Bodybuilder Competition Prep: Working Backward From Stage Day to Your First Laser Session

The short version: a full torso and limb course runs six to nine sessions spaced four to six weeks apart, which is eight to twelve months. Your last session should land no closer than six to eight weeks before you step on stage, and nothing happens during peak week. That means laser is an off season project that you finish before prep starts, not something you fit into prep. If you are twelve weeks out right now, shave for this show and start the course the week after.

Why prep and laser fight each other

Contest prep and laser hair removal want opposite conditions, and almost nobody says this out loud before selling someone a package.

Laser wants untanned skin, a body that heals well, and a calendar with slack in it. Prep gives you a base tan, a DHA layer, a caloric deficit, and a schedule where every week has a job. Put those on top of each other and something breaks, usually the laser course.

The fix is boring and it works. You do the whole course in the off season and walk into prep already done.

Here is the actual arithmetic.

Working backward from stage day

Take a real date. The NPC Illinois schedule puts the Illinois State Championships on May 8, 2027, and the Midwest Gladiator at the Copernicus Center in Chicago on November 7, 2026. Illinois shows cluster in spring and again in fall, so most local competitors are working toward one of two windows.

Say your show is May 8.

Peak week, roughly May 1 through 8. No laser. Not a reduced session, not a small area. More on why below.

Tan application, the last week or two. Once DHA goes on your skin, laser is off the table until it fully comes off. Same for any base tanning you do leading in.

Last laser session, six to eight weeks out at minimum, so mid March at the latest. I would rather see you at eight weeks than six. That gives shedding time to finish, any folliculitis time to clear, and your skin time to be uniform before it takes a coat of tan.

Working back from mid March at four to six week intervals, six sessions puts your first appointment somewhere in August or September of the prior year. Nine sessions puts it earlier, closer to the previous summer.

For a November 7 show, the same math puts your last session in mid September and your first around January or February.

Notice where those start dates fall. They land in your off season, during a surplus, when you have nothing else competing for your calendar. That is not a coincidence. It is the only window that works.

Peak week is a hard no

This one is not a scheduling preference.

During peak week you are manipulating water and sodium, often using diuretics, and running very low body fat. Your skin in that state is dehydrated, thinner, more reactive, and slower to recover. Delivering thermal energy into it is a bad idea in a way that has nothing to do with your hair.

There is also the practical problem. Perifollicular edema, the small raised bumps around each treated follicle, is the normal reaction we want after a session. Under stage lighting, on a dark tan, across a shaved chest, those bumps read as a rash. So does folliculitis. If you have never seen what harsh front lighting does to uneven skin texture, ask anyone who has judged.

We will not treat a competitor inside peak week. If you ask, the answer is no, and the reason is the above.

Why prep makes laser hurt more

A detail I have never seen written anywhere, and it surprises people.

At ten percent body fat a session feels different than it did at eighteen. Not because the settings change. Because there is less tissue between your skin and your skeleton.

The sternum is already the sharpest spot on a male torso for exactly this reason, and we wrote a whole piece on what a chest and stomach session actually feels like. Strip body fat off and the ribs, the hip crest, the sternum, and the front of the shins all get worse. Clients who did their first two sessions in the off season and their third at twelve weeks out consistently tell us the third one was the hardest, and they are usually surprised by it because they assumed they had just gotten used to it by then.

Another argument for finishing before prep starts.

Which areas actually matter for stage

Competitors do not need what a general full body client needs. Judging is about what the lighting shows.

Back and rear delts are the reason most competitors call us. You cannot reach your own back, and having your partner shave it the night before a show is how people end up with razor bumps across their lats under a tan. This is the single highest value area for a competitor and it is priced and scheduled separately from our full body package. See the back laser hair removal page.

Chest and abdomen matter for front poses and for how evenly tan sits.

Arms and shoulders, including the strip along the rear delt that catches light in a rear double biceps.

Legs and glutes. Hamstrings and glutes are visible in rear poses and are usually neglected until someone gets a comparison photo back. Details on the leg page.

Underarms. Fast, cheap, and it matters more than people think in overhead poses. The underarm page covers it.

Our bodybuilder package is built around this list and around a show date. If you want everything in one appointment instead, the full body package runs 90 to 120 minutes and covers every standard area except the full back, which you add on.

Tanning is the constraint that kills courses

Two different tans, both a problem, for different reasons.

A UV base tan changes your baseline skin pigment. Our settings are built around your baseline, so a tan means either rescheduling or treating at settings that no longer match your skin. We do not do the second one. If you tan through prep, tell us before you book rather than when you are already on the table.

DHA competition tan is a surface layer of pigment sitting exactly where the laser is looking. It has to be fully off before we treat, and after a show that takes more than one shower.

The workable version is simple. Finish the course before any tanning starts, then tan freely. That is the same logic behind starting in the off season, and it is why the fall and winter months are our busiest for competitors even though nobody is competing then.

If you are already in prep

Be realistic about what is available to you.

Twelve weeks out, you cannot complete a course. Six sessions at four to six week spacing does not fit in twelve weeks, and the last few weeks are unavailable anyway. Shave for this show. Book your consultation for the week after and use the post show off season for the whole course.

Sixteen to twenty weeks out, you can get two or three sessions in and stop by the six to eight week mark. Two or three sessions is real reduction on coarse dense hair, roughly enough that your back is easier to manage and razor bumps are less of a problem, but it is not a finished course and you will still be shaving for this show. Some competitors do this deliberately as a head start. That is fine as long as nobody is telling you it will be done.

Off season with no show inside eight months, that is the right time and you should book now.

Skin tone and the wavelength question

Competitors with deeper skin get told more often than anyone that laser is not for them, usually by clinics running older single wavelength machines.

We use the Candela GentleMax Pro Plus, which carries a 755 nm Alexandrite and a 1064 nm Nd:YAG in the same machine and is FDA cleared for permanent hair reduction on Fitzpatrick I through VI. The 1064 penetrates deeper and is absorbed less by surface pigment, which is what makes deeper skin treatable safely. There is a longer explanation on our post about the Nd:YAG and dark skin.

The tan rule still applies to everyone. A tan is a change from your own baseline, whatever that baseline is.

Between sessions during a course

Shave the areas the night before or the morning of each appointment. Not trim.

No waxing, plucking, or epilating at any point during the course. The follicle has to be intact for the laser to find it.

Skip training for 24 hours after a session, and no swimming for three days. This is the rule competitors break most, and sweat trapped under a shirt against fresh follicles is how you get folliculitis across a back you were trying to clear up. Also no saunas, no hot tubs, no posing practice under hot lights that day.

Aquaphor or Vaseline three times a day. Full protocol on the post laser care page, and a separate piece on what redness means and when to call us.

Around one to three weeks after each session the treated hairs push out and it looks like regrowth. It is not, it is shedding, and we explain how to tell the difference.

Expect maintenance. Chest, back, and shoulders are androgen driven areas, so a competitor who finishes a course should plan on a touch up visit roughly once a year rather than assuming it is handled forever.

Booking, pricing, and where we are

Every price is published on our Chicago prices page rather than quoted at the counter, and six session packages run well below six single sessions. The full range of what we treat is on our laser hair removal Chicago home page and the men’s page covers the areas men book most.

Every first time client gets a free 20 minute consultation with a patch test. For a competitor, that consultation is where we take your show date, count backward, and tell you honestly whether the calendar works. Sometimes the answer is that it does not and you should wait for the off season. We would rather say that in October than have you find out in April.

V&P Laser Hair Removal & Skin Care 1317 N Larrabee St, Chicago, IL 60610 Phone: (252) 557-7113 Hours: Monday through Saturday, 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM Appointment only, no walk ins. We speak English, Romanian, and Russian.

We are in Old Town on the Near North Side, about five minutes from Lincoln Park, River North, and the Gold Coast, and ten from the West Loop. Competitors also come in from South Loop, West Town, Wicker Park, Oak Park, and Cicero. The Sedgwick Brown Line stop is four blocks away and there is free street and garage parking by the building. Every treatment is performed by a licensed APRN or FNP.

Questions competitors ask

How far before a bodybuilding show should I start laser hair removal? Eight to twelve months, which is six to nine sessions spaced four to six weeks apart. Start in the off season so the course finishes before prep begins.

When should my last laser session be before a show? Six to eight weeks out at minimum. That leaves time for shedding to finish, for any irritation to clear, and for your skin to be even before tanning starts.

Can I get laser hair removal during peak week? No. Water and sodium manipulation, diuretics, and very low body fat leave skin dehydrated and reactive, and post session bumps read as a rash under stage lighting.

Does laser hurt more when I am lean? Yes, in the bony areas. Less tissue over the sternum, ribs, hip crest, and shins means heat concentrates more. Sessions done at ten percent body fat feel sharper than the same settings did at eighteen.

Can I laser if I use a base tan or DHA tan? Not while it is on your skin. UV tanning changes the baseline our settings are built around, and DHA sits as surface pigment exactly where the laser is looking. Finish the course first, then tan.

What areas matter most for stage? Back and rear delts first, since you cannot shave them yourself and razor bumps show under lights. Then chest and abdomen, arms and shoulders, hamstrings and glutes, and underarms for overhead poses.

I am twelve weeks out. Can you get me ready? Not for this show. Shave for it and book the week after. Twelve weeks does not fit six sessions, and the final six to eight weeks are unavailable anyway.