1 APRIL 2012: I've included this in the FAQ section for the sake of urgency.

Apparently there is a mobile operator claiming to work for a company (I won't name it here) with 30 branches in Brisbane (this is definitely a lie), who are performing treatments once a month in Central Queensland.

I became aware of the problem through clients of mine whose friends were left with third degree burns.  To date there have been five cases in Biloela, three in Gladstone, one in Blackwater, and two in Emerald, and these are only the ones I've heard about.

It definitely is not normal to be left with third degree burns after a Hair Removal treatment.  To put that statement in perspective, a Reef therapist gave a lady a small blister burn the size of a pea in 2007 at our Mt Gravatt store in Brisbane.  It was superficial and healed in three days.  In the 125,000 treatments at our 9 branches that we performed since, we have not caused so much as a minor blister, and in our entire history, have never caused a third degree burn.

The notion that eleven major burns in one month is 'normal' is absolutely ridiculous.  The operator is dodgy, untrained, and dangerous - There is no other possible explanation. 

Ideally yes, as you will find it more comfortable to shave in the shower than for us to dry shave you in the treatment room. 

It also lessens the amount of time you'll spend on the table, and allows us to keep our prices affordable.

Something to be wary of when shopping around for pulsed light treatments are machines that require you to shave 2 to 7 days before the treatment. 

Without naming brands, such machines are low powered and rely on visible hair to channel the light to the root, which tends to "sizzle" the hair above the skin.  Ouch.

This is another difference between old and new pulsed light units.

NO - DEFINITELY NOT!!

Hair removal creams are keratinocytes, ie they kill keratin cells.  Keratin is the substance in hair that makes it solid.  By dissolving the keratin, the hair becomes goo and wipes off.

Unfortunately, keratin is also the substance that makes skin solid.  Hair removal creams destroy keratin indiscriminately, which means your skin is left extremely vulnerable.

Skin in this state means that a pulsed light treatment can have an anomalous result.  It could cause pigment marks, skin burns, blisters etc, and for that reason we won't perform a treatment.

If you've used hair removal creams or sprays, we need you to wait a minimum of one month before your treatment.

No, this is a myth invented by mothers long ago to stop their teenage daughters shaving their legs.

Hair growth is driven by hormones and nutrients at a cellular level, not by cutting off hair above the skin that is already dead.

The optimal space between treatments is 28-35 days for all body areas.  Facial hair can be treated every 14 days as it grows much faster than hair on the rest of the body.

It is important that you keep to this schedule as closely as possible for two reasons:

- Most people have a 6 month hair growth cycle.  6 treatments in 6 months capture the greatest amount of hairs as they pass through the vital early-anagen phase of hair growth.

- Regular appointments help your therapist measure the efficacy of the last and earlier treatments, so they can determine the best energy/filter settings for the next treatment.

This depends on many things, including your age, hormonal activity in your body, ancestry, medications or medical conditions. Essentially there are two types of hair that grow on the body (not counting the scalp).  These are body hair which is generally thinner and softer, and pubic hair which is more coarse.  Body hair usually responds faster to treatment than pubic hair.

Lower legs, arms, lower backs, and bums are generally body hair.  Genitalia, faces, chests and stomachs, and inner thighs are generally pubic hair.  Underarms, upper backs and shoulders, upper legs, and bum creases can be a mix of the two.

What we recommend to new clients is to accept that they will need 6-8 treatments for body hair, and 6-10 for pubic hair.  At that point, around 80-90% of people walk away happy with the result, while others elect to have more treatments.

Facial hair is usually the most resilient, and can take upwards of 20 treatments.

To save replication here, the link below from my anatomy site lists the contraindications and reasons why you may not be suitable for treatment. The page will open in a new window/tab.

Andrew's Place | Contraindications for Pulsed Light Hair Removal

No, that is generally the business practice of businesses that are desperate.  We have a great reputation and it's hard to cope with our record growth as it is.  Our profits are slim enough to satisfy the majority of our clients without us having to compromise the quality of our services.

We can think of several better questions to ask:
- What corners are discount places cutting in order to sell so cheaply?
- Why do they need to sell at a loss to attract customers?
- Will they still be in business to provide said services once they have your money?

 Because Hair Removal is 90% of what we do, and our machines don't sit around gathering dust.  At your local beauty salon, they do lots of other services just to keep their staff busy.

There isn't much profit in those services but at least they cover wages and rent.  Therefore salons need to charge a premium for specialised treatments like IPL in order to turn a profit.

At Reef, Hair Removal is our normal product, not an add-on treatment, so our running costs are lower and hence, our prices are more affordable.  Consistent quality and reputation allow us to work that way.

Also factored into our costing is that we don't rent fancy shopfronts or waste money on heaps of advertising, which inevitably the client has to pay for.

It isn't painful.  Actually, it's really quite boring.  If you've ever been waxed, it's nothing by comparison.  Clients often say that it's like being flicked with a warm rubber band.

We stopped using that term in 2009 as everyone started copying us, regardless of the equipment they were using.  We now refer to our treatments by their precise name, PTF, to distinguish our machines from inferior equipment.

Yes it is.  We use several brands of machines and all are listed on the TGA register.  They are also approved by FDA (US) and CE (Europe).

That's a good question given the huge influx of suspect "IPL" machines coming into Australia.

But first some legal mumbo jumbo you should get your head around.  As well as being an abbreviation for 'Intense Pulsed Light' technology, the term "IPL" is also a registered trademark of Lumenis Israel (1994?), which is the issue at the core of so many terms being used for the same underlying science.

Over the years, other manufacturers began using the term and for whatever reason, Lumenis didn't stop them, which in itself voided their claim to the trademark.

The same thing would happen to Reef if we didn't diligently enforce the protection of our registered trademarks "Body Sync" the name of our company, "Serious Hair Removal" our slogan, and "Angel Beach" our range of natural skin care products.

So let us be clear from the outset, despite the fact that we do own a couple of Lumenis machines, we use the term IPL as an abbreviation for Intense Pulsed Light technology, not to attach ourselves to that brand.

In our stable of IPL machines we also have Palomar, Luminex, GSD, Hua Mei, and Chromolite products.  Like everyone else in the world, we simply call them IPL machines.

OK, now back to the stuff that matters.

All the various terms are similar in that they are based on Intense Pulsed Light, some with a few tweaks and twiddles.  At the end of the day, it comes down to power output, filters, skin types, understanding of the science, and experience.  Remember that a machine, no matter what brand, is only as good as the person using it.

We use several brands of IPL machines, plus an advanced variation on IPL called PTF.  Our machines are very powerful and the latest technology.  In terms of safety, accuracy and results, our machines are leaps and bounds ahead of older IPL units and their painful predecessor, laser. 

We're independent and have the freedom to pick from the best technologies in the world, and we do.  It's as simple as that.

If you would like to know more about Pulsed Light, its variations, and the underlying science, the link below from my anatomy site explains it more comprehensively. The link will open in a new window/tab.

Andrew's Place | Understanding Pulsed Light Hair Removal

Yes, I really get asked this question a lot.  Succinctly, the answer is when she turns sixteen.

Not very effective at all.

Despite various manufacturers' promises, low melanin equals low results.  Some manufacturers make grandiose claims but when we push them for the science to explain how their amazing technology works, they come up blank.

Our commercial machines are large and bulky for a reason. They contain a massive power compressor to generate enough energy (joules) to actually kill the hair root.

They produce so much energy in fact, that the power cords need to be replaced every month.

A 12V transformer or a couple of AA batteries doesn't quite cut it.  The most powerful cutesy we reviewed has a whopping 2.5J of energy. Our PTF machines pump out 65J.

Cheap machines are however capable of stripping melanine from your hair and once it's gone, you can't get it back.  This may render you unable to receive a real pulsed light treatment.

Despite a huge amount of misleading advertising around the ridges, no business is accredited by Queensland Health for pulsed light treatments. There is no such thing. 

Queensland Health only issues accreditation for laser, not pulsed light, as laser equipment emits radiation.   We don't like laser equipment and we don't use it.

We won't take part in the misinformation war.  We have a good reputation and that's all that matters to us.

The author of the blog has no idea what they're talking about.  We hear clients bring this subject up daily which only compounds our frustration with the government for not regulating the hair removal industry.

First, be aware of one thing - There is no such thing as permanent hair removal.  That expression implies absolute removal of every hair in the treated area for the rest of your life.  No one can promise that.

Laser, IPL, electrolysis - whatever technology you choose, is referred to by all professional operators in the hair removal industry as permanent hair reduction.

The reason for this distinction is obviously a legal one and has nothing to do with one technology versus another.  More info next paragraph.

No.  Around 1 in 500 people treated will see little or no effect.  Scientists generally concede that they only know about 5% of how the body functions, and at this stage, the reasons behind this small percentage of ineffective treatments remain a mystery.

This is also why no reputable business will guarantee results or use the term 'permanent hair removal'.  In fact, a Perth salon was sued a number of years ago for doing just that.

Some may say that they guarantee results, claiming that their magical technology is better than everyone else's, but read the terms and conditions and then read the super fine print.

You will find somewhere in the contract a clause such as "Bear in mind you will require top up treatments once or twice a year to maintain the results of your treatments.

In other words, they won't guarantee results.

It simply cannot be done, and anyone who guarantees results or makes claims of absolute permanence has no idea of the technology they are using or how the human body works.

In real terms, you could expect as a minimum result, a vast reduction in visible dark hairs.  This may present or appear to present as absolute hair removal from the treated area, but as mentioned above, we are not allowed to make such claims.

The end result depends on your suitability to treatment, how many treatments you opt to have, and how regularly you space your treatments.

A pleasant side effect of IPL is that the technology uses specific wavelengths of light that stimulates cell renewal, increasing collagen production and smoothing the appearance of your skin.

If you are thinking of coming to us for hair removal treatments and collagen or pigment treatments in the same area, get the hair removal out of the way first and you may find that you don't need the other treatments.  This proves to be the case a lot especially with faces and arms.

There are two common responses during the weeks that follow a treatment, and we hark back to the inability of science to explain many of the wonders of the human body.  We've thought about it a lot though, and both responses seem to be just as good as each other.  Let's look at two hypothetical clients, Bob and Mary.

Bob has his treatment and over the weeks that follow, the hair in the treated area simply stops growing.   Even when his next treatment comes around, there still isn't much there.  Our theory on this response is that Bob's hair enjoys a particularly long anagen period, which keeps most of the hair shaft quite moist.

Instead of just destroying the hair bulb during the treatment, we dissolved the shaft as well.  Bob's body absorbs whatever proteins remain and the rest of the debris simply joins the lymphatic flow and passes out of the body unnoticed in his urine.

Mary on the other hand, finds that her hair keeps growing normally as though she didn't have a treatment at all, BUT at about the 3 week mark, something "miraculous" happens.  She molts.  She wakes up one morning with a bed full of hair or it sloughs off one day in the shower.

The reason for this 3 week delay is that every hair shaft has its own muscle, the arrector pili, which is the muscle that makes your hair stand on end when it's cold.  The hair is also surrounded by other connective tissue that holds it firmly in place.  At around 3 weeks, the dead hair, now disconnected from its nutrient supply and out of range of the muscle, simply falls out, leaving nice smooth skin.

Fascinating stuff.  If you've heard of any scientific studies conducted on the subject, we'd love to hear about it.

Your therapist will be me, Andrew Thompson.  If you have issues with having a male therapist, they are your issues, and I'd prefer you go somewhere else.

Joules equal the number of watts per square centimetre per second, and the higher the number of joules, the more energy (in conjunction with your skin type) we're able to get down to the target cells.

When a hair is successfully eliminated, that's the end of it, but when a hair is targeted and the treatment fails due to insufficient power, a natural defence process kicks in.  The body realises that its cooling system is under attack, and strengthens the hair against later attacks, i.e. further treatments. 

The hair grows thicker, the root grows in size, and the surrounding tissue tightens its grip on the hair.  Our waxing rooms see the results of low-joule light treatments every day.

 When it comes to air-cooled or liquid-cooled (some call it crystal), we favour air cooled machines, simply because they're more efficient.

It's simple science.  The target temperature for permanently disabling a hair bulb is 73 degrees celsius.

On a water-cooled machine, the head is pre-cooled to around 4 degrees.  Therefore it has to generate 69 degrees to achieve the target result.

Our IPL machines are water cooled, while our PTF machines are air-cooled. 

With PTF, we cool the head manually with special gel packs to keep it between 15 and 40 degrees - close to or slightly higher than room temperature.

When the pulsed light flashes on one of our units, it only has to produce say 40 degrees variance instead of 69 degrees to achieve the desired result, making a shot from an PTF machine up to 70% more effective.

On the flip side of the coin, normal IPL is a quicker treatment, hence their popularity with most beauty salons and hair removal centres.

Intense Pulsed Light targets a chemical compound in the hair called melanin, which gives hair its dark pigmentation. 

Melanin is most prevalent in hair during the early anagen phase of hair growth (when the hair root is still "juicy") and hairs in this stage of growth are most susceptible to eradication. 

Hair grows in different cycles, usually between 6 and 12 months, and ongoing treatments are needed to catch each hair as it passes through this early-anagen stage of development.

Some hair can lay dormant for long periods or emerge for the first time as you arrive at a certain stage of life.  We can only kill hair bulbs that are actively sprouting.  For that reason, you will find that top up treatments from time to time are beneficial.

Most people don't.  Unless your skin type is Type 5 or 6 - Dark Indian, African, Maori, or Aboriginal - and assuming that there are no other contraindications to treatment, we can perform the treatment on your first visit.

Our equipment utilises the latest filtering systems which also enables us to treat most Asian skin types.  If your skin is extremely dark, we may recommend that you try a course of Active Enzyme Hair Removal treatments instead.

Factors that could prevent us performing a light-based treatment include epilepsy, PCOS, excessive tan (fake or natural) in the area to be treated, the recent use of Hair Removal creams & sprays, and the use of products containing Retinol, Mitomycin, Minocycline, Doxycycline, Tetracycline, St Johns Wort, and Accutane.

This is not an exhaustive list, however we will discuss possible contraindications with you before the first treatment.  Please call us if you have any doubts or concerns you would like to discuss.

Intense Pulsed Light converts light energy into heat, and it's the heat that destroys the hair at its root.  There are generally no significant side effects, but we will give you a detailed information sheet before your consultation. 

After your treatment, you can expect pinkness or a mild "sunburn like" effect in the area, but it usually passes quickly.  It isn't real sunburn, only heat permeating back out through the skin. 

You can go about your normal activities after a treatment, but be sun smart with treated areas and cover up or use a sunscreen.

Any possible risks to treatment are thoroughly described during your initial consultation and you also have the opportunity to ask about anything that may concern you.

Your Intense Pulsed Light session takes around the same amount of time as a wax treatment for the same area.

Allow an extra 15 minutes for your first treatment, as we need to assess your skin type and suitability for treatment, and discuss the procedure with you.

No thorough research has yet been conducted to establish conclusive results.

Intense Pulsed Light is essentially heat energy, and general industry consensus suggests that the effects of Intense Pulsed Light on sperm is no different to sitting in a hot bath, which decreases your sperm count for the short term.

That said however, this is merely an educated guess, not a stated fact.  The choice is yours alone, and we make no guarantee as to the long term effects of Intense Pulsed Light on sperm.

That's because they're thoroughly trained in using our equipment and you're not.

It's very common in some Asian countries and even some clinics here in Australia to disregard safety protocols when it comes to skin types and filters.  We don't.

You cannot fight your biology, and we have zero tolerance for pushy clients who try to threaten, guilt, or bribe staff to break the safety protocols that we've established from the experience of over 100,000 treatments. 

Unfortunately no - You'd be throwing your money away.  

Hair growth during pregnancy is hormonal, and no amount of treatments, whether through us or someone else, will make the least difference.  In the case of pregnant clients, we recommend waxing until the end of term.

Our policy in general is not to treat pregnant clients with pulsed light.  While there is no scientific evidence to suggest that pulsed light can harm an unborn child, we prefer not to take the risk, especially in view of the fact that a treatment would serve little purpose.

Pilonidal sinus is most prevalent in men and usually takes the form of massive localised swelling around the sacrum.  It is an extremely painful condition requiring surgery, and unfortunately, it often recurs.  After excision, the surgeon will usually recommend that hair from the area be removed to reduce the risk of another pilonidal sinus forming.

IPL will progressively reduce hair growth in the area and is generally regarded as the best method for achieving the desired result.  We do not recommend depilatory creams, waxing, plucking, sugaring, or electrolysis for combating pilonidal sinus. 

Yes, if you tell us when you book.  For various reasons, people often combine waxing with IPL and we've set up special rooms and procedures to accommodate this type of treatment.

This is a really painful topic, and I swear I get asked every day.  Mackay, Emerald, Toowoomba, Gladstone, Bundaberg, Townsville, Sunshine Coast, and Cairns are the common ones.  And more branches in Brisbane and Gold Coast of course.  Basically, just pick a spot on the map.

Honestly, I would love to have dozens of branches throughout Queensland but the problem is simply that no one is looking for work.  I've tried very very hard to find staff but good people who are willing to work are few and far between.

Two years ago, I had eleven branches, predominantly in Brisbane and Gold Coast.  I ended up having to close every southern branch except one, simply because there were no beauty therapists to work in them.  I had good stores in good locations, and a good client base at each, but no therapists to do the treatments.  That very painful period of shutting down good businesses was stressful beyond words, so naturally I'm wary about opening new stores.

I have not given up on expansion though, and I see regional centres in Queensland and New South Wales as the next step when the workforce situation improves.  I am hoping to find an additional therapist to replace me in Rockhampton in the not too distant future, which will at least allow me to start operating a mobile service to various towns and cities in the Central Queensland region.

As a last resort, I may also look at franchising at some point, but nothing concrete yet.