Parma Spa

I am beginning my second pack of hair removal services with Stephanie and can not sing her praises enough. I have dark skin and hair and have extensive experience undergoing procedures at medispas, including laser hair removal. I've experienced it all - service providers who were happy to book my appointment over the phone but told me that they couldn't serve me when they met me in person, burns, ineffective treatments, etc. You really need to have someone who understands the sensitivities of darker skin and lasers, and Stephanie is extremely knowledgeable, thorough, and professional. I have not experienced any burning, she completes my sessions quickly (like I requested), and my hair is consistently responding (slowly, but that is what should be expected with my skin type). I highly recommend her to everyone. ETA: I recently had a session with Ashley and she was phenomenal as well! These ladies are talented and standouts in their fields.

Exceeded expectations

This was my first time having laser hair removal and I was excited because all my girlfriends were doing it and having fabulous results. My experience was painful and at the end horrifying. In the first session, it hurt a lot. They did not use any numbing cream (which I didn't even know was available as I have not done this procedure before) and even though I cried through the first session, no one bothered to tell me about the cream. I found out about numbing cream from my girlfriend who was getting hers done in NY. The second session was less painful and it was with another provider, a nicer lady than the first. She did three sessions for me and it was not painful so I thought it was working but apparently it was not. My hair kept growing back at its normal pace, no change in texture or length of time to grow. By the fifth treatment, I had the woman who is the owner of the Spa and who gave me my first session. She was troubled at the lack of response for the hair removal on my body and began to tell me that the other practitioner was doing it wrong, she had it too light and the laser needed to be set at a higher frequency to deal with my hair and my skin color. I asked her if the other practitioner didn't know what she was doing, why was she doing it, and she said she could do the treatments but her speciality is more for facials. She set the laser really high and did my underarms. What she did to counteract the pain was numb my underarms with ice packs. She had me hold them there for a while and even when they started to burn because of the coldnesss, she told me to keep holding them there. She then applied the laser in between the ice packs. This was very painful. I was first experience searing pain from the ice cold packs and then searing pain from the really hot laser. I cried a lot and at the end, I couldn't breathe and felt like I was going to throw up. I had to wait a few minutes in the office to get myself together because I felt nauseated and weak and dizzy. She kept telling me it was fine, she was dark like me (we are both Indian) and this is what she had to do for her hair. She said it will scar a little from the skin being burnt but it will eventually go away. I am sorry to say, the scars never left and to this day I still have scars under my arms from where the lasers were. I was so depressed and stressed out, I never went back for my last session and on the advice of my friend, I contacted Groupon and told them about my experience. They reimbursed me my money spent and it made me feel a little better but I still have scars under my arms for life. Now, I don't think I will ever get laser hair removal done there and if I do, it definitely will not be at that Spa.