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smoothskinhealthcentre-blog · 8 years

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For those of you who have lost faith in laser hair removal, this blog is for you!

Let's face it... shaving our legs, bikini and underarms is just a time sucking nuisance we would rather not face while hopping into our morning shower. Sunday night baths where we relaxingly groom ourselves for the coming week are a nice dream, but rarely a reality for most of us. Mom's to new babes wish they had the luxury to take this time away for themselves, but when those little ones need you, no matter what their age...they come a knocking and you've only managed to get to the tip of your first knee.

Waxing used to be the best alternative. Your hair is removed from unwanted areas and results would last for up to 4 weeks. The hair wasn't a coarse stubble when it grew back, making rubbing your legs along your loved ones while you snuggled up a little less embarrassing and a little sexier.

Then came laser hair removal which really flooded the market just over 20 years ago. In the beginning this treatment was more than a little intimidating. Stories of painful treatments, blistering, burns and dis-pigmentation kept most customers on the fence. As engineers and professionals continued to work out the kinks, lasers surfaced the market which promised less pain and risk of side effects. More and more encouraging stories of positive outcomes filled conversations and laser became the choice for most consumers for a long time.

Now in 2017, it seems that more and more WAXING BOUTIQUES are taking over. What is making customers go back to this old method? Laser hair removal is now touted as being PAIN FREE! You can get laser hair removal packages for full body for incredibly low prices. Why would customers choose a short term alternative such as waxing that can become very costly, over a more permanent procedure such as laser that saves you time and money in the long run?

The answer is really quite simple. Pain free laser hair removal DOES NOT WORK. As the old cliche goes, "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is". Customers have invested in treatments that they were promised would be either permanent or should reduce the hair significantly, only to find that their hair begins to grow back full force over a length of time anywhere from a few months to a few years.

So the question then becomes.... do lasers actually work? Is this technology too good to be true? Why is it not working the way everyone say's it should and why do some have amazing results and others very poor?

The answer is not all lasers are created equal. As general consumers, we aren't properly informed on what lasers really are and how they work. It all goes back to the basics. Light energy is attracted to colors/pigment. However there are several levels on the light spectrum in which lights are attracted to which colors and at what depths.

ND YAG 1064 lasers travel the deepest into the skin to where the majority of our blood vessels are networked to feed skin cells, oil glands and the cells that feed the hair bulbs. Hemoglobin is the prime absorbing target of the ND Yag laser. The selective target with the 1064 is right at the hair bulb, bypassing skin pigment. It is for this reason that the ND YAG has been the most popular laser hair removal system for people of color, there is also little risk of unwanted side effects such as burns. The bulb of the hair that sits just above the network of blood vessels that feed it, is very dense in pigment. The laser energy is absorbed first within the bulb and then within the blood vessels, leaving the hair and the germinative cells surrounding the hair bulb destroyed. The ND YAG is by far the most effective long term /permanent laser hair removal modality there is. Unfortunately because so much of the energy is absorbed, it is also the most painful modality on the market. This has made customers question whether the pain is worth the end result. This has also opened the door to companies who try and find other modalities that can give some results, with less pain.

IPL machines are attracted to red and brown pigments. They travel very superficially into the skin, just above the pigment carrying cells, and do not have a selective target, but is more broad band targeting whatever attracting chromophore it reaches first. The pigment in hairs that are just surfacing on the skin will absorb this light energy along with sun damage and superficial blood vessels. With all of the competing targets, there is not enough sufficient energy being targeted directly to the hair which leaves the hair in a stunted and dormant state for a period of time. Typically in terms of laser hair removal, this treatment is fairly pain free as long as there aren't a lot of skin pigmented lesions that absorb the light energy along the way. However anyone of color or that has a recent tan is prohibited to have an IPL treatment as their skin pigment competes with the target pigment and serious side effects will result. As well, the hair root sits much deeper into the skin than the IPL has the ability to travel. This makes it so that the treated hair will return within a few months in most cases.

Diode Laser machines work in the same way as ND YAG with selective thermolysis, however don't travel to the same depths as the ND YAG. This leaves the Diode less efficient at effectively targeting hairs that sit deeper in the skin such as bikini and underarms. It is hard for the Diode to effectively treat these hairs long term without increasing risk of more permanent unwanted side effects. The Diode laser reaches a depth in the skin that is closer to where pigment cells lay, making treatment riskier for individuals with pigment such as Asian, African American, Eastern European as an example. As well, customers with tanned skin can not have treatment as their pigment cells are more active and at more risk of injury by absorbing the light energy. With this in mind, the Diode laser works great for areas where the hair sits a little more shallow in the skin such as the lower legs. Treatment outcomes with this form of hair removal leaves hairs in a dormant state for a few to several years, leaving customers satisfied with treatment efficacy for this period of time. Unfortunately, in areas where hair roots lie deepest in the skin, such as the bikini and underarms, customers disappointedly found that within 2-5 years, hair began to grow back in these areas. The hair was damaged, and when it made it's reappearance customers found it to be fairer and less dense, yet they were left having to go back to their old ways of shaving or waxing areas they thought they never had to worry about again.

Newer forms of ND YAG lasers have surfaced the market that brague to be pain free, however again, have little long term effects. They have designed these machines to deliver the energy in such a period of time, and to stack the energy delivered so that the heat builds slowly rather than in one intense hit. Although this is definitely far less painful than older ND YAG systems, there is never enough heat that can build to be efficient at doing more than just stunting the hair and making it dormant for a period of time.

NOT ALL HOPE IS LOST ON LASER HAIR REMOVAL!

Finally! Engineers that were responsible for building the laser missiles for the cold war were put to work once the war ended and their jobs war jobs became obsolete. These brilliant engineers were now working on a new type of laser development and designed lasers for medical applications. This is where the Fotona SP Dynamis was born. Originally build for the surgical rooms, the Fotona laser has added cosmetic applications as well. These engineers recognized that long pulses were not the answer, but rather extremely short pulses. These pulses are so quick that the vibration as it hits has the ability to break up pigment, like an extremely high screech can shatter glass. This new development now has the ability to send ND YAG energy directly to the depths necessary to effectively destroy hair bulbs/roots. Effective treatments are now much more tolerable as the hair bulb is no longer required to absorb the full amount of energy all at once. Instead the laser pulses quickly break apart the bulb. Finally they got it right after 20+ years! Finally a laser hair removal treatment that is effective, tolerable and long term.

For those of you that have lost faith in laser hair removal, this article is for you! For those customers who have been contemplating laser hair removal, this article is to help educate you towards the best investment for you. Come in to Smooth for a complimentary consultation and discover how to get hair free and feel at peace with your investment.

#smoothskinhealthcentre #fotona #hamiltontario #laserhairremoval #hairfree #$250tuesday's shoplockestreet

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