There are just so many body beauty treatments available these days, from wraps to creams to machines and different types of massages. They all claim to offer different benefits to the skin, to the fat underneath the skin, the cellulite and stretch marks, the overall health of a person, the blood flow and lymphatic drainage in the area.
Most of these treatments are offered by beauty clinics, massage clinics or spas, but some are also offered by plastic surgery offices, and most claim to be “risk free”.
What type of treatment is right for you? It will be hard to decide.
How to choose the best treatment for you
There are multiple factors that will impact your decision on which treatment is right for you. First and foremost its important to understand what you want to achieve. Is it fat loss, is it skin tightening, is it cellulite reduction? Do you have stretch marks you just hate, or do you just dislike the level of aging your skin is starting to show? There are many non-invasive fat reduction treatments, such as fat freezing and fat loss injections, or you can treat the skin with a number of treatments.
Understanding the issue
Understanding the issue will help you find the solution. For example, a fat loss solution will not be right for you if you are mainly bothered by cellulite. Most will feel there are multiple issues they are dealing with. I would strongly advise to focus on your biggest issue first, as it will give you the most desired results. Where you start noticing positive results you will also be motivated to make other changes to your lifestyle that will help further improve results. For example, the cellulite on your legs and the extra fat is bothering you. You treat the cellulite and feel more excited about showing off your legs again, so you’re motivated to do more leg shaping exercises.
Pricing of treatments
The second factor that will influence your decision will of course be price. Some treatments can be very expensive, reaching well into the thousands, and some are more affordable. Price doesn’t necessarily mean better quality of treatments or better results. In the beauty industry especially there seems to be a big trend in companies opening chain locations with expensive interior in central locations, a large team of staff including multiple members working the front desk, run the marketing and complete other back-office tasks. The treatments they offer are oftentimes more expensive than treatments offered in smaller clinics, even though the same equipment is used, and staff has gone through the same training. The benefit of going to a bigger clinic is that they often offer payment plans, and that they may have more availability as they have a large team of aestheticians working.
On a personal note…
As a clinician I believe in fair and transparent pricing, I strongly dislike other companies hiding their fees and extra expenses until you have gone through consultations. Price is incredibly important in choosing what service is right for you, and it should be fully transparent.
Health conditions and allergies
You may not be eligible for a number of treatments due to ongoing health conditions or existing allergies. This is a very important point you shouldn’t forget about. Treatments such as cryolipolysis and radiofrequency have a long list of contra-indications; conditions that will exclude you from treatment. Furthermore, pregnancy, breastfeeding and up to 12 months post-surgery recovery time can exclude you from most treatments. Always check with your aesthetician whether you are eligible before you pay any non-refundable deposits or clinic fees!
Choosing a treatment and clinic
This is the hard part! Now you know what you want to achieve, what you can afford and what treatments you are excluded from its time to choose the right treatment and clinic. Not all treatments work the same, and some may not work at all! We are all well aware there are plenty of bad agents around, that oversell and underdeliver.
If you live in a city you are more likely to have options, if you do not you may need to accept you will have to travel for a good appointment. You can compare results of treatments and clinics by looking at reviews and before and after picture galleries. I know these can’t always fully be trusted but where you have images clearly taken in the clinic and where there are plenty of great results, especially on Facebook, Google and Trustpilot, you can get a good sense of who you can trust. Reviews on Google and Trustpilot are hard to fake, they take a lot of effort in ensuring the reviews are from real customers only, so I would suggest looking there for feedback of previous clients.
If a clinic offers taster sessions and free or cheap in-person consultations they have trust in their own service. Most clinics don’t make money on taster sessions so offering these means they expect clients will like their results and come back for more treatment.
