How does laser hair removal work?

You’ll need to shave the area of skin the day before your appointment. On the day, you’ll be provided special googles to protect your eyes during the procedure.

After the treatment, the hairs will fall out (this period is called casting) over a course of 2 weeks the beam of light weakens or destroys the hair follicle and the follicle will become detached from the shaft.

The practitioner will use a hand-held attachment that will direct a focussed beam of light over the area to be treated. The practitioner will trigger the laser which heats the hair follicle in a matter of milliseconds. This may feel like an elastic band snapping at your skin.

Laser Hair Removal

Laser hair removal is requested by clients for cultural, medical, and cosmetic reasons; for many years people have tried numerous methods to remove their unwanted body hair. Techniques for short term hair removal have included:

Shaving – with the risk of cuts and rashes

Bleaching – with the associated skin irritation

Tweezing – both time consuming and painful

Waxing – a quicker option but much more pain

Depilatories (Veet etc) – to melt the hair (and sometimes the skin!)

​​However, these options only afford limited result and regular maintenance is required. In general, those looking for a hair removal method would much prefer a long-term or even a permanent solution.

Since the mid 1990’s laser hair removal has been fast growing in popularity: laser hair removal offers long-term removal of unwanted hair or its permanent reduction in appearance. After a laser hair removal course, any re-growth of hair is often of lighter colour and finer in texture

Laser hair removal is particularly valuable for larger body areas where a great deal of hair is to be treated; such as the back, chest, or legs. The procedure is occasionally uncomfortable, but should not be particularly painful. Some clients describe the sensation as a slight prickly heat. We can provide a topical anaesthetic cream which is generally applied 1.5 hours prior to treatment to give it time to work if required.

Our lasers can treat all skin and hair types, although red and blond hair may difficult to treat. Most clients are suitable for laser hair removal, but a full consultation and test patch is required prior to commencement of treatments. Clients who have dark hair and skin types I-V on the Fitzpatrick scale are likely to see the best results.

The Fitzpatrick Skin Type Scale