Laser Hair Removal Costs

So now you’ve made the decision that you want to proceed with laser hair removal, but you’re trying to figure out how much it will cost you. Well, that depends on a number of factors, but one thing you should be perfectly clear about, it’s not covered by insurance, all of the money will come out of your pocket.

Let’s look at the individual cost factors.

Location: If you live on either of the coasts, East or West, in any of the “big cities” such as NYC or Los Angeles, your costs will be commensurate with the overhead of the salon; everything gets ultimately passed onto the consumer.

Affected body area: Some areas require more “delicate” treatment; face hair removal, your pubic area or your buttocks.

Amount of hair to be removed: This is self-explanatory; unwanted body hair removed from say your armpits, shouldn’t be as much as a full leg(s) procedure. It also may be different between genders; men tend to be, in general, hairier than their counterparts.

Number of sessions required: You should have a fairly good idea of how many sessions you will need at your initial free consultation, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise. Don’t pinch your pennies here; budget well for it. You don’t want to go through three sessions to find that for the fourth and final session, you ran out of money, resulting in an incomplete job. On average, 80% of individuals who undergo laser hair removal treatment require between 3 and 5 sessions.

There are several basic fee structures:

When you have your consultation, ask about how the salon prices their fees.

Flat fee: Fee based on an individual session or a package of session, regardless of the amount of hair or affected area.

Time-based fee: Fee of a fixed number of dollars per fixed amount of time (i.e. $100 for every 15 minutes). Depending on how efficient your technician is, and how much hair is to be removed, this might be reasonable.

Per pulse fee: Your cost is based on how many pulses (“zaps”) a technician must use to remove your hair. Each pulse takes about a second and can remove approximately 100 hairs at a time (between the size of a dime and quarter, depending on the density). The technician should be able to give you an idea of how many pulses it takes to clear an area. You should also know that different lasers have different pulse sizes, and the part of the body affected may dictate the laser used.

When it comes to minimizing the cost of laser body hair removal, be an informed consumer; ask the salon if they offer discounts for advance payments of treatments, or payment in cash rather than by credit card (since they’re assessed a fee by the bank). Every little bit helps.