Laser Hair Removal for Back & Bum: 35 Year Old White Guy :) - Prague, CZ

Ok, it's been a while. I'm quite terrible at updates, obviously. I've been continuing the treatments. After the 2nd treatment, I felt very comfortable with the whole process and after the 3rd treatment, no worries at all. Esthe is a great clinic and I've no terrible issues like burns or scars or what not. They are top notch. At first, I was going every 6 weeks. That quickly increased as the hair re-growth slowed, decreased. For a while it was every second month. And now I'm going about once every 3 months. So it gets more convenient with time. And more cost effective. $400/mo = not so nice. But spread that out monthly and now it's more like $130/mo. The only tiny first world complain I can make is that doing a back, with a prep of anesthetic gel, and taking breaks due to overheating of the laser machine (yeah, I'm that hot) :D takes about 3 hours. Not easy to think up excuses for work every time (I don't work in an office that would kindly understand me taking nearly half a day off for a vanity treatment) but since it's not once every 3 months, it's not so bad. All in all, I vote this as completely and totally worth it. My back is smooth and nearly hairless. I don't even think about it anymore and it's hard to remember what it felt like to be ashamed to go to the beach or the sauna or to be with a new lover for the first time and wonder if she'll recoil in disgust. It's a good feeling to have a hard time remembering what that fear felt like. The only thing that is still an issue is in my other posting, and I still haven't gotten a decisive consensus, is where exactly on the body to stop removing hair..? I had a hairy back. I have a hairy butt and hairy legs/thighs. Right now I have kind of a horizontal line halfway down my butt. :D Apparently, gradients are not really possible with laser so it looks like I will have to do my whole butt and then have hairy legs. Or maybe I'll end up doing my legs too... and then I guess it doesn't stop until I'm totally hairless :D Well, that's just me joking around. I enjoy my hair in other places, I'm just trying to imagine how it will look with a totally smooth butt and then hairy thighs. Maybe it's not so bad. Opinions welcome. :)

I admit to being a little bit nervous as I have read more than one horror story online about severe burns, scarring etc. And one thing I've noticed about Czech culture in my 11 plus years here is the way they can sometimes be a bit dismissive when you ask too many questions... so I was scared I would shuttled through, not listened to, have some "permanent" thing done to me and find myself back on the street with not a clue what just happened. However, I must say I was one of the lucky ones. I had a technician named Mirka and she was wonderful. Friendly and easy-going. She spoke English but not fluently and with my Czech skills we muddled by :) She was extremely thorough, didn't miss a single spot of skin. She did my back, shoulders, back of neck and top of my bum. As I have posted here previously, I was looking for an answer to the question "Can laser removal be gradated?" Specifically, can they fade the treatments down my back or will I have a smooth hairless back and then "hair pants" from ass down...? I spoke with her and she assured me she's done this before but this was the only place where she was a bit dismissive. Before I felt we had adequately talked it through, she did my bum in what I can only call pointillism. She was going for a dot matrix kind of fade, but my bum ended up looking a bit like a soccer ball! :D She even admitted afterwards she was not happy about the result. I suggested we do it in layers, going a few rows lower each time so there is a fade over time... she agreed and we will try that next time. I'm not worried about my patchy butt, I have MANY more sessions to go so I'm sure it will grow back. Other than that, it was a very smooth operation - I was covered in anesthetic gel (and very glad I chose that option! the very few times the laser hit outside the gel - the back of my neck for example - it truly stung) and Mirka did it all. I was intrigued at how strong the gel was. She did my back in sections, moving up and wiping away the gel as she went... so by the time she got to my shoulders I couldn't feel a thing! You could have stabbed my with a knife and I would not have noticed. However, generally I have very sensitive skin (Scottish blood = I don't tan) and I told her so. She noticed I had a very slight reaction to the gel, my skin got a little red and splotchy, but that all went away within a couple hours after the appointment. Today is day 3 afterwards, and I feel great and looking forward to the next steps. I was too busy to remember to take a "before" photo, but I will include a front pic to give you an idea of me and my body hair...

Hello all. I'm embarking on the mission of laser hair removal for my ever-increasing back hair. I don't have tons, but what I have is enough to make me shy about the beach etc. I'm American, with Scottish blood, and therefore I have dark thick hair and pale white skin. Apparently, I'm the perfect candidate for laser procedures. Further to this, I live in Prague, Czech Republic. This city is widely known for its plastic surgery and other aesthetic procedures so I'm feeling rather confident at this point. I have been doing loads of research and while there are some nasty horror stories out there, I'm betting on being a happy customer. For now.