A large variety of patients
In medicine, identical patients do not exist. Laser hair removal proves it every day. The physician’s main role is to determine the phototype and hair type according to the areas to treat. The outcome of the treatment will depend on this initial assessment.
The first parameter taken into account by the physician before a laser hair removal treatment is the skin colour (the phototype).
The darker a skin will be (high phototype), the more it will absorb laser energy, which can induce first-degree burns.
Moreover, a dark skin will act as a barrier limiting the transfer of energy to the bulb.
Dark or Black Skins:
Such patients cannot hope for hair removal to be as permanent as with an Alexandrite laser. However, the recent release of the new high pulse Nd : Yag lasers has significantly improved the prognosis in such cases.
After the attack treatment, consisting in 6 to 7 sessions, relatively close in time, one or two maintenance sessions per year will be necessary to keep a smooth skin. It will be possible to space the sessions with time, but not to stop them.
The moderate cost of the treatment - comparable to any other beauty cost – enables the patient to make up his mind serenely.
Light or slightly dark skins
These patients can benefit from an Alexandrite laser treatment. This type of laser has been used for more than twenty years now, and it has become more and more powerful with time. Indications have thus been broadened, now including blond hair, provided that they are not too light nor too thin.
The second parameter is thus the colour of the hair. The more a hair will be composed of dark pigments, the more it will turn light energy into heat. Patients with dark hair and light skins used to be the best subjects for a laser treatment, but things have changed now. Patients with light hair will have to be treated with more energy than patients with dark hair. But their skin is generally lighter, so that they will never be burnt. As a result, advantages and disadvantages are well balanced…
Light energy
The third parameter is the amount of energy delivered at the bulb level. Below a certain amount of energy, the treatment might only result in long-lasting hair removal. Irreversible lesions on the bulb, and thus permanent hair removal, will only occur beyond a certain threshold.
Pain threshold
The determining factor for the success of the treatment is the amount of energy delivered to the bulb. The cooling of the skin and the pain threshold are two other success factors.
Indeed, even if – quite surprisingly – many professionals avoid the pain problem, laser hair removal is painful, although it is less painful than wax hair removal or electrolysis. Pain is felt differently among patients: some patients tolerate high energies quite easily while others suffer a lot at medium power.
This is why we worked a lot on antalgics, to be sure maximum comfort would be provided to the patients when using high laser power as soon as the first session.
We systematically prescribe an anaesthetic cream such as the EMLA cream after the treatment of most areas (bikini, legs). When correctly applied following our instructions, the anaesthetic cream produces an excellent antalgic effect: patients only report a very slight stinging sensation, which they describe as a bit painful or not painful at all.
A video will soon be available explaining everything about laser hair removal..
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