These photos of a woman’s botched laser hair removal experience are terrifying

Women are willing to put up with a lot in the name of “beauty.” We pluck, we wax, we DIET. It can be rough. Which is why when something comes around that should make our beauty routines easier, like laser hair removal, it’s worth considering. Well, until you see these pictures of a woman’s botched laser hair removal, that is. They might put you off the whole thing for good.

Obviously, not all laser hair removal sessions go wrong, and the procedure is relatively safe. But mistakes happen, so this story is a nice, solid reminder to always do your research when it comes to getting your hair removed — in any fashion.

According to a Yahoo! report, Anastasia Serdobintseva, who lives in Moscow, decided to pop into a new salon to treat herself, as so many of us do when the mood for a mani strikes. She wrote in a Facebook post, “A few months ago, I got a new salon. Cute, cozy… While I did my nails, I met the girls and they told me about laser wax.”

So she booked an appointment with the salon manager to have her leg hair removed. During the treatment, though, she started to feel intense pain. But the technician brushed her off, assuming she just couldn’t take the heat.

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But Serdobintseva literally could not take the heat — the laser was actually burning her skin. After the procedure, she called an ambulance and went off to the hospital where she was treated for first- and second-degree burns, which will take up to six months to heal. She has to keep her legs bandaged up at all times, and can’t expose them to the sun or the elements. And, to add insult to injury, the salon is taking no responsibility,

"Unfortunately, I don't have a refund, no contract and the salon is denying everything. I don't know what's going to happen, but I know that I'm not gonna recommend this salon even to my worst enemy. Be careful!" she wrote on Facebook.

Here’s the thing about laser hair removal: It is an actual medical procedure. You should only get it done at a medical spa by a board-certified dermatologist or at an actual dermatologist’s office if you want to be totally safe, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. Even then, some people (and hair types) react differently to the the treatment. Nail salons that have laser hair removal in the back should be visited with caution.

Some salons make laser hair removal sound too good to be true, but, for example, laser hair removal is not recommended around the eyes and you can’t get a “whole body” treatment at once (your body can only stand so much laser at a time). So be wary of any place advertising either of those things. Hair removal and other treatments for your skin, like microdermabrasion, are actual medical procedures, so make sure you’re treating them as such.

Because your body is too precious to get burned or hurt in any way. Be careful!