Laser Hair Removal
Laser hair removal is a noninvasive way to reduce or remove unwanted body hair. It can be a good option for those with excess body hair who are looking for a way to effectively reduce or remove hair from both large and small areas of the body.
If you’re not happy with shaving, tweezing, or waxing to remove unwanted hair, laser hair removal may be an option worth considering as laser hair removal could give you a permanent solution of unwanted hairs. Laser hair removal is a medical procedure, that uses a concentrated beam of light (laser) to remove unwanted hair, so one should not take it as just ” zapping” unwanted hairs.
Laser hair removal is a long-lasting form of hair removal that damages or destroys the hair follicle. However, the hair may regrow, particularly if the follicle is damaged and not destroyed during the laser hair removal procedure.
Hair removal works best on people with light complexions who have dark hair. This is because the pigment contrast makes it easier for the laser to target the hair, travel into the follicle, and destroy the follicle.
Today, a majority of patients with unwanted hair seek more permanent removal methods like laser hair removal.
How does laser hair removal work?
If you are planning on undergoing laser hair removal, you should limit plucking, waxing, and electrolysis for six weeks before treatment. That’s because the laser targets the hairs’ roots, which are temporarily removed by waxing or plucking.
You should also avoid sun exposure for six weeks before and after treatment. Sun exposure makes laser hair removal less effective and makes complications after treatment more likely.
To understand how laser hair removal works you need to understand the different stages of hair growth. Hair has 3 different stages of growth and not all hairs grow at the same time. That’s why you may have found sometimes when you wax about a week later there is hair starting to grow again. Usually these are not the same hairs you waxed a week ago, they would be hairs from another follicle that were at a different stage of growth.
The three different stages of hair growth are:
Anagen – the active growth phase. At this stage, the bottom of the hair follicle (the bulb) is attached to the dermis and its blood supply through the dermal papilla.
Catagen – the transition phase. The hair follicle begins to die and enters the catagen phase
Telogen – the resting phase. In this phase, the remains of the hair bulb are inactive and the attached hair easily falls out.
Before the procedure, a medical specialist (a physician, physician assistant, or registered nurse) cleans the treatment area. If the area is particularly sensitive, numbing gel can be applied. During the procedure, everyone in the room needs to wear special protective eyewear to prevent eye damage from the laser.
Once the numbing gel kicks in, the medical specialist focuses a beam of high-energy light at the desired area. The bigger the area you would like treated, the longer the procedure takes. Small areas can take as little as a couple of minutes while larger areas such as the chest can take an hour or more.
During laser hair removal, a laser emits a light that is absorbed by the pigment (melanin) in the hair. The light energy is converted to heat, which damages the tube-shaped sacs within the skin (hair follicles) that produce hairs. This damage inhibits or delays future hair growth.
In order to destroy a hair follicle, the bulb of the hair follicle where the blood supplies the hair with oxygen to grow needs to be destroyed as well as the stem cells which are responsible for hair regeneration. To be able to do this, a temperature of about 70 degrees needs to be reached.
Your hair follicles are located just below the skin. They’re responsible for producing new strands of hair. If the follicles are destroyed, then hair production is temporarily disabled.
The darker and the thicker a hair is the more pigment it will hold, and the more light it will absorb. This is why it is important that you don’t wax or pluck your hair before a treatment, because if there is no hair there, there is no way for the laser light to treat that hair follicle.
By contrast, tweezing, shaving, and waxing all remove hair above the surface. These methods don’t target hair-producing follicles.
How many sessions are required for laser hair removal?
Everyone’s body is different, and different biological factors can impact how many sessions you need in order to fully remove your unwanted hair. It’s impossible to know exactly how many sessions of laser removal you will need without a consultation, because it all depends on how your individual body reacts to the treatment. Generally, clients need about four to six laser treatments in order to completely get rid of hair.
Some areas of the body require more sessions than others. The most commonly treated areas for women include:
• Legs
• Underarms
• Areas of the face
• Bikini line
• Brazilian area
For most of these areas, 4-6 sessions is enough. It is rare that patients will need more than 8 sessions to get the results they want.
Laser hair removal sessions are effective in eliminating hairs that are in the anagen phase. After your first session, the doctor’s will wait a few weeks before performing another. During this time, a new group of hairs will enter the anagen phase, where they can be treated.
Each session can eliminate between 10% and 30% of your hairs. With each session, you will see progressive improvement. To target the maximum number of hairs during each session, it is best to space them between 4 and 6 weeks apart. This means that in most cases, you can be hair-free in your chosen area in less than one year.
After completing initial sessions, most people only need to come in for touch-up treatments once or twice a year. For some people, even fewer touch-ups are needed.
For many areas of the body, this treatment can be completed in less than half an hour. For large areas such as the legs, you probably won’t need to spend more than two hours in the medspa, maximum. When you shave, you might spend 15 extra minutes in the shower. To maintain hairless skin, you could end up shaving over 3900 times in the next 25 years! If it takes you 15 minutes each time, that’s 58,500 minutes you’re wasting!
The amount of time you will spend using depilatory creams is about the same as shaving, and the process needs to be repeated with the same frequency. Waxing is done less frequently, but the results aren’t permanent, and you need to factor in time to drive to your appointment. When you consider that you only need around 6 initial sessions and one or two touch-ups every year to maintain smooth skin with laser treatments, you can see how much time this method saves.
Is laser hair removal permanent?
Hair removal from a destroyed hair follicle is permanent. However, people who undergo hair removal can expect that some hair in the targeted area will grow back.
Whether or not hair grows back depends on numerous factors, including the type of hair that regrows and the skill of the person removing the hair.
Most people find that when hair regrows, it is lighter and less noticeable than it was before. This is because the laser may damage the hair follicle even when it fails to destroy it.
Laser hair removal works by heating the hair follicles to stop new hairs from growing. This puts the hair follicles in a state of dormancy for a long period of time — much longer than with shaving and waxing.
Laser hair removal can significantly reduce the amount of body hair a person has. In most people, some hair will regrow over time. Even when hair does regrow, there will be less overall hair, producing a smoother appearance.
To get a realistic understanding of what to expect from laser hair removal and other health related issues, please visit our website www.santripty.com and also feel free to consult with our consultant Dr.Parveen one of the best Physician and Psychologist in town who treats people in a pure holistic way.