What are typical prices for radiofrequency treatment in London?

Radiofrequency prices in London for body and face treatment: a detailed explanation

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• RF treatment cost in London: why the wide fluctuations?

• Typical central London prices for quality radiofrequency treatment

• Equipment prices vary widely

• Training and expertise matter

• Location and clinic environment

• Priority on offering a valuable service vs priority on “getting rich quick”…

• Packaging different treatments together to confuse clients

• Quoting prices according to how rich the client looks

• Discounts and course prices

• Body areas to be treated

• All in all, radiofrequency treatment prices in London…

• Check our professional consultancy in cellulite, skin tightening, ultrasound and radiofrequency

RF treatment cost in London: why the wide fluctuations?

Radiofrequency, when properly done (i.e. deep-acting, high-power radiofrequency applied by a well trained professional), is THE most effective SAFE skin tightening and cellulite reduction treatment known today.

Any other treatment is either less effective or less safe - quite often both.

Radiofrequency prices in London vary from anything between £50 a session to £3,500 a session, with typical prices for a quality treatment on an average sized body area in central London being £150-£500 per session.

Of course, as with any other aesthetic treatment, effectiveness, price and customer service vary widely from clinic to clinic, depending on:

• Equipment quality (£1,000-£90,000)

• Staff training in RF (from basic to advanced)

• Location

• Clinic environment

Effectiveness, price and customer service also is affected by the focus of each clinic:

• Either towards offering a quality service, which in turn makes an income for the clinic

• Or towards just making the maximum amount of money possible, with quality and service being a secondary detail or an afterthought

Furthermore, prices vary depending on body area treated:

• Larger areas / body sizes take more time to be treated and are more expensive

• Small areas / body sizes are faster to treat and thereby more economical

And of course, there are course discounts and special offers, which change prices downwards.

More expensive doesn’t necessarily mean better, although for quality treatment you cannot expect to pay low prices. This is because effective and safe equipment, experienced therapists and a nice environment and location do not come cheap.

Here we present an analysis of the different prices for radiofrequency treatments in London and the reasons behind the wide fluctuations seen on the market.

Typical central London prices for quality radiofrequency treatment

We (LipoTherapeia) are based in Central London and take pride in the high quality of our treatments, our extensive training and experience, our personable and professional customer service and in using the absolutely best equipment in the world.

Our prices are in the mid-range for high quality treatment in central London.

Some of our prices are as follows, as part of a course of 6x sessions:

(As effective and SAFE radiofrequency treatments require 6-12 sessions for good results, claims for miracle results with one or two overpriced treatments are simply misleading, to say the least)

• Skin tightening and cellulite reduction on the back of thighs, outer thighs and buttocks (three areas): £240/session

• Non-surgical butt lift and cellulite reduction (one area): £145/session

• Non-surgical tummy lift and cellulite reduction (one area): £145/session

• Skin tightening and cellulite reduction on saddlebags only (one area): £200/session

• Back of thighs, outer thighs, bum, front of thighs, inner thighs, knees, stomach (7 areas): £600/session

• Décolletage and neck (2 areas): £200/session

• Under-chin, jawline and cheeks: £145/session (3 facial areas)

You can check the full pricelist of all our radiofrequency treatments here.

However, as mentioned above, you can find prices for treatments on body areas such as above from £50 to £3,500 (yes, £3,500 for an one-hour RF treatment).

So what makes prices vary so much?

Equipment prices vary widely

One of our RF machines costs £90,000, with all the accessories included and, apart from being the best in the world, it is also the most expensive in the world too.

Our other RF equipment is on the £40,000 range and is used (in conjunction with our main machine) for specific requirements.

However, RF equipment starts from as little as £1,000, with average prices for decent quality equipment being £40,000-£70,000 for body and face and something like £20,000-£70,000 for face only.

Needless to say that the £1,000 option will be totally inadequate for professional - and even for amateur - use. But it will also be potentially dangerous, if imported directly from China without any quality controls (you would be surprised how many clinics use such equipment).

A good therapist can create a good treatment out of a £40,000 machine. However, no matter how good you are, you cannot create a good treatment out of a £5,000 machine. Facts are facts.

So using cheap equipment will keep prices down but will not offer a safe and/or effective treatments to clients.

In some other areas of aesthetic treatment, there are indeed overpriced machines which force prices artificially high. A good example is those electromagnetic muscle stimulation treatments which make you “lose fat and build muscle” (😂) in just four (😂) super-expensive sessions and “this all that’s needed” (😂).

However, specifically for radiofrequency the £90,000 price ceiling applies to an excellent machine (it is not overpriced for what it is), and the price paid for both equipment and final treatment are justified.

In addition to equipment cost, we also have to take equipment service into account.

To comply with regulations, RF equipment must be serviced every 6-12 months by the original equipment manufacturer. This doesn’t come cheap at all but ensures safety and effectiveness.

Unfortunately, not all clinics keep to the regulations.

On the other hand, there are many proud and responsible clinic owners who use good equipment and do have it regularly serviced.

Training and expertise matter

Even with the best equipment in the world, if you don’t know what exactly you are doing and just depend on the manufacturer’s training (which let’s face it, it’s pretty basic) you will not offer a safe or an effective treatment to your clients.

Training and expertise comes with time, money and energy spend, which have to be rewarded.

Using a young person out of college to offer a basic RF treatment will indeed keep prices down but treatment quality will suffer. You can’t create 10,000 hours’ worth of experience or knowledge in a few hours of training or in mere days, weeks or even months of experience.

On the other hand, paying exorbitant prices to be treated at a famous plastic surgeon clinic is not necessarily useful, as it is never the surgeon who provides the treatment, it is always a beauty therapist, trained by the manufacturer in a few hours.

Again, there are many proud clinic owners who strive to train their staff at high standards and employ experienced therapists.

Location and clinic environment

Obviously, prices at a nicely presented clinic located in Central London will be higher than at at a clinic located at a small suburb at a run down clinic.

Of course no-one wants to have treatment at a run down place.

However, a nicely run suburban clinic with lower rents is absolutely perfect, if they offer the high-spec equipment and expertise required.

Priority on offering a valuable service vs priority on “getting rich quick”…

As mentioned above, if the focus is not on treatment quality and customer service (which will by itself naturally lead to a nice income for the clinic) but on making lots of money quickly, regardless of quality and service, prices may be both very high or very low:

On the very high end of the spectrum, some clinics charge whatever they can get away with, aided by:

• Fake “before and after” pictures (i.e. 95% of what you see on instagram and on the internet)

• Exaggerated claims

• Marketing hype

• Fake reviews

• Freebie influencer endorsements

Under this scenario you may see clinics charging rip-off prices of £700-£3,500 for “one-off”, “permanent” treatments (believe me, such a thing does not exist), on a small body area, such as the lower face or the buttocks.

On the very low end of the spectrum, you may see clinics charging literally next to nothing for treatment with low-end equipment, poorly trained therapists and a high turnover of clients per day (factory mentality).

Or you may see clinics (high, middle or low end) charging high or low prices for rushed, very short treatments, as short as 10 minutes per area (which is wholly inadequate), in order to boost profitability at the expense of quality.

Again, there are caring clinic owners who go to extreme lengths to offer a good service at a reasonable price, focusing on quality and customer care, above everything else.

Packaging different treatments together to confuse clients

This is quite a trend in all sorts of clinics in London (low, middle or high end), whereby radiofrequency is combined with all sorts of - usually irrelevant - treatments, such as acoustic wave therapy, electromagnetic stimulation, palper-rouler, cryolipolysis, HIFU, massage, pressotherapy, vibration plate training etc.

Then the whole thing is sold as a package (kinda like the subprime mortgages packed with good mortgages in the last financial crisis…), where you cannot decipher the price of each individual treatment, you don’t know how much you pay for what and cannot compare prices with other clinics.

These added treatments usually do not work very well on their own but when packaged together with RF you get the impression of a “holistic approach”, when in reality the whole thing is a waste of money and a way to make prices opaque and incomparable.

Thankfully, many clinics offer clear pricing which enable you to compare in a transparent way.

Quoting prices according to how rich the client looks

Another example of opaque pricing is when clinics do not mention any prices on their website and then they quote whatever they want, according to how rich (or not rich) their client looks.

This usually starts with very high initial prices for the posh / rich people, with more money than sense, who think that all their cellulite / skin looseness will disappear if they pay £3,000 for an “one-off” session

Again, such a thing does not exist anywhere on this planet, even at those Hollywood plastic surgeon clinics where you pay $20k for one mediocre RF session (yes, you read well, $20k for one “miracle” session with a mediocre RF machine - they do charge that).

Then, for the seemingly less affluent client, there is always a special offer or some very steep, manager discretion (😂) discount, that the client must sign up to “today” in order to receive it

Again, thankfully, some clinics publish their fill pricelist on their website, thereby keeping things transparent and charging the same price for everyone.

Discounts and course prices

As radiofrequency treatments have to be repeated 5, 10, 15 times to offer some good, long term results with skin tightening and cellulite, it makes sense to offer a discount for packages of treatments. So the price of, for example, 6x sessions will be 10%, 20% or even 30% lower than the price of a stand-alone session.

This discounting price makes sense for both clients and clinics.

Furthermore, clinics may offer discounts in the quieter periods (usually winter), which again makes sense for clients (as they get a better deal for the exact same treatment) and for clinics (as they fill up their slots in the quieter periods).

On the other hand, going for those 90% discounts on “social buying” websites is almost always a disaster, as treatment quality and customer care suffers.

Body areas to be treated

As any single body area, even a tiny one, has to be treated for at least 15 minutes for good results, then it makes sense that large or multiple areas will need longer treatment, which means higher prices.

Moreover, curvier/taller bodies need longer treatment, as there is more body surface area to be treated.

• Treating, for example, just the lower face area could take as little as 20 minutes, with a good machine and a good protocol

• On the other hand, treating the entire thighs and buttocks of a taller/curvier person may take as long as 100 minutes

So the two prices will be totally different: £145 for the first case vs £600 for the second case, at our clinic.

Again, attempting to treat the 100-minute case in something like 40 minutes, just to appear competitive and “win the business” will be a disservice to the customer.

Of course, responsible clinics do not play these games and prefer to lose business than cutting corners and lying to their clients.

All in all, radiofrequency treatment prices in London…

…(or anywhere else for that matter) can vary widely, for good and for bad reasons:

• More expensive does not necessarily mean better. And definitely extremely expensive never makes sense.

• And vice versa, lower prices does not automatically mean worse service. But very low prices are always suspect.

So do your research, meet the people, ask some questions and then use your common sense to decide what is the best price for a quality, effective, safe treatment at a place where they will treat you with care and professionalism.

Check our professional consultancy, for a masterclass in radiofrequency, ultrasound cavitation, cellulite and skin tightening

Do you want to deeply understand radiofrequency, ultrasound cavitation, cellulite and skin tightening? Attend a half-day, 1-day or 2-day or 3-day professional consultancy / one-to-one training and confidently offer your clients the safest, strongest and most effective treatment possible. Service available via Zoom or at our central London practice.