Hair removal via lasers is an effective, painless way to achieve permanently smooth, hair-free skin using highly advanced technology.
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How Does Laser Hair Removal Work?
Working on the idea that light coloured fabrics reflect the sun’s glare, while darker colours absorb the rays, laser hair removal uses this principle to permanently destroy the hair follicle, preventing growth.
Using a powerful, but completely safe, laser to target the hairs, the melanin, which gives the hair its colour, absorbs the light source and heats up. The hair root, buried deep in the hair follicle is destroyed by the heat, and never develops.
Why Does It Take Several Sessions to Remove Every Hair?
There are several stages of the hair growth cycle:
01. Anagen is the first, and most visible, of the stages, and is the optimum one for hair removal. For two to three weeks, the hair is still attached to the follicle, but sticks out above the skin allowing the laser light to target the melanin in the hair. Once the root is destroyed by the heat, the hair cannot regrow.
02. Catagen is the second stage and this is when the hair is naturally shed, becoming detached from the follicle. With the hair becoming separated from the follicle, the laser heat cannot reach all the way to the root, and the hair is less likely to be affected.
03. Telogen is the name given to the resting phase. The follicle has shed its hair, and now lies dormant for a period of time. This depends on the individual, it can be several days, or in extreme cases last for a year or more. As the follicle is empty during this period, laser hair removal is not possible.
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Each individual hair will be in a different growth phase, meaning that although the optimum stage is anagen, only a certain percentage of hairs meet that criteria, while the rest remain unaffected, and must be caught during subsequent appointments.
This is why laser hair removal takes several sessions to complete.
Are Three Sessions Enough For Laser Hair Removal?
Most people see a marked difference after their first laser hair removal appointment, with hairs appearing finer and less noticeable. This continues after the second session, but the third is when things really start looking smoother.
Most hairs will have gone through a full growth cycle and therefore have been targeted while passing through the anagen phase. The heat from the laser light will have destroyed the hair follicle, preventing any hairs from developing in the future, leaving large areas of the body smooth and hair-free.
As every person’s hair is different, taking more or less time to travel through the growth cycle, there is no standard number of appointments, but three sessions can be a realistic target for some individuals. A short time frame is even more achievable when the highly advanced Nu Trilaze Plus laser machine is used.
Laser hair removal is a highly effective method of removing unwanted body hair. It eliminates the risk of razor cuts, rashes and discomfort, and produces a smooth, permanently hair-free result.
