In the last decade a process called laser hair removal has become extremely popular. Its popularity can be attributed to the fact that it is a more or less permanent solution to the elimination of unwanted bodily hair. Compared to the alternatives it is also relatively fast and usually painless. The speed and efficiency of laser hair removal treatments also means that the cost to the patient is much less than with other more time consuming procedures.
Laser hair removal works by applying a special type of light to the area of the skin being treated. The light penetrates the skin and finds hair follicles which are then heated by the light. When they are sufficiently heated the follicles are damaged to the point of no longer being able to regenerate hair. Those follicles remain permanently damaged.
This process is based on the contrast between the light colored, relatively transparent skin and the darker colored hair follicle below the skin surface. The more melanin found in the hair follicle, the darker its color, and the more effective the process because it absorbs more light and attains the required temperature more quickly.
As a result, laser hair removal works best on people with lighter colored skin and darker hair. This allows the heat-inducing light to penetrate the skin and more easily find the hair follicles below.
Therefore it is easy to see that the laser hair removal process may not work as well people with dark skin or very light hair. In both of these cases the necessary contrast between the skin and the hair follicle is not as prominent.
However, as new laser technology has developed these issues have been overcome to a great degree. Also as laser hair removal technicians have gained more experience with the process they have become more adept at recognizing special circumstances and have developed a more refined ability to cope with them.
The most popular alternatives to laser hair removal are depilatory creams, waxing, electrolysis, and of course, shaving. All of these treatments are less sophisticated, more crude, often more painful, and in most cases, less effective.
Depilatory creams consist of a special mixture of chemicals applied to the skin. These chemicals break the hair down and weaken it to the point where it can be scraped off or pulled from the follicle.
As you can imagine, the application of harsh chemicals to the skin can have serious side effects such as skin irritation and allergic reactions. It is also a foul smelling treatment that has to be repeated every few days because the follicles remain intact. New hair starts to grow almost immediately, and becomes visible within a couple of days.
Waxing is another common method promoted for hair removal on larger, less sensitive areas of the body such as the legs (for women), or the chest or back (for men). It works more or less as it is depicted in movies and TV commercials. You spread a special wax substance over the area of the skin you want to treat. Then you press a paper or cloth strip on the wax. And then - get ready for it - you pull the strip off with a fast ripping motion.
This ripping motion literally rips the hairs out by the roots, much like pulling an adhesive bandage off your arm or leg. Ripping it quickly doesn't reduce the pain - it just concentrates it in a shorter period of time so you get the pain over with more quickly.
While this is a fairly painful process - too painful for many people - it does have the advantage of lasting from two to eight weeks before you will require another treatment. Because it is usually done by a licensed cosmetologist, the fact that it has be repeated every few weeks makes it a relatively expensive project to remain hair free by waxing.
Waxing is also like taking a blunt force instrument to your hair removal problems. The ripping action cannot help but irritate the skin, and it often disturbs and injures the follicles to the point of making the hair grow back looking blotchy and uneven.
Finally there is electrolysis. This might be considered the grand-daddy of hair removal processes, and is aimed directly at getting rid of unwanted hair for good. To achieve that goal a very thin metal probe is inserted into each individual hair follicle. Then a weak electric charge is delivered through the probe directly to the follicle in order to damage it enough so that it will no longer generate new hair growth.
As you can imagine, electrolysis works. The treated hair follicles no longer grow hair, so the process is permanent and does not have to be repeated on a regular basis. It can also be done with equal effectiveness on dark or light skin or hair.
The obvious problem with electrolysis is that it is very intricate and labor intensive. Treating even relatively small areas of skin can take hours. Removing hair over large areas usually takes many treatments spread over months. That makes it by far the most expensive hair removal technique.
This brief survey of the most common hair removal techniques underlines the major advantages that laser hair removal has over all of them. It is a permanent solution without serious side effects or irritation - unlike techniques such as shaving, depilatory creams, and waxing. And it is much faster, much less painful, much more convenient and much less expensive than electrolysis which is the only other viable permanent solution.
Nick_Messe
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