Permanent Hair Reduction

Your risks are minimal. Side effects may include redness, swelling, hyper pigmentation, hypo pigmentation, blistering and purpura (a laser bruise) in the treated area—these usually do not last more than a few days. Permanent side effects are rare. Be sure to discuss potential side effects with your practitioner.

Patients scheduled for hair removal should avoid plucking, electrolysis or hair waxing for six weeks prior to treatment. Your skin should be clean-shaven, and your skin should be thoroughly cleansed and dried, removing any makeup, creams, oils, perfumes, topical anesthetics or self-tanning products before laser treatment. The intended treatment area should NOT be exposed to sunlight or tanning booth light prior to or immediately after treatment according to your providers recommendation. If you have a history of herpes simplex virus and are scheduled for laser treatment, prophylactic antiviral therapy may be prescribed by your practitioner.

A cool compress or gel pack may be applied for comfort following your treatment. Redness or swelling may occur and should resolve within a few hours. To prevent damage, avoid sun exposure for two weeks before and after treatment. In the first few days after treatment, don’t scrub or rinse the treated areas with abrasive skin cleansers. Most patients experience no noticeable after-effects of laser hair removal. Your practitioner may advise additional precautions.

After laser treatment, prevent sun exposure by applying sunblock (SPF 30 or above). In the first few days after treatment, don’t scrub or rinse the treated areas with abrasive skin cleansers. Your practitioner may advise additional precautions.

Treatment will take place in your practitioner’s office. You will wear safety eyewear to protect your eyes from the laser light. Your practitioner will guide the laser to the treatment areas with a small hand piece. Each laser pulse may be preceded and followed by a short pulse of cooling spray. A treatment could take as little as a few minutes to as long as an hour, depending on the area and condition being treated.

Some patients may feel a slight discomfort with each laser pulse, sometimes described like the snapping of a rubber band on the skin. This discomfort resolves quickly and is minimized by Candela’s DCD or air cooling. Be sure to discuss this with your practitioner.

Depending on what area of the body is being treated for unwanted hair, it can take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour. A typical procedure for removing hair under the arm takes approximately 15 minutes, easy enough to schedule on your lunch hour!

Most insurance companies do not offer reimbursement for cosmetic procedures. Some carriers will, however, cover the treatment of disfiguring birthmarks such as hemangiomas. Consult your insurance carrier for conclusive information.

Individuals with coarse, dark hair and light skin color respond most optimally. Light energy is absorbed by the pigment melanin, which then is transformed into heat energy to disable the follicle. The treatment of white or gray hair is ineffective with this laser. In those people with darker skin color (more melanin in the skin), the skin tends to compete with the hair for the light energy resulting in the potential for damage to the skin, not the follicle. That is why tanning should be avoided prior (and after) laser treatments. Our second generation lasers can be used on people with fine hairs and darker skin colors. Lasers are effective at disabling hairs that are actively growing and at any given time not all hairs are in an active growth phase. It therefore is necessary to treat an area again at a later time to disable those hairs that were in a resting phase during initial treatment. Feel free to email our Certified Laser Specialists with any questions that you may have.

The main difference between laser technology and the traditional method know as electrolysis, is that lasers can treat multiple hair follicles at one time, no longer requiring the need to identify and probe each individual hair follicle, as is done with electrolysis. Laser hair removal is a relatively new technology. The FDA has cleared our lasers for permanent hair reduction based on clinical studies with trial patients. Most people need an average of 5-8 treatments. Hair grows in cycles and subsequent treatments are necessary to treat the follicles that are lying dormant below the surface of the skin. The first laser treatment stimulates dormant follicles into the next phase called anagen, this is the most effective stage in permanent hair reduction. Individual results may vary by treatment but after completing a laser treatment series that is right for you, you can expect a 90% reduction in hair follicles.

Nearly any body or facial hair can be treated. Popular treatment areas include faces, necks, chests, backs, bikini areas, legs and underarms.

The number of sessions depends on the treatment you require and the condition of your skin. For hair removal, multiple treatments are required, as the process is most effective when the hair follicle is in its active growth phase. Most people require 4-8 treatments spaced at regular intervals for optimum permanent hair reduction.

You will see some results immediately. It takes a week or two for all of the hair in the treated area to fall out. After that, you will experience several weeks of no growth in the treated area. Typically, it is time to re-treat the area when new hair growth is detected. Shaving is permitted at any time during this process.