A typical session

The following pictures will help us create a mini scenario illustrating the different steps of a session. In this case, a 30 year-old man, the patient presents with a type II skin (light skin, sensitive to the sun). The patient is fed up from suffering from shaving irritations and from the pain due to ingrown hair. He wants us to get rid of his neck and cheek hair, but wishes to keep his goatee.

The hair colour type is blond to red, which will induce some technical difficulties. Indeed, the hair of such patients do not contain any eumelanin. They contain pheomelanin, which does not absorb the light beam as well. The heat freed at the bulb level will be less important than in a black hair, so that additional sessions will be necessary to obtain a perfect result. On the first picture, we can see that the hair are quite thin.

The choice of the parameters used in the laser shot will be made from these observations. A thin hair cools down faster than a large hair, and as the hair colour is light, it will be necessary to heat up the bulbs as much as possible in a minimum time. We will thus choose a 5 ms time pulse. Which means that the light energy emitted by the laser will be transmitted in very short flashes, so that the targets are affected as much as possible and do not have the time to cool down, until regenerative structures of the hair are irreversibly damaged.

The area to be treated has been shaved. We can see on this picture the laser nozzle: the light beam is emitted by the aperture at the top while the cold air is blown from the narrow aperture at the bottom of the nozzle. A small skin depression can be seen where the air is blown, which points out how powerful the air flow is.

In spite of all these technical precautions, we know that such shooting parameters can affect the skin, which does not have as much time to cool down, and despite the cold air blown constantly at a -60°C temperature before, during and after the shot.

This cooling system prevents burns and their development. The erythema and papules that appear immediately after the treatment completely satisfy the laserist as they guarantee the efficiency of the shot. It is clear on this picture that the skin is not burnt.

The papules will disappear after thirty minutes approximately. The residual redness disappears after 2 to 3 hours approximately.

The above picture presents the results four months approximately after the third session. This patient only shaves very occasionally now, and the shaving does not induce any unpleasant symptom or irritation.