Women during gestation experience many changes, including unexpected hair growth. If laser treatment for hair removal is on your agenda, most doctors advise waiting until after you give birth before proceeding with laser hair removal treatments.
This is because certain procedures may pose risks to an expectant mother’s unborn fetus, even at low concentrations. We spoke to Hack, as well as a board-certified OBGYN and an esthetician, to understand why treatment should be postponed until after delivery.
Hormonal Changes
Pregnancy makes it hard to stick to a hair removal regimen, with certain areas often too large to comfortably reach for shaving, while skin can often become more sensitive requiring waxing to feel less comfortable than shaving. Furthermore, women often find that their hair thickens more and fuller during gestation making regular hair removal methods even harder to manage.
Temporary methods, such as shaving, waxing and threading are generally safe during pregnancy. Laser hair removal should generally be avoided during gestation as its use on pregnant and nursing mothers could pose risks.
Laser treatments should not have any harmful effect on fetuses and most medical practitioners will err on the side of caution when making recommendations. There may also be a small risk that laser hair removal could cause pigmentation changes to your skin that affect its appearance; should you choose to continue laser hair removal while pregnant, notify the clinic as soon as you discover your pregnancy; most reputable clinics will happily postpone treatment until after you’ve given birth.
Pregnancy can alter the growth patterns of your hair, making it harder to schedule laser treatments when they’re necessary. Because each hair follicle has different growth cycles and it is essential that treatment be administered at the ideal time in order to obtain maximum results; pregnancy hormones have been known to stimulate dormant follicles into activating earlier than before thus leading to new hair growing where none existed previously. Some women even report new hair growth emerging where none was previously visible.
Some women also find they experience downy hair during pregnancy as a result of hormones delaying the final phase of growth known as telogen, making hair thicker and darker and making removal with laser difficult. This typically clears up six months post-birth once hormone levels return to normal; subsequent laser treatments can then resume.
Hyperpigmentation
Pregnancy hormones can make hair appear in unexpected places, leading many women to seek ways to remove it during gestation. Unfortunately, laser hair removal isn’t safe for pregnant women so alternative approaches such as shaving, waxing, or tweezing should suffice until after giving birth.
Laser treatments work by targeting hair follicles at their roots with intense heat energy, but during pregnancy this treatment could increase your risk of skin burns as well as cause hyperpigmentation – known as darkening of skin tone – which could compromise its effectiveness; lasers work best on patients who display stark differences between their hair color and skin tone.
Pregnancy makes skin even more sensitive due to stretching and an increase in blood flow, making laser treatments more painful than usual, especially if done on breasts or abdomen.
Pregnant women tend to have compromised immune systems, making laser hair removal burns even more likely to take longer to heal and even cause infection or long-term scarring. Furthermore, some topical anesthetics used during laser hair removal treatments — like lidocaine and prilocaine — are considered harmful during gestation.
As your hair follicles have different growth cycles, multiple laser sessions may be required in order to effectively treat each area of concern. Unfortunately, due to pregnancy-induced hair growth patterns it’s often impossible to anticipate exactly how many sessions will be necessary, leading to more costs than would have been necessary if you hadn’t been pregnant in the first place.
Targeted Areas
Pregnancy hormones often cause hair growth to increase unexpectedly in unusual places, making it hard to use temporary methods like shaving and waxing alone to eliminate it. Laser hair removal offers another permanent and less time-consuming solution; however, before making this choice during gestation it is essential to understand its impact on hair growth.
No evidence has shown that laser hair removal during pregnancy has any harmful side-effects for either mother or baby; however, since there has been no definitive proof that laser treatment is safe during gestation, it would generally be prudent to wait until after delivery before scheduling treatments.
Laser treatments use non-ionizing radiation to eradicate unwanted hair roots without causing cell mutation or skin damage, with some clinics applying numbing cream to help patients endure any slight pain and heat associated with treatment. Unfortunately, pregnancy weakens immune systems significantly and makes healing after laser treatments difficult, increasing risk of infection as well as long-term scarring.
Some women may also experience something called telogen effluvium during their pregnancies. This condition occurs when pregnancy hormones cause hair to remain in its resting phase of telogen for too long, leading to thickening hair that appears thicker. This condition is normal and will subside once your hormones return to their original levels after childbirth.
Before seeking elective cosmetic treatments during pregnancy, it’s important to speak to your healthcare provider first and get their opinion. Your physician can determine if a treatment is safe for you and suggest when is an ideal time and place for it. Doing this will ensure your hormones have returned to normal and that your skin has fully healed prior to starting any procedures such as laser hair removal services in Colorado such as CoLaz’s locations in Fort Collins, Lakewood Westminster Colorado Springs
Safety
Pregnancy can bring dramatic physical changes for women. Women gain weight, lose bladder control and begin growing hair where none existed previously. While temporary solutions such as shaving or waxing exist to control this excess growth of hair, laser hair removal offers permanent solutions – though many pregnant women wonder whether or not laser treatment should be performed while expecting.
As there has yet to be sufficient research conducted on laser treatment safety during pregnancy, doctors and dermatologists generally advise women waiting until after giving birth before seeking any type of laser procedure.
Laser hair removal is considered to be relatively safe when performed by an experienced and certified esthetician. The procedure doesn’t involve an excessive amount of heat or invasive techniques, making it an attractive alternative to more invasive hair removal options.
Laser hair removal should only cause problems when anesthetic is applied on sensitive areas. Since laser treatments can be quite painful, pregnant women should generally forgo them in favor of other more temporary means for hair removal.
Most people are aware of the list of beauty products and procedures which should not be used during pregnancy, such as topical retinoids, injectables, and hydroquinone; however, laser hair removal during gestation remains unknown to many.
Pregnancy hormones may stimulate dormant hair follicles to awaken more quickly, shortening their growth cycles and increasing regrowth and thickness in some women, which some may find unattractive. However, most changes typically resolve themselves within six months post delivery when hormone levels return to normal.
Although permanent hair removal methods can be safely utilized during pregnancy, it’s wise to wait until after giving birth before returning to laser treatments. You could try more temporary alternatives like shaving or waxing until you’re ready to bring your body back into balance.
