Background of laser hair removal

The first observation of laser hair removal was the result of an accidental treatment: a technician whose arm had been exposed to a laser beam noticed that while the skin in that area was not affected, the hair was gone. There was still no regrowth some months later.

After many years of research and development, hair removal lasers were widely marketed in the mid 1990s. It’s safe to say that millions of laser hair removal treatments have been administered all over the world since that time.

How laser hair removal works?

The laser used for hair removal laser emits infrared light rays such as those found in DVD players or motion detectors for example. They emit a beam of light with a specific wavelength that removes hair at the root.

When laser energy comes into contact with the dark pigment that gives hair and skin its colour, it heats this pigment—or melanin—at the root of the hair. Hair removed in this way will not grow back.

We know that to be effective, the laser light must be absorbed by the melanin pigment found at the base—or bulb—of the hair follicle. But the bulb is pigmented only when the hair is in its “anagen,” or active phase. So laser hair removal treatments must take place during this phase to be effective, since they destroy only growing hair. Laser hair removal treatments must be repeated for five to seven sessions to get a complete hair removal. When diode lasers are used, treatments are recommended at six-week intervals.

Effectiveness of laser hair removal

Synchronizing hair follicle growth cycles would greatly reduce the number of laser treatments needed, but at present there is unfortunately no way to do this. Clinical studies with diode lasers have shown that in general, a series of treatments makes it possible to definitively reduce 80% of hair follicles on average.

Security of laser hair removal

Infrared light rays that reach the surface layer of the skin without affecting it.

In addition to being effective, the laser used must be safe. By combining the laser with a sapphire tip creating a surface that cools the skin at 4°C it significantly increases the safety of laser hair removal treatments.

However, certain lasers (generally older models) are not equipped for this. The safest and most effective cooling system is a sapphire handpiece. This patented system is the one epiderma uses.

In addition to cooling and protecting the skin, the hand piece has many other advantages in terms of efficiency :

• By pressing on the skin, the handpiece allows laser light to penetrate more deeply into the dermis, while passing quickly through the epidermis and concentrates the laser beam on its target
• Studies have shown that when a cooling system is incorporated into sapphire handpieces, like those used by epiderma, laser hair removal treatment effectiveness increases 40%.