The Service
Laser hair removal.
Permanent hair reduction for every skin tone, anywhere on the body, right here in Utica. Pay as you go, and you'll know how many sessions to expect before you spend anything.
How It Works
Areas
Who We Treat
Your Visit
Care
Cost
Before & After
Questions
How It Works
The laser treats the follicle, not the hair.
The dark pigment in the hair absorbs the laser light, and the heat travels down to the follicle. A treated follicle stops growing hair, or grows it back finer and lighter. Shaving and waxing only take off the hair, which is why they never last.
Why several sessions? The laser can only treat a follicle while it's actively growing, and at any one time only some of the hair in an area is in that phase. Each session catches a different group. Most people need six to ten sessions, four to six weeks apart on the face and up to twelve weeks on the body.
We use the Cynosure Elite iQ, which has two lasers in one machine. The 755nm Alexandrite is for lighter skin and finer hair. The 1064nm Nd:YAG passes through darker skin without harming it to reach the follicle underneath, which is how we treat deeper skin tones safely. Its built-in melanin reader measures your skin before every session, so the settings match your skin that day, not a chart.
Because laser needs pigment in the hair, dark hair responds best, light blonde and red respond less, and white or gray hair doesn't respond at all. If your hair is a mix, laser clears the dark hairs and electrolysis takes care of the rest. We do both right here.
Where
Areas we treat.
Book one area or several in the same visit. Small areas take a few minutes; a full leg or back takes closer to half an hour. Laser also helps with hair growth from PCOS, menopause and hirsutism. It can't change the hormones behind it, but it can bring the growth down to where you stop thinking about it. There's more on that in the FAQ.
Lip and chin
Full face
Neck
Underarms
Arms
Chest and stomach
Back and shoulders
Bikini and Brazilian
Brozilian
Legs
Feet and toes
Who We Treat
Everyone is welcome here.
We treat women and men, anywhere on the body, including men's grooming like backs, chests and the Brozilian. We're LGBTQ+ friendly and gender-affirming, with a specialized focus on welcoming transgender and transitioning clients, and you're welcome here at any stage.
Because the Elite iQ has two lasers and a built-in melanin reader, we can safely treat every skin tone, all six Fitzpatrick types. Whatever your skin tone, laser hair removal is an option for you here.
Your Visit
What to expect.
01
The consultation, free
We look at the area, the hair and the skin, and you leave knowing how many sessions it should take, how far apart to space them, and what each one costs. Nothing is booked or paid on the spot unless you want it to be.
02
Before you come in
Shave the area the day before, so the laser's energy goes into the follicle instead of the hair above the skin. Skip waxing and plucking for four weeks beforehand, so there's a root left to treat. The full list is below.
03
The session
You wear protective eyewear, and the machine is calibrated to your skin before the first pulse. Most people describe it as a rubber band snapping against the skin. The Elite iQ cools the surface as it fires, which takes the edge off. An underarm is a few minutes. A full back or a pair of legs is closer to half an hour.
04
Afterwards
The skin looks slightly pink for twenty minutes to an hour. Makeup goes back on if you want it and you carry on with your day. Over the next week or two the treated hair pushes out and sheds. That can look like regrowth, but it isn't.
Pre & Post Care
Pre and post treatment care.
Before your session
Shave the area the day before. Do not come in unshaven.
No waxing, plucking or threading for four weeks.
No sun and no self-tanner on the area for two weeks.
Come with clean skin. No lotion, oil, deodorant or makeup on the area.
Tell us about any new medication, and any tattoos or moles in the area.
After your session
A cool compress helps if the area feels warm.
No hot tub, sauna or hard workout for a day or two.
Keep sunscreen on the area between sessions.
Shave whenever you like. Never wax or pluck between sessions.
Expect the treated hair to push out and fall out over a week or two. That is normal.
What It Costs
Pay for each session as you go.
No contract, no package to sign. You pay for each session as you have it, and you stop whenever you're done. If you'd rather prepay a course, that takes 10% off, and there's an interest-free payment plan if it helps to spread it out.
Why we do it this way: nobody, us included, knows exactly how your hair will respond until it's been treated a couple of times, so you shouldn't have to buy a lifetime plan up front. The price is set per session at your consultation, for the area you're treating, and you can stop after any session.
Have a written quote from somewhere else in the region? Bring it in and we'll beat it.
Compare the cost with shaving or waxing.
Shaving and waxing cost money every year for as long as you keep doing them. A course of laser is a set number of sessions. Pick your areas to see both totals.
Your age: 35
What you do now
Areas
Our Own Work
Before & after.
Before and after photos of our own clients. Results vary from one person to the next.
Forearm
Chin and neck
Underarm
Thigh
Chin
Bikini line
Jaw and neck
Beard area
Chin and neck
Good to Know
Laser hair removal questions.
Is it really permanent?
Mostly. Most treated follicles stop for good, and the few that come back grow finer and lighter. Hormones, pregnancy or age can also wake up follicles that were never treated, which is why some people come back for a touch-up session every year or two.
Can I shave between sessions?
Yes, shave as much as you like, and you'll find you need to less and less. What you cannot do is wax, pluck or thread, because that pulls out the root the laser is aiming at.
What if I have a tan?
Naturally darker skin is no problem at all. The Elite iQ treats every skin tone. A fresh tan or self-tanner is different: come in at your natural color, so give it two weeks clear of both. Otherwise we'd have to go gentler and you'd get less from the session.
Will it work on blonde or gray hair?
Gray and white hair, no. There's no pigment left for the laser to find. Blonde is often a maybe: a lot of people with blonde hair on their head have darker hair under the arms or on the legs, and that responds well. An easy way to tell is to shave and look closely. If you see tiny dark dots where the hairs were, there's pigment to work with. Anything laser can't reach, electrolysis can, and we do it right here.