(lighthearted music)
- In this video today,
I'm going to be talking about laser hair removal
and what to expect during your consultation
and your subsequent treatments.
Laser hair removal is a method of
more permanently removing hair
rather than regular waxing, or plucking, or shaving.
Laser energy is used to target the hair follicle,
in particular, the DNA in the hair follicle,
to destroy that DNA, and hopefully
stop the regrowth of that hair in the long term.
Although laser hair removal is often advertised
as permanent, complete hair removal,
what I find in the real world is that
it is long term hair removal rather than permanent,
and it is a partial hair reduction
rather than a complete hair reduction,
although at times, you may get 80, 90 percent
of the hair removed.
Laser hair removal can be used on virtually
any hair type, except for blond hairs
and white hairs,
and it can be used on virtually any part of the body
which has hair.
The lasers we use are selectively attracted to
the pigment, or the melanin, in the hair follicle
and because the hair has a lot more melanin, or pigment,
than the skin, it tends to focus in
on the hair follicle.
Now, this basically heats the hair follicle up to the point
where it denatures, or destroys,
the DNA which is a protein, in the hair follicle.
Now, without DNA, the hair follicle can't return.
Plucking and waxing removes the hair follicle
but, it doesn't remove the DNA.
A little bit of DNA is left behind, and the hair re-sprouts.
So that's why you can only remove hair
on a more permanent level with laser hair removal.
Laser hair removal needs to be performed
on a regular basis for multiple sessions.
The reason for this is that
the hair actually goes through three phases,
which is the growth phase, the adult phase,
and the dying phase.
Only in the growth phase can
the hair be targeted with laser.
And that is when it is susceptible to laser hair removal.
At any one point in time,
there will be only a certain number of hairs
which are in that growth phase.
So, generally we need to do
multiple sessions of laser treatments
to get as many hairs as possible
whilst they're in that growth phase.
For this reason, it's important to be regular
for your hair removal appointments and also,
different areas of the body will have
different hair-growth cycles.
So, for example, the face may require
treatments every four weeks, where as the legs
may require treatments every six to eight weeks.
So what does laser hair removal involve?
At the Victorian Cosmetic Institute,
we use Alexandrite lasers for those with fair skin
and Nd:YAG lasers for those with olive or darker skins.
These lasers are specifically used for
laser hair removal at our clinic.
Other clinics may use IPL machines,
or Intense Pulse Light machines.
Now these are not as specific to hair as our lasers
and may have problems with the treatment
of darker skin types in particular.
Prior to laser hair removal, it's important that we shave
the hairs, or you do this at home.
If you are unable to do it yourself
for example, if you have hair on your back,
or some area where you can't reach,
we can do this for you.
Shaving the hairs has the effect of
reducing the impact of the laser energy on
the outside portion of the hair, which has
no impact on reducing hair growth.
What we need to target is the DNA on the inside of
the hair, or the hair underneath the skin.
The laser beam is basically passed
systematically over the treatment area
in a systematic fashion so that every spot is covered.
For large areas like legs, it may take a couple of hours.
For smaller areas like the face, or the chin,
it may take only a few seconds.
Laser hair removal is not intended to be
a painful treatment.
In fact, if there is some pain, it is important that you
mention this to your operator
as it may be a sign that the settings are too high.
During the treatment, we also use a Zimmer Cooler,
which is a machine that blows cold air across
the skin whilst the laser penetrates through it.
This machine helps to make the
laser treatment virtually painless,
as well as protect the top layers of skin
whilst the laser penetrates through that top layer
and hits the hair follicle.
There may be some redness of the area treated
after the laser,
and occasionally you see a little bit of mild swelling
around each little hair follicle.
There may be some singeing of the hairs
and this may cause the hairs to drop out
after the laser treatment.
Afterwards, you may find there's a period of
no hair growth for several weeks
and eventually the hair will start to creep back
but usually at a slower rate,
and the next treatment is then performed.
Complications with laser hair removal are
extremely rare and something that we don't see very often.
In most cases, people will be able to return back to their
normal activities, or work, straight away
and there's no downtime.
Changes in the skin after laser hair removal
are extremely rare.
Other unusual side effects include
increased hair growth after laser hair removal.
This usually is a sign that not enough
laser energy has been used during the treatment
and subsequent treatments usually correct this.
Irritation of the skin or some folliculitis
where the hair follicle is inflamed
can often occur after the treatment
and this sometimes gives the appearance
of like a breakout in the area.
Overall, laser hair removal is a good way of
managing and controlling hair growth
in particular in areas where it's inconvenient
to constantly shave or wax.
It's an effective treatment that can be performed
very safely and gives great results.
(lighthearted music)