It’s halfway October. You know what that means? Christmas and New Year is around the corner. And that means a vacation for me two months from now. Being a citizen of a tropical archipelago has its advantages and disadvantages. For one, vacation spot right in our backyard or the nearby province but if that’s the case, there’s a need for smooth skin and gorgeous body. Not to mention, hairless. Haha! I have always wanted to get a laser treatment to remove the hair in my underarms (please do not take this as an oversharing haha) because manually removing them is just too time-consuming. I need to shave or wax every week? Ugh. Haha so katamad. And so I signed up for a treatment in Kaya Skin Clinic for their Ultima Laser Hair Removal. Kaya Skin Clinic as you know is the largest international skincare clinic chain in the region. I remembered my first facial with Kaya a few years ago and they only had one branch in Riyadh. Now they have three!
Anyway, I’ve heard about laser treatments before and boy are they fast but painful! Ah the things we endure for beauty haha! The normal laser hair removal is a pain in the… underarms! Lol. Or wherever body part you are having it. The amazing thing about laser though, if you haven’t tried it, is that it strikes at the very root of the hair follicle eliminating it forever. There’s a need for more than one session because it doesn’t immediately remove the hair and make it stop growing (so yeah tiis ganda talaga). It still depends on the coarseness, thickness, etc. of the hair. Laser must be done by expert hands because if it’s poorly done, it can cause burns and pigmentation.
The ad for their Kaya Ultima in their website.
I was going through the treatments in Kaya when my curiosity was piqued by their Kaya Ultima Laser Hair Removal. It’s said to be the next generation laser hair removal technique that promises three clear advantages: 1. it’s faster as it targets larger areas with a single beam and unveils smooth skin in a single pass (wow sounds good; I can imagine a shorter time in the skin clinic already), 2. it’s truly painless because it has a cryogen-based Dynamic Cooling Device that delivers a cool sensation to the epidermal level of the skin (wonder how that feels like) and 3. it keeps skin smoother and delays hair re-growth for a longer period of time (to see, or not to see, is to believe!). I was apprehensive at the promise of a painless laser treatment but I think it’s better than going through the normal one. Maybe it will be a little bit less painful.
The day I went to Kaya Skin Clinic, I was nervous a bit but the receptionist calmed me down with a glass of cold water that I requested. Nothing much has changed with their clinic. I have an appointment at 10:30am in the Oruba branch. When I came in they told me to wait because there’s an earlier client they’re attending to and they only have one machine used in Kaya Ultima. I know I already have a file in Kaya because I had facials before but they couldn’t find it so I had to answer another form again. After a while, the attendant ushered me to a room in the second floor. It’s basically a bare room with a clinical bed, a cabinet, tables lined with medical tools and the machine for the Kaya Ultima. The nurse had explained that the procedure will be fast but a bit painful if I’m sensitive to pain. Am I sensitive to pain? Hmn, haha.
The corner where the machine is.
She had me remove my top (don’t worry, no photos haha!) and proceeded to line the area of my underarms. She put a gel/cream and proceeded in shaving my underarm hair. It’s important to leave a half an inch hair in your underarms before going for laser so that the attendant can analyze the kind of hair you have and give it the corresponding degree of laser pulse. After shaving, she began the laser process. Truth be told, it was so fast I’m going to end this entry right now! Haha, kidding.
The Gentle Lase Pro up close
She gave me 5-6 laser pulses per underarm. It wasn’t painful. Not at all. I just felt like there’s ice being placed in my skin for a few seconds. There’s a little bit of stinging sensation but it’s gone after a few seconds, it’s amazing! I was done in 10 minutes! Or less. I think I was left there wondering what happened because it was done almost immediately as it began. My underams felt itchy afterwards and the nurse said it’s normal. The itchiness can go on for days that’s why she recommended getting a cream that will combat the itchiness but for me, the itchiness was gone just after I went out of the skin clinic’s door and it never returned.
The nurse said I can go back for retouch in a week, just in case she missed an area. For my other sessions, she recommends going back after a month or so depending on how fast my underarm hair grows after the first session. I couldn’t wash my underarm for four hours after the procedure and no putting of deodorant too until the next day. (Thank goodness I did it on a Saturday haha.) That’s why it’s also important to schedule your procedure depending on when you want to start sporting a hairless underarm permanently. Of course I couldn’t say that the Kaya Ultima is effective immediately because I need to finish my sessions. (Three to six sessions are recommended.) But so far, I noticed a delay in the regrowth of my hair. If I just shaved this, the hair grows a few millimeters the following day. It’s been a week since I did the Ultima and so far, I only have really short stubs of regrowth.
Now the procedure is expensive at SR 495 per session. If you get 4 sessions, it’s SR 1,780 and if you get 7 sessions, it’s SR 2950 but they have a 25% off offer so it’ll just be SR 2,212. It will really cause a dent in our pockets but if it will bring me from Riyadh to the beach in no time, let’s do this! Haha! Boracay, here I come!
Kaya Skin Clinic
a. Orouba Street Branch, Suleimania
T: +966-11-2152299 / +966-11-2153382 / +966-11-4604734b. Al Badeeah Branch, Exit 28 (Al Madinah Road opposite 10 City)T: +966-11-2473377 / +966-11-2479843c. Art Fitness Centre Branch, Exit 11 Al Rawdah (next to Fitness Center)
T: +966-11-2289898 / +966-11-2286651Operating Hours: 10:00AM to 9:00PM
you have a list of good salon in Riyadh
I am looking for good brand/ posh