Common Hair Removal Myths
At Be Well MD Aesthetics, we have been doing laser hair removal for over 11 years and have experience with two state of the art laser hair removal devices: the Cynosure Icon and the Candela GentleMax Pro. Over the years we have heard from our patients about concerns that they read on the inter webs about hair removal…the vast majority of them are myths.
Myth 1: Shaving Makes The Hair Grow More
This is a common myth that goes back many years. Because hair growth starts at the root of the hair and shaving only removes the top part of the hair, shaving does not affect hair growth one way or another. If you are a gardener and have grown green onions you know that if you trim the top green part of the green onion it just grows new shoots but doesn’t accelerate the growth. No, shaving does not affect overall hair growth.
Myth 2: Laser Hair removal accelerates hair growth
This is a tricky one. Hair grows in phases: there is growth followed by a period of latency where the hair slows down its growth and then finely the hair gives up the ghost and falls out. Hair in a given area have different growth cycles going on all of the time (neighboring hair may be in the first phase of growth, while other hairs may be near the fall out phase.) Hair on different parts of your body goes through this cycle at slower or faster speeds, that is, the hair on your head and face grows faster versus the hair on the rest of your body. For many of our patients it seems as if the hair is growing faster but what really happens is the laser puts all of the treated hair into the same growth phase and the hair starts in the accelerated phase of growth immediately after a laser hair removal session. That is why it is important to do a series of treatments starting with 6 sessions spaced out from 4-6 weeks (yes! the interval is important as you want to catch the hair in its growth phase). Many patients need more that 6 sessions to get the desired effect AND they return every year for 1-2 sessions to stay on top of the new growth.
Myth 3: Laser Hair removal is “permanent”
When we first started doing laser hair removal years ago the laser machine sales reps would tell us this myth and after our years of experience doing laser hair removal at Be Well we know this to be a pure myth. Hair likes to grow. There are many factors that influence hair growth including stress, nutrition, and hormones. Each patient grows hair a bit different than the next, but laser hair removal will thin the hair out but never totally removes it. That is why most patients return annually for 1-2 sessions to stay on top of their hair removal.
Myth 4: Laser Hair removal is safe and effective for all types of hair and skin types
While our lasers can treat many skin types, the fact is that people with darker skin tones find that laser hair removal is not as effective as those with lighter skin tones. Because we don’t want to affect the surrounding skin by either lightening or darkening it, the laser energy has to be tapered in order to avoid any skin changes. Because we can’t use the higher energy, these patients find that they need more sessions to achieve their desired results.
Patients with gray hair or light colored hair also don’t see good results with laser hair removal. The laser needs to “see” pigment (melanin) in the hair for it to target the hair. (Sorry, but colored hair doesn’t work either for those of us with gray hair.)
Myth 5: Lasers can cause cancer
There are no known observations through years of research of lasers and their effect on human tissue and organs that lasers cause cancer. In the case of laser hair removal there is a supposition that the bright laser pulse can change an innocent mole to a cancerous mole. This has never been observed. At Be Well, when we do see a suspicious skin lesion while treating a patient we recommend that the patient see their doctor to have the spot evaluated before continuing treatment.
In summary, laser hair removal is safe and effective for most patients. Because we are a medical clinic we can use topical agents to decrease that chance of skin changes during laser hair removal and we have years of successful treatments for many patients.