Laser and IPL Hair Removal Treatment

What happens during Laser and IPL Hair Removal treatment and how long will it take to recover?

 

Your first discussion with a practitioner should clearly set out your expectations of laser or intense pulsed light, IPL treatment and the practitioner should tell you whether or not these results are achievable using this method of hair removal. 中国医学科学院整形外科医院整形科王永前

Your medical history should be taken, to ensure that there are no reasons why you shouldn’t have the treatment. At this time, you would also normally be asked to read detailed informastion and sign a consent form which means that you have understood the potential benefits and risks associated with this treatment.

 

The procedure

During this treatment, safety eyewear must be worn to protect your eyes from the light generated by the machine for all lasers and IPL machines.

The practitioner will use a small hand piece to touch your skin with flashes of light. Some machines may also spray your skin with a cooling agent before the treatment begins.

A gel may also be applied to the treated area.

Most patients describe the procedure as a little uncomfortable, with a tingling or stinging sensation during treatment. The discomfort varies with each person, depending on your individual pain threshold and the type of machine used.

If you are having this treatment in a sensitive area, you may require an anaesthetic cream to make the treatment more comfortable. Be sure to discuss this with your practitioner before the treatment.

Repeat procedures

Several treatments are required at the start of hair removal therapy because of the natural growth cycle of hair. This is because each hair follicle goes through growing and resting phases, and the hair follicle is most successfully treated by light early in the growing phase.

The number of active follicles and the length of the growth phase varies, and the first treatment will only damage some of the follicles. After a few weeks, previously resting hair follicles break into growth, which then need to be treated.

The procedure can take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour, depending on the size of the area being treated.

Treatments can be repeated at approximately monthly intervals. In this way, after 2 - 7 treatments, most of the hair follicles in any particular site can be successfully treated.

After this series of treatments, any further hair growth can be treated as and when it’s necessary.

Recovery time

Most people find that they can return to work immediately after treatment.

 

Laser and IPL Hair Removal Side Effects：

Does it hurt and what could go wrong?

 

Problems after Laser or Intense Pulsed Light, IPL treatment for hair removal vary according to your skin type and the type of hair removal machine used, but here are some of the potential complications.

Immediately after the procedure, you may notice some swelling, and the skin may become pink or red and a little sore.

Patients have described it as feeling like mild sunburn, but this is a reaction that usually disappears within a day or so.

Skin pigment may be darkened by bright light. It has the same effect as a light suntan, but because it is only visible at the points at which the laser has landed on your skin, it can look quite peculiar! If it occurs at all, (which is quite rare) it will gradually fade but may take many months to do so.

If the skin pigment absorbs too much laser energy, the pigment can be damaged leaving pale patches on the skin. Again these usually slowly recover.

The same process can cause the skin to overheat, resulting in blistering and possibly scarring. These effects are unlikely on pale skin, but care must be taken with darker skin.

Individuals vary in their sensitivity to light treatment so your practitioner should test a patch of your skin before going ahead. This is particularly necessary with some types of machines.

Recently tanned skin can be more vulnerable to the side effects or risks described above, and for many types of machine used, clinics will advise you to be as pale as possible before considering hair removal using light treatment.

There is some evidence that the use of light based systems for hair removal can cause hair to grow in areas adjacent to the treated area in a small proportion of patients.

 

What should you do after this procedure?

 

It is very important that you follow the advice of your practitioner carefully following light treatment for hair removal to reduce the risk of complications.

Post-treatment advice may include:

• applying an antiseptic cream after treatment;
• not exposing yourself to the sun without applying a high factor sun block to the treated area;
• contacting your practitioner immediately if you notice any signs of blistering, infection, persistent pain or pigment changes in the treated area.

Who should not have laser/IPL/LHE hair removal?

This really depends upon the type of machine used by a clinic and your skin and hair colour.

There is a wide variety of equipment promoted by around thirty manufacturers and distributors in the U.K..

Some of the newer machines available claim that they can treat all skin types and hair colour, however other pieces of equipment may be more limited. As a result, some clinics may not be able to treat you for the following reasons:

• if you have ginger hair which may respond poorly to the treatment. Blonde or white hairs sometimes hardly respond at all;
• Mediterranean, Middle and Far Eastern skin types may need to be treated with care;
• darker skin types than the groups listed above. They may not suitable for the stronger lasers because the skin pigment absorbs too much energy causing unwanted damage. Similarly, patients who have recent sun tans should wait until their tan fades.

General reasons of unsuitability not related to skin and hair type include:

• any history of sensitivity to light based treatments;
• an active infection at the site to be treated;
• pregnancy

 

Summary

Hair removal using light is a new cosmetic treatment and therefore long-term studies of the permanency and effectiveness of this method do not yet exist.

To the general public permanent means forever. Be aware that in the world of laser/IPL treatments, permanent means for longer than the normal hair growth cycle on that part of the body.

Remember that a process such as radiotherapy can cause hair loss for longer than the hair growth cycle, yet the hair can recover completely after a period of time.

Hair follicles are not completely destroyed by light treatment, and they have great powers of re-growth. It is therefore difficult to claim that the hair removal is permanent; indeed most people will experience some regrowth within a year.

To give you a more reasonable idea of what to expect, a recent study published in the British Journal of Dermatology found that "3 months after 4 treatments, 95% of patients rated their response as considerably or moderately improved."

They also found that "this degree of patient satisfaction is reflected in the high proportion who requested continued treatment at other sites after the treatment phase of the study was completed."
To put it simply, most people who are currently undergoing hair removal, are satisfied with the results: so much so, that they are going back to their clinics for similar treatment on different areas of their bodies.