Soprano Laser Hair Reduction Treatment

23/03/2009

"Everybody called me 'Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia' and 'Missing Link', Lee says. "Everything in my life revolves around when I can shave."

Lee says that's why he signed up for $7,000 worth of laser treatments at American Laser Centers.

"They were pretty much guaranteeing me that i was going to be hair free," says Lee.

After just six treatments, he couldn't go on.

"I was basically shaking [and] convulsing," says Lee. "I couldnt take the pain."

He says what's worse is that after all of the pain and the money, he still shaved every day... as much as he ever did... even in the areas hit by the laser.

When we first brought you Lee's story in 2008, Long beach plastic surgeon Marcel Daniels, M.D. was watching and offered a free consultation to Lee.

"Mark's problem is he was genetically cursed, I guess," says Dr. Daniels. "Certain ethnic populations certain people are born hairer than others."

Dr. Daniels is certainly familiar with laser agony... the pain for dark, hairy patients getting treated with older model lasers.

"We've had to turn the stereo up in the office," says Dr. Daniels. "You wouldn't hear them yelping while they're getting their treatment."

Dr. Daniels says newer lasers... like the "Soprano"... can be less painful.

According to Dr. Daniels, it delivers the energy differently, giving a more gradual heating of the hair follicle and making the treatment much more tolerable.

Dr. Daniels and his staff offered to let Lee test the Soprano Laser Hair Reduction treatment free of charge. Over five months, Lee had several treatments to his chest, arms, back and hands.

We checked in with him after his last treatment to find out how it all went.

"I'm seeing progress," Lee says. "What's happening is the hair is thinning."

On the day we got together, Lee told us he had not shaved his back or chest in over a week.

"I could almost go out in public like this and not feel like a beast the way I used to," according to Lee.

Lee tells us that his back and chest have responded to the treatment best, but also that his arms and hands are still a struggle.

The positive?

"I can go a whole day or two days and it feels smooth still," says Lee. "Day three, I'm starting to feel the 'spikeys' coming in."

As laser technician Susie Foster explains, lasers are rarely tried on the face or neck because it almost never works there 100 percent.

"They're gonna still have patches of hair," says Foster. "If they decide someday maybe they did want a beard or a mustache, they wont be able to. It won't grow in full for them. It won't look right."

So, Lee can can pretty much forget his dream of tossing the razor completely... but his verdict on the Soprano Laser treatment?

"It wasn't the miracle end-all to my hair problem but I can do the shave now in 5 minutes, compared to 20 to 30 minutes before," Lee says. "So I'm definitely thrilled with what's going on."

The treatment definitely isn't cheap. Dr. Daniels' office estimated the price tag for the treatment that Markus Lee's gotten at about $4,000.

Now that Lee's free trial is over, he's stopped going... Lee says that until he pays off the debt for the old laser treatment, he can't pay for the new ones.

SOURCE: www.myfoxla.com