Laser hair removal can be an effective treatment to combat unwanted body hair growth. Unfortunately, however, there may be several reasons that may prevent your treatment from being a success.
Laser hair removal treatments often fail because of an unfavorable hair growth cycle. To maximize effectiveness, anagen hair must be in the active growth stage (anagen phase). For laser treatment to work effectively.
1. Hormonal Imbalance
Laser hair removal is one of the most efficient means of eliminating unwanted body hair. This procedure employs high-powered lasers that emit light beams to heat up melanin in hair follicles and destroy them; once destroyed, these follicles cannot produce new hair, thereby effectively stopping its growth.
However, hormonal issues could prevent laser hair removal from working effectively. Hormonal fluctuations may cause hair follicles to produce thicker and darker than usual hair growth – rendering these hairs resistant to laser treatment sessions, thus necessitating multiple sessions for results that last.
Hormonal imbalance can also alter how your skin responds to laser hair removal treatments, as sebaceous glands overproduce oil which clogs pores and leads to acne breakouts. Acid reflux may also indicate hormonal issues when changes relax the lower esophageal sphincter allowing stomach acids to leak back into the esophagus through relaxation of its lower sphincter allowing stomach acids to flow back up into it from below.
If you suspect that your hormone levels may be out of balance, consult with your physician immediately to identify effective solutions. Diet and lifestyle modifications can help alleviate symptoms while medications may also help balance out hormones.
To achieve optimal results from laser hair removal, it is vital that you abide by your dermatologist’s preparation protocol. This means avoiding sunless tanning creams as well as any other hair removal methods like tweezing, shaving or waxing which could disrupt skin surface or damage hair follicles.
As part of your preparations for laser hair removal, it is also crucial that any blood-thinning medications be avoided in the weeks preceding treatment, as they could hinder how your blood vessels dilate during laser treatments and compromise effective hair removal or cause permanent skin damage. Furthermore, any procedures which disturb hair follicles such as electrolysis and microdermabrasion should also be avoided in order to ensure maximum effectiveness and minimal scarring.
2. Excessive Hair
Laser hair removal works by sending powerful light beams directly into each of your hair follicles, where it absorbs by the pigment that gives your hair its color – this light reaches only those hair follicles which have entered their growth stage; otherwise it has no effect on them and takes four to eight treatments over weekly intervals before experiencing a noticeable reduction of unwanted hair growth.
If your hair has very dark hues, laser treatment may prove challenging due to difficulty targeting its follicles effectively, leading to less-than-ideal results or nonexistent progress at all. If this is a concern for you, speaking to a dermatologist is recommended; they will assess both your skin type and hair texture to identify an effective approach.
Prior to beginning laser treatments, it’s crucial that you prepare properly. Shaving will ensure that there is no excess hair present that could hinder energy absorption by your follicles.
Also, it’s essential that patients refrain from tweezing, waxing, plucking or picking at the area to be treated, as this could damage hair follicles and lead to less than desired results.
Make sure never to miss your scheduled appointments as this could cause your hair to enter its telogen phase – where hair falls out but quickly grows back – if this occurs it is important that all of your anagen phase hair be included for each session to achieve smooth, hairless looks more efficiently and get maximum benefit out of laser hair removal treatments.
3. Medications
Laser hair removal uses powerful light waves to target and destroy pigment in hair follicles, effectively stopping further hair growth but without permanently eliminating all follicles; new hair will still eventually appear where some are destroyed by laser treatment. Unfortunately, medication could interfere with its effectiveness and affect its results, potentially leaving you without desired outcomes.
Many medications contain photosensitive components that make them unsuitable for laser hair removal treatment, including common retinol drugs that cause skin damage when exposed to light and antibiotics like Accutane that make the skin sensitive to light, potentially diminishing its efficacy in laser hair removal treatments. Individuals taking such drugs should discontinue them at least a few weeks before their laser hair removal appointment.
As is also important to remember, certain medications do not interact well with laser treatments at all. Steroids should never be taken prior to or following laser hair removal, while patients taking gold-based arthritis medications or antihistamines could potentially make their skin too sensitive for laser treatment.
If you’re uncertain whether your medications will react with laser treatment, speak to your dermatologist for guidance and advice. They will examine your skin to assess if laser is an ideal way of eliminating hair growth while offering alternative strategies to help with unwanted hair reduction.
Laser hair removal has proven highly effective for most, yet it may not work on everyone. While most can experience up to a 90% decrease in hair growth after regular laser treatment, others might not see similar success.
If your hair growth appears to have slowed after receiving laser treatments, it could be because your follicles have entered their telogen phase of their cycle and are no longer visible on the surface of your skin. To avoid this occurring again, be sure to stick with all scheduled sessions without missing any.
4. Poor Preparation
Laser hair removal uses a concentrated light beam that targets and destroys individual hair follicles to stop further body hair growth. It is much safer than plucking or waxing but must be performed by an experienced dermatologist.
Unwanted hair growth can be an embarrassing problem for many people, which is why laser hair removal is such a good solution. This technique uses laser light to heat up and damage melanin molecules found in hair shafts to stop further hair from growing back – although sometimes laser treatment doesn’t always work as intended – here are a few reasons this may occur:
One of the primary factors preventing laser hair removal from being successful is insufficient training from your provider. Before making an appointment, be sure to thoroughly research and check their background – there have been multiple lawsuits filed against those without sufficient knowledge to administer laser hair removal correctly, leading to burns and other painful results for their clients.
If the practitioner providing laser hair removal is untrained, they may not know how to tailor its settings based on your skin type and hair color. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to choose a dermatologist with experience in this field, who have all of the expertise required for optimal results.
Prep the treatment area appropriately before your appointment by shaving the night or several hours beforehand to ensure every hair can be targeted by the laser. In addition, avoid any skin creams or tanning products as these could alter how energy from laser is absorbed by hairs.
Laser hair removal should never be treated as permanent; multiple sessions will likely be needed in order to permanently get rid of all unwanted body hair. Be sure to attend all appointments as scheduled, and heed all recommendations made by your dermatologist post-treatment for the best possible outcomes from your laser hair removal sessions.
