Lasers are now the gold standard treatment for permanent hair reduction. In the right hands and using the right machine, laser hair removal is a safe and effective procedure with few to no side effects.
In the wrong hands, using the wrong laser, or using inappropriate laser settings, the resulting treatment can be painful, may not work, and may even lead to scarring and permanent skin damage.
It is essential that your laser treatment is carried out by fully qualified and experienced laser therapists, preferably this means a qualified nurse and not a beautician. Laser therapists must have gone through the manufacturer’s training program specific to that laser and the clinic must be regulated by an appropriate organization. Currently in the UK all laser clinics using a medical laser device must be regulated by the Care Quality Commission as a healthcare provider for that treatment.
How do lasers work?
A laser emits a high-energy beam of light that is absorbed by the hair follicle. The laser is pulsed, or turned on, for just a fraction of a second, the duration of each pulse being long enough to treat the hair follicle and not damage the surrounding skin. Once absorbed, the energy from the laser light is transformed into heat, destroying the hair bulb at the base of the hair follicle.
The color of your hair depends on the presence of a pigment called melanin, which is produced by melanocytes, which are found in the hair bulb. In laser hair removal, the target of the laser energy is this melanin pigment. Therefore, the more melanin a person has in their hair, the more effectively the laser energy will be absorbed in the follicle and the better the results will be.
What type of laser works best on different skin types?
Different laser machines produce beams of light energy at different wavelengths, for hair removal you need a laser that has a wavelength that is easily absorbed by melanin.
An individual with light skin and dark hair is the perfect subject for hair removal, therefore the laser energy is selectively absorbed by the hair bulb and not the surrounding skin, thus reducing potential thermal damage to the skin and allowing be able to deliver more energy directly to the hair bulb.
Generally, the gold standard on a dark-haired, fair-skinned client is a diode laser such as the lightsheer laser which produces filtered light at nearly the exact wavelength needed to be effective for hair removal, alternatively, a Alexandrite laser can also be very effective.
With dark skin and Asian skin clients, clinics need to use a laser that is more refined for that skin type, unlike white skin, an alexandrite laser can cause scarring on Asian or dark skin.
An Nd Yag laser is traditionally the best option for darker skin types. However, experience shows that an Nd Yag laser used on light skin or lighter Asian skin can cause dispersion of light energy and therefore painful treatments. I prefer to use a pure light diode laser that can be set to a long pulse width. A lightsheer laser has a cooled tip that cools the surrounding skin reducing any residual thermal damage to the skin and excellent results are achieved with little to no discomfort.
White, blonde and gray hair is not really suitable for laser hair removal, as the hair bulbs do not contain as much melanin pigment, so it is difficult to direct the laser energy to the hair bulb and get effective results.
There are also different light devices available IPL stands for Intense Pulsed Light, these are devices that are not as powerful as a traditional laser and cannot maintain a pulse width or deliver the necessary fluence or energy to be effective. So you will need more treatments in a salon with an inferior and cheaper IPL device and your results will not be as good as a traditional laser.
Home use hair removal devices use IPL technology, and looking at the test results and technical specifications, they cannot produce enough power for effective results and are therefore a waste of money.
With a traditional laser you will need 5-6 treatments to get effective results, going to a salon that uses an IPL device will mean you will need at least 10-12 sessions to get the same results.
Bottom line, go to a medically regulated clinic, not a salon, be seen by a qualified technician, preferably a nurse, and make sure the clinic is using technology that works and is safe for your skin type.
