This is an article about arithmetic, and it is deliberately short on opinion. The single most useful thing a person considering this category can do is work out what it actually costs before they are sitting in front of somebody who wants them to buy it.
What we will not do
We do not publish treatment prices. Prices vary by provider, by region, by area treated and by device, and any figure we printed would either be invented or would be out of date within months. Publishing a price range would give a false impression of what you are likely to be quoted, and this publication does not print numbers it cannot stand behind.
What we publish instead is the method, which works on whatever numbers you are given.
The method
Five figures, in order. Get them by email before any appointment.
One. The number of sessions. Ask how many sessions are typically required for the area you are asking about, before any assessment, so you have a baseline. Then ask again after assessment, and note whether the number changed and in which direction.
Two. The price per session at that frequency. Not the introductory price, not the trial price, not the price for a single session bought alone. The price of the sessions in the course.
Three. What is not included. Review appointments. Photography. A second round if the first is assessed as insufficient. Any correction. Aftercare products, if they are presented as necessary.
Four. The maintenance. Ask what happens after the course. Almost always the answer involves further sessions at some interval. Convert that into sessions per year and multiply.
Five. The horizon. Decide how long you intend to keep this up, then multiply the annual figure by that many years. Three years is a reasonable horizon for a maintained cosmetic effect. Five is not unreasonable.
The number at the end of that is the price of the product. Everything else is the price of a fragment of it.
Banked effects and maintained effects
The arithmetic differs depending on which kind of treatment you are considering, and clinics rarely make the distinction explicit.
A banked effect is one where something is removed and does not return. Cryolipolysis and injectable fat dissolving destroy cells, and destroyed cells do not come back. The cost is finite, although further rounds are common and the remaining cells still change with weight.
A maintained effect is one that requires continuing stimulus. Radiofrequency, muscle stimulation and most skin quality treatments fall here. The cost is a recurring annual one for as long as you want the effect.
The distinction changes the calculation entirely, and it is worth asking directly which category the treatment you are being offered falls into. A clinic that cannot answer that question clearly does not understand its own product.
“Sessions from a low headline price, with special introductory offers available.”
What would have to be true
- That the headline figure relates to the treatment a person of ordinary requirements would actually receive.
- That the offer price is available for the course rather than for one introductory session.
- That there is no undisclosed further cost required to reach the result being illustrated.
What is actually established
- Advertising rules require that price claims are not misleading, including as to what is included and what is required in addition.
- Most mechanisms in this category require multiple sessions and ongoing maintenance for any effect to develop or persist.
- A from price for one session of a treatment that requires a course does not describe the cost of the treatment.
The issue is not the number, it is what the number refers to. A from price for one session of something that only works as a course is a price for a fraction of a product. The calculation in this article converts it into the figure that actually matters.
The from price
Advertising in this sector leans heavily on a from price attached to one session. Where a treatment only works as a course, that figure describes a fraction of a product, in the same way that a price for one tyre describes a fraction of a set.
Advertising rules require that price claims are not misleading, including as to what is included and what is necessarily required in addition. The published rulings of the Advertising Standards Authority include price presentation cases and are worth a look if you want to see how the standard is applied.
For your purposes, the response is simply to convert. Ask what the total is for what they are actually recommending, and use that figure.
The figures to obtain before you decide
- The number of sessions recommended for your area, from an assessment of you rather than from a price list.
- The price per session at the recommended frequency, not the introductory price.
- Whether review appointments, photography and any correction are included or charged.
- The maintenance recommendation once the course is complete, in sessions per year.
- Whether the price is held for the duration of the course or can change.
- What is refunded if you stop, and what happens to unused prepaid sessions.
All six are ordinary commercial questions and a well run business can answer them in an email. Ask by email before the consultation. The answers will arrive without any pressure attached, which is the point.
The comparison worth making
Once you have a total, compare it against the two things nobody in the room will mention.
The first is doing nothing, which costs nothing, carries no risk, and is discussed properly in its own article.
The second is the surgical option, where one exists for your concern. Surgery costs more up front, carries substantially more risk, and produces a change of an entirely different order. For some people, the total cost of several years of a maintained non-surgical treatment approaches or exceeds the cost of a one-off procedure that would actually have addressed what they wanted, and nobody in either market has an interest in pointing that out. We look at that comparison in the article on modern liposuction techniques.
The point is not that surgery is better. It is that a decision made without both comparisons in view is not really a decision.
If you stop a maintained treatment, the recurring cost stops and so does the effect. That trade is the actual product, and seeing it as an annual subscription rather than as a purchase is the clearest way to decide whether you want it. Very few people would sign up to an indefinite annual payment for a modest maintained change if it were presented that way, which is why it is not.
If finance is offered
A monthly figure is not a price. Establish the total amount repayable, the term, the interest rate after any promotional period, and who the lender is. The agreement is with the lender and continues whether or not you are satisfied with the treatment. We cover this in courses, packages, guarantees and finance, and independent guidance is available from Citizens Advice.
The technique, in one sentence
Do the calculation at home, in advance, with figures obtained by email, and decide before you go.
Every commercial technique described anywhere on this site depends on a decision being made in the room. Removing that removes all of them at once, and it costs nothing.