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Laser Hair Removal for Males
Dealing with unwanted body hair has been the bane of many mens lives! Some lucky men have very little body hair, and the hair on their face is soft and easy to shave. For others they have either had a life long battle keeping their hair growth under control, or have simply thrown the whole thing into the “too hard basket” and remained hursuite. Shaving and waxing are solid solutions to the problem, but are time-consuming and temporary, and come with the additional problem of rashes and ingrown hairs. If you are tired of battling with your hair growth, and the pain and expense of waxing, then laser hair removal is the answer you have been looking for! Once you start to look into permanent hair removal solutions though, it gets very confusing. There are so many people offering lasers and IPL’s and all sorts of treatments. How on earth is a regular guy expected to know which treatment is: The information on this site will help you to understand how you can be hair free most efficiently and effectively. For those of you who just want the quick answer without all the science, you need to know the following: Laser hair removal has been available in Australia since 1997, but was extremely expensive in the early years. Today there are many lasers on the market for treating unwanted hair, and we also have “IPL” (intense pulsed light) being touted at every turn. In short lasers are the gold standard for hair removal, and in particular the diode laser has been specifically engineered for hair removal. All other lasers and IPL’s will work – eventually! But at much more cost and time to you. The other issue to take into consideration with hair removal is safety. All lasers and IPL’s are targeting the melanin in the hair. Unfortunately melanin is also what causes the colour in your skin, and if the operator is inexperienced, you can be left with areas of permanent loss of pigment in your skin, or worse – scarring! The rest of this article explains in detail lasers and how they work, and how IPL differs from lasers. If you would prefer to have this explained to you, rather than read the science that follows, just call our friendly and experienced staff on 18000 80001. They can help you to be hair free within 6 months!
Now for the Science behind Laser Hair Removal: Lasers produce beams of highly concentrated light, with different lasers at varying wavelengths. Each different wavelength is a different colour on the colour spectrum and this colour corresponds to the target of the laser, or it’s chromophore. producing different colours of light. The wavelength of the diode laser is 610 nanometres. It’s light is selectively absorbed by melanin – in this case we are targeting the pigment in the hair follicles. We need to remove the hair from the surface of the skin so that the light is not absorbed here (where it will simply burn the hair onto your skin), but down in the follicle where the hair is actively growing. Each laser pulse lasts a fraction of a second, heating all the hair follicles within the spot of the laser to a level that heat destroys the follicle. This is the secret to permanent hair removal. Lasers (not IPL!) are specifically designed for a particular chromophore , so the diode laser is built to target and destroy anything dark brown/black. Any ingrown hairs will also absorb this light and therefore heat and be destroyed. These will then have to be shed from the dermis (skin), which will happen just as slowly as your usual ingrown hairs’ expulsion cycle. Nothing will hasten this cycle, no mater what you’re told. Be patient, but confident in the knowledge that that particulat hair will never cause you problems again! Does Laser Hair Removal Work for Everyone? The simple answer is no. The reasons are simple. Hair colour and skin type are the two most important factors in predicting the success of treatment. As previously discussed it is melanin that the laser targets. White, grey and blonde hair do not have enough, if any melanin and therefore there is nothing for the laser to target and heat destroy. If your hair is blonde, white or grey, no laser will work. Your only choice for permanent hair removal is electrolysis in this case. Make sure that if you go down this path that your technician is passionate about elecrolysis and does little else. This procedure is totally operator dependant. If your hair is red, then there is melanin in the follicle, but it is the wrong type of melanin and so will not be effectively treated by the Diode Laser. Patient selection is a key aspect in the effective use of the LightSheer Diode System. As well as having the right hair colour, having the correct skin colour is imperative. As melanin is the colour in your skin as well as hair, we do not want too much melanin in your skin, or the laser will target this and burn the skin. Using the Fitzpatrick classification system, skin type can be characterised using the following system based on pigmentation. Fitzpatrick Skin type:
If your skin type is a Fitzpatrick 1 or 2, you are the very best candidate for laser hair removal, especially if your hair is coarse and dark. We can set the laser to it’s highest settings, giving you resolution of your hair problem in the quickest period of time. Men with skin types 3, 4 we will treat more carefully and use lower strengths or fluence to err on the side of caution. We will also ask that you are as least tanned as possible prior to treatment, or we will further reduce the settings on the laser. Reducung the settings or strength does redice the risk of problems, but also means more treatmenmst are requiered. So it is in your best interest to keep out of the sun whilst undergoing a course of laser hair treatments. If you are a Fitzpatrick People 5, we will not only reduce the strength (fluence) of the laser, but we will lengthen the pulse width, or time that the laser lightshines on the skin. This simple mechanism is a safety feature unique to the Lightsheer to further enhance your safety and to allow us to treat more skin types. If you are a Fitzpatrick Type 6 (black skin)you are simply unsuitable for laser hair removal. Luckily for you, you generally don’t have much hair to be problematic. Can I Have Laser Hair Removal if I’ve Been Waxing? If you have waxed, plucked or used hair removal creams within 6 weeks, you will not have any hairs in the folliclke to treat. They may continue to shave for up to two or three days prior to the test treatment. For assessment and documentation photos, some hair growth is required. Don’t shave for the two or three days preceding your assessment appointment. After the initial assessment, the patient may continue to shave throughout treatment. In fact, a clean shave will be administered before treatment to decrease the odour caused by laser destruction of hair visible above the surface of the skin and reduce the risk of inadvertent epidermal injury caused by heat conducted from unshaved hairs.
Is Laser Hair Removal Painful? Laser hair removal treatments absolutely can be painful! Especially for men as our hair is coarse, therefore there is so much more melanin to absorb light and turn into intense heat! This has been the single most talked about reason to not go down the laser hair removal path, even though laser hair removal is the most effective means of permanent hair removal. Our latest generation Diode Laser has a larger head than others which uses suction technology to increase surface area and therefore we get more heat delivered to more hair follicles at one time. Not only does that mean that your overall hair removal treatment is 6 times faster, but the suction technology tricks your nerve endings, so they don’t feell the heat – only the suction! No need for gel or creams to numb the skin prior! In fiddly areas, where the large head is too big and can’t get suction, we will have to use the regular head which is a 9mm x 9mm spot size. In this case we will recommend the use of a numbing cream prior to treatment. Having the option of both heads means we can be fast and efficient, which in turn means less time involved for you, which equates to less cost, and most importantly – less pain! What Areas can be Treated with Laser Hair Removal? The most common areas that males utilise laser hair removal is definitely backs and chests. Though nothing is out of bounds. Lots of guys are tired of shaving their necks, and so this is another common area. The trend these days is to be hair free everywhere, so arms and legs are commonly treated once the back and chest have been cleaned up. Areas such as the penile shaft, testes and anal area can also be treated. Some men will trial one of these areas and then target the rest later, though these days we find more men coming in to do the entire area in one treatment. Our girls have been doing this for years boys, so don’t be shy. A few treatments and you’re hair free, which sure beats waxing every 6 weeks! What Can I Expect After Laser Hair Removal? After treatment, minor redness and puffiness may occur, and typically lasts a few hours. You can resume normal activity immediately. No long -term complications have occurred in many thousands of treatments, in contrast to earlier hair removal lasers which occasionally caused scarring and permanent skin pigmentation problems.
Otherwise there are no known contraindications to hair removal using the LightSheer Diode System. Patients who have had prior problems with laser therapy, however, should be carefully screened before treatment. Additionally, persons known to form keloid may be more prone to scarring after any skin trauma, including laser treatment. Caution is advised in treating patients with any of the following conditions: a history of keloid scarring, active infection, or a history of herpes simplex in the treatment area. Use of oral isotretinoin (Roaccutane) within the preceding six months The LightSheer Diode System is designed to remove unwanted hair through selective photothermolysis. The process involves local selective absorption of an intense light pulse at wavelengths that are absorbed by the desired targets (hair follicles) but not by the surrounding tissue. Like electrolysis, photothermolysis destroys hair follicles through damage. Unlike electrolysis, the skin is not breached (which reduces the risk of infection), and many follicles can be treated simultaneously. LaseRazor treatment is 100 times faster than electrolysis. The theory of selective photothermolysis predicts that thermal injury can be confined to a given target if it is treated with the proper wavelength of light, proper pulse energy, and a pulse duration that is equal to or less than the thermal relaxation time (TRT or “cooling time”) of the target tissue. In human skin, 800 nanometre wavelength laser energy is selectively absorbed by melanin. Melanin is found interspersed between the matrix cells in the hair bulb and is also transferred to the structural elements of the hair shaft during its development. The amount of melanin in the follicular epithelium and the papillae is sufficient to act as a chromophore for light absorption in the follicle. The energy is selectively absorbed by the melanin in the hair shaft as well as the surrounding follicle, causing thermal destruction of several key anatomic sites. The hair’s growth is significantly impeded, or eliminated. Damage to adjacent tissues is minimized by using pulses shorter than the TRT of the follicle. A second way to increase the penetration depth of light is by using light from a laser having a large spot size. This phenomenon is apparently the result of the greater internal reflection (scattering) that occurs with wider diameter beams of light. Compression of the skin with a contact delivery system can also increase light transmission in the dermis. One factor Iimiting the specificity of the LightSheer Diode laser energy to hair follicles is the presence of melanin in the epidemis. Thus, delivery of laser light that targets melanin can also result in epidermal injury characterized by postoperative crusting or irregularities in pigmentation.
W permanently destroy them. Importantly, LaseRazor’s special Chilltip contact-cooling hand piece directs laser energy to the hair roots while cooling and protecting the skin surface. Optipulse electronic pulse duration helps maximize hair removal and enables treatment of virtually all skin types unlike every other hair removal laser. The solid-state diode laser source is ultra-reliable. LaseRazor is a partnership between our highly trained registered nurse/laser safety officer/aesthetician, and Coherent, the world’s largest laser manufacturer. In the LightSheer Diode System, the ChillTip cooling lens provides thermal protection for the epidermis, allowing higher doses of laser energy to safely and effectively target unwanted hair follicles. The handpiece consists of an actively cooled sapphire lens that has three purposes. First it cools the epidermis to help prevent thermal damage. Second, it focuses the laser light to maximize dose penetration to deep hair follicles. Finally, its convex shape allows compression of the skin during treatment which temporarily collapses the blood vessels, lies down hairs, brings the root of the hair closer to the laser energy, and increases transmission through dermal collagen by as much as 400%. Many lasers can produce short-term hair loss lasting 1-3 months. The USA’s Food and Drug Administration, a notoriously conservative regulatory agency, has approved many ruby and alexandrite hair removal lasers for “long-term hair reduction”, on the basis of scientific studies showing hair loss lasting longer than 1-3 months. Only the Coherent Lightsheer laser and one other have been approved for “permanent hair reduction.” This approval has been on the basis of numerous studies documenting hair loss persisting longer than 18 months. Hair loss of this duration will prove permanent. Further hair growth due to subsequent hormonal or other changes might conceivably occur, however the hairs originally present will have certainly been destroyed. No long-term complications of any sort have been so far reported with the Coherent laser. The only significant short-term problem has been pigment changes lasting 1 to 6 months, in a minority of patients.
Retreatment When hair starts to regrow in the treated area, it is generally best to perform retreatments. This regrowth or early anagen growth phase typically occurs between one and six months following the initial treatment, but 4 to 6 weeks is usual. There is no known advantage to retreatment prior to hair regrowth. With each retreatment, regrowth will be finer and more sparse. Typically, 3 to 6 treatments prove necessary, if your goal is near-complete hair removal. Substantial hair reduction may take only 1 or 2 treatments. Which Is the Most Effective for Hair Removal – IPL or Lasers? IPL or Intense Pulsed Light is purported to be effective in the removal of unwanted hair. However, IPL is not as effective in hair removal treatment simply because it emits a broad waveband of light which is not specifically attracted to the melanin pigment in the hair shaft. Lasers, on the other hand only emit the specific light waveband that will be attracted to the melanin, therefore all the energy is attracted into the hair shaft and along to the hair root, which is then destroyed. |
