Laser hair removal is a popular and effective method for long-term hair reduction. It works by targeting the pigment in hair follicles, weakening them to reduce future growth. To ensure the best possible results, proper preparation is essential. One of the most important aspects of this preparation is understanding the impact of waxing and other hair removal methods on the effectiveness of laser treatments.
Prepping your skin correctly allows the laser to target hair follicles more effectively, leading to smoother and more efficient treatments. When your skin is properly prepared, the laser can hone in on the follicles more efficiently, maximizing the results of each session.
It is crucial to avoid waxing, tweezing, and depilatory creams before laser hair removal. While these methods are effective for hair removal, they remove hair from the root, which can disrupt the laser’s ability to target the follicle. Laser hair removal requires the hair follicle to be intact so that the laser can identify and target it.
You need to wait at least six weeks after waxing to receive hair removal via laser treatment. Before your first session, it is essential to avoid the use of tweezers or waxing. Both tweezing and waxing remove the hair follicle from the root. Unfortunately, during hair removal with laser energy, the laser must be able to identify the hair follicle.
While waxing and tweezing are discouraged, shaving before laser hair removal is totally fine. Shaving the area 24-48 hours before your session to allow any irritation to subside. Shaving ensures the laser can directly target the hair follicle without wasting energy by burning surface hair. Shaving is incredibly time-consuming. Waxing is painful. Tweezing and plucking can’t address unwanted hair in large areas, like the legs.
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With shaving, you’re only trimming the external length of the hair while keeping the internal strands intact. This means that the laser can still effectively target the pigments and neutralize your hair follicles. Also, laser specialists will recommend that you shave the treatment area before the session. It’s because overgrown hair will block the laser from getting into the hair follicles.
Before your initial consultation, you must shave your desired treatment area. Your laser technician cannot treat areas that have hair above the skin. If you miss any hairs while you shaved, and you do not feel comfortable with your technician shaving you, your technician will need to avoid treating those areas. We strongly recommend that you shave with a clean, new razor to avoid any potential post-shaving irritation or stray hairs.
Besides avoiding waxing, tweezing, and depilatory creams, several other steps are crucial for preparing for laser hair removal:
During treatment, the outer layers of your skin will be protected by a special cooling device or cold gel. This serves the dual purpose of helping the laser light penetrate the deeper layers of your skin while keeping you comfortable during treatment.
After treatment, you are free to return to work or your regular daily routine. There is no downtime. However, you should expect your hairs to start falling out during or immediately after treatment. It takes roughly 21 days for all your hairs to fall out. After your laser therapy for hair removal, you will be given anti-inflammatory cream to prevent any discomfort after the anesthetic has worn off. Cold water and homemade ice packs are equally effective for mitigating the risk of irritating inflammation.
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Proper skin care following hair removal with laser energy is essential. Before you go outside during the day, apply a broad-spectrum sunscreen with Zinc and a sun protection factor (SPF) of at least 20 if you are above a III on the Fitzpatrick scale. You should avoid tweezing or plucking your hair between laser treatments for hair removal. However, you should shave as necessary. Make sure you shave the day before your follow-up treatments, too. Remember, any area not shaved sufficiently will have to be skipped over during treatment.
For the first 24 hours after the procedure, don’t use deodorants, lotions, moisturizers, and other similar products on the treated area. Wait until the swelling and redness subside before resuming your regular skincare routine. It’s important to wash the treated area using gentle soap and water. Also, you should pat it dry in the next 48 hours and avoid rubbing it with any fabric. Aside from that, you must avoid hot baths and showers since your treated skin is heat-sensitive. After about five days, you’ll notice the hair on the treated area starting to shed. For two months after the treatment, you must stay away from direct sunlight as much as possible. This is to prevent the risk of having uneven spots as your skin heals. If you need to go outside, make sure that you’re wearing broad-spectrum sunscreen.
Leave your hair alone. After the treatment, the hairs on the treated area won’t fall off right away. Still, you should avoid tweezing, plucking, or waxing them. Let the natural course of the treatment take place. Picking on the remaining hair strands will only sabotage the progress of the laser procedure. Unless you’re experiencing irritation, you don’t have to do anything to the remaining hair on your treated skin. Reduce your physical activities. It’s best to limit your physical exertion so you don’t sweat too much. Sweating opens up the pores and allows bacteria to proliferate. This condition can cause infection in the treated area, especially if you don’t practice proper hygiene. However, don’t use deodorant to avoid sweating in laser-treated armpits.
The best candidate for laser hair removal has dark hair and fair skin. This is because the laser can focus its light energy on the pigment inside the hair and not become confused by the pigment within the skin. If you have darker skin and darker hair, don’t worry. If you have blonde, red, white or grey hair, you may need more treatment sessions than someone with coarse, dark hair and fair skin. This is because there is very little contrast between the pale skin and the hair with barely any pigment in it.
Everyone’s aesthetic goals, medical history and current health are unique. Therefore, you must come in for a one-on-one consultation to determine if laser therapy is right for your hair removal needs.
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You can generally expect to need between four and six treatments spaced three to six weeks apart to achieve silky smooth legs. Regardless of the contrast between your skin pigment and hair pigment, you can expect roughly an 80% reduction in hair growth and a drastic thinning of hair after every treatment session. Your unwanted body hair will be reduced to the point where it is barely imperceptible. However, laser treatment does not destroy every single hair follicle in a treatment area.
At European Wax Center, we offer a complimentary consultation to ensure you’re an ideal candidate for laser hair removal. This consultation is crucial, as it helps set realistic expectations and ensures the treatment is suitable for your skin and hair type. If laser hair removal isn’t the best option for you, our experts will recommend alternative methods such as waxing.
During your consultation, we will review everything you can expect during your treatment as well as what you need to know about our lasers. Our licensed specialist will customize the treatment based on your hair type, skin type, hair density, and overall health. We will make your laser treatment as comfortable as possible. Rest assured that you can resume your activities or go back to work right after each session.
At Amachi MedSpa in Marietta, GA, we only invest in the most state-of-the-art lasers to ensure the best experience and results for our clients. It used to be that laser treatments were uncomfortable at best or painful at worst. This is not the case with our state-of-the-art lasers. Before treatment, we will treat the affected area with a topical numbing cream so you will experience neither pain nor discomfort.
Our lasers can treat an area the size of a quarter in only a second. Therefore, small areas, like the underarms, can be treated in mere minutes. However, you will need to wait between 20 and 30 minutes for the topical numbing cream to take effect.
Laser hair removal refers to a treatment that has been available on a large scale since 1997. Between 1995 and 1996, a great deal of research and development went into making this type of hair removal safe and effective. But the innovation hasn’t stopped.
Essentially, you can use laser hair removal wherever you want except for your eyebrows. While you are given specially designed eye protection for your laser hair removal treatment, we strongly recommend against seeking laser treatment for the removal of eyebrow hair.
Luckily, there’s a much better way to achieve hair removal, and with incredible advances in medical technology, it is faster, safer and more comfortable than ever. Thanks to incredible advances to laser technology, it is now safer, more comfortable and more effective than ever to turn to laser hair removal to reduce unwanted hair. Laser is an effective method to eliminate unwanted body hair for good.
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