”Today I want to talk a little bit about laser hair removal. A service offered at our Appearance Care CenterTM, a full service medical day Spa.
One of the more common questions asked about laser hair removal is “How often can I do it? I really want to get the best results and I like them get them done as quickly as possible”
Well, the answer to that question is based on the science or the physiology of hair growth. Any given time, hair may be in its resting phase which means that there’s no hair in the shaft or near the follicle. In which case that follicle wouldn’t be destroyed. Remember that hair itself is just a protein, it’s not a growing or living cell, the hair itself or the protein is produced by the follicle that’s at the base of the hair and as hair grows, that protein is being produced by the hair follicle.
So when we’re targeting the hair, in order to make the hair go away permanently, We’ve got to make sure that there’s actually hair growth that is the target of the laser. When the laser hits that hair the light energy is absorbed, it very rapidly heats the follicle from which the hair is derived and it destroys the follicle and thus the hair is destroyed permanently, there’s no new hair growth.
At any given time, resting phase of hair maybe in play and those hairs won’t be targeted, its only that were hairs that are actively growing that would be targeting, the follicle itself.
The strategy that we employ, in the most rapid way of doing it, is about every three week treatment cycle. When you come in, we want to make sure that there’s no waxing, plucking or pulling of the hairs because that again is the target. You’re going to be shaving the area that we want to treat. It can be on the face, the body anywhere really, and once we’ve had that shaved hair shaved, we’re able to treat the follicle by passing the laser over the surface of that with very intense flashes of energy.
That’s my best advice for the end of season, getting ready for the summer, is to do pre-treatments at three week intervals and that will get you a nice long term result for the summer season.
If you have any other questions about laser hair removal, don’t hesitate to contact us through DrMaas.com. As always, this is Corey S. Maas MDTM on Looking Your Best.”
