Romeo & Juliette Laser Hair Removal, 5 E. 57th St., sixth fl.; romeojuliettelaserhairremoval.com
In 2016, contributing editor at Vogue Jenna Rennert went to Romeo & Juliette Laser Hair Removal on the recommendation of a friend and has been a regular ever since, dipping in frequently ahead of events. She has referred industry friends, like Instagram’s head of beauty programs, Kristie Dash, who has since become a regular. Romeo & Juliette has 12 available lasers, including Nd:YAG lasers, which yield the best results on darker skin tones and are not available at many med spas. Rennert’s bikini-line treatments (from $235) are generally done with the Synchro REPLA:Y, which has nuanced settings to allow for more targeted treatments based on hair type and thickness and skin tone and sensitivity. Dash remembers being pleasantly surprised at her first appointment when multiple settings were used on a single body part. “It’s such a thorough process,” she says. “Other salons pop you into a room and just start zapping.” Blake Newby, an editor at Essence, has been getting her Brazilian area done at Romeo & Juliette for four years. “The area has stayed hairless as long as I’ve been diligent with touch-ups,” she says. “And I’ve never experienced so much as an ounce of discoloration. I’ve referred friends with deeper skin tones than me to R&J, and they said the same.”
Christian Karavolas, founder of Romeo & Juliette Laser Hair Removal in Midtown East
Illustration: Pete Gamlen
What makes a laser technician great rather than merely good?
A great technician listens to the client, asks questions: What have they done in the last two weeks? Are they on medication, antibiotics? Have they been in the sun? Do they use self-tanners? This assessment will tell you the proper settings to use or tell you when to postpone treatment altogether. If someone’s on medication that creates photosensitivity, they may get pigmentation that can take months to resolve.
Are there different lasers for different parts of the body?
Yes and for different kinds of hair and skin. Most places use one laser on everybody. We have 12 different ones. If somebody has red or blonde hair, we use a laser that targets their roots differently than lasers for dark hair.
Describe what the laser feels like for someone who’s never done it.
It just feels like somebody snapping you with a rubber band. We also have cooling methods that blow cold air on the skin to make the treatment tolerable. However, us men, we’re pain intolerant. We offer numbing cream, and about 20 percent of our male clientele uses it. For women, it’s closer to 5 percent.
You only do laser hair removal — why is that?
There’s a dermatologist downtown who sends us clients, and he says that while most places do laser, Romeo & Juliette perfects the art of laser hair removal. I’ll put it like this: You could take ten cooks and give them the same tomatoes, water, sugar, and after an hour or two, you get ten different tomato sauces. We feel we make the best tomato sauce.
— Katie Arnold-Ratliff
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