Our 2026 Consumer Choice Award for Laser Hair Removal

A Consumer Choice Award for laser hair removal, given for business excellence. Here is what it means, the daily work behind it, and the two lasers that let us treat every skin type in North York.

What this award actually means

Hi, I am Swaleen Nissan, Lead Medical Aesthetician at Distill Laser Clinic in North York. I have spent more than 20 years in medical aesthetics, working in Barbados, New York City and Toronto, and managing some of the premier laser clinics in this city before bringing that experience here. I want to explain this award plainly, because our industry is full of vague badges and it is fair to ask what is real.

The Consumer Choice Award recognizes business excellence within a specific category and market. Ours is laser hair removal. It is not a medical endorsement, and it is not a promise about your individual result. What it reflects is a clinic that clients keep choosing and keep returning to, in a city where they have hundreds of other options within a short drive.

I will be honest about the limit of any award, including this one. No badge can tell you whether a laser will suit your skin, or whether a course of treatment is worth your money. Only an honest consultation can do that. The award tells you where to start looking. Your consultation tells you whether to book.

The daily work behind it

I perform 4 to 5 laser hair removal sessions and see 4 to 5 laser hair removal consultations on a typical working day, and I have been treating clients with laser for more than 20 years. That is every age, every one of the six Fitzpatrick skin types, fine hair and coarse hair, faces and full bodies, day after day.

Repetition at that level is the real credential. A practitioner who runs a laser occasionally cannot build the same judgement as one who runs it daily. Thin facial skin on a sixty-year-old behaves nothing like a young man's coarse beard line, and the settings that give one of them a clean result would be wrong for the other. Choosing the wavelength, the energy and the pulse length stops being a decision and becomes instinct only after thousands of sessions.

The consultations matter just as much as the treatments. Four or five times a day I sit with someone and work out whether laser is the right tool for their hair at all, what their skin tone means for the settings we will use, and how many sessions this will realistically take. Some of those conversations end with me saying no. That is part of the job.

"The laser does the same thing every time. The result comes from matching it to the person in the chair, and from that person finishing the course."

Swaleen NissanLead Medical Aesthetician, Distill Laser Clinic North York · 20+ years in medical aesthetics

Who performs your treatment, and why that is the whole story

Laser hair removal has no shortcut around experience. The device is fixed. Every meaningful decision belongs to the person holding the handpiece, and those decisions are made in seconds, on your skin, while you are lying there.

When a clinic trains other clinics, it has to be able to explain every setting rather than simply use it. That is the standard we hold ourselves to here, and it is the reason clients who have had a poor result elsewhere often end up in our chair. In almost every one of those cases, the machine was not the problem. The settings were.

The technology behind the award: two lasers, every skin type

Most clinics in Toronto run one laser platform. We run two, and that is a deliberate choice rather than a collection. Our Cynosure Lutronic Clarity II and our Candela GentleMax Pro each carry two wavelengths on the same device: an Alexandrite wavelength that suits lighter skin and coarse hair, and an Nd:YAG wavelength that reaches deeper and passes more safely through darker skin.

That pairing is why we treat all six Fitzpatrick skin types instead of turning people away. If you have ever been told your skin is too dark for laser, that was true of the older single-wavelength machines. It is not true of a properly set Nd:YAG laser in trained hands.

Having both platforms means we pick the better tool for you on the day rather than forcing your skin to suit the only machine in the room. Fine hair, coarse hair, small areas, large areas and sensitive skin all respond a little differently. Both platforms also cool the skin surface through the handpiece while the light works underneath.

The blueprint: what sits behind an award like this

People ask what a clinic does differently to be recognized in its category. There is no secret, but there is a blueprint, and I will share it plainly.

1. Daily volume, not occasional volume. Skill with a laser is built through repetition on real skin, across real ages and skin tones, not through a weekend certification course.
2. Honest consultations. Some of mine end with me saying that laser is the wrong tool, usually for fine, light or grey hair that holds too little pigment for a laser to target. Turning away a wrong fit protects results, and results are what recognition is built on.
3. Settings matched to the person. Wavelength, energy and pulse length are chosen for your skin tone and your hair, in every session. Cookie-cutter settings produce cookie-cutter outcomes, and on darker skin they produce injuries.
4. Medical oversight. Clinical protocols are overseen by our Medical Director, and every client is screened before treatment. A safety record compounds year over year.
5. One location, one team. The same team treats you at every session at the same North York clinic, working from your record rather than starting from scratch. Consistency cannot be faked and cannot be rushed.

That last point is worth sitting with, because it is the most common way people waste money on laser. Jumping between clinics for whichever deal is cheapest this month means every new clinic starts you on a different machine at different settings with no record of your progress. One client walked us through exactly what that cost her over three years, and we published it with her permission: what price shopping really cost one laser hair removal client.

What a course actually looks like here

Most clients need 6 to 8 sessions, spaced 4 to 6 weeks apart on the face and 6 to 8 weeks apart on the body, because facial hair and body hair grow on different cycles. Clients with PCOS or other hormonal hair growth usually need 8 to 12, and we plan for that from the start on our laser hair removal for PCOS page.

Sessions start from $55 for a small area, larger areas cost more because they take longer, and the consultation is always free. You can see the full list on our laser hair removal pricing page, and our guide to laser hair removal cost in Toronto explains what moves the number up or down across the city.

If you want the full picture before you book anything, our complete laser hair removal guide covers how the treatment works, what each session feels like, the shedding phase, preparation and safety in one place. It sits alongside our other resources in the treatment guides library.

Medical oversight at Distill

Laser hair removal is an energy-based medical aesthetic treatment, and we run it that way. Our Medical Director, Dr. Sarwat Ibrahim, oversees our clinical protocols, and treatments are performed by trained clinical staff. Your consultation covers your skin, your hair, your medical history and your suitability before anything is booked. When laser is not the right treatment for someone, we say so and suggest what is.

See the award in person

Anyone can publish a claim. We would rather show you. The award sits at our front desk in North York, and the team behind it is the team that treats you. Book a free consultation for laser hair removal in North York, or read more about our laser hair removal clinic in Toronto, and judge the standard for yourself.

Disclaimer: This page provides general information only and is not medical advice. An award reflects business recognition in a category and does not predict an individual result. It does not account for your specific circumstances, and results vary from person to person. Please book a consultation so we can assess your skin, hair and medical history before any treatment.