/Derry

Carlisle Road

19. Therapie Clinic Belfast

36-40 Ann Street, Belfast, BT1 4EG

20. Therapie Clinic Newry

Canal Court, 34 Merchants Quay 

* To contact Therapie you can call 1890 650 750 or email hello@therapieclinic.com

I hope you guys have found this helpful so far, I cannot wait to share the rest of the journey with you!

With Love From,