Spring is coming, with warm, sunny days. With the warm season comes the frenzy of appointments at beauty salons for removing unwanted hair — which is why we thought we would tell you about the much-debated subject of permanent hair removal.
Spring is coming, with warm, sunny days. We will give up trousers and long skirts in favour of light dresses. With the warm season comes the frenzy of appointments at beauty salons for removing unwanted hair, the long waits, the dash across town “so as not to miss the appointment”, and on the beach out come the anxieties about the folliculitis (the little bumps) that appears after waxing. That is why we thought we would tell you about the much-debated subject of PERMANENT HAIR REMOVAL.
WHAT WE KNOW…
– that we would all like skin as smooth as silk, soft as cashmere, and to stop enduring the pain of tearing the hair out with wax or with an electric device every three weeks.
– that the usual hair removal methods are various: pulling the hair out with hot or cold wax, the electric epilator with its multiple tweezers, visit poster's website the razor or the shaver, depilatory creams, tweezing or even burning.
– that none of them makes the hair disappear completely, and after 2 or 3 weeks the hair systematically carries on appearing.
Medicine looked for solutions, and so the methods of permanent hair removal (permanent hair reduction) appeared. The first was electrolysis. The method consists of destroying the hair follicle with an electric current, by introducing an electrode in the form of a fine needle into each follicle. The procedure is considered primitive nowadays, because it is invasive and painful, it can leave scars, and it takes years to treat large areas.
WHAT WE DO NOT KNOW…
As a result, specialists invented an advanced technology to reduce the time and the adverse effects and to increase how well it works and how comfortable it is for the patient. This is how laser hair removal equipment appeared. Dozens of manufacturers around the world have launched as many machines. They work on the principle of the selective photothermolysis of the hair follicle.
What does that mean? The laser beam is absorbed by the pigment (melanin) in the hair follicle and turned into heat. The temperature reached does not allow the cells at that level to survive, and so they are destroyed. The thickness, density and colour of the hair on the body depend on each person's genetic inheritance, on ethnicity, on age, on hormone levels and on the medication they take. Hair growth has 3 phases: anagen (the active growth phase), catagen (the regression phase) and telogen (the resting and shedding phase). Laser light destroys only the follicles that contain pigment, namely those in the active growth phase. This is why several laser hair removal sessions are needed, each session destroying a further set of active follicles.
The first generation of hair removal lasers — ruby, alexandrite, diode — were limited by the fact that they could not distinguish between the pigment in the hair follicle and the pigment in the skin, which restricted their use to patients with fair skin, in order to avoid burns and hyperpigmentation.
In recent years, intense pulsed light technology (IPL) has enjoyed real success, and even though it was at first considered a “wonder” treatment, it later proved to have the same limits as the laser equipment mentioned above. That is: only fair skin phototypes can be treated, sessions are ruled out in the sunny season or on tanned skin, fine hair is difficult to treat, and light, white and red hair cannot be treated at all.
HERE IS THE ANSWER…
Today everything has changed with the arrival of the Nd:YAG line of hair removal lasers. The long wavelength (1064 nm) allows the laser beam to penetrate deeply and destroy the follicles situated in the dermis. The CUTERA laser, an innovative American technology, was the first laser on the aesthetic equipment market approved by the FDA for the permanent hair removal of dark skin phototypes, including tanned skin. The treatment is painless and takes place in conditions of maximum safety and comfort for the patient, thanks to the built-in cooling, the versatility of the working parameters and the instant self-monitoring of every pulse emitted. For very sensitive patients a topical anaesthetic can be used.
In general, 4 to 6 sessions are needed for the complete removal of the hair, spaced 4 to 6 weeks apart. Between sessions no other hair removal method is allowed apart from shaving with a razor or clippers. At the start of the treatment the doctor takes a careful, thorough history, may order laboratory tests (for endocrine conditions) and can then predict a final result. After the treatment the hair disappears; a few fine, sparse hairs may then appear after 6 months to a year, for which an annual maintenance session is carried out. White, blond and red hair does not respond to treatment.
Any part of the body can be treated with the laser, in women and in men alike, with the qualification that hormone-dependent areas (the chin, the upper lip, the sideburns, the abdomen in women) may respond less readily to treatment. For cases of hirsutism it is the only viable and effective solution. During the treatment the doctor's instructions have to be followed strictly. Otherwise you take responsibility for how things go afterwards.
Laser hair removal is not a whim but has become a solution, and a saving one, for women (and men) busy with their careers who prefer to spend their little free time in a more pleasant way. We will no longer have to wear trousers in the heat, nor plan our holidays around the hair growth cycle.
How is the treatment carried out, and what does it involve?
The patient comes to the doctor for a preliminary consultation at which the skin phototype is established and a specific history is taken (in which the doctor learns the patient's habits regarding the hair removal methods used at that time, whether the patient uses sunbeds or other tanning methods, which dermatological or cosmetic products they use, so as to eliminate products with photosensitising potential, and which medicines they take long term). The patient then receives precise instructions about sun exposure, about the hygiene and skincare products allowed, and about the method for removing the remaining hair during the treatment (between the hair removal sessions).
The patient will sign a treatment agreement informing them about the benefits and the risks of the therapy and about the aftercare regime.
At the hair removal session the patient comes with the area to be treated perfectly shaved (with a razor). No creams, lotions or deodorant may be applied to the treated area for 12 hours beforehand. A neutral transparent gel is applied to that area, to protect the epidermis and to help the cooling handpiece glide.
The Cutera laser has a cooling device built into the handpiece, which eases the unpleasant sensation as the laser beam is applied.
During the treatment the patient feels a sensation of warmth and slight stinging, which most patients tolerate perfectly well.
The treatment takes about 10 to 20 minutes for most areas (chin, sideburns, upper lip, underarm, chest, bikini line, forearms), after which the patient can return to their day, which is why it is counted among the “lunchtime procedures”.
For very sensitive patients, or for more delicate areas, a topical anaesthetic can be applied for 30 minutes (an anaesthetic cream), which allows the treatment to be carried out with no sensation at all, but which lengthens the treatment.
Most areas need 3 to 6 sessions. Even so, the number of Cutera treatments needed to obtain lasting effects depends on several factors — the thickness of the hair, its location, and the hair growth cycle. Not all hairs are actively growing at the same time. In fact hair has 3 growth phases: the active phase, the regression phase, and the resting and shedding phase. Hair removal works by destroying only the follicles in the active phase, which is why additional sessions are needed to destroy the follicles of a given region entirely.
Immediately after the treatment the area may show slight erythema (redness) or follicular swelling, which settles within a few hours. For a few days after the treatment the patient has the impression that the hair is growing again, but this is in fact the shedding of the hairs destroyed by the treatment.
Between sessions, waxing or pulling the hairs out is not allowed, only shaving. Sessions are carried out 4 to 6 weeks apart. The treated area must not be exposed to the sun for at least 24 hours before and 7 days after the treatment.