Hairless Wonders

It was last Autumn when my coworker was sharing that she was going into town to have laser hair removal treatments once per month.  She said, it’s much cheaper than in the states and not painful at all.  She is a very petite woman and goes in for 30 minutes now that she is close to the end of needing treatments.  I was astounded and very honestly interested in finding out more.  After a couple of months, another coworker had started doing it as well and reported a similar experience.  No pain and very reasonable cost.

Not for this:

 

 

But you get the idea…

Imagine, not having to shave…ever again.  Ok, maybe now and then and going in for random touch ups maybe a couple times per year, but still, how awesome would that be!?!  Now, before you think it isn’t a big deal….I have to say, with my Italian and Czech body type, there’s a lot of hair.  Many women don’t have to deal with it daily like I do.  Yes… DAILY!  I have to shave my legs every damn day and after 30-ish years, I’m tired of it.

So, after six months of putting it off I finally scheduled my first appointment last month.  It was for armpits and face, yes I get a stache.  I’m Italian!   I wanted to start with a small area first.  When you walk in from the elevator you have to remove your shoes and they have slippers to wear, as is custom in Japan, and a very feminine cute little bathroom, if needed.  Then off to the table for the treatment.  It was pretty quick and incredibly not painful at all.  Felt like quick little pin pricks, honestly the burnt hair smell was worse than the feel.  The first visit was discounted (1,000 yen – $10)  so the cost was only about 3,500 yen..appx $35.   Not bad right?  I did some research online and most U.S. prices start at $100 for the smallest, easiest areas and the higher end treatments are around $1,000 and up.  Walking home I was so happy, finally starting my path to being somewhat hair free.  Whooopeeee!

I went for round 2 last week, this time going big because I have to wait till September to do the pits again so I scheduled the legs for August.  I’ll admit to be a bit nervous about getting both legs entirely treated.

1. How long will it take?
2. Will some areas actually hurt?
3. How far up the leg do they go?

All legitimate questions, the time thing was a bit over 2 hours altogether.  I say altogether because there was a miscommunication (I don’t speak Japanese) when I scheduled it and they were only going to do the knee up.  So, half way through we set up another appointment for later the same day for the lower legs.  There was really no pain, the inner thigh was a bit sensitive but nothing major, certainly nothing compared to a tattoo.  Number 3 was my biggest eyebrow lift.  When they point to the thigh what exactly does that entail?

I’ll admit I pulled out the granny panties for this visit.  Not sure what was going to happen I wanted to be prepared to be as discreet as possible, it is Japan after all and I am a bit shy. (Shhh Shirley)   Well, they took that laser as far up as my granny panties would allow.  I’ll leave it at that and let you draw your own conclusions.

I had two girls tag teaming, one for each leg and only one laser gun (for lack of a better word) so one would shave – oh they have these cute little electric razors they use  !  – great for thin Asian hair probably, not so much for mine so it took a while.  You have to go in with stubble so they can see where to laser, so one shaved while the other worked the laser then they switched.

Funny side note, they asked a few times if I was going to watch the fireworks on Saturday, not sure what the big deal was but they truly wanted to know if I was going. haha

After the first part I went shopping to kill time waiting to go back for the second sitting.  When I returned they had a cup of cold tea for me and went to work.  The laser on the shin bone was probably the most sensitive of all of it but still not a big deal.  Definitely tolerable.  At this point one of the girls commented that I was strong that there was no pain for it..haha well yeh I pointed out my tattoo and she said ah hai.  Oh and before, during and a bit after they apply these little ice packs to calm the skin down.  🙂

The second hour or so had both legs completed, they said thank you and please ice when get home and put lotion on and ok to shower first but only tepid water.  Ok, no problem.  One of them walked me the short …seriously maybe 5 or 6 steps…to my shoes and the elevator, waited till the elevator opened for me then said thank you very much (in Japanese) and bowed very deeply as I stepped in the elevator.  (they did this the first time too) It’s such a nice sentiment, just showing thankful for your business.

That evening my legs looked like this:

 

 

 

 

 

It didn’t hurt but for about two days I had very inflamed legs, looks like I had some crazy disease.

The cost for this visit was higher of course, much more to do.  It was 24,000 yen, appx $240.  Which oddly enough was exactly how much yen I had in my wallet that day.  Weird right?

Still totally worth it if it means no more shaving after a few visits.  So, once a month I’ll be going in alternating between legs and armpits and by this time next year I should be done.

I love Japan!  I think next visit I’ll bring them some chocolates.

 

The business is V of B in Yokosuka, they have a website.