Switching from Lightsheer to Soprano XL - Pasadena, CA

I'm pretty hairy, and I have olive skin - light for a mixed race person. The treatments I had 7 years ago with the Lightsheer machine were super effective! But "permanent" hair removal is is not truly permanent, so I needed some touchups.

I changed jobs so the med spa I went to before was no longer within driving distance, so I chose Elude Med Spa. I love them - they really have the customer experience part down! However, they use a different machine - Soprano XL - and I'm waiting to see if it's as effective as Lightsheer. Because it's so much cheaper than what I paid 7 years ago, I'm getting underarms done in addition to my touchups, so that's what I'll be showing on this post.

I bought a package of 6 treatments because it was on special. I had my first treatment a week ago and I don't see much difference in my underarms so far. While the old Lightsheer treatments made my hairs fall out in a day or two, it has been a week and 100% of the hair is firmly anchored, not even patchy. I can't really tell if there was some fallout in the bikini area because it was patchy before I started. I plan to continue my good pre-treatment habits by shaving/not waxing and not getting a lot of sun on the areas being treated.

A lot of people prefer Soprano because it's less painful. That was my experience too - doing the underarm area was a bit intense at moments but doing the bikini area was entirely pain free. My next visit is in July, so I'll post again then.

Now there's definitely less hair. I can see black spots in the follicles (?) but definitely not the kind of growth I would expect. This photo shows a pretty much hair-free pit and I have only shaved one time - a week ago - when normally I' d be shaving every other day. Pleasantly surprised!

Tiny black follicles are still there, but hair still isn't growing! I haven't shaved in 2 weeks, sothis photo contrasts the treated areas with the edges that went untreated. The untreated hair is maybe 1/8 inch - that's 2 weeks without shaving - so I guess it's working!