Unwanted facial and body hair can affect the way we feel, our social relations, what we wear and what we do. Options to disguise or remove unwanted hair include plucking, shaving, bleaching, using creams and epilation. Longer-term options include electrolysis, which uses an electrical current to destroy individual hair follicles, and laser therapy.
So what is Laser Hair Removal? What can it achieve? And what are the side-effects?
Lasers release a wavelength of light with a particular single colour. When targeted to the skin, the energy from the light is transferred to the skin and hair pigment melanin. This heats up and damages the surrounding tissue. Laser treatment can either permanently reduce the density of the hair or permanently remove unwanted hair.
Permanent reduction in hair density means some hairs will regrow after a single course of therapy and patients will need ongoing laser treatment.
Permanent hair removal means none of the hairs in the treated area will regrow after a single course of therapy and no ongoing laser therapy is needed.
Whether hair is removed permanently or just reduced in density is influenced by: the colour and thickness of the hairs being treated, the colour of the patient’s skin, the type and quality of the laser used, and the competence and training of the person operating the laser.
However, if you have grey hairs, which have no melanin pigmentation, currently available lasers don’t work.
