We present a comparative experimental study of unsteady laminar flows of a yield stress shear thinning fluid (Carbopol 980) in two distinct configurations: a parallel plate rheometric flow and a pressure driven pipe flow. Consistently with the observations in the case of the rheometric flow, the in situ characterisation of the unsteady pipe flow reveals three distinct flow regimes: solid (plug-like), solid-fluid and fluid. In both configurations and as the flow forcing is gradually increased, the yielding emerges via an irreversible transition. The irreversibility of the deformation states is coupled to the wall slip phenomenon. Particularly, the presence of wall slip nearly suppresses the scaling of the deformation power deficit associated to the rheological hysteresis with the rate at which the material is forced. An universal scaling of the slip velocity with the wall velocity gradients and a slip length which is independent on the degree of the flow steadiness is observed in the pipe flow. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.