Beard hair removal is extremely expensive in Japan.
And having to go back again and again is another painful part of it.
In Korea, a country famous for its beauty industry, hair removal can apparently be done far more cheaply than in Japan. I had never had any hair removal done before, so on my first trip to Korea I decided to try it for the first time!!
The Process and the Price
I had the treatment done at a place called Personal Beauty / GU Clinic in the Gangnam district.
I made the reservation using the smartphone app Gangnam Unni.
I used Gangnam Unni to search for beard hair removal for men in Seoul, but there were only one or two other places offering it, so choosing wasn’t hard at all.
At the time of booking, the price was 500,000 won for five full-face sessions (about 50,000 yen).
So cheap!!!
Two days before, I applied for an online consultation through the app to make a reservation.
The moment I tapped “online reservation,” messages started arriving in Japanese.
The app seems to translate the Korean automatically, so I felt no language barrier at all in making the booking.
The messages also mentioned that if communication became difficult they would use a translation device, which gave me the impression they were used to accommodating foreign patients.
And so, with the reservation made, the day came and I headed to the clinic.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/FjLBboA6a7Dvu6TT8
When I got there, there were several other Japanese people around, which was a bit of a relief.
If the worst happened, maybe someone would help me out… lol
I told the receptionist I had a reservation, was asked to wait, and sat down in a chair.
But even though I had arrived at my appointment time, I was kept waiting about two hours before finally being called and led into a mysterious private room.
There, someone who appeared to be a doctor explained things to me using a translation device, and I paid.
After that, I waited about ten minutes and was then taken to the back.
A nurse told me she was going to apply anesthetic to my face, and then coated my face with liquid from something that looked like an alcohol spray bottle.
(It had a slightly sweet smell, so it probably really was anesthetic, lol)
After a while my whole face felt a bit tight, and just as I was thinking the anesthetic must be kicking in, a fairly young male doctor called me into the treatment room.
There, the laser was applied.
Maybe because of the anesthetic, it barely hurt at all except where my beard is thick, and even there it only stung a little.
It was quite different from what I’d heard about hair removal in Japan—perhaps the use of anesthetic is what sets it apart.
That said, there was a strong burning smell, and they kept blowing air on my face the whole time.
Just as I was starting to muse about whether the lasers here are stronger than in Japan, I was told, “All done!”
It honestly felt like about 30 seconds—I thought, wow, that was fast.
After that I washed my face, headed out, and went on enjoying my trip to Korea.
The Results Afterward
For about a week, hardly anything happened, but by the second week I started noticing spots where my beard looked thinner.
Actually, “not growing at all in places” would be the more accurate description.
I was genuinely surprised!
So it seems the treatment really does work!
I have four more sessions at that clinic, and they told me to come back every month and a half to two months.
I figure I’ll just go whenever I can, tacking it onto future trips to Korea.
Overall Verdict
Apart from the excessive wait, I had no complaints at all. Communication was a bit halting, but with the ultimate weapon that is a translation device, any problems got sorted out just fine.
When I mentioned the long wait in a review, the clinic replied with an apology and said that this doesn’t happen much on weekdays, so I should come on a weekday next time!
Maybe I’ll go on a weekday from now on.
It was a pretty interesting experience overall—definitely give hair removal in Korea a try.