Laser hair removal is an efficient, comfortable and fast solution for controlling unwanted hair growth. Most individuals will require four or six treatments in order to experience maximum effectiveness.
Unfortunately, some patients experience hair regrowth post treatment which can be disconcerting and bewildering. There could be many different reasons behind this outcome but here are just a few:
Why Does It Happen?
Unwanted hair growth can be frustratingly time-consuming to deal with by means such as shaving, waxing and plucking. Laser hair removal offers a simpler solution and provides long-term results which reduce the presence of unwanted hair growth.
Laser hair removal treatments use intense beams of light that penetrate your pigmented hair follicles, turning their pigment into heat that destroys them and stops future hair growth in that spot. You might feel something similar to a rubber band snapping against your skin while experiencing this procedure; additionally, you might detect an unpleasant burning scent and smoke as the hair absorbs its heat and dissipates into thin air.
Home laser devices that meet FDA standards include helmets, hats and combs with laser diodes built-in; such devices can be found at most pharmacies and online retailers. People with sensitive skin may prefer this route since these options typically use lower-level lasers.
Laser treatments work best when your hair is in its anagen phase of its growth cycle, when more melanin builds up in each follicle and can be targeted by laser light therapy. The laser only targets that melanin pigment; thus avoiding damage to other areas or phases of its cycle.
As soon as your body reaches the catagen phase of the hair growth cycle, your follicle enters a resting period and stops producing new hair follicles. Once anagen phase starts again, new growth may appear but with far lighter hues than before.
After your treatment, you’re likely to notice some hair regrowth as your body sheds the damaged ones – this process typically takes seven to 30 days and you might experience bumps as your dead hairs surface for disposal.
Once the anagen phase concludes, you may experience significantly fewer hairs that regrow, which will typically be lighter-colored and thinner in texture than before. Regrowth could occur immediately or just sparse patches over time.
Hormonal Imbalance
Men and women both may experience hormonal imbalances that cause hair growth issues, but treatment options are typically straightforward. Medication such as Spironolactone to decrease testosterone, oral contraceptives, supplements rich in iron and folic acid as well as healthy diets and stress reduction techniques can all play a part in maintaining balanced hormone levels. Tweezering, bleaching or waxing unwanted hair is time consuming and expensive compared to laser treatment which provides quick painless removal of unwanted hair growth.
Genetics
Laser hair removal can be an extremely effective solution to eliminate unwanted hair. The laser light destroys hair follicles, stopping them from producing new follicles. Unfortunately, however, some hair follicles do return after laser treatments have taken place for various reasons – which may explain why some grow back after initial success with treatment.
Genetics is often the cause of laser treatments’ success in stimulating hair regrowth. Certain follicles possess greater genetic tendencies to produce hair than others; even when destroyed by laser treatment, genetically stronger follicles will continue to produce hair growth; this could result in thicker and darker locks after multiple laser sessions.
A person’s total required treatments depends on both genetics and skin sensitivity; those with more sensitive skin types may require multiple sessions of laser treatments before seeing desired results.
Laser treatments could cause your hair to regrow thicker for another reason: laser light only targets pigment in hair follicles during the anagen phase of hair growth cycle – this pigment gives hair its color – while during other stages, laser light cannot target it and hair continues to grow as before laser treatments were administered.
Hair growth after laser treatments can be controlled with touchup sessions at regular intervals – whether this be done at a salon or using an at-home hand-held laser. Furthermore, keeping hormone levels balanced through medication or diet may also help decrease frequency of growth after laser treatments.
Laser treatments typically come in packages of multiple sessions due to the time needed for hair follicles to be destroyed by laser light heat, and as new hair regrows from destroyed follicles it usually becomes thinner and lighter than what was removed prior to treatment.
Other Factors
There are various factors that can hinder hair growth, including age and genetics, but laser therapy offers another solution for stimulating thicker and longer growth of your follicles. By increasing blood flow to them, laser treatment makes the environment healthier for hair growth follicles as they can become more active resulting in thicker strands with higher tensile strength and fullness of locks.
Low-level light therapy differs significantly from laser hair removal by targeting pigment instead of burning skin and follicles to prevent future hair growth. Instead, this form of light therapy promotes healthy follicles during their growth cycles by absorption of laser light by pigment in hair follicles which converts it to heat which activates them, leading to healthy hair growth and stimulating healthy scalp development. Not only is LLLT safe for your scalp; it may also be used effectively treat conditions like Alopecia, Thinning hair loss as well as Alopecia in some cases as well.
Hair loss occurs when blood flow to the hair follicles slows or stops entirely, leading to either reduced production of new hairs or no production at all. Laser treatments can revive hair growth processes and spur new, thicker and longer growth by stimulating fresh blood supply to follicles.
Laser therapy works because its light wavelengths don’t cause damage to your skin tissue – in fact, they’ve been proven safe. Some of the most powerful lasers available today use cold laser technology that only touches the surface of skin without hurting it in any way.
While most patients who receive LLLT will experience lasting results, some may require follow-up sessions on an ongoing basis. We advise scheduling these preventive maintenance sessions every three to six months depending on your specific needs. At New-U Hair Restoration Specialists, we provide in-studio laser treatments as well as take-home devices such as laser helmets and combs from some of the world’s premier manufacturers.
