Laser hair removal offers a long-term alternative to shaving, waxing and plucking for hair removal. Through a series of treatments, it should lead to almost permanent results.
During treatment, your physician will use a handheld laser instrument to apply heat directly onto your skin. A cooling device or cool gel may be utilized to protect and ease discomfort during this procedure.
How Long Does It Take for Hair to Grow Back After a Laser Session?
Laser hair removal treatments use safe and effective laser energy to safely destroy unwanted hair follicles. Once they’re gone, those follicles won’t grow new hair again, and the area where hair was taken off will remain smooth and hair-free permanently.
Though laser hair removal results are long-term, multiple sessions may be required to reach full effectiveness. Each individual’s growth cycle affects how quickly laser energy can target specific hairs – thus most patients require four or six treatment sessions for long-term effects.
At a laser hair removal session, your doctor will press a handheld laser instrument against your skin, protecting and soothing any potential discomfort with cooling gel or devices at its tip. As the laser beam passes through its tip and onto hair follicles, it causes them to heat up and stop producing hair growth; you may feel either pinpricks or warm sensations and your skin might even tingle as a result of its passage through its tip.
Laser treatments only target hair in its anagen phase; typically only about 15% will be in this stage at any one time during a treatment. The rest will either be catagen or telogen phases (i.e. not growing new hair at that moment), or simply not growing any. Hair in its anagen phase during laser treatments will be destroyed, leading to its gradual fall out over five-14 days after receiving laser treatment.
Once a hair follicle has shed, its replacement will consist of finer and thinner strands than before, becoming lighter over time until eventually stopping altogether. Should any signs of hair regrowth appear again, it is essential that treatments continue unabated with maintenance sessions at regular intervals to minimize further growth.
After your laser hair removal treatment, it is perfectly normal and no cause for alarm; any new growth should be much thinner and lighter than the original strands and won’t be noticeable at all.
Skipping out on recommended laser sessions could damage hair follicles and prompt them to start growing back – especially if taking certain medications or experiencing hormonal imbalances. To protect yourself, follow your practitioner’s recommended course of treatment and set up at least one maintenance visit annually.
Laser hair removal is an incredibly convenient and long-term way to reduce the amount of body hair that grows on you, providing an alternative to shaving and waxing, both of which tend to cause hyperpigmentation in the skin. If you need assistance in keeping your body hair-free, please reach out! We would be more than happy to assist in reaching your desired goals – our office in Fort Lauderdale, Florida looks forward to helping you achieve a natural-looking finish!
How Long Does It Take for Hair to Grow Back After a Laser Treatment?
Most of us know that body hair goes through an annual cycle that includes resting and growing stages. During its growing phase, new hair grows from its base in your skin’s hair follicle. Laser treatments work to disrupt this natural cycle by using heat energy to destroy hair follicles to stop new hairs from growing back – therefore taking multiple sessions before seeing permanent results from laser hair removal.
When scheduling a laser treatment, the technician will use a handheld device against your skin and use various types of lasers; depending on which kind is being used, you may feel cool gel on its tip or light pressure against the skin. Your doctor then presses a button to activate it; emitting an intense beam of light that targets your area of treatment and emitting protective eyewear for safety during sessions.
The laser’s light beam will then pass over your skin and target pigment in hair follicles below it, which absorbs and damages them causing hairs to fall out of them and appear thinner or lighter; eventually eliminating unwanted hairs completely. You may experience some slight regrowth after your first treatment session but this should become less visible with subsequent sessions.
Laser hair removal requires multiple visits for optimal results as it takes the follicles time to progress through their various cycles. Follicles in their anagen stage are most susceptible to laser targeting and will experience the greatest reduction of hair. Therefore, it is vital that you adhere to your treatment plan and attend sessions on time.
If you wait too long between treatments, your hair follicles will enter catagen phase before entering anagen phase again, making the treatment ineffective as it targets damaged follicles that cannot be targeted by laser therapy again.
Most men and women need six to eight laser hair removal treatments spaced out over several months for maximum effectiveness, but touch-up sessions may be necessary annually or twice annually to maintain this result.
If you lack the patience for regular waxing, shaving, or plucking sessions, laser hair removal treatments could be your perfect solution. They can dramatically decrease how much hair grows back after treatment; though some will always return; but at least it will come back out much more slowly than it had originally. Plus, you will avoid experiencing the discomfort associated with shaving which some find more painful than others!
