Laser Therapy Laterst

Laser (or Lasor) hair removal is becoming a popular method for hair removal, but isn't always well understood. I want to provide you with an explanation of how laser hair removal works though, because I feel it's important to know in order to decide if laser hair removal treatment is for you.

The thing to know about lasor hair removal is that it works on the basis of light absorption. The idea is that the individual hair growth can be reduced by damaging the hair root with heat. When the hair root is sufficiently damaged, it is unlikely to produce another hair. At the very least, any hair that does manage to grow will be finer and lighter.

In the case of lasor hair removal, the heat is produced by attracting high intensity heat to the melanin of the hair. Melanin is the pigment in the hair that provides colour, and it is present in individual hairs as well as our skin and moles. The greater the concentration of melanin, the greater light (and therefore heat) can be absorbed from the laser. The key is to provide enough of the right type of laser energy to an area to minimize absorption from the skin, but maximize it for the hair. The effectiveness of laser hair removal is clearly based on contrasts.

The darker the hair, and the greater the contrast between skin and hair, the easier it is to get good results from lasor hair removal. By the same token, gray or white hair cannot be effectively treated with laser, as they lack sufficient pigment to absorb the laser energy.

For the same reason, it is more difficult to use lasor hair removal as a technique to remove hair from people with dark skin, even tans. In order to avoid the dangers of laser hair removal, it is imperative that the laser machine used is designed to be used on dark skin. The most popular type of laser used for this type of body hair removal is the 1064-nm Nd:YAG laser.

It is important to know that all lasor hair removal machines are not equal. All laser hair removal machines use a specifically timed pulse of laser energy that is absorbed and converted to heat energy by the hair follicle. This process is referred to as "selective photothermolysis" The most common lasers use red or infrared light. Types of lasers used for hair removal include, Alexandrite, Nd:YAG, Diode and Ruby. Tanned and dark skin is best treated with infrared YAG and Diode lasers, and typically much more sensitive to the use of Alexandrite and Ruby lasers.

You may also occasionally see IPL advertised for hair removal. IPL stands for Intense Pulsed Light. Although this is not a laser, a filter can be applied to try to match to approximate the wavelengths of laser. IPL tends to be not as effective (or safe) as using the appropriate laser type matched for skin type and hair colour, especially for darker skin types.

Bear in mind that these factors affect the ability of the laser to get to whatever hair is there at the time, so multiple sessions of lasor hair removal are required for lasting results in hair reduction. For most people, hair has a natural growth cycle of about 6-8 weeks. That means that you will likely have new hair grow in that just didn't exist at the time of your laser hair removal session. And, it is unlikely that a single session of laser hair removal will actually stop regrowth either. Actual hair re-growth will depend on a number of factors, including changing hormone levels, age, ethnicity, and location on your body. Most laser hair removal practitioners request a 4 session minimum to get noticeable lasting results.

In many cases, due to factors such as hormonal changes, or just different hair growth cycles, it's possible that additional hairs will grow. In that case, many lasor hair removal practitioners will either do a 'touch up' with an additional laser treatment, or perhaps use electrolysis in order to permanently remove those hairs.